How often do you see people using fountain pens?

[bjornhansson]

From time to time. My mother and my aunt use fountain pens, but among people my own age fountain pens aren't commonly used. Last month I took a course together with an American lawyer who used a Montblanc 149 for taking notes, but apart from him I haven't seen any FP users recently. I try my best to convert my friends.

[Marvin McMurphy]

When I was still at school my German teacher was the only teacher I ever noticed using an FP (a Lamy Safari), at that time I thought it was odd because most adults I knew wrote with ballpoints and FPs were rather for children, especially those in elementary school. I was one of the few who kept writing with an FP until graduation.

 

I guess the memory of that teacher is also what kept me in touch with FPs, otherwise I'd have probably ended up using only ballpoints.

 

As an adult I barely encountered others using FPs though, but so far I haven't really looked for them, but I will pay attention to it now.

[Izzy]

I am noticing more and more professional people using FP's, in my local pen store today two young lads (maybe 11 or 12 years of age) walked in with their father and purchased two Lamy Safari's for school use :clap1:

[sarai]

Years ago in an office I worked in, the lady accountant did all her writing with a FP. But she was pretty old already then...

 

I however suspect that somebody in this country besides me uses fountain pens because there is a shop which sells them. But I have never seen any of them... :hmm1:

[Sallent]

I forgot about the Miami Pen Show. That's the only place I ever saw people using FPs. But that is a pen show so it doesn't count.

 

 

[Belan]

My workplace is actually getting fairly full of fountain pen users, hooray! There's one guy in my team who's collected fountain pens for many years, which I discovered after I interviewed and hired him. A few months later he was meeting with a coworker in another department and saw inkwells on someone else's desk, which led to the discovery of a *huge* FP pen collector (Euros, Asians, LEs, etc ... massive collection!).

 

Due to my job position, I have meetings with a very large number of people in our office, and I've noticed that we've begun to get some converts ... most start out with a Lamy, or a Pilot Knight, a couple of the big wigs have purchased MBs, etc. For a small company (about 300 people), we've got about 10 FP users now ... not a bad percentage!

 

Soon we shall have an army of FP users!!! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA! Then we can ... um ... write about ruling the world. Or just take a lot more meeting notes.

[cfclark]

At my current workplace, I have never seen anyone else with a fountain pen, and actually got a "what the hell is this thing?" once. At my previous workplace, one of the executives (who was also an MD) had a stand chock full of nice pens, most of which looked to be FPs, but I could never track him down to talk about it, and although I was tempted to go into his open office and rummage through his collection in his absence, I probably would have been fired for that. I did work many years ago with a couple of other enthusiasts; we were three at a software firm of maybe 400 people--the company is known for the wide variety of hobbies among the employees, so that wasn't surprising.

 

I did get a look of recognition from a co-worker once; she had grown up here but had been packed off to boarding school in India by her (Indian-emigre) family for a couple of years, and had to write with a FP every day--so consequently she couldn't stand them. When I left working there and gave her a parting gift, I gave her a pen, but it had to be a rollerball, as I figured she wouldn't use a fountain pen. \

 

To most people in the US, a "nice pen" is a rollerball, which I personally think is an abomination.

[DaleR]

Outside of pen shows, the only person I've ever seen using a fountain pen is me...

 

Dale

[lak611]

There is one lady from the watch group I belong to who uses a fountain pen. She gave me some back issues of Pen World magazine at the last meeting. I never see anyone else use a fountain pen. I have not been able to convert anyone yet.

[Mrs Palmer]

My parents were antique dealers for a long time, after my dad went back to driving a truck, my mom kept on being a dealer and got her appraiser's credentials eventually. My dad collects all kinds of stuff, partly because of this. Off topic, he collects figurines! Of all things, Edwardian and Victorian dressed figurines. And he is (was) a long haul truck driver, I mean, think John Wayne only mean! haha!

Anyway, he has used a fp for as long as I can remember and has the most beautiful penmanship which he claims he taught himself. He is an amazing man. Taught himself to type at the age of about 50 and how to use a computer at the age of almost 80!

He fishes and used to hunt (bird hunting mostly) till his health got too bad for him to continue and if you didn't know him well, you would never know about his more unconventional interests. He grew up poorer than dirt in Oklahoma, left school in 8th grade, but loves opera, etc.

[tawanda]

Around here (North Wales) I've never seen another user, even though I am a PhD student, and am around academics a lot. I only returned to FPs fairly recently, having been put off as a child when a teacher told me left handers couldn't use them properly, and insisted I stick with a pencil. (She also wouldn't let me read Paddington Bear books either, but I have them all now!)

However, since I began to reacquaint myself, I have also converted my husband and my best friend.

Hubby was a reluctant convert, but after several weeks using a Hero 330, a vintage Parker 45, a Pilot 78g, and a Libelle Winter Storm, he admitted to me the other day that he's actually finding FP's great to write with, and its a pity more people won't try them!

My friend didn't take much persuading. She'd loved them as a school child but had forgotten about them, until now! Now she has several, including a Reform, a vintage Parker 21 and a Pelikan 200.

