How do you carry your FP, small notebook, keys, etc for everyday use? For colder seasons it's easy to put everything into inside pockets of a coat, but during the warm season, it's not obvious. What's the best alternative you've found?

My purse has removable pen cases. Every briefcase I have has pen loops/pockets. Alternately I clip one to my neckline or shirt pocket.

Upright in my briefcase (pockets slots) or upright in my shirt pocket.

Yes, briefcase is OK if your on your way to work and shirt pocket if you have one, but what's the best alternative you've found when just going for a walk and you might want to scribble something down...

I'm considering a waist bag, but I don't want it to be too obstrusive...someone has suggestions?

When I got my glasses (which are only for reading/computer use), I quickly grew tired of trying to juggle everything.

I now carry a messenger bag most of the time. It's damned convenient, and it has pen pockets on the front, which are covered by the outside pouch when closed. I keep my fountain pen in there, securely clipped and protected.

It felt weird for a few days, carrying a bag around, but once I got used to it, it was great. No more trying to find pocket space for glasses, book, notebook, pen, pda, cell phone, keys, and wallet.

Breast pocket of my shirt if the pocket has a flap. Otherwise, it's clipped to the collar of my undershirt or between the buttons of the shirt itself.

Depends, really...

Summer weather:

- Pens are stored inside shorts/trousers pockets.
- Pens stored in shirtfront pocket.

Winter weather:

- Pens stored in inner coat-pocket.

All the time the pens will first be placed inside a pen-pouch and I never carry less than two. I also take small pocket notebooks with me, and keep one in my back trousers pocket.

I'm a "bag lady" so it's always in a pencil case. I'm thinking of buying specific pen cases for them as I go around with at least 2 pens at any time.

Feel like I'm in the minority .... I just put the clip on my front pants pocket. Of course this means I need pens with durable clips and nicely sealed caps. But i just can't bring myself to sacrifice the quick-draw action of having the pen there. Lamy safari spends the most time there...although the Studio is on its way.

Of course I never really carry a more expensive pen there; those are saved for letter writing or the rare days a student wears a suit.

Not to hijack the thread, but are there others who carry their FP's in their pants pocket? If so, which are the best at standing up to the task?

I carry mine in my shirt pocket almost all the time. On rare days when I am wearing a "T" shirt, or I know I am going to be upside down in a machine or something, I take a two pen case and lay it on my desk. I'd like to carry a bag, but I just can't get used to it. I've tried.

Generally for me it's in a shirt pocket or clipped between a couple buttons for shirts w/o pockets. Some days I also pack a 3 pen case with me as well, and either tote it around from place to place in a shirt/pant pocket then set it on my desk, or keep it in my backpack/laptop bag.

On days when a pen in a shirt pocket isn't an option for one reason or another, my Rotring 600 clips very nicely to a front pocket of jeans or shorts and is durable enough I don't have to worry too much about it.

I have a satchel that I keep everything in - big enough to carry a lot when I need to, small enough not to kill my back.

I take a backpack pretty much everywhere. If I'm out for dinner and a movie with the girlfriend, I typically don't carry my pens. Too much hassle for about one time that I'll need to write and thats to sign for the bill. Even then, if I *really* needed to write something of length, my backpack is always in the trunk of my car if I'm not with it somewhere or at the house.

-Zac

Front pants pocket.

And a rOtring 600 clipped inside the notebook.

In one of Kevin's urushi wraps.

I carry about 10-12 loaded with different colors and nibs from xf to stub. I write then mostly dry and then trade then out or refill them.

Meet the Nigh Perfect Bag -- a Mythwear Messenger bag, the a smaller, stripped down of version of their Courier3 bag



Not too big (or I'd end up putting in so much stuff I hurt my back), not too small.



But it lacked pen loops, or a good place to tuck my cell phone.



So I got a case for a Nintendo DS, on clearance for $5. It's the perfect size for my phone and a few pens.



And I fastened it to the D Rings on the side of the Nigh Perfect Bag to create the Now Perfect Bag

Wow - there are a significant number of replies and I'm really surprised that I'm the first one to pipe in with "pants pocket" as where I carry my pen. I work in manufacturing where any appearance of culture is likely to get you an unflattering nick-name.

