How often do you see people using fountain pens?

[chesnuts2roast]

Besides my pen buddies I have yet to come across another user

[calvin82]

I never seen anyone using it at my place. Only rare ppl like me is using one.

[Ernst Bitterman]

There is a person who sits in front of me in my math class that uses a purple Stypen UP!. However, I don't want to be the creepy guy that says "Hey, you're using a fountain pen, cool!", rambles for a few minutes too long, and then wrap the one sided conversation up with awkward silence.

 

Oh, go ahead. No one's going to die of it, and if you keep your Rambler on a short leash you might make a friend of some sort. At very least you can find out where the Stypen came from.

[limesally]

There is a person who sits in front of me in my math class that uses a purple Stypen UP!. However, I don't want to be the creepy guy that says "Hey, you're using a fountain pen, cool!", rambles for a few minutes too long, and then wrap the one sided conversation up with awkward silence.

 

Oh, go ahead. No one's going to die of it, and if you keep your Rambler on a short leash you might make a friend of some sort. At very least you can find out where the Stypen came from.

 

and also, if they're carrying ink cartridges you can borrow in a pinch

 

Just don't gush. That crosses the line to creepy guy.

[PigRatAndGoat]

There is a person who sits in front of me in my math class that uses a purple Stypen UP!. However, I don't want to be the creepy guy that says "Hey, you're using a fountain pen, cool!", rambles for a few minutes too long, and then wrap the one sided conversation up with awkward silence.

 

Oh, go ahead. No one's going to die of it, and if you keep your Rambler on a short leash you might make a friend of some sort. At very least you can find out where the Stypen came from.

 

and also, if they're carrying ink cartridges you can borrow in a pinch

 

Just don't gush. That crosses the line to creepy guy.

 

I'm more of a squirmy shy person :embarrassed_smile:

 

 

[sharpclaw]

I don't recall seeing anyone. I can't think of a sighting at my office. Then again, _I_ don't use fountain pens at work - partly because of crappy office paper, partly because I don't _want_ the distraction of a nice pen at work, and partly just to protect the hobby/novelty aspect of fountain pen use. So if I'm not the only one, lack of sightings doesn't indicate what people are "doing in the privacy of their own homes" so to speak.

This is a great point. Many people are likely to use what their employers provide or just use junkier pens in public. I have at least two friends who also love fountain pens and had a former coworker with whom I shared my fountain pen interest. None of them habitually carry fountain pens and the coworker did not use them at work. He and I got to talking because he noticed mine.

 

I usually carry a disposable ballpoint and a fountain pen when I go places. I tried carrying fountain pens only for a while, but there are too many times when a person has to borrow my pen, and they get so flustered when they remove the cap (if they remove the cap, the screw-ons make matters worse) and find this funny-looking tip that they do not know how to use.

 

Some comments I have read on FPN included concerns about people walking off with good fountain pens, but I find that the fountain pens are the ones safest to leave lying around. It is the familiar disposable Bics and such that kept disappearing from my desks at my last two work places.

[andy1m]

I have been using fountain pen since secondary until now, well over 20 years, I only saw one person using fountain pen. It's very rare here.

[dandelion]

Except myself I rarely see other people use fountain pens. I have a cousin that I know regularly uses his Waterman and two friends that earlier used to write beautiful letters with fountain pens. I don't know why they gave up writing with fountain pens (practical reasons I guess), but I've decided to give both of them a fountain pen for Christmas this year. My husband has taken to try my fountain pens and he is very surprised that they are so nice to write with, but since I gave him a nice roller ball (Faber Castell Ambition - brushed stainless steel) as birthday present some months ago, he will not get another pen (even if a fountain pen is very different from a roller ball) for Christmas. Maybe next birthday though.

[Calbei]

Over the last 10 years, I've never met anyone who doesn't know what a fountain pen is, thankfully. I've met many people who don't use them, but very, very few do not know what they are.

