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When Did You Realize You Liked Pens More Than The Average Person?


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I think I probably like the average person more than pens, I am one and so are my family. Well, most of them, one is a bit less attractive than a pen.

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I had a very bizarre way of holding pens so it was painful to write and I hated them all; I eventually had to retrain myself to write and destroyed a few fountain pens in the process as I had zero patience; only a few years back did I discover the joy of writing, in part as patience therapy and in part thanks to useful info about pens, inks and papers, most of it here on FPN. Although in all truth my first reaction was "wow there's a site for crazy people and their pens - and I'm about to join them".

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

 

B. Russell

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The moment I tried a fountain pen.

Same here. I wasn't really into pens back when I was using ballpoints, but after my first Safari, I was smitten.

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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Long ago, probably as a child. Before I even thought of trying fountain pens, I liked my Jotters and Space Pens. Because of those, I learned that at least half the people who "borrow" a pen have no intention of returning it. I'd come looking for them, and get funny looks. Or I'd get kidded because I was the guy who always had a pen, usually two and a mechanical pencil. It never seems to occur to some people that the trick for having a pen when you need one is actually to carry one with you.

 

If I'd never moved on to rollerballs and fountain pens, I'd still be that guy who always has a pen, and grumbles at the people who can never be bothered to carry their own. ;)

"So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do."

 

- Benjamin Franklin

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In high school when I realized that I can spend quite a long time in a shop just looking at pens and deciding which one to get.

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Well, I have liked Fountain Pens since I started using them for calligraphy when I was about eleven. I started really liking them later, and as I never met many people who used them, I always thought of them as a thowback to an earlier age, and not something the average person would use. Now in regard to liking Fountain Pens more than liking average people, probably at the moment when I started really disliking average people, about when I was twelve. Up until then I simply disliked some specific people who had been unkind to me, at about twelve I started to understand how impersonal the average person is in their behavior towards others, such that they can and do do many reprehensible things and thus removed themselves as a category from my caring about them, except in a most general sort of way.

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Probably some time in Elementary School. I wanted to look for a new pen and my mother kept foisting dried-out promo pens off on me.

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Long ago, probably as a child.

 

 

Same here. I remember certain pens I had as a very young kid, though I got my first fountain pen in oh, sixth grade. Then I had a huge gap of fountain pen-lessness until young adulthood, then another gap until I started serious using and collecting.

My latest ebook.   And not just for Halloween!
 

My other pen is a Montblanc.

 

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When I was about 9 or ten years old. Slowly progressed from pencil to fountain pen and almost everything in between (though I NEVER liked ballpoints).

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Probably in grade school, got hooked on writing with rollerballs which led to an interest in pens of all sorts, but I never found fountain pens until a couple years back.

The Highlander was a documentary, and the events happened in real time.

Montblanc|Pelikan|Geha|Senator|Sailor|Pilot

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I lived overseas with a staionery store on the base floor of my very tall apartment building. I lived on the 12th floor and I was 13 years old at the time. I did not speak Chinese and the majority of my English speaking friends lived off in the American sector of that island. So, naturally I found myself down at the store for a few hours each day. I would buy blank notebooks and the best micro tipped pens they had. I loved to draw and those .03 and .01 pens conjured up monsters and other fantasy creatures. The owners took to knowing who I was and they introduced me to their alternate office in an apartment home in the same building. I remember there were dozens of computers in the main room and a friend of mine and myself took the luxury of playing the best games at the time (some helicopter parachuting army game and the first Wolfenstein game that existed on a black and white monitor). We were also introduced to a hidden room set behind a secret door in the back of that stationery store and it was all like a dream. That cleaver door was simply a dry wall with hinges placed on the other side. The room housed over two dozen different slot machines and now, in retrospect I figure this illegal gambling kept their stationery store and alternate computer room above water. Across the street from that stationery store opened a new and fancy little gift shop and over there was this Schaeffer fountain pen that was black and silver with a white dot on the pen cap. I won near $75.00 on a slot machine one day and made that Schaeffer into my 1st fountain pen. Writing about this for the first time in my life I now recognize how bizarre it all was. I never could imagine how a childhood world set on an exotic island could further entertain my appreciation for stationery goods.

Edited by TREBFPN
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What incredible memories to have. I can't help but wonder if your life is just as exciting and mysterious now. I agree it must all seem like it was a dream now but every time you hold that Sheaffer these memories will come flooding back. Personally I would never carry that pen outside the house. Many thanks for sharing.

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I wore a fanny pack in 4th grade full of pens and pencils. In 6th grade I carried a plastic pencil box around with me full of pens and pencils. 8th grade is when I remember picking a favorite pen and pencil style. The Pilot v5 was my favorite pen (ooh expensive!) and I don't remember my favorite mechanical pencil, but I think it was a side clicker. Just the cheap stuff I could find at walmart. :)

Then my wife bought be a Sheaffer italic pen from Hobby Lobby about a week before I found FPN (because of that pen of course). I had to look up how to care for and clean my pen. :)

Then I found the Parker black giant with the little red mini pen kept hidden in the barrel, and read about how much it sold for at a recent auction (then) and I kept reading and have been hooked ever since.

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My dad is an engineer, so I have been knee deep in lead-holders, mechanical pencils and technical pens since I could write. Seeing the difference in manufacturers taught me that how something looks has no bearing on how it works. I also learned that professional users buy what works, not what has the best advertising.

 

Paul

"Nothing is impossible, even the word says 'I'm Possible!'" Audrey Hepburn

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I've always known. In general, I don't like people.

San Francisco International Pen Show - The next “Funnest Pen Show” is on schedule for August 23-24-25, 2024.  Watch the show website for registration details. 
 

My PM box is usually full. Just email me: my last name at the google mail address.

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I did not start off with a pen/pencil habit. When I was a kid in a relatively small village, I used whatever was handy. When I was in university, I spent a lot of time in the bookstore and was exposed to pens a bit more, and would choose one that was marketed well or gave the impression that it was comfortable and practical...gel grips, Pilot G2s, &c. I think that was the "normal" level of pen nerditude that was socially acceptable and is easily found in recommendations in non-enthusiast sectors of the internet.

 

Elevated snobbery began when first exposed to decent (i.e. average) stationery stores in East Asia. I had small notebooks and had to write dense lines of Chinese notes. I preferred mechanical pencils and loved using a 0.3mm for most things, since it let me put fairly complex character in a 5mm square, and allowed me to write notes between lines (in hindsight a poor practice for learning). I also discovered fine-tipped pens--and the Signo DX in particular--and used them for signatures and forms and everything where a pencil was inappropriate. Sharp fine lines that helped keep my messy handwriting legible. Since then, I've always insisted on a good ultra-fine gel pen, and have experimented with every model that I could find to see if I liked anything more. That was when I knew I was addicted.

Edited by XiaoMG

Robert.

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