Wow...sharing Fountain Pens With My Writer Friends Is Fun!

[montserratplay]

Friends,

 

I have many friends who are writers--most of whom are better and more successful than I am. (Sigh.) For some time, I have wanted to pick up some cheap but decent fountain pens to give to my writer friends.

 

I finally did so and it felt so good! I sent a grad school pal a Baoer Skywalker with a bunch of assorted cartridges and an ink sample so he can play around. I have another package made up for another acquaintance that contains a Jinhao and some cartridges and an ink sample; she wanted to play with writing some original poetry broadsides for people.

 

Do you folks evangelize in the same way? If I were Stephen King, I would send my friends far better pens. I feel a tiny bit guilty that I am loving and using my Parker 21 and my Nussbaum Jon Ross and my assorted others modest-but-not-cheap pens. But I don't know if my friends will like the fountain pen experience and the pens I bought for very little are perfectly functional. My friends don't need to feel guilty if they hate using fountain pens or if they break it or something.

 

Here's hoping that I'm bringing friends into our fold.

[ac12]

I got a multi-pack of Baoer 388s and use that pen for gifting. In the 7 pen multi-pack, the unit price is less than $4.

It is inexpensive, and looks just like a Parker Sonnet. So it looks way more expensive than it is.

BUT, I had to adjust 4 of 5 pens to get the ink to flow decently. Once adjusted, they wrote very well.

I gifted them to my sister and her husband and my brother and his wife, and my nephew.

I plan to get another multi-pack to use for gifting this Christmas.

 

Funny thing is, if you don't get the Chinese international cartridge inks, the western ink cartridge pack will cost more than the pen.

[Lou Erickson]

I think that's the way to do it, monster. If they like it, yay! If not, no big deal. They get to try and maybe find something fun, and you get the chance to share something you enjoy, all for a very reasonable price. No one has to feel bad about not liking an expensive gift.

[Wolverine1]

Kudos to you for gifting your writer friends fountain pens. One of my buddies now is at JHU's MFA program, and he has gifted FPs to a few friends from his program and encouraged them to write with FPs. I, unfortunately, havent gifted any FPs yet. The friends look at me writing with a FP and theyreact with mock horror, like I am writing with a nuclear powered pen or such. And, I am sick of all the jokes made at my expense!!!!:)

[Runnin_Ute]

I haven't done it in some time, but a Pilot Varsity is also a good pen to gift to someone. I did that with a couple of people. But it has been a while. One got purple - just because I knew it was her favorite color. No idea if anything was pursued any further. (all were co-workers)