Fountain pens are only being used by a minority group of people around the world and I doubt that this will change for the better. Just think a century from 2007, what will happen to fountain pens when we're long gone? Maybe your grandchildren or children will spread the good word?

Brad

I am sure mine will. He is quite interested and can feel the difference.

But I think there will be a market for fountain pens for a while to come. For a niche market. And I'm sure there will be a next generation. Heck, I use them even though my parents stopped using them before I was born.

My dad, who's 64, just commented tonight when I met my parents for dinner that he never did like using fountain pens.

I suppose you do not appreciate somethings until you have a choice. We today have many different option available and we choose FP's, some for medical reasons, some for ethical reasons, some for aesthetics, maybe if we did not have the choice we would not be so appreciative, choosing between a pencil or a FP.
Also a lot of todays FP's are a lot easier to use and fill, might make a difference-but hey, I am hoping to be around in a 100 years and I am damn sure my Lamy 2000 will be there too!

I think people will still use them. I remember being thrilled to get my first pen! Even now kids get excited when they receive their "pen licence" in school. I found it strange to learn here on FPN that some people don't know what a fountian pen is. Is it just in the UK that kids still learn to use them? I think if coloured inks were more widely available that would boost fp usage. I didn't know so many colours were available until coming here.

It depends upon the evolution of writing instruments. Fountain pens offer several advantages over other writing instruments, but lack in convenience and overall ruggedness compared to RBs. The current state of inked writing instruments is fountain pen, ballpoint, rollerball, and porous tip (marker). Something else could come along to displace all of them. Until that time, I believe there will continue to be a large niche market for fountain pens. An intangible benefit of the fountain pen is that it provides a connection to the past that other types of pens don't offer. This appeal will continue, and perhaps grow, during the coming decades.

That's a sigh of relief then, thanks for all your input. BUt I really wonder what writing instrument may come up within the next century that could possibly take over the rollerball?

A laser pen, that burns the letters into the page.

I'm sure fountain pens will still be around an in use 100 years from know. Of course by then they might just do more than just simply being able to use to write with!

My grandpa says the same thing. He doesn't understand how I can write with them. For some reason he thinks they let out ink blots all the time. Honestly I've never had that, he must've had some lousy pens or something. I've noticed with fountain pens that I don't get wrist cramps any more when I'm doing a lot of writing. I think there's something to be said there.

The computer will probably be the thing that replaces ball points. In my classes at school there are quite a few kids that carry them to class and type their notes. Really, though I don't think I could do that. Computers are heavy and cumbersome and then you have to go print off all your notes which is expensive.

It rather depends how things will develop in Asia and Europe. North (and South??) America is (are) almost lost as a market, but that's not typical for the rest of the world.
In many European countries FPs never got extinct and are still part of everyday life (especially at school), certainly much less so than before the ball point, but not dying out (in my almost 42 years of life, I never met anyone, who didn't know what a fountain pen is). Same in Asia. India, Pakistan and China still make lots of cheap FPs, which means they are for the masses and not just for a financial elite. And in Japan it seems to be the same as in Europe.

Fountain pens have lasted at least 100 years despite typewriters, computers, pencils, ballpoints and felt-tips. I think they'll last at least another 100 years. If it can put up with these many changes, it can put up with many more. Anyway, what the hell could replace them? Despite computers and typewriters, we still need to handwrite stuff. And as long as that necessity is there, in my mind, so will fountain pens.

And then there are European countries, like my country Finland (maybe Sweden, Norway too?) where fountain pens have totally disapperared from use and from store shelves too. 10-15 years ago we still had them for sale but then something mysterious happened. It is still possible to find some ink bottles and cartridges, but pens are really scarce. Our school system only recognizes pencils in daily use.

Schools are the main factor: in countries, where FPs are prefered or mandatory at school, some of the kids remain fp users in later life.