How often do you see people using fountain pens?

[Chrontius]

I'm still friends with a rocket scientist I met at college. I was selling him something at my on-campus job; I pulled out a Manuscript college cartridge pen to note something on his receipt, and he commented in pleased surprise. I looked up a little dubmstruck, and he was presenting a Lamy Al-Star. I passed him mine, and he let me try his, and we've kept in touch since. (I still like my Manuscript better than the Lamy nib, but after many years of service, the section broke. I'm still hanging onto the parts until I find a pen that can host that nib - but that's okay, I bought four spares when I realized finding more of that pen would be hard. One's lost, three still uninked.)

 

…That's about it, though.

[maus930]

Except for people I have gifted with fountain pens, The only fountain pen I see is a Pelikan Sovereign used by the local gastroenteroligist and i avoid seeing him

[Safari_Camo]

I'm the only one of 8 people @ the office using FP, but I've converted two close friends

 

I'm getting them a Lamy Safari, medium nib and both black colour FP.

[Mike_Dowling]

I can honestly say not once in my entire life.

[Fakie]

Only when I go to see my doctor..who was using a Krone John Hancock iirc..

[MKIM97]

I'm a high school student, and I see nobody at school who uses fountain pens at all. It's usually cheap mechanical pencils or ballpoints. A few of my friends thought my fountain pens were interesting, but they found them too impractical. I, for one, am willing to put a bit of effort to have available a fine writing instrument.

 

My schoolmates also thought I was insane when they saw the price for the Parker Sonnet I wanted. I did eventually get it, and it's worth it.

Edited April 17, 2013 by MKIM97

[Tom Aquinas]

I'm a high school student, and I see nobody at school who uses fountain pens at all. It's usually cheap mechanical pencils or ballpoints. A few of my friends thought my fountain pens were interesting, but they found them too impractical. I, for one, am willing to put a bit of effort to have available a fine writing instrument.

 

My schoolmates also thought I was insane when they saw the price for the Parker Sonnet I wanted. I did eventually get it, and it's worth it.

 

Welcome to the FPN and the world of fountain pens. I love the Sonnet, and regularly use three.

[MKIM97]

Welcome to the FPN and the world of fountain pens. I love the Sonnet, and regularly use three.

 

I adore my Sonnet and I wish I could use it more, but I'm afraid to take it to treacherous school, full of dimwits who cannot appreciate such a fine thing. I'm using my Vector, instead, which is much less ostentatious.

[Tom Aquinas]

Welcome to the FPN and the world of fountain pens. I love the Sonnet, and regularly use three.

 

I adore my Sonnet and I wish I could use it more, but I'm afraid to take it to treacherous school, full of dimwits who cannot appreciate such a fine thing. I'm using my Vector, instead, which is much less ostentatious.

 

It is not only second party dimwits you need to watch out for , you can do damage yourself. At second year university I lost a Parker 51 rushing to a lecture at the other end of campus, and fortunately I had a Parker VP. In 1970 I had to replace the nib of a Parker 75 because in a rush at 10.50pm to leave the library to catch the last bus, I dropped the pen on the tiled floor. So be cautious of your top shelf pens and school.

[Spector]

There are a few students here and there that use fountain pens at UC Berkeley but for the most part it is pretty rare.

[jvmadhavan]

I use my Cross Radiance/ebony M everyday, my kids use Hero & Camlin FPS, good thing is many students here still use fountain pens along with BP and Gel. I think we better start giving FPs as gift for all occasions

[thewriteperson]

In Spain, sadly, it is really strange to see somebody using a fountain pen. Yo just can see it on a desk of a proffesional office as lawyer's office or simmilar, but never in the daily use. I've never seen people making crosswords in a bar with a fountain pen.

[moylek]

Good god ... the man at the table next to mine at a local café - grey-haired, hooded sweatshirt, loafers - has a fountain pen in his hand: it's orange and transparent with a single-tone silver-coloured nib. A Twsbi 5xx or 700, maybe?

 

I'm a little excited.

 

Postscript: *not* a Twsbi: the cap hasn't got the logo on the end. Do I geek out and ask, I wonder ...

 

Post-postscript: from another angle, there's less glare and I can see from the logo that *is* a Twsbi, but not a 700 Vacuumatic.

 

PPPS: I'm still a little excited: two Twsbis in public (I'm using my 700 Vacuumatic today).

Edited April 18, 2013 by moylek

[pen2paper]

Nice to see you post fpj : )

I'm still enjoying my sailboat blotter (saw fpj's, and had to hunt one down for myself)

 

Rarely do I see fountainpens out in the local wilds, but do see them when I visit my doctor. Also at pen gatherings. It's a blast seeing others who are as pen geeky, (or geekier), than me.

[moylek]

Good god ... the man at the table next to mine at a local café - grey-haired, hooded sweatshirt, loafers - has a fountain pen in his hand: it's orange and transparent with a single-tone silver-coloured nib. A Twsbi 5xx or 700, maybe?

 

Seeing my post again, it occurs to me that it's not obvious why I described the fellow pen user. I added those details to roughly denote the demographic as well to indicate that I couldn't tell what sort of white-haired fellow he was from his dress.

 

But he had a lovely pen.

[recluse]

Surprisingly, fountain pens are somewhat common in math departments.

 

Pencils smudge. Mechanical pencils need to be clicked or shaken all the time, which can easily break your work. Wooden pencils need constant sharpening.

Biros require too much force to use, tiring your hand, curling up your scratch work, and ruins your pad of scratch paper. Gel pens and rollerballs still make your paper curl up.

 

Using a computer for scratchwork is more or less out of the question.

 

Don't remember when I've heard 'biros' for the last time.

 

Somehow among theoretical physicists fountain pens are not that widespread. On the other hand I don't see other people making calculations on paper often to form a strong opinion on that. Come to think of it, I don't use fountain pens either while working with students.

 

 

 

[qwertzu]

Does it count if the person is carrying the FP, but pulls out a disposable roller ball to write. I have seen this a few times in the last weeks. A perfectly nice looking Safari visible, and then.....

Even the carbon copy argument doesn't hold, the Lamy will write through all 3 layers with only a little more than normal pressure. Plus, the additional copies aren't used anymore since we have become semi-electronic, first first page is scanned in and the rest discarded.

[qwertzu]

I was interpreting "use" in a very broad sense, the folks with the FP's in their pockets are clearly "using" them to signal... something?

[TomJKT]

I am the only one to use a FP in this city of 26 million inhabitants. At least I've never ever seen one single person using one. Though I have to tell that there are quite a few Montblanc boutiques here and Cross', Parkers, Lamys, Faber Castells, and Watermans are sold in the malls. What the heck do they do with these FPs they buy there, I have no clue. I offered my FP recently to a lady, since she was going to take notes about our conversation and she informed me "I can't write calligraphy." She didn't actually know how to write with it and gave it back quickly.

On the other hand it's an enjoyable experience to feel so 'unique' with such a little effort just using an FP.

If you see somebody sitting at Starbucks using a FP, say hello to me!

[PorterPie]

One of my colleagues at work brought in his fountain pens after he saw me with mine. He was the only engineer I saw with one. Then last week, we were outside our building and there on the sidewalk was a Cross Affinity. I posted to the Lost and Found but no one's claimed it yet. So there is a third...