Hi all,

Today I wrote what I hope will be my last exam, so that I can move on to my thesis.

I used my trusted blue Edson, M nib, filled with Waterman Blue Black, for the body of the stuff, but I had to draw a fair amount of diagrams, with explanatory text, so I made a colourful collage, where I also used:

Parker Duofold, M nib, Noodler's Black,
Stipula Etruria d'Inverno, 1.1 italic, Noodler's Ottoman Azure,
Stipula Etruria Amber true piston filler, M nib, Ottoman Azure,
Stipula Etruria Nuda, 1.1 italic, Swisher Maroon,
Stipula Etruria 991, 1.1 italic, Herbin Café des Îles,
Stipula Etruria Blue Black, 1.1 italic, Swisher Intense Red,
Stipula Etruria Orange & Black, F nib, Swisher Apricot Orange,
Filcao PenTrace 2004 LE (green), 0.9 cursive italic, PR Spearmint,
Delta Passion Green Swirl, Stub, Swisher Emerald Green,
Pelikan M800 red stripes, OM, Noodler's La Couleur Royale,
Waterman Gentleman (indigo), OB, Waterman South Seas Blue,
Pilot Music pen, music nib, Omas Vespucci Red.

All this on 16 pages filled to the brim, in 3 hours time. Not a lot compared to my record of 22 pages, but as an excuse I have to say we had to do a lot of time consuming calculations, and it still is faster than I ever could do with a BP (13 pages max).

I didn't use the other 15 inked pens I had with me... .

I just hope the prof is impressed enough to give me some extra credits for the art work .

Ok, now for the $50000 question: what do you do in cases like these, or other offical paper work? Do you use a standard pen and standard ink, or do you vary these in the same paper, the same letter, the same document?

TIA, warm regards, Wim

Wim,

First of all, congratulations on finishing your exams; I am amazed at anyone who can work and study for a course at the same time.

Secondly, sorry I can't answer your question about using fountain pen for exams. Unfortunately, I finished university well before I re-started using FPs in earnest. I did use an FP in elementary school for some essays but I only had Sheaffer Skrip blue ink to work with At work, we don't really use fountain pens...but I use them for quick notes.

Thirdly......Thirteen pens for one exam?
OK, you are the Mad Dutchman!
Hats off to you for making use of so many lovely fountain pens!

My last academic exercise was graduate business school and law school so I used fountain pens pretty sparingly during those days. MBA classes tended to require typed documents or, more often, submission of electronic documents either in word, excel, SAS or a combination thereof. For the few written exams I had they were typically stats, accounting or finance so a .5mm mechanical pencil was the order of the day so you could erase.

Law school is a different beast alltogether. One hand written exam in those days (now you can type them on a laptop if you have one) represented your entire grade and it was a race against the clock to regurgitate as much black law and analysis as you could in 4 hours. I mostly used a Fisher chrome plated space pen with a blue fine refill for those tests - not the greatest writer but I found it to be stunningly reliable and the refills write for years - and I could write very, very fast with it.

At work these days I use mostly one of several Parkers for document editing notes and for signing documents, but again the vast majority of my correspondence is typed. I am something of a holdout as I still print out documents to read and edit - then make changes on the computer or have my assistant make them, but many now just work straight on the computer.

And let me guess, this wasn't a take home exam? So you went in with a suitcase of pens?

Hmm., this thread makes me think about the FPs I have used in college and grad school: a Cross that I lost, some parker 21s, a Targa whosecap I bent either in college in high school, and a Parker 75 for most of my grad school days. That thing is well worn and the cap will slide off under the force of gravity if i didn't have some tape inside it

PS: Inks were royal blue, and mostly blue black and black. My only fancying with ink were two bottle of penman black, which I later found out is prone to clogging pens. I am considering dipping my toes into the dizzying world of Noodler et al.

Hi Maja,

Even worse, I forgot one, and miscounted on top of that .

I forgot the Amber Etruria 0.9 italic, big piston converter. It also holds Noodler's Ottoman Rose. I needed a narrow reddish line, which is why I used it .

And I had actually a total of 35 fountain pens with me, all of them inked...

A full 20 pen pen case, ditto 12 pen case, and ditto 3 pen case .

Yeah, you can call me mad

Warm regards, Wim

Thanks Roy,

It is a pity I forgot about fountain pens for almost 30 years or so, but I am making up for it now, big time!

And it is good to see you posting again!

How are things?

Warm regards, Wim

Hi H., Well, I am doing an MBA part time. I made the first moves for my thesis now I have finished all the exams, and completed all classes but one. I will try and write the first draft(s) with a fountain pen, before I type up anything. The thesis does require a typed, or rather, word processed document, aided and abetted by the usual tools.
Remind sme of my final exam for my Dutch M.Sc. in geology. Four theses wasn't enough, of course, the final exam consisted of a full day oral exam to take with the professor who was head of the department... There wasn't a corner of geological science untouched, including de B.Sc. years! Phew...
Over here we still make a lot of notes with pens, pencils and fountain pens (myself and whoever I converted ). Of course, that is a little easier here, because everybody still learns to write cursive with a fountain pen in primary school.

We work with printed notes and docuemnts a lot too, and I use fountain pens for editing those too, either one of the few F-nibbed pens in the collection, or one of the narrower italics . Preferably with an ink in an exotic colour, of course .