I'd take on the rest of the world, but there is a small part of me that likes belonging to such an exclusive 'club'

 

[mburns]

Since I've been on the North Wales Coast I've not seen any.

When registering weddings it’s always amusing to watch the Bride/Groom/Witnesses faces when they are handed my wedding pen (Waterman Hemisphere with Registrars ink) I now have some paper for them to practice on.

 

[wacomme]

I'm a teacher at a high school in Colorado Springs, CO. I haven't seen anyone use a fountain pen. In fact, I can't remember the last time I saw someone write with a fountain pen. It's been years and years.

Edited January 19, 2009 by wacomme

[ExcaliburZ]

The only other person I know that uses a FP is my father. Most people I have meet think they are a hassle or too much money and want to buy the 79 cents pens.

[JohnW]

We learnt to write using pencils and biros at school. However, when I was about nine I went through a box of junk and found an old cheapie cartridge FP of my Dads that he hadn't use in years, and some cartridges. It worked and I loved it, but it leaked. I badgered them into buying me another cheapie, which I used at school (the only one in the class, including the teachers, who used one and with a permanent blue ink stain on my middle finger). Maybe I just liked being idiosyncratic?

 

I then bought an Osmoroid (spelling?) which was very inexpensive but nice to write with, and that did me in high school, university and beyond. It finally died after around 22 years of use. I have a couple of nice pens that I have been given over the years, but for many years I didn't use them. Reluctant to take them into work where they could get lost or "walk", and while they aren't worth that much the people who gave them to me are dead and so they are valuable to me. Recently started using the disposable Pilot Vpens at work, which are nice, but expensive as I do a lot of writing and throwing out a pen every other week seems a waste. I do like to write with FPs and I write a lot - notes in meetings mainly. I bought a Lamy Safari today, which is inexpensive enough that I am prepared to risk it at work. A case of the prodigal son returning to the fold perhaps?

 

Anyhow, on the sobject of the thread, I was in a meeting just before Christmas. There were (from memory) 11 people present of which five of us were taking notes with FPs. There was me with a Vpen, two colleagues also with Vpens, one guy with what looked like a low-end Parker (didn't get a close look) and another colleague with a very expensive Mont Blanc (don't know the model) that she is immensly proud of which was an anniversary present from her significant other. Not the most impressive haul pen-model wise, but 5 out of 11 (45% of attendees) aint bad! This was, however, a rarity as FPs are def not common where I work - had to order the Vpens specially as they don't normally appear in the supply cupboard.

 

I am also going to have a got at refilling a Vpen next time I have an empty one - they write OK, it is nice to have a pen you can take out and about without fear of losing it, and it seems a shame to chuck them out.

Edited January 26, 2009 by JohnW

[Robert Hughes]

I saw a dozen people at this last Saturday's Minnesota Pen Posse, all carrying FP's and talking excitedly to each other about them. At one point, somebody asked, "Other than us here, have any of you seen someone else using a fountain pen recently?" No one replied to the positive.

 

It's just us, kids...

[Moondrop]

<delurk>

Apologies if I already posted this. It's been so loooong...

 

Around here, SoWeGa (Southwest GA), nobody besides me. The closest I've seen to FP use around here is a doctor who uses a Montblanc ballpoint.

 

Makes me wonder who's using/buying the calligraphy pens I see at Michaels and Hobby Lobby and the Pilot Varsity pens I've seen at Staples or Office Depot.

</delurk>

Edited January 26, 2009 by Moondrop

[Sailor Kenshin]

Yesterday at a coffee shop my friend took out a fountain pen to make notes on a paper napkin. It was some sort of Pel---with a fine point, but the paper napkin made the ink bleed and write like a B.

[PigRatAndGoat]

The last time was during my Sociology lecture. Someone was using a sleek Lamyesque Pelikan in the row in front of me.

[Yanroy]

Wow, I just read this whole thread... it's quite epic.

 

The only time I've seen a FP being used in the wild was a professor in college. He was from Ireland, and seemed to think it was odd that I was remarking about his pen. I had the same exact one he did, an $8 parker. I'd only recently gotten back into them, after having been started with a Pilot Varsity I somehow got ahold of when I was in elementary school. After I lost it, I spent about a year trying to explain to my parents what I wanted, since I didn't know it was called a fountain pen. I used a few of those in school until high school. I switched back to an FP then because I'd had a really good track record of running pens out of ink instead of losing them (I had one mechanical pencil for 7 years before it wore out). Two of those and a lot of nasty ink spills later, I switched to uniballs until college.

 

At work, I'm the only one. My boss, from China, knows what they are but doesn't use one. One of my coworkers, also from China, asked me one day why I use such an old fashioned pen... I figured she would know. The rest of them just think I'm crazy. Most have no idea how to write with one... sometimes in college and even today, I carry around a bic ballpoint to lend to people so I don't have to bother explaining how to use the FP (or explaining why I won't lend it, if it's a fragile one).