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Situations when a FP is not the best choice


Blade Runner

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1. When you're sitting next to your boss who just pulled out a bic stic

and you have a limited edition fp. :blush:

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1. When you're sitting next to your boss who just pulled out a bic stic

and you have a limited edition fp. :blush:

Only in the presence of a client. And who can help your boss' "just a pen" attitude. :P

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." - Wayne LaPierre, NRA Executive Vice President

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FP is always the best choice (this is what I would like to believe).

Perhaps it mightn't be good for deep sea research. Or in outerspace (I can't verify this though ... any astronauts here?). And perhaps not for those occasions when one needs to write upside down for more than the quickest of notes (I can't say this comes up for me though).

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I thought of another - any situation in which you wanted to appear lame. FPs grant instant cool status and would detract from any chance of pulling off a semblance of the uncool ;) .

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Hmmmm....I guess weightlessness would present a problem. I hear the Russians still use pencils.

 

The only time I wouldn't use one is for thos stupid "carbonless" multipart forms where you have to use a 1000 pounds of pressure just to get them all to print.

 

-Bruce

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Moments when a fountain pen is not the first choice? For me, on a regular basis, writing on a wall chart during business planning sessions is not a fountain pen moment. For such occasions, I have a Fisher space pen or a regular old lead pencil. I also like to do the word scrambles in the daily newspaper and I use a standard lead pencil for that as well.

 

For much of my military career I was in intelligence and worked with cryptology, what is known as "code breaking." My usual tool then was also a lead pencil. In garrison I would write many of my reports with a fountain pen, but only after the decoding work was completed. During field deployments, especially combat tours of duty, I used a pencil exclusively (for what I hope are obvious reasons).

 

Oh, and signing my credt card receipts at the grocery store. I use whatever the clerk hands me.

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In desert island conditions and absolute reliability.

 

The best writing instrument for any condition is a pencil. It will write in space, underwater, under pressure, in many toxic environments etc.

 

Followed distantly by a ballpoint.

 

A FP is a luxury and used only in civilization where ease and pleasure count.

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I normally rotate between fountain pens and rollerballs. On another forum, I mentioned that I find fountain pens preferable but it depends upon the situation. In meetings where I do not know the participants, I normally tote along a rollerball. Just an opinion but I don't want anything to be a distraction. I reserve any expression of "personality" for more personal settings or after I get to know people. Maybe hard to explain but I want to stick to the subject-at-hand, especially when most meetings are expensive (productivity/attendees' times/schedules/etc.).

 

It is surprising that a "tool" (fountain pen) can create such a discussion (usually about the cheapies used as a youth...ink stained hands....clothing disasters....etc. etc.).

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

 

~ Oscar Wilde, 1888

 

http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/7260/postminipo0.pnghttp://img356.imageshack.us/img356/8703/letterminizk9.png

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Dramatic changes in elevation: high altitiude climbing, stunt flying, parachuting,

bungee jumping. Kleenex anyone? :o

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I avoid using a pen when I know that pesty person that loves borrowing everything that catches his/her eye will be arround... just not to say sorry, no when he/she asks to use my fountain pen.

 

Alejandro

I've actually said, no I don't have a pen you can borrow to

someone like that in the face of 3 gleaming fps in my

shirt pocket. :lol:

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A FP is a luxury and used only in civilization where ease and pleasure count.

That's how I view fps.

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Just an opinion but I don't want anything to be a distraction. I reserve any expression of "personality" for more personal settings or after I get to know people. Maybe hard to explain but I want to stick to the subject-at-hand, especially when most meetings are expensive (productivity/attendees' times/schedules/etc.).

I have this reservation as well.

A big advantage of the Parker 51 is that it does not

draw attraction to itself as a fp (provided the cap is

not eye catching).

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So far, the only situation I find myself in regularly that isn't an appropriate one for a fountain pen is the signing of Form CN-22, the standard international "greenie" Customs form for postal packages. The green portion of the form is colored with some printers' ink that repels water-based inks. So for that I use this pen:

 

http://www.richardspens.com/images/collection/zoomed/sentinel_bp.jpg

 

(It's a Sheaffer Sentinel Stratowriter, fitted with a modern Parker gel refill.) For two-part credit-card receipts I use my FPs with no problems -- the merchant keeps the top copy, and I get the bottom copy. I already know what my signature looks like, so I don't need to see it on the credit-card receipt.

 

Any merchant that uses those obnoxious "sign here" electronic things can also print you a paper receipt to sign, and I require them to do that.

 

For the extrememly rare situations in which I am compelled to fill out a multipart form, I can use my "51" -- Parker said, in its first-year advertising and catalog, that all "51" nibs are manifold nibs. For the 51 SE, this is not true, however; that pen's 18K nib is quite soft and inadequate for use under heavy pressure.

 

Jeen's point about a "51" not calling attention to itself is quite valid -- frequently, people have no idea that I'm using a fountain pen when I have the "51" in my hand:

 

http://www.richardspens.com/images/collection/zoomed/51_cedar_sterling.jpg

sig.jpg.2d63a57b2eed52a0310c0428310c3731.jpg

 

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I pull out the fountain pen with no reservations under any circumstance other than the rare multipart form that my Parker 51 can't handle. Of course, my usual pens are nothing flashy -- the aforementioned 51 is kind of beat up, and a black Esterbrook J is distinctly utilitarian (though its vintageness draws some attention).

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I guess that the general rule to make about fountain pen usage is not to put the pen into play in industrial or athletic situations. In my case, I don't use a pen when I am filling out forms with carbon copies beneath them. In such a case I pull out my high quality wooden pencil and let it take flight. The very presence of a fountain pen speaks volumes about our culture, though---that we are routinized and bureaucratized, rough-and-tumble that we cannot afford the individualizing effects of a fountain pen.

This reminds me of a Far Side comic featuring an Arab w/ his camel in a sandstorm. He is reaching out for a mirror and stretching his eyelids. The caption: Times and places never to put in contact lenses. Extend this to FP usage and we have some idea of what this thread is saying.

I Feel SO GOOD, I'm Gonna Break Somebody's Heart Tonight

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I hate to do it, but I've done the same Jeen - but is it really a lie to say you don't have a pen when you're holding one in your hand? I had a "friend" bend a vanishing point nib once; after having noted "This is a fancy pen", he proceeded to apply it to his paper as one lacking opposable thumbs would a screwdriver to a rusty screw - damned Troglodyte! Once was all it took.

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Hi J.,

 

You can always say that this is a pen that is difficult to write with and that it has sentimental valur to you on top of that. And this just means that you won't allow anybody else to write with it.

 

That is what I do.

 

And if he killed the nib, he'll have to pay for it, IMO.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

the Mad Dutchman
laugh a little, love a little, live a lot; laugh a lot, love a lot, live forever

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He actually did purchase a new one for me - or gave me the money to purchase a new one, I should say. I usually just say to a person who asks to borrow an FP they can borrow a pencil, which I always keep in my bag, and if they insist then I say that its difficult to write with, and if they still insist (which has happened) I say that I'm not comfortable with them using it.

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He actually did purchase a new one for me - or gave me the money to purchase a new one, I should say. I usually just say to a person who asks to borrow an FP they can borrow a pencil, which I always keep in my bag, and if they insist then I say that its difficult to write with, and if they still insist (which has happened) I say that I'm not comfortable with them using it.

Phew! At least that is something. I guess he won't borrow another fp ever again :D.

 

Warm regards, Wim

the Mad Dutchman
laugh a little, love a little, live a lot; laugh a lot, love a lot, live forever

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