Warm regards, Wim

Hi Stylo, Almost a suitcase full of pens. I actually miscounted, as I mentioned to Maja . I always have at least 3 bottles of ink with me, just in case I run out, what with only 20 pens or so with me, for a normal work day. For the occasion I brought a few more, 5 bottles of ink and 35 pens .

You really should try some Noodler's inks. I normally only use Noodler's, in different varieties, and Waterman Blue Black. Ok, occasionally a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but that has more to do with ink reviews than anything else.

Warm regards, Wim

I had one pen at all the exams I can remember. I'm just The Boring Frenchman.

Hi Denis, You just gave yourself a new nickname, you do realize that, don't you? TBF it is...

At secondary school I used two fountain pens, one with blue black, and the other with any other ink I liked. But I never had more than 2 bottles of ink in those days . I did write any exams, papers etc. with both of them, but the second one mostly for underlining, etc.

Warm regards,Wim

That sounds a bit like SITB, doesn't it ?

Nah, a lot worse...

Wim,

First, congrats!
Second, to answer your question, I use any of the Noodler's permanent inks I have lest something happen and it wash away - or worse, the prof have damp hands and get ink smeared on himself (which is likely to adversely affect the grade) .
Third, >35 pens?!?!?! :doh: Truly in a class all by yourself !

Hi Michael, Thanks!
I jokingly said, after the exam, I hope I earned some extra points because it was so colourful!
Ummmm . All this in a little over 2 years as well. I actually feel bad if I think too long about it. I am going to cull a few soon.

Warm regards, Wim

My point was not that >35 is an excessive # for a collection, but that you actually took more than 35 pens to an exam! I'd have wasted too much time deciding which one to use.

BTW, if you're going to cull, I got an extra $2 lying around I'll send you for one of those Stips .

Hi Southpaw, Ok, just wanted to know. I didn't find it difficult at all, BTW. The choice came naturally... (ok, ok, I know I am mad ).
Didn't I mention I was not going to sell off any Stips? But I'll send you a drawing of a Stip, if you like, for that $2 thing... I'll even make the drawing with a Stip or 2

Warm regards, Wim

The exams I had to go through during my doctorate were all about statistics and maths, and the best tool was simply a 0.5 pencil with soft lead... no chance to use my Fps.
When I saw the title of the thread, however, I thought it was about documents such as certificates and diplomas. There´s a particular kind of document I´d like everyone about: checks. Do you fill in checks with FPs? I remembering reading somewhere that this is a rather dangerous practice, since someone could wash up the writing, keeping the signature, and write in a different amount. I don´t know whether it is really feasible, but it sounds possible. Noodler´s ink is not available around here, so I´ve been writing checks with ( ) a ballpoint...

Hi Rique, That's interesting. I've always used both pens and pencils when doing math and statistics. Pencils normally for drawing things, and pens for wrting the text and any characters and numbers required.
Well, anything goes, really . I use fountain pens for official documents as well. And forms (multiple ones or not) I always fill in with fps, unless the paper just doesn't take fp ink. Well, a ballpoint is not safe either. It can be removed fairly easily too. There are a few black inks which perform quite well (Visconti comes to mind), and there is MB permanent Blue Black too.
If you can't get Noodler's around where you live, I would suggest to order some via the Internet. It is worthwhile I think (I did). And if you just want a single bottle or so, try to find a group of people who are interested, to share the shipping costs.

BTW, checks are not used here anymore, really. Everything over here is done electronically these days, or cash, or debit/credit card. Nothing else really.

HTH, warm regards, Wim

First, congratulations on completing your exam. My university years are now decades behind me. Believe me, retirement is much more fun! I have far more time for low tech fun like fountain pens.

By official documents, I also thought you might mean certificates, legal documents and personal financial documents like checks. I have switched over to Noodler's permanent inks like a lot of other folks on the fountain pen forums. I really do feel more secure using those inks. I have developed a fondness for Noodler's "Legal Lapis," "Eternal Brown," and "Red Black," though I do use the "Victory" as well. I haven't done it yet, but I am going to go through Greg Clark's "Ink Sampler" and make a list of the inks Greg lists as Excellent to Bullet Proof in ink fastness.

If you go to Pendemonium's web site, they have pictures of someone's test of Noodler's ink for water resistance. I was mightily impressed and decided to make the switch to Noodler's. For general writing like letters and notes I still use other less water resistant inks for the fun of their colors.

I think that at some point I started developing the habit of having a backup: another FP and/or a ball point.

In elementary school, I used cartridges, and I remember distinctly how, with some pens, you could tuck another backup cartridge in the barrel (the small international cartridges or Pelikan, whatever they were called). I remember quickly unscreweing the barrel, pulling out the empty cartidge, sliding out the new cartridge, and snapping it in. It was like playing changing a bullet magazine on a gun Of course, the empty cartridge was always kept around for a while. The tiny little ball in it can seem fun for a little kid, at least for a little whilel

for documents and other exams and somthing like this I always use royal blue from pelikan or lamy.
i like to use pens like lamy or waterman
but sometimes i use pink ink because my teacher hate it, when sixth formers use some colours like that with a smell of rose !

mfg rk