As you can see I even provided answers for the grey areas.
Read from top to bottom and mark the lowest statement that represents you.
I did not put a choice of someone who does not touch any of their pens.
Either such a person does not exist or does not read FPN

My goal for this poll is not to force a classification of the pen hobby/community
but rather to check what percent of people are in each category (at least in this web site).
At the end of the day, everyone is free to do what they like, but those with the top answers should not consider the collectors as crazy
and those at the bottom should not snear at the users. It is the diversity of the pens and their
owners that gives beauty to this hobby. Also remember that our tastes change all the
time. It would be interesting to see where we were few years ago and where we are today in this classification :doh:


PS1> ACCUMATOR=ACCUMULATOR, I cant edit the poll text
PS2> Thank you anonymous administrator for the correction

I buy fountain pens solely to use them - if I could one day get some LE's, I'd still use them in a heartbeat.

As I develop my taste and style for fountain pens, there are certainly some I now rarely use, but as I only have about 20 pens or so, all most always still make it into a rotation.

(The exception is my Parker Sonnet - I hate it. Two nib replacements later and the 'F' still writes a huge wet line, even with Emerald Penman!)

I voted for the first option, though I have three uninked brand new pens. They are just waiting for the perfect occasion, and they are not intended for being unused for a long time.

Another reason for not considering me a collector is that I have no "focus", though I prefer Omas pens.

Alejandro

Mainly a user.

I chose "I have some pens that I have not used for couple of years but I will use them whenever I get the time," because that's pretty close to my situation.

I consider every pen that I own a "user" but some of them are the same model and even the same color, e.g. I have a number of Shaeffer Imperials and some Waterman Phileas', and I don't want to overpopulate my rotation with the same pen. I like variety.

Some pens are a bit too heavy for the way I tend to be writing these days: using a clip board propped up on my lap while sitting down. And some pens are all screwed up and don't write worth a dam and so I will probably never use them.

This does not count the pen that I completely wrecked in trying to remove its nib and feed.

I'm a user-accumulator and proud of it! In fact I'm a cheap pen user-accumulator!

I use all the pens I own, some are a little more favoured than others! Basically, my choices are made according to my mood, sometimes I want to use an 'old friend' other times I want to get to know a pen a little better and play around with it till I feel comfortable with it.

Definitely a "user" here. I can't think of anything purchased (pen, watch, cufflinks, etc.) that I set aside. In fact, if I ever purchased something from the MB limited ed. series, I'm positive that I'd ink it.

Maybe I'm missing something but if a person doesn't use an item, the intention is to sell it later, true? I imagine the pen could be donated or sent back to the manufacturer's museum (bit of a stretch).

Best regards,

Paul

I chose #3 but it really doesn't reflect my situation. I'm willing to use all my pens but I have many (used pens, some vintage, some newer) that I don't bother to use because I've not taken the time to work on them. When I get a new pen I do resac as neccessary, dip and test the nib. I then put them away in the hope that I'll get around to doing more cleanup, nib smoothing, and actual use. For the most part, I never get around to it because new pens (used newer, used vintage, and new) keep arriving.

In addition, there are a whole host of pens that have accumulated that I don't yet have the skills to refurbish, but I might learn how someday. While I would love to have all of them professionaly refurbished, I'm not willing to spend the money (yet) on having them done. After all, there is not much practical difference between a snork that works and isn't used and a snork that doesn't work (yet) and isn't used.

I think I need to go to Fountain Pen Summer Camp. This idealized imaginary institution is in a nice cool green mountain environment (New Hampshire or Oregon would be nice) where you hang out with other pen nuts and have supervised workshops where you bring your pens and the experts teach and help and you learn to do all sorts of magic like vac repairs, snork refits, nib modification and proper pen polishing.

I'd sign up in a minute!

Sorry to get a bit off topic but when it flows.......it FLOWS!

Andy

Sign me up too. I'm going to have a crash course in touchdown and snork repair sometime soon with a friend of mine, should be fun.

I'm obviously in the last camp, the collector. I have many pens I will never use. Some for the shear fact they are just impossible to replace if something happens, and others just because a rotation for me would take quite a while. There are also a number of them that need repair beyond my capability, and to send them all out for repair would be insanely expensive. That being said, I do have about a hundred or so pens that do probably see use throught the year.

Best-
Brian

User (though I'm now at my limit of 25, all of which I can't possibly use regularly - though Im' trying!) A pen repair summer camp would be great!

I'm a user - and if I feel like I shouldn't ink a pen, then I'll probably sell it off to somebody who wants it for the mint status (like the Vacumatic I have in my possesion).

I've inked all my pens to date (with the exception of that vacumatic).

Total user: otherwise I might as well go back to ballpoints.

Besides my "everyday writers". Blue pens loaded with Florida Blue

I have accumulated my favorite brands and colors of inks and now i'm trying to find the perfect matched fountain pen for each ink. I already have some pens who match the ink or have a ink mix planed for them.

I guess I'm accumulator/user

Definitely a user. I am the same way with my cars. I have a 1911 Model T which is by far a driver. There are so many dings and scratches in that. You would guess the paint was original except it is only two years old.

Andy, will they serve ice cream at the camp?

At each meal!

Count me in!!

i love the physical sensation of writing itself, so i'm definitely a USER