How often do you see people using fountain pens?

[F104]

How often do I see people using fountain pens...?

 

Let me consider this...

 

Discounting in videos on the internet, every time I look down at my hand while writing when not using a ball pen.

 

So, pretty often, if that counts.

 

If not, then, well, never.

[Montblanc owner and lover]

i'm a student so i take notes with my pens and i often see some other people with FP in the auditorium(but we are 3-400 in it so the contrary will be...inquietant.) and even 2 people i know that are using mb's like me so it's not yet the time of FP death

[Inkydinkydog]

I haven't seen anyone in a long time or that I can recall.

Same here, except in the occasional vintage movie. What surprises me, though, is that when people see me using one of mine--especially one of the more ornate models--they don't comment or ask questions.

[DjentleDjiant]

I've seen a couple students around my age carry them at uni, with the majority of them being Safari's/Al-Stars. Besides from that, I have 2 close friends who also use them. One of them probably having had spent $1000 AUD+ in the past year on pens alone!

 

I had an instructor for an engineering workshop last year who seemed to use them exclusively. I noticed he had was marking work with an Al-Star of some sort, so eventually I struck up a conversation with him. Ended up being a cool conversation!

[yogalarva]

I can't remember ever seeing someone using a fountain pen regularly. I think my mother used to play around with calligraphy pens, but hasn't touched them for years. I just gifted an Al-Star to my brother and my manfriend likes to play with my pens (and might get one himself, if the right opportunity presents itself). Most of the time people regard me as a bit of an eccentric, but I do let me friends try my pens if they want. I was using one in a physics class once and asked my prof for help - he needed to jot down a note on my page and I handed him my pen. He was like, "what is this?" and promptly grabbed a pencil from my neighbor.

[LordBeldingford]

Not very often... As usual - when I was at university a few classmates used fountain pens... But last year I saw a clerk (a young woman) at local government office who used FP what really suprised me...

[discopig]

I cringe at the sight, or even thought, of letting someone borrow a fountsin pen. I let my professor borrow my safari one time and he held it upside down and pressed really hard. Needless to say that was the last time that happened. I can't imagine if that would have been my M800 or Lamy 2000. *Hugs Lamy Tightly* =)

 

I've read too many threads on here about coworkers or friends borrowing a fountain pen then promptly tearing the cap off the threads, mashing the nib into the paper and bending it or destroying it permanently. The only pen I would lend is a Hero 704 and that's because it cost me $5.

 

It seems that sadly, most people just don't know how to use a fountain pen.

[Tanzanite]

Never ever! Not since I studied at the university. In one class one person used a fountain pen almost 20 years ago. That is the last time I saw one. Never at work.

I use my fountain pens at work every day. The reactions I usually get are: "Are you writing with dip pens?!" or "Is that a real ink pen?!"

Some say that they don´t like fountain pens because they tried one at school (a long time ago) and they were scratchy and dropped ink when writing. After asking them a few questions I always find out that they have tried dip pens. Most people do not know the difference.

A colleague once asked me what my Lamy Safari costs and was shocked that I would pay that much for a pen. Im glad that noone have asked me what my Pelikan M400 or Sailor Sapporos cost, yet.

[Tanzanite]

Perhaps we should ask people we know to try our fountain pens? How will they find out how great they are to write with if we don´t let them try? I let a colleague, who has shown interest in my pens, try a Lamy Safari this week, after instruktions, and he seemed to like it. Shouldn´t we become ambassadors of fountain pens? Not only by writing but by letting other people write. Carry a cheap fp for others to try.

I don´t say that everyone can do this but if you can afford the risk.

[siroast]

I have seen many people using a fountain pen especially in high school where we were obliged to use a fountain pen. I have also seen people using fountain pen at the university (where I am having my doctor philosophiæ).

[impossiblebird]

The only time I ever see anybody using a fountain pen these days is when I lend them mine; for which purpose I generally carry a spare Safari.

[I like mango cheesecake]

okay, update. Was talking to a cardiologist the other day and he had a 146 in an M nib. I mentioned that I have the same pen. He didn't say much. . . . .

[Occipital Lobe]

Never...

[maus930]

It has been a very long time

[owend]

Made me think! I was Secretary of a local group and used my pen all the time; one member, a retired bank manager (from before the crunch, he won't admit to strangers of having been a bank manager!) used to say how nice it was to see one being used but he didn't himself! My successor as secretary strangely also uses a FP (an old Parker); otherwise I never see adults using FPs.

 

I was a teacher though, and a surprising number of students use FPs, of the Parker Vector standard. From casual observation, they start around 7 years old, numbers peak around 13 and by 17 they're too cool to use FPs, it's all tablets, smartphones, laptops and not doing any work at all.

[kuroba]

Rarely. My career dean at my University, he had a dark grey Lamy Al-Star and was pleasantly surprised when he saw me with a Vista and one friend of my parents

 

Other than that, I've heard of a couple classmates that would like to have a fountain pen, but find them too expensive.

[Aurko]

More or less daily, but to be fair I live in a big city and a good deal of my friends enjoy using fountain pens. I haven't been seeing them nearly as often as before in my university since most of the people I see use tablets or laptops in class.

[Brioche]

Here in my part of Nevada which isn't a very reading, writing, intellectual place (compared to the San Francisco Bay Area where I used to live), I've never seen one. On occasion people have asked, "Do you have a pen?" and I hand them a FP that can't be hurt and they look at me as if I hadn't handed them a pen. Then I see them working at figuring how to use it. They don't know it has a cap. I pull off the cap and they say, "How do you use this?" They're usually quite excited about trying this "new" thing, especially the twenty-somethings.

 

My most notable find in the wild was a plastic surgeon in San Francisco. Prices for elective plastic surgery are occasionally negotiable there. I sat and waited for him to prepare his opening offer. It was written in a calligraphic hand with a CI. A genteel way to ask for thousands of dollars.

[e17]

In France, at school, it was pretty common to see teens with FP. Girls with pink, turquoise or green colors, guys with the standard blue, me with me black then home-made blue-black ink.

 

In college, I was the only one.

 

When, 20 years after, I bought my Shaeffer, a colleague noticed, and went to buy a Lamy. He thought my pen was too heavy... I've decided the Lamy design might be cool but they are really too light for me.

 

I couple of month ago, I met another consultant and he was writing with ... a Lamy. All black : body, nib, ink. After the discussion, I engaged the talk on the pen, he was proud to show me, give it to try (again the same lightness), and I showed him my 580.

We agreed that writing with FP was something odd for a loooot of people. The ones you have no idea of what you're using, and the ones who have forgotten about this "tool".

[sargetalon]

I see FP's being used every few days I guess. Four of my colleagues are FP users. Outside of that though, I've never seen them used "in the wild" so to speak.