 

I see plenty on a day-to-day basis, especially in lectures. I'm guessing one in five use fountain pens in lectures, from what I've observed. It's quite fun just flicking your eyes around the lecture theatre to see what people are writing with... even if it's a little weird and your friends ask you what you are doing.

[fountainpenjunkie]

Ah, what great responses. Thank you very much for sharing your stories and comments, I have read them all.

 

I have been way too busy for a couple months and haven't even looked in on my fountainpenjunkie email account, so imagine my surprise to see recent replies to this old topic. And what diversity. From 'nobody, never' to 'I thought I was going to get knifed' and flirtations over ink cartridges. Wow!

 

Here is something on topic that I can add:

 

A coworker was discussing the latest union agreement and I noticed what looked like a vintage clip next to his ball point. I asked, "What kind of pen is that?" Turned out to be an inexpensive, mini, flat-blade screwdriver. Oh well, I will keep an eye out!

 

Thanks again!

[lapis]

The only time I ever saw somebody use a FP was about 5 years ago when I visited an ENT specialist.

No, wait! The first time was that of the officer at my first registry office wedding. The next two didn't use a FP.

 

Mike

 

[someonesdad]

Nowdays -- never. 10 years ago -- never. 20 years ago -- occasionally. 30 years ago -- occasionally. 40 years ago -- pretty often. 50 years ago -- pretty often.

 

Frankly, they're probably more trouble than they're worth to most folks. Some rollerballs write like a dream and are about as effortless to use as a fountain pen. But, of course, they don't have the character (shading or variable width) nor the selection of inks. I also have to give some of the rollerball manufacturers credit -- some of their inks both write well and are pretty water resistant.

 

Still, there's that indefinable feeling about writing with a fountain pen -- I'm very much looking forward to making a gift I plan to give my youngest daughter for Christmas. It will be a hand-sewn journal with a nice binding. It will contain lots of handwritten notes on various things she did while growing up or trips we took. I'll write it with a fountain pen I enjoy writing with and intend to pass on to her. I've got some FPN Galileo Manuscript Brown coming soon that I plan to use for the journal. I like knowing that the journal and notes will likely long survive me and be passed on to subsequent generations.

 

There is hope too -- I gave her a disposable fountain pen (a Berol Fontaine) for her schoolwork (she's a college student) and it subsequently ran out of ink. She was tickled when I gave her another, so maybe she'll get hooked...

[thibaulthalpern]

Well, in my small academic department of about 100 graduate students (maybe even less...more like 60?), we have three of us who use fountain pens ;-) Two of us are on this forum.

[Titivillus]

I have to this point still never seen another person us a FP outside of a pen meeting\

 

 

K

[thibaulthalpern]

I have to this point still never seen another person us a FP outside of a pen meeting\

 

 

K

 

Wow! I guess those of us in academia are a strange bunch. As I said, my department is small. I think we're even fewer than 60 graduate students, and there are at least three of us who use FPs.

[shadowsforbars]

I can't remember the last time I saw someone use a fountain pen. We have a good pen store in a city of 1 million, so someone must be buying them locally, but I guess we are all shy and never show them in public.

[Shangas]

Haven't seen anyone use a fountain pen recently, although I have had a couple of people comment on my using them.

[pdimitriou]

I have to say I'm rather amazed that you all seem to think FP use is so rare. I'm in consulting and I see them if not quite often then often enough so as not to consider them rare.

[escribo]

Was watching an old episode of Lost yesterday.

Claire (the pregnant girl) was trying to use a FP to give up her child for adoption.

The pen wouldn't write so she was shaking it downwards. I was impressed.

(Impressed at that level of detail.)

Edited January 4, 2009 by escribo

[DrPJM1]

Last week I was using a Black & Pearl Sheaffer's OS Balance when one of my patients said that he had one just like that. He returned the same day carrying it and explaining it had been a birthday gift. He wondered where he could buy some ink and I gave him a full bottle of black Skrip ink I had at the office. This WWII vet, a patient for over 15 years, even offered to pay for it but I declined his kind offer.