Hi All!

Yet another Brit arrives on FPN. I'm a midlander, hailing from about 2-miles away from the exact geographical centre of the mainland U.K. Little place called Daventry, home (until recently) of the BBC World Service, and location of the first tests which lead to the development of RADAR.

I've described myself as a 'Tecno-Luddite' due to my habit of avoiding 'new' technologies until I find a real need for them. Mobile phones? - never needed one, wouldn't know how to use one if it were handed to me. Digital TV - only because the reception's better (mostly). i-Pod? Nope, my stereo still uses Valves!

The interest I have with fountain pens fits alongside these habits quite nicely, but actually stems back to a black Parker Duofold Jr (circa '55, m/f nib, aerometric filler) that my father had, and that I 'borrowed' to use at school when I was 9. Being one of those sinister southpaw writers, I'd already learnt to 'hook' my wrist to avoid smearing the ink from the school's Berol fibretip's - heck, by then, my parent's had given me one of those old 'calligraphy' sets in an effort to improve my handwriting - so using a fountain pen wasn't an entirely unfamiliar experience...

What WAS unfamiliar, was the ease with which I found I could write with that Duofold. Previously, the pens I'd used all seemed to 'dig' into the paper - this one felt as though it was gliding across ice. The shape of the barrel, the grip of the section, even the slight flexing of the nib came together to make the 'writing experience' actually pleasurable, rather than the painful struggle it had been... That Duofold Jr. was my first experience with a truly GOOD pen. My handwriting improved - going from 'drunken spider on bad Acid' to merely 'drunken spider' - which made my teachers happy, which, in turn, made my parents happy. Life was good.

To say I was heartbroken when the school bully decided to destroy on that old Parker is a bit of an understatement. I cried.

Over the following years I tried many pens, searching for that elusive 'rightness' that the Parker had in my hand. Parkers, Watermans, Pilots, Sheaffers, Etc, etc... They all passed through my hands. And none of them felt 'right'. For the next 11 years of my education, I struggled on with bad pens & crappy handwriting. Then I started working in a factory/warehouse job which didn't require much writing. Cheapo ballpoints were about all that could be carried, due to the chances of destroying anything better. Lets face it, the sight of a ballpoint that's had a 2-tonne forklift truck drive over it isn't that upsetting. Now imagine seeing one of your 'decent' pens in the same situation. Point made.

Roll forward 15 years.

Over the years I was diagnosed as suffering from Depression/Anxiety, Social phobia, OCD, and various other conditions which lead to my current unemployed/unemployable status, enough medication to stun a small horse on a daily basis, and ongoing therapy. And as part of that therapy, I was told to try to keep a journal of my mood/thoughts/feelings/etc... All those happy little things I'd spent years avoiding thinking about. But I decided to give it a go.

That journal was/is hard work. Some of the stuff that goes in it is hard enough for me to think about, and deal with emotionally, that struggling with a bad pen as well wasn't a pleasant thought. So I started looking around online for a decent pen...

And BOY, did I find them... I'd never even thought about vintage pens until that point - the few I'd seen in various local 'antique' (read: junk) shops were all either battered late 70's - early 80's gold plated monstrosities, or cheapo plastic junk - and yet, there it was, a Parker Duofold Jr, just like my old one.

I bought it like a shot.

I waited for it to be delivered.

I bought some ink.

It was delivered. There it was, just like my old pen. I filled it. I put pen to paper...

I was strangely dissatisfied. The pen I remembered as 'the perfect pen', wasn't. It felt too small in my hand, too short. The nib was nice, but it felt too stiff, too rigid. Hmmm...

So I started reading up on the subject online... All those different pens... Nib shapes... Flex... Obliques?.. Reverse obliques??.. Hmmm... Definitely a bigger subject than I'd thought.

So I've bought a couple more pens, a couple more inks, and found a whole new interest. I'm still looking for my 'perfect' pen, and even my perfect colour ink, but having stumbled across this forum (courtesy of Richard Binder and Jim Mamoulides(sp?) linklists - THANKS) I hope to cut down the bad purchases & wrong turns on my way to them.

So there it is. The tale of how I found this forum. Hopefully not too boring to those who've got this far...

Cheers, and see you in the forum... G

Welcome!

Welcome to FPN. Good luck on your continuing search. I hope you find the elusive pen you are seeking. Until then, enjoy the company here.

Welcome to FPN.

Indeed, welcome to FPN.

Cheers, all. It's nice to finally find others with the experience and knowledge I lack, especially so when they are happy to share that experience...

...although the way my 'must try' list keeps growing could turn into a bit of a problem .

Ah well... G