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I'm currently taking exams in school. I came prepared with a fully inked up Faber-Castell Ambition with Noodler's Black.

 

I sit in the examination hall and look around. The person sitting in front of me is using a Bic Cristal with a sponge grip attachment. Someone across from me has a chunk of blue-tack stuck to his Bic as a grip.

I chuckled internally. The F-C Ambition barely even has a grip, but after >2 straight hours of writing, my hand wasn't sore. This really shows how practical a fountain pen can really be.

 

By the way, I finished a whole converter full of ink that day. I wrote so much that the ink got so dry I had to push ink into the feed with the converter.

 

Faber-Castell Ambition:

http://www.onlinehandel-as24.de/images/product_images/popup_images/2699_0.jpg

(note the lack of a real grip)

 

Bic Cristal:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/03-BICcristal2008-03-26.jpg/640px-03-BICcristal2008-03-26.jpg

Edited by a.zy.lee
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I think your last statement about using a whole converter full of ink is why lots of people opt for non-fountain pens during exams. I know I did.

My Collection: Montblanc Writers Edition: Hemingway, Christie, Wilde, Voltaire, Dumas, Dostoevsky, Poe, Proust, Schiller, Dickens, Fitzgerald (set), Verne, Kafka, Cervantes, Woolf, Faulkner, Shaw, Mann, Twain, Collodi, Swift, Balzac, Defoe, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Saint-Exupery, Homer & Kipling. Montblanc Einstein (3,000) FP. Montblanc Heritage 1912 Resin FP. Montblanc Starwalker Resin: FP/BP/MP. Montblanc Traveller FP.

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LOL went in like a pro do you even post the Ambition I find it too top heavy when posted so I don't post it hahaha also is your Ambition nib in M? or you got the F one?

 

No, I don't post my Ambition. It's a shame it becomes too top-heavy. The cap blends into the body so nicely.

The nib on my Ambition is M. Wish I had gotten a B, though. But for practicality (and economic) reasons, I haven't gotten a B nib section.

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I think your last statement about using a whole converter full of ink is why lots of people opt for non-fountain pens during exams. I know I did.

I don't write that much writing in exams, so it won't run out mid-sentence. I also don't mind refiling... I quite enjoy it, actually.

The ease of writing and lack of strain in the hand make it ideal for me.

Edited by a.zy.lee
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worst comes to worst always have those resealed cartridges ready with your inks hahahaha

also not to say its bad but I have encountered with my Ambition is that the section easily unthreads did I use the correct term or it easily unscrews itself when your spinning the cap... though I made a first-aid for it by using plumber's tape/teflon tape

Edited by Algester
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I know what you mean I had a similar experience in one of my exams I managed to churn out 5 pages of good engineering written answers (theory paper) with my trusty Parker Frontier in hand when most people with ballpoints around me wrote 2 and after all of that I probably could have done another 5 without hand fatigue I bet the other people couldn't do another 2 with out hand fatigue.

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I had never thought of hand strain/fatigue in the past, but it really is true. I have mild arthritis in my hands and I've had dual-carpal tunnel surgery... Fountain pens hurt less (if at all) than anything else. It's pretty much all I use day-to-day now.

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Last year as a similar experience for me as well, although being a violinist kind of makes getting a sore hand kind of...Well, difficult, especially with FP's. At the end of all of those AP exams, my trusty'ol Targa was still chugging along on 1/4 of a converter of Diamine Denim, believe it or not. It just keeps going...And going.

Calculating.

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/03-BICcristal2008-03-26.jpg/640px-03-BICcristal2008-03-26.jpg

 

 

This brings back some not-so-very-fond memories... B)

Edited by carlos.q
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This brings back some not-so-very-fond memories... B)

Ah, go post your bic.

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It is a long time since I last sat an exam but I did use a fountain pen. When it ran dry, I re-filled it with ink, from a bottle. It took a couple of minutes only as I had done this many times before. During that time, I reflected on what I would write next. I passed.

 

(But I did have a back-up in case of major malfunction, such as finding that the writing paper provided was not compatible with fountain pen ink.)

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When the hand fatigues and cramps, the writer will make choices on what notes to write and what to omit from the notes.

This is really bad. As a fountain pen user, I did not have to make the choice in college. It was an advantage. I wasn't

such a good student.

 

Be kind to the poor souls using ordinary pens, and smoking cheap cigars. They know not what they do. Pray for them.

May the generosity of Providence bring them to FPN.

 

We are keepers of the flame. Remember your nobility.

Auf freiem Grund mit freiem Volke stehn.
Zum Augenblicke dürft ich sagen:
Verweile doch, du bist so schön !

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If you let the heavy pen rest in the pit of the thumb at 35 degrees instead of holding it up at 40-45 degrees; the pen is much lighter when the weight is taken up by resting in the pit of the thumb.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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Since I've started using FPs, I use them for exams as well. I usually bring 3 of them with the nib sizes being Fine and Extra Fines with different inks. I always bring a back up rollerball just in case the exam paper is really horrible quality, but so far my XF nibs have written without bleedthrough or feathering.

Edited by SujiCorp12345

Pelikan 140 EF | Pelikan 140 OBB | Pelikan M205 0.4mm stub | Pilot Custom Heritage 912 PO | Pilot Metropolitan M | TWSBI 580 EF | Waterman 52 1/2v

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.

Bic Cristal:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/03-BICcristal2008-03-26.jpg/640px-03-BICcristal2008-03-26.jpg

If this is what you consider to be a ballpoint pen then you do NOT know ballpoint pens!

 

By limiting yourself, you miss out on a whole lot of wonderful writing instruments. I should mention that according to my standards, a Bic Cristal is not a writing instrument.

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I think your last statement about using a whole converter full of ink is why lots of people opt for non-fountain pens during exams. I know I did.

 

Horses for courses. No essay test could withstand my 146. Its capacity with a fine nib still allows for tens of pages of writing between fills.

 

Just looking at that Bic makes my hand hurt. I remember those awful edges and even better running out of ink before finishing a task in class.

Edited by Michigan
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There is a reason I changed from something like this to a Parker Jotter and then later other Parker models before I started to use fountain pens. To me a Bic-cristal or any other is good for short quick notes and not much else.

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" - Rudyard Kipling
"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

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If this is what you consider to be a ballpoint pen then you do NOT know ballpoint pens!

 

By limiting yourself, you miss out on a whole lot of wonderful writing instruments. I should mention that according to my standards, a Bic Cristal is not a writing instrument.

I do know a fair bit about ballpoints, actually. I used to be interested in high quality ballpoints (such as the Uni-Ball Jetstream) before I got into fountain pens.

I only mentioned the Bic Cristal because that was the pen I saw everyone using.

Edited by a.zy.lee
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