These days it's a Lamy 2000 (after hearing the accolades of the board, and I agree), and I do not take any effort to be kind to it. Nib up, nib down, in my pocket with keys, whatever - just tuck it away and get moving.

Brent

The only pen I now carry clipped to my front pants pocket is my Vanishing Point.

Because the VP is capless, there is no cap that can unscrew in my pants pocket.

The last capped pen I clipped to my pants pocket managed to become unscrewed from its barrel and nib. I wound up with an ink stain on my khakis and my thigh. The pen wound up with a bent nib. THe cap was still nicely clipped to my pants pocket.

I usually carry a pen clipped diagonally between the second and third button of a dress shirt - or clipped diagonally in the plaquet of a polo shirt. When I'm wearing a suit jacket, I still prefer the shirt placement, because I sometimes remove my suit jacket to work.

I prefer the central shirt plaquet placement over clipping a pen to a shirt pocket, because the cotton on the plaquet is thicker than the cotton of a shirt pocket. Some of my pens are heavier, and even a stiffly starched cotton shirt pocket sometimes sags unattractively under the weight of a heavy pen - particularly toward the end of a work day. The thicker cotton shirt plaquet starches more stiffly, and holds the pen more securely.

When secured diagonally in the plaquet of a dress shirt, I also like the way a fountain pen peeks out diagonally from the side of a necktie. If I like the look of the pen enough to buy it, why not show it off a bit, rather than hide the pen under a suit jacket? But of course, when the pen is visible at the edge of a necktie, the pen has to fit with the color palette of the tie.

I'm a bag lady, too (except I'm a man ... so I'm a bag man?). I have a decent briefcase (Stanley Traveler by Levenger) and a shoulder bag (small-sized Healthy Back Bag) and a school backpack (dunno the brand). Into any or each goes the two-pen hard-sided Pen Parapet by Levenger, or at least one pen inside a plain leatherette sleeve (just an oblong rectangle of material stitched on three sides, one end left open).

Some thoughts on carrying the pens and notebooks (and eye-glasses, which are new for me, too! and stapler, and cell phone, and paper clips, and calculator, and ...).

First, I'm anticipating becoming a student all over again this August. So, I'll have to be mobile. It's funny how student-ing is basically required to be moving-about-ing. You have to have a mobile computer or you have no computer. You have to have a mobile phone or you have no phone. You have to have a mobile three-hole punch or you have no three-hole punch. I think some school or other might do very well to establish little offices kind of like they have at photocopy centers, where all the stationery is already provided: desk after desk, each with a never-ending supply of paperclips in a little bin; a stapler (tethered no doubt to the desk by a springy cord); a jar full of Bic sticks; a stack of cheap plain white lined paper; a phone; a Dell desktop connected to the internet. You leave the kiosk as you found it, less a few items of stationery. Student workers replenish, part of their work-study plan! I recall how much EASIER it was to get work done, when I finally left school. No more hiking six sets of stairs, and waiting a half-hour in line, and making sure I had vamped up the little slot-sized credit card, just to get one photocopy. No more missing appointments because I got the answering machine message a day after the meeting happened. No more failing to re-correct the last page of footnotes because the printer was in a different building from the computer you wrote the paper on. It's silly, how hard universities make it for people to do their work.

Second, examples like the great writers of yore make clear, that if you value your writing, you'll carry your implements. To "not be able" to stash pen or notebook, simply means you're more interested in playing soccer or ultimate frisbee, than in being the next Walt Whitman. Walt managed to have a small notebook and a ruddy pencil with him even while riding the New York City omnibus, jotting away about the handsome ladies and young men who passed him by. Even when he was volunteering in Washington's sick wards during the Civil War, Walt had a pocket big enough for his pamphlet. It's a matter of priorities. Let Walt, or William Wordsworth, or V. S. Pritchett, be your guide. Pritchett said, he liked to put words on little slips into his pockets. He found that they bred in there.

