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I Just Noticed This Today......


______Zaphod_Beeblebrox

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.......that I no longer have the overwealming need to post my fountain pens.

 

I used to have to post my pens, if I could not post my pen I had no joy in using that pen. A year or so I got my first Sterling Silver fountain pen, i now have 3. These fountain pens were not designed to be posted.

 

So after using them for over a year I have become accustomed to not posting and just to day I relized I no longer post my other pens. Except for a couple of my smaller pens that require being posted due to their size.

 

Have any of you fountain pen users changed your posting preference?

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Hi,

 

I've never posted because it gives me something to do with my other hand. Most of my pens are larger and don't require it so I've never done it. It's interesting that you would change habits though.

 

Frank

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Hi,

 

I've never posted because it gives me something to do with my other hand. Most of my pens are larger and don't require it so I've never done it. It's interesting that you would change habits though.

 

Frank

It is interesting, and I am not sure when I actual started not posting my pens.

When I realized it today I was dumbfounded, I never would have thought it possible for me to change my preference so, mmmm, smoothly, so smoothly that I did not even notice it happening.

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So after using them for over a year I have become accustomed to not posting and just to day I relized I no longer post my other pens. Except for a couple of my smaller pens that require being posted due to their size.

 

Eventually you will find that even "smaller" pens do not need posting.

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Eventually you will find that even "smaller" pens do not need posting.

Noooooooooo!

 

Am I already on the path to the darkside? :)

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Occasionally I don't post, mostly when I'm just jotting down a quick note, like a phone number or something, but there's really only a couple that I routinely don't post -- they're pens that just won't: a Rotring ArtPen (the tapered barrel doesn't lend itself to posting, which is the only thing I don't like about the pen); a Noodler's Konrad for which the cap innards seem wonky (my other Konrads post just fine); and the Desiderata flex pen prototype (if I get the cap on *just right* it posts, but otherwise the cap sort of rolls around awkwardly). Someone just sent me a pen last week, and I may not be able to post it, either -- it's a metal pen and posting seems to make it top-heavy, so we'll see (I haven't actually had a chance to try it yet).

Why is this thread making me think of the one someone started about "No politics or religion but... " a week or two ago? B)

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I absolutely have to post some pens in order to use them comfortably. I have to post my 1911M Sailor and M205 Pelikans. Unless they are at least TWSBI 580 or Montblanc 149 size, they get posted.

What Would The Flying Spaghetti Monster Do?

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I've gotten out of the habit of posting. None of my pens, including the M200 and M400, require posting -- except the Fisher Bullet. If it reaches the web between my thumb and index finger without posting, it's long enough to write with.

 

But then, I don't have a Kaweco Sport. I suppose I could write with that without posting it, resting the end against the metacarpal-phalangeal joint of my index finger.

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Zaphrod you are NOT alone! On April 17, 2014 when I purchased my FIRST pen (after fooling around with my Parents' pens & old Sheaffers that I had used in maybe High School for the last time) I debated long & hard over the Edison Collier in Persimmon Swirl because I wouldn't be able to post it. I felt like I was really giving up something that was necessary for me to enjoy using it. Several more joined afterward (surprise!) & all were posted except the Edison & ONLY because it wouldn't!

I think my breakthrough was when I received the Conway Stewart Churchill after a mini group "bespoke' purchase. I realised it as so close in size to the Edison that I used it as well unposted. The Kaweco Sports require posting but I notice I unconsciously refrain from posting anymore even a vintage Conway Stewart that is really about the size of my Parents' pens that I thought I HAD to post to use!

Having added a lot more new pens I also realised I had changed my habit. I can't say when it happened but I just attribute it to becoming more familiar with different pens & probably being more interested in the writing differences of each one that I forget whether they are posted or not. Only explanation I can think of as I am rather "sot in my ways" otherwise!

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it depends on the weight and balance of the pen. i usually prefer posting, but some pens are just too heavy or wrongly balanced if i post them; so it's a pen by pen judgement call. the only pen in the gray zone where i can write equally well with it either way is the Ahab.

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It was a requirement for me until I used an FP for my first long bout of notetaking at school...and realized that I hadn't even been conscious of the fact that I wasn't posting! Now I'm much happier holding my cap in my left hand while I take notes - it makes for a much faster cap on and off...

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Why is this thread making me think of the one someone started about "No politics or religion but... " a week or two ago? B)

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Pretty soon it will be politically incorrect to post the cap. Personally I'm a 'poster' then I know where the cap is. And then I can use my free hand to do something else with (use your imagination)

A while ago someone was worried about gluten in the ink :wacko:

What next?

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Eventually you will find that even "smaller" pens do not need posting.

Agreed.

 

Early in my pen career, I almost always posted. Now it is rare. Occasionally with a Parker 45 because I love the look of that pen posted. More frequently with my Parker 51 Special as it helps me with the sweet spot and keeping the nib lined up with the clip. I don't do it every time even with the 51, but more frequently than with anything 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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I've been noticing this as well, ever since I got a TWSBI 580. Its such a nice size to use unposted. I'm starting to try different pens unposted. Some, like the Kaweco AL Sport require it, but others I'm finding, are quite nice unposted.

"Oh deer."

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If its not a mini-sized pen, i do not need to post. Posting for me was more habit than for any functional purpose. I use(d) pencils, ballpoints and roller-balls without the need, or provision, to post so why not fountain pens?

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Hmm...and here I am, going in the opposite direction. Never used to post (except for the lil Kaweco)...But now I find myself posting a few (M200, Sheaffer Imperials etc). Have large hands and long fingers so I guess it's just more comfortable posted...

A lifelong FP user...

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I started out posting but have moved away from it. TWSBI was the start that doesn't post securely. Then getting a few pens where I didn't want to mark the body finished me off!

Mostly a parsons essential and recently a Conway Stewart 15 ( even though it's a small pen)

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I started off posting when I first went back to fountain pens, but stopped after finding some pens were getting marked on the barrel. Plastic barrels seem OK in the most part; but lacquered, gold plated, stainless, sterling silver - I'm just too worried on most pens. Metal barrelled Parker 45s seem to be impossible to post without marking as, irrespective of the clutch fingers, the cap opening makes positive contact with the barrel. I've got a Parker 61 Flighter that was beginning to scratch visibily along the barrel from the clutch fingers and I'd be too upset to continue doing that. It can be a shame as I like the added weight the cap adds with some. I still post one or two, like my Parker Slimfold mkII as it's all plastic and quite short for a full size pen, so for weight, length and balance I think it needs it. I'm generally in the habit of keeping the cap in my other hand; I find I tend to play around with it absent-mindedly, plus as others have said, it makes for quick re-capping.

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I'm rarely writing at a desk or a table -- I'm usually curled up on the couch or in a chair, so I post the cap as a means of not losing it. (As I've mentioned a few times before, I'm an expert at losing things.) Even holding in your other hand doesn't work well in this pose, as the other hand is frequently balancing the writing surface. I do have a couple of pens I don't post, but they're the exception, not the rule.

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I always post my clip pens.

But I just ran into a couple of pens that I use unposted.

#1- A "brand X" pen that the cap is just TOO HEAVY to post. It looks nice, so I use it. And I've gotten used to using it unposted.

#2- Similarly my TWSBI 530, I also don't post, as posting messes up the balance of the pen, for me.

As shown above, balance is the key. Even with lighter pens, if the balance is better unposted, like the Lamy cp1, I will use it unposted. Not posting is still the exception to the rule. But now it is not the rejection that it used to be.

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

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