Why do you "collect" pens ?

[Desirider]

Voted #2.

 

I would like to add "Engineering & Craftsmanship" as my other reason.

 

I am fascinated by the simplicity and yet the intricacies of a good fountain pen. The evolution in the choice of materials (body, nib, feed, ...), nib/feed designs, filling mechanisms, etc., is amazing.

 

Desirider.

[blueiris]

I voted for #2, writing pleasure. I found it increasingly uncomfortable for my hand to write with ballpoints, and I didn't like the idea of buying and throwing away disposable rollerball pens. Then I figured that if I were going to get a refillable pen, I might as well get a fountain pen instead of a rollerball. And so it began.

[antoniosz]

I sort of liked this poll so let me bump it up for new responses

[PAKMAN]

I love the feel of pen on paper, creating something where nothing existed before. I love being able to hold and write with a fine writing instrument especially one that is older than me by 30 years. To think about the history of a pen or pen model. To think of where this pen could have resided or who could have writen with it over it's eighty year lifetime. My most recent aquisition, an 80ish year old Conklin Endura Sr. black and bronze with matching pencil, look as if they were manufactured in the last few years instead of in the late 20's. Just think of the clothes, the cars, the houses and the people that have come and gone over those 80 years and yet here in my hand filled with my ink and writing down my thoughts is this beautiful pen, still working still looking new. There have been depressions, wars, advances in technology, trips to the moon, and even the ability to put down our thoughts and milliseconds later thousands of people on all corners of the world can see them. Yet here in my hands from an age gone by is a clasic and beautiful writing instrument that I can use in my daily life, as part of my job and in my home. This is why I collect Fountain Pens!

 

 

[Nihontochicken]

Though I just voted #1, my inspiration goes beyond just aesthetics, at least in the conventional sense (such as often identified strongly, even solely, with the fine arts). In wider connotation, I want to touch talent, even genius (if rarely I can afford it). I had a reasonably successful working career, retired modestly at fifty (well, was "made redundant", and managed to avoid further work, taking a page from Maynard G. Krebbs ), but I realize that nothing I produced at work will survive me. I love handling objects that were well made and will be cherished by others for hundreds of years after I'm history. My current feeling for antiques was perhaps molded by my interest in Japanese swords that blossomed about a decade ago. "New swords" are post 1596, "old swords" are prior. My oldest sword is c.1521, signed by the smith, in excellent polish, but typically remounted in later style accouterments, in this case probably c.1750 or so. Given it's a very light blade, and the muted style of the mounts, dead original to the time, with a horn versus a metal handle end cap, it was very possibly a sword carried at the Imperial Court, pretty much for required show plus ease of carry, as no one would dare seriously draw a sword there, a capital offense. While the usual American consideration of "old" is over a hundred years, and two hundred is often a stretch, it's quite a jump to Nihonto (Japanese swords) where many hundreds of years old is the norm, and, if one has the financial horsepower such as I don't, a sword made in the 1100s or 1200s may well be had (a few to many tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of dollars, depending on swordsmith and condition). Note that Nihonto are made from plain carbon steel, meaning they love to rust if not properly maintained. A sword left in a drawer for six hundred years will turn into a pile of red dust. The swords now extant are here because their owners actively took care of them, keeping them clean, dry, and periodically oiled. And so a good Nihonto owner takes on the consideration that he or she is only one person in a long line of caretakers stretching hundreds (potentially thousands) of years, each of whom pays a certain price in order to care for the sword, and, should the sword be retained to the end of his/her days, it is finally sold to a new caretaker for likely a significantly higher price, and the "profit" distributed to the dead owner's heirs or whatever. Of course, many people involved in Nihonto buy and sell them continuously for quick profit, no problem if they care for them while in possession, which generally they indeed do for profit sake. But certainly the better swords stay for long periods with a single owner, who, in effect, pays for the privilege of caring for the sword as I have indicated, and finally is either too old or too dead to enjoy any profit from sale of the sword. I take somewhat the same attitude to my other (eclectic?) collecting interests. I pay for the pleasure of holding competence, such as I lack myself, in my hands, objects that I feel confident will be similarly appreciated hundreds and even thousands of years from now, should they (and our race) survive. And that is why I collect fountain pens, Nihonto, Georgian and early American silver, old pocket watches, and don't yet collect, but lust after, brass dial long case clocks. And, oh, yeah, I also have 1960s era model airplane racing engines. Like Sheaffer Snorkels and Parker 51s and pearl ring Vacumatics, an admirable combination of performance and aesthetics. Like I said, to touch talent, sometimes maybe even genius.