Third, I find that one must develop some familiarity with the tools. You can't just buy a pen case and a notebook and go off and make amazing language appear on the page. You have to go at it day after day until you start to develop an innate rhythm. The rate at which the hand moves, and the pen moves within the hand, is something you need to learn to anticipate. Typing (such as what I'm doing as I write this onto the internet) actually interferes with learning that rhythm. It's not necessarily a bad thing, to be able to communicate by typing onto the internet; but it might be bad if it prevents better communication like Walt would have done. The writing and re-writing and care you take in a notebook, that's entirely a new thing, quite different from what happens on the internet.

Fourth, if you make yourself fill line after line like linear prose, you'll never respect your ideas enough. Go ahead and just jot a bit. Draw a picture. Don't try to make it look good. Leave a blank. Draw a horizontal line and start a wholly new idea. It's not necessary to have contiguous paragraphs of carefully wrought full sentences. It's not necessary to write every line with the same size letters and words. It's not even necessary to stay within the lines in your notebook. Dash a big word, then cram six little ones into the same space. Write vertically. Write in circles. Point arrows from here over to there. Remind yourself of what other things you want to write about but you can't get around to them right now. Then cross it all out and start over.

I dunno what got me started today ...

3 pens in a parker case inside my school bag

I have my Oopa-Loompa that follows me around and hands me my pen on demand. I also get the added bonus that he sings me an amusing song everytime he witnesses anyone doing something stupid.

In summer weather, backpocket or backpack. In winter, inside jacket pocket.

Is that a blue Pelikano Junior you have in the bag?

I carry my Lamy Studio in my jeans side pocket. That is my only carry pen. My MB goes either in a shirt pocket or pelikan pen case.

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Go to WalMart (or whatever Mart-ish store is in your area), and check out the camera bags. They come in various sizes, and you should be able to find one that is suitable, as well as reasonably priced.

For me, I carry purses all the time, and use cute eyeglass cases for pens.

diane

When I was in college I carried my pens in a pocket protector in small camera case on my belt along with my HP 42S calculator and a small 45 and 30-60-90 triangle. Does that make me nerd?

Yes. I was having a bad carpal tunnel week.

NeoCritz

Every day I carry 2 pens to work, a MB 149 or 146 and one of my Parker 51s in my shirt pocket with a brown leather pocket briefcase.
That gives me 2 nib sizes and/or 2 colors, and more than enough ink for even the heaviest writing day, and the pocket briefcase supports the pocket as well as serving its intended purpose.
Not only are they great pens, I love the look of the Parker arrow and MB snow cap together in pocket - two of the best looking pen emblems imo.

Shirt pocket.... the only safe place!

Bravo!

Me? No pockets; clip one or two to my shirt collar, sling a pen case I jerry-rigged with a strap over my shoulder, have two snuggling together in a Levenger bookmarker-penholder thing, and four more in a case... I don't know what's happening to me; I'm just going with it.

Why doesn't someone make a leather holder (similar to the single pen leather cases) that has a belt loop on it so that you can thread it onto the belt safe and secure (and don't jab into the gut when you sit down haha)

Just a thought. I have yet to come across one, but surely someone's got one out there :|

I have a Libelle 2-pen holder with belt loop. I use it when I wear a pocketless shirt.

Doug

Pavalon, I believe there is a kind of belt manufactured that is produced with several loops made into the leather. These are produced for firearms enthusiasts or for hunters or policemen.

The loops are there to provide somewhere to store extra ammunition (usually shotgun cartridges, but also regular loose ammunition for revolvers).

Perhaps someone could make such a belt for pen-people? And strap it on and keep all our pens there

Maybe crossed pendoliers.

Does the Pelikano Junior help with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? i.e. less painful to grip and write?

I have been using clear pocket protectors to carry mine. 2 fp's, 1 mechanical pencil, 1 mechanical eraser, and 1 ball point pen.

Been carrying my pens, pencils, etc... like this, since the last 60's (I was geeky in high school and college). I was one of those that graduated 3 years earlier than everyone else.

1.) When wearing a sports jacket / suit, the pen holder pocket
2.) When on business, in my portfolio's pen holder
3.) Other times - front left pants pocket.

I have not found a satisfactory way to carry a pen when in casual attire.

Same here, even if it's just a regular tee shirt day I clip the pen to my collar, pen in. But I generally have my messenger bag with me at all times.