How often do you see people using fountain pens?

[Charles Rice]

I think I converted my bartender!

 

I let him use my Pilot Varsity and then he called his wife and asked her to pick up a pack on her way home.

 

He's a short story writer and couldn't believe how effortlessly it wrote.

 

(it did take me a while to show him how to use it.)

[ceramic_pizza]

quite a few people I know have fountain pens. A couple of classmates use them and most of my robotics team from highschool had fountain pens. Though since our team was really small 'most' is like 5 people. I also managed to convert most of my lab partners.

[Tasmith]

Saw a gentleman in Costco yesterday with a Montblanc clipped on his polo shirt.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Tasmith

[hermanlab]

I'm part of a non-profit association that hosts classical concerts from time to time. At our last concert there was a beautiful 24 year old German soprano soloist whose name did not appear on the concert program. She sang well, and knowing that the newspaper's crit writer would probably ask me her name later, I asked her to write it down for me. I handed her my Parker Duofold and whispered an apology about only having a fountain pen on me.
"That's all right," she smiled. "We have to use them in my school..."
Upon that, she wrote her name upon the program in elegantly rounded letters.
It seemed dramatic and very fitting - that stunning girl in a flowing crimson gown, her small hands of perfect marble - and the golden nib dancing across the paper briefly. I don't remember her name anymore, but I hope the girl who can write with fountain pens will be famous one day.

[Tasmith]

Saw Dick Chaney using a Pilot Vanishing Point, Black Carbonesque with Rhodium accents. He was with his wife Lynn who was signing her new biography about James Madison. Went up and spoke with him about it and he said he has been using VPs for about 20 years when a friend gave him one as a present.

[Azuniga]

A few days ago I was in the plane going to Chicago pen show and I used a Vacumatic to fill the customs form, the man seated besides me asked if he could use my pen to fill his form, I said: it is a fountain pen with ink, he said I know I used them in school; I know you should not let me use it but I promise to be careful... I did, which I usually do not and he was careful. Later when they pass with their duty free magazine he bought a pen but he specified he wanted the fountain pen and not the roller ball... I have to say I was kind of pleased...

Edited May 11, 2014 by Azuniga

[carlos.q]

During the past two years I have seen:

An architect with a yellow Lamy Safari.

A doctor with a Lamy Vista and a Pilot VP.

And three lawyers: one with a Lamy Vista, another with a Parker 75 cisele and the last with a Waterman Hemisphere.

[moylek]

Well, that rare thing - a fountain pen, in the wild.

 

I'm borrowing desk space in a client office, and the graduate student behind me is using a white Lamy Safari - with an unusual shade of purple ink.

 

I've not asked what sort of ink it is yet - I don't want to seem freakishly keen.

[OLD TIMER]

Does my looking in the mirror count?

I wonder if you're still around here. That comment was so funny I dropped my ipad

[OLD TIMER]

Saw Dick Chaney using a Pilot Vanishing Point, Black Carbonesque with Rhodium accents. He was with his wife Lynn who was signing her new biography about James Madison. Went up and spoke with him about it and he said he has been using VPs for about 20 years when a friend gave him one as a present.

Would have been neat if he had given you his pen.

[PrintersDevil]

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8191/1073/400/howaboutnever1.gif

[AZBennett]

My wife is my inspiration to use one. She is a paralegal and freelance editor and has used a FP for years now. Recently I gifted her boss a Pilot Metropolitan abd may have hooked him on FPs. I use mine at work (retail) all the time and get comments from coworkers ranging from "fancy pen, huh!" To "that's an awesome pen!" But the comments have yet to deter me. I never see them out in the wild though.

[GTOZack]

just tonight, at a cigar shoppe, I was behind this gentleman he was purchasing a few A.Fuentes via creditcard so he whipped out a nice fat delta to sign for it. I didnt say anything. he bought to go I suppose.

 

 

Istayed at that place for a while. I suppose golf courses, cigar shop are only places ive actually witnessed ordinary people with FP

[Theloon]

Like Tigger in Winnie the Pooh "I am the only one!"

[Betweenthelines]

I find myself eyeing every pen I see someone using that doesn't immediately scream generic ballpoint.. but alas... no fountain pens spotted yet.

[OcalaFlGuy]

I'm part of a non-profit association that hosts classical concerts from time to time. At our last concert there was a beautiful 24 year old German soprano soloist whose name did not appear on the concert program. She sang well, and knowing that the newspaper's crit writer would probably ask me her name later, I asked her to write it down for me. I handed her my Parker Duofold and whispered an apology about only having a fountain pen on me.

"That's all right," she smiled. "We have to use them in my school..."

Upon that, she wrote her name upon the program in elegantly rounded letters.

It seemed dramatic and very fitting - that stunning girl in a flowing crimson gown, her small hands of perfect marble - and the golden nib dancing across the paper briefly. I don't remember her name anymore, but I hope the girl who can write with fountain pens will be famous one day.

 

Saw Dick Chaney using a Pilot Vanishing Point, Black Carbonesque with Rhodium accents. He was with his wife Lynn who was signing her new biography about James Madison. Went up and spoke with him about it and he said he has been using VPs for about 20 years when a friend gave him one as a present.

 

Thanks for starting my Friday with a smile.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[moylek]

Well, that rare thing - a fountain pen, in the wild.

 

I'm borrowing desk space in a client office, and the graduate student behind me is using a white Lamy Safari - with an unusual shade of purple ink.

 

I've not asked what sort of ink it is yet - I don't want to seem freakishly keen.

 

And yesterday I saw *another* graduate student using a Lamy - and Al Star, this time.

 

"Is that a Safari or an Al Star?" I asked.

 

"Huh?"

 

"Your pen - I was admiring it, but couldn't tell what it was."

 

"Oh, that's a fountain pen! A Lamy."

 

She uncapped it and showed me the nib. An Al Star, the clearish section told me.

 

I didn't ask her whether she was using a cartridge or a converter - again, I don't want to seem freakishly keen.

 

:|

[maus930]

Never -- the only people I know who have fountain pens are the ones I gifted a fountain pen -

[inkeverywhere]

Apart from my brother, who is a collector and daily FP user, and my calligraphy tuitor, I do not know anyone else who uses a FP. People who I work with look upon me as some sort of curiosity when they see me using a FP or even talk about using one. Some, believe it or not, don't even know what a FP is, when you explain what a FP is they ask if their still made.

 

The last time I saw a FP used was many years ago in a court of law, where I was an interested onlooker. The Judge's Associate (a sort of judge's helper) was actually filling the judge's FP from an inkbottle during court proceedings. This has never left my memory, today I couldn't even tell what the court case was about but I still clearly remember that FP being filled.

 

Even the staff of the pen shop in Brisbane (Aus) where I buy my supplies and drool over their glass display cases, use ballpoint pens, albeit very nice ballpoint pens, to hand write your sales invoice. Strange!

 

May our fingers remain ink stained.

[ArnyDelan168]

Never once I spotted people using FP.