Edited May 19, 2007 by Nihontochicken

[georges zaslavsky]

My reasons are the reasons numbers 1,2 and 3. I am also liking modern pens but vintage has something special like vintage watches.

[ead]

I have choosen option 3 - "Connection with the past" but option 2 is also good for me

I love things that has some "tradition " to them, just like old clock watch and so on

 

[dappledawndrawn]

#1 for me: I collect them because I think they're beautiful. If all I wanted was a smooth, durable, affordable, utterly dependable writer, I'd get a Pilot BPS-GP or a Mitsubishi Uni-Ball Signo (and I do, as it happens, use both of those pen types). It's nice to know that the same company that makes the Capless, Bamboo, and some incredibly gorgeous maki-e also produces the world's smoothest low-end ballpoint.

 

Yay Pilot!!

[Reisho]

I have voted 3.

I don't collect vintage pens at the moment (I do intend to acquire old Shaeffers), so my vote is more related to the history of the gesture than the history of the object itself.

I feel that fountain pens have been technically unsurpassed, in spite of all those bp, rollers, etc... as instruments allowing for the hand to write.

Writing western characters with a fountain pen is the way things should be done, by me at least.

I write a lot daily (not at the office, unfortunately) so I feel I have a right to treat me with nice tools, and I use all those I possess.

For each task, the choice of the right nib & ink.

 

So I guess 2 would be my second choice.

Edited May 19, 2007 by Reisho

[ead]

I have voted 3.

I don't collect vintage pens at the moment (I do intend to acquire old Shaeffers), so my vote is more related to the history of the gesture than the history of the object itself.

I feel that fountain pens have been technically unsurpassed, in spite of all those bp, rollers, etc... as instruments allowing for the hand to write.

Writing western characters with a fountain pen is the way things should be done, by me at least.

I write a lot daily (not at the office, unfortunately) so I feel I have a right to treat me with nice tools, and I use all those I possess.

For each task, the choice of the right nib & ink.

 

So I guess 3 would be my second choice.

+1

Yep, I am the same with you

[Shangas]

I collect fountain pens for a variety of reasons.

 

1. I like old stuff.

2. I like history.

3. They look nice.

4. They're easy to write with.

5. They're conversation pieces.

6. I'm a nonconformist.

7. I hate ballpoints because they hurt my fingers & wrist when I use them.

8. I like messing around with ink.

9. A dip-pen was inconvenient to carry around, and tends to be a bit scratchy.

[Freeloader]

That was a good bump. For me, 2, 1, and 3, in that order.

[Philip1209]

I collect fountain pens because, as a student, writing with a fountain pen in class is fun to me. I love the feeling of writing with a fountain pen and the rewarding feeling it gives me to be using one. I also love using different colored inks because it keeps me aesthetically pleased as I stare down at paper for hours.

[ethernautrix]

It was almost a toss-up between writing pleasure and aesthetic pleasure... but writing pleasure won handily.

[penWATCHfreak]

I love cars.

 

Since is not possible to collect so many cars, so I collect pens, to me:

 

pen = car

 

Ink= petrol.

[thefsb]

how does 1 differ from 2? writing pleasure is aesthetic pleasure

[Albertine]

the fsb: aesthetics are visual, the pleasure of writing, per se, is tactile.

 

I collect fountain pens for totally the wrong reason, at least where real pen afficionados are concerned: I'm obsessed with fashion and I want everything on my person to be controlled and interesting. I feel the same way about using different colors of ink.

[I am not a number]

Reason 8 for me.

 

I don't like to fit any given profile or set of expectations.

[cjbrown34]

Great answers all.

 

I loved to write, draw, paint, collect art and fine watches prior to collecting fountain pens. I also Garden. I love what sunlight and beauty do for my attitude, feelings and my spirit. I keep an computer and written journal, but the look and feel, (and for one pen smell (ebonite), bring an added dimension to my enjoyment of expressing myself. The act of writing vs. typing open me more to what is going on inside me and additional honesty & acceptance. Before fountain pens I had several Manga pens, and multicolored waterproof pens that I used to ink and paint. I had another set I used for journal writing (non-waterproff)

 

So 1,2 and 6 are my primary reasons. I would be OCD directed toward something, why not direct it toward something useful to me.

[sanyalsoumitra]

I would vote for 1,2,3 and 4. Plus I am grooming my 12 yr old son to be future pen collector, using his natural liking for FP's. This is perhaps the only childhood hobby one can carry to the adulthood. Also get to re-visit my childhood.