How often do you see people using fountain pens?

[JimB]

Last week, on a rerun of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent," I saw Stephan Colbert (yes, I know!) inking up a pen to write some forged documents that he sold for a fortune. Too bad someone suspected him, for he had to murder a potential witness! Caught by Goren and Eames. Oh, Stephan!

 

But his handwriting? Impeccable!

 

In real life? I know of only my neighbor who uses one. On occasion.

[mcg1355]

Last week, on a rerun of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent," I saw Stephan Colbert (yes, I know!) inking up a pen to write some forged documents that he sold for a fortune. Too bad someone suspected him, for he had to murder a potential witness! Caught by Goren and Eames. Oh, Stephan!

 

But his handwriting? Impeccable!

 

In real life? I know of only my neighbor who uses one. On occasion.

I would say he is really the only one I have seen in the wild, through my tv... He sometimes has uses a pilot varsity on the Colbert report and it makes me happy :embarrassed_smile:.

 

I go to Purdue university and you would think with around 40,000 students plus all the faculty I would stumble across another user at some point but none so far. If any other boilermakers happen to read this feel free to give me a shout.

 

-Nick

[Postscript]

A colleague was using one tonight. And I was using an Edison;he was so much of a gentleman he didn't notice or made no comment. Perfect!

 

Post Script

[Azuniga]

I was attending a conference about Climate change a couple of days ago, I counted four people taking notes with a FP. The most surprising was a lady, in her early forties maybe, writing with a BHR Safety Waterman... I felt great just to see her since I never saw that before.

[Pippin60]

Besides me? no one...

 

Same here.

[Bart1979]

I work in engineering, mainly in the oil and gas industry. When I was with one of the larger contractors in that field, I have seen my dept. manager with a 149 (in Germany) and a project manager with a Waterman Charleston. Some of the engineers used FPs, mainly Lamy's.

 

Over at a different customer I have met a project manager who also always carried a 149 with him.

 

I do believe FP's are more common in Europe. However, I have had quite some remarks in the past years ranging from 'what's that??' to ' oh how nice, you actually still use a real PEN...'.

 

According to my dealer, FP use is increasing again since he really sells a lot these days (and not the cheap stuff... Montblanc, Montegrappa, Aurora, Pelikan...talk about a crisis).

 

We all learned to write with a FP back in the day (I am 32 now), we were handed out Pelikano's as first pens. Still have that laying around somewhere I guess, a blue one with steel cap iirc.

 

Also try to 'convert' some people. I have given my mom a Pelikan M400, and she is very happy with it. For her it's pure nostalgia.

All in all I think people start to long for the things of the past again, when materialism was not what it is today, and you bought things of good quality and lasting value. There's hope

[Shinwah]

The only four people I've ever seen using fountain pens are my grandfather, my uncle and my two friends whom I have given a fountain pen to.

[doodlesinink]

I forgot to mention, does the FP in the Sims 3 writing aspiration count?

[JohnEbach]

I use my fp's daily. There are 5 or 6 of us that I know of that use them. You will find me often using my fp writing in my journal. My fp's range from vintage Workers and Shaffer to new MB and Bexleys. Love to write with them

[brandon_mn]

Two of my friends, my girlfriend, and one of my teachers use fountain pens. Out here in MN, you have to special-order much of the stuff you want (thanks to the Goulets, not a hassle in the least!, as our local Paradise Pen Co doesn't stock Sheaffer or Diamine inks, nor many pen brands. Sometimes, my girlfriend, friend, and I will coordinate orders, and that's nice.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I wonder if, for most of my life, I would even have noticed if I saw somebody using a fountain pen. Once you get interested in this sort of stuff, it's easy to become sensitized to it, but most people probably just don't pay much attention. Anyway, I can't recall ever seeing one being used.

 

Over the past few months, when I've been carrying fountain pens with me, using them at work and elsewhere, I haven't done anything in particular to bring them to people's attention, but quite a few people must have seen me writing with them. It hasn't caused a single comment, and I haven't tried to turn it into a topic of conversation. If you asked my co-workers whether they'd ever seen anyone using one, I suspect that most would not remember.

[chifeuse]

Recently we had several meetings while working toward our museum's new website. I noticed that the person in charge of the project was using several FP of clearly european styling, probably italian. Of course she was also using some nice notebooks with that! So, website maybe, but preparatory work without a fountain pen? Jamais ! :-)

[lynnetteli]

Apart from my father, I have not known of a person who uses fountain pens (let alone carry them around with them). Several weeks ago, I met someone of importance with a fountain pen in his shirt pocket. My heart skipped a beat. To cut the long story short, we ended up talking about fountain pens for a while. Being relatively new to the industry, and him being a man of importance. That conversation on pens was very much needed.

 

Fountain pens.. arh... they sure are conversational starters!

[mikkolopez]

in my line of work at the bank, everytime a contract or check is signed. the thing there is most of those with FPs (thinking it's so cool to have one) don't know how to use one or wait for the ink to "touch-dry" before placing something over the fresh ink.

[Pens Woods]

As with most of the responses, I do not see people using a fountain pen. I am retired from teaching, but going to historical societies and history conferences, I haven't seen anyone use a fountain pen. Come to think of it, the only people I have seen using a fountain pen are the folks at my local Montblanc Boutique. They carry their pen clipped to their lapel coat. Two of the reps use fountain pens at home and one actually collects pens other than Montblanc! I've had some interesting conversations with them, generally on not busy days.

Pete

[Kaptenmork]

No,I met a guy with a MB, but it turned out to be something his wife bought... = no real interest...

[Neuroform]

It is rare to see people writing with fountain pens where I work, yet my use can tend to "fascinate" people on occassion, likely due to the variation in both ink colors and pens I choose. Great opportunities for conversation and sharing the simple pleasures of pen, ink, and paper. I usually have a small number of relatively inexpensive pens to give to those who seem truly interested and would like to give it a try.

[seoulseeker]

It is rare to see people writing with fountain pens where I work, yet my use can tend to "fascinate" people on occassion, likely due to the variation in both ink colors and pens I choose. Great opportunities for conversation and sharing the simple pleasures of pen, ink, and paper. I usually have a small number of relatively inexpensive pens to give to those who seem truly interested and would like to give it a try.

 

Unfortunately, the only time I have seen someone writing with a fountain pen, was when they were trying mine!

 

Every time I have been around pen stores, people I see come in always end up either buying a ballpoint, or getting a refill changed.

 

I did see a Montblanc bag on the subway the other day though, I would like to think that they just purchased a fountain pen!

[mmahany]

Three out of the 7 guys I work with have Mont Blanc ballpoints they were given as gifts from investment wholesalers. After two of them found out I collected, they had to go digging in old moving boxes for "That pen I got with a white star on it."

 

However, when I went to a conference up in Tulsa a few weeks ago, I saw 3 different people writing with actual MB fountain pens (We didn't have time to talk about collecting though).

 

I don't just collect Mont Blanc pens, but you can't argue that anyone who knows anything about pens can spot them from a mile away. I keep my MB Classique BP in my shirt pocket at all times just because, like said, it's a great conversation starter. I would say, at least once a week, someone comments on it.

 

When you're around salesman, you see stuff like this a lot more(it's a painful truth, but we try and show off our wealth because it's good for business).

[Spector]

the only people I have ever met using fp's have been a few classmates but they only use the cheap cartridge fillers.