Coool...........

When still living in Hamburg Germany I was given my first "Geha Schuhlfueller" in grade one. Never was allowed to use a ballpoint in school. Still use a fountain pen to this day. Never stopped. Always had the most economical ones till I got my Rotring 600 in the eighties as present. Then I cought the bug. I get the most joy from resurecting olds pen that I get for cheap in a trift store or flea market.

.....Stani

First experience with FP was the one I bought for myself. Hadn't seen one in real life (or taken notice) before that.

What actually drew me in was dip pens, if I remember correctly.

First experience was whilst I was at my brother wedding i was 10 at the time and was out with my grand father. He took me out shopping and for some reason I latched on to this Gold fountain pen. I can not remember for the life of me why we there. Unfortunately being young and irresponsible and all the mayhem of my brothers wedding the pen was stolen. My grandfather was very disappointed in me. I have used the odd few cheap FP's since but nothing like my new star-walker that my wife purchased me.

Strange I have always been fascinated by watches and pens, all my life.

When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I was over at a friend's house. We were looking for a pen to write some things down (we were scheming some silly ideas), when my friend started rummaging through his father's office desk top drawer. He pulled out a pen that looked a little weird. It had a tip like a ballpoint, but it wasn't really a ballpoint; the plastic surrounding the tip was asymmetrical too with a hole in it. The back end of the barrel had a small seam... applying pressure to it cause it to unscrew, revealing a small plastic stick inside it. We were really curious. We tried writing with it, but it was awful. I remember my friend saying "I think it's some kind of fountain pen--my dad uses these old things." He put the pen back together and we eventually located a cheap ballpoint that worked perfectly.

That pen was a Parker 51 and the year was about 1972. I'll never forget that "weird" feeling when first discovering it. I now marvel at how great a pen it really is, once you learn how to use it! And so I've got a few of them in my pen stable.

My first FP memory was from our family doctor. In those days doctors still made house calls (yes, I'm THAT old). I can see him now, with his prescription pad in his left hand and a large black fountain pen with a gianormus nib (in my mind's eye it was a MB 149) writing out a prescription for something that had a horrible taste, but it was "good for me."

I distinctly remember thinking, "I want one of those."

Later I watched my grandfather practice his penmanship, not writing mind you, rather penmanship. Oh, he had beautiful handwriting! My father also had great handwriting; I however came for the shallow end of the gene pool when it comes to penmanship! In about the fifth grad or so many children tried cheap school pens but it was more a fad than anything else; it lasted less than a year.

My first fountain pen as an adult? A MB 149. Actually it was a gift (a very nice gift!). It's nice when those childhood dreams, no matter how small, come true.

1. Snooped in my father's drawer, found a pretty pen with a silver-colored lever on the side.

2. Pulled the lever to see what would happen.

3. Got a good whoopin' as a result. Dad had a very heavy hand!

4. Didn't sit down for several hours afterward.

5. Never snooped in that drawer again.

End of story.

My mother's MontBlanc. I was very little, perhaps five, when I took it apart, got ink everywhere. The pen was never the same.


Mom wasn't mad. I got my very own Geha in grade one on the first day of school.


................Stani

I'm sorry, but that just made me laugh so much...

I told everyone about my first memory of a fountain pen - finding the cheap ones in the chest of drawers in my brother's bedroom. Aaah...I remember the day when my father bought me my first *real* fountain pen.

I was between 8-12, I forget my age exactly...but I remember telling dad how much I loved writing with those weird little pens (I did, and obviously still do, a lot of writing). So one day, dad came home from shopping and called me into the dining-room. He pulled out two large boxes from a bag. I remember they were largish (about the size of a lunchbox), and were made of metal. The metal was painted blue, yellow and green and on the box-lid in white, was the word "SHEAFFER".

Now back then, I didn't know squat about pen-brands (Well I knew a bit about Parker, but that was it). Dad opened up the boxes and showed me what was inside them. Two fountain pens, and two ballpoint pens. They were all bright yellow with stainless-steel cap-bands. Each box contained a fountain pen and each box contained a ballpoint. There was also a small red cardboard box with a blue stripe and "SHEAFFER" on it, in a sort of dark gold/bronzy colour, with a white dot on it. Dad opened it and showed me what I soon found out to be ink-cartridges. He showed me how to open the pen and how to fit in a new cartridge. The fountain pens had little oval-shaped ink-windows and were shaped like the Sheaffer Balance. I now know that they were actually Sheaffer School Pens (the metal boxes had something like: "SHEAFFER SCHOOL PEN SET" on the lid as well).

Now, he bought two boxes because one was for me, and the other one was for my brother. I knew my brother wouldn't ever use a fountain pen. So, being the selfish little brat that I was, I pinched both fountain pens and put them in my box, and put the ballpoints into the other one for my brother.

I used to love writing with those pens. I took them everywhere and I was using up cartridges really fast. My friends all thought I was nuts, but I didn't care. From that day on, I used nothing but fountain pens for my writing.

The pens had nib-creep. BAD nib-creep. But I still didn't care! To me, they were wonderful.

I stumbled on this thread looking for something else, My first experiance with a fountain pen was when I was at "Pace"( a ware house club now known as SAMS) with my Dad. We where going by the jewery counter and I saw the fountain pens. I imediatly wanted one, and being an enterprising lad I Had my own money. So I shelled out the $40 for (what I now know is) a Shafer Targa in black and gold. I used this pen from grade 6 through the end of highschool. As I recall, I was the only kid in any of my schools that used a fountain pen, and loved it. When I finished high school, for some reason I stoped using it and then I found it again a few years ago and it is in tough shape. I suspect this is because i went into IT and dont need to write much. That re-kindled my desire for fountain pens, last fall I purchased a MB 149 and then last week I bought a Bordeaux 146 and another MB FP. I find my hands are much happier when I use an FP. Still havethe targa, she is in rough shape though. Need to send it out and get it fixed up. FYI I am only 26 and graduated highschool in 2001 hence the being the only one with a FP in school.

In Primary & Junior school we had dip pens (all schools from primary to senior had desks with inkwells & an ink monitor to refill them)

My first fountain pen I won in a handwriting competition when I was around 8 -9 years old in the 50's ~ it was an Osmiroid with an Italic Nib & had my name engraved on it. I remember it was red / burgundy.

Although I had other fountain pens I don't recall much about them except they leaked & stained my left nipple blue. I gave up on FP's sometime in the 60's.
Late in the 60's I discovered the Rapidograph & used that almost exclusively for quite some decades.

My re-awakened interest in FP's is fairly recent & stemmed from an attempt to avoid disposable (ie throwaway) plastic

Also my Dad is a Leftie & was caned if he wrote with his left hand.

When I was about seven years old, the British government introduced a policy that all schools teach basic handwriting at Primary level. With Berkshire schools being run and supplied by the administrative centre Shire Hall (Reading County Council), my school were forced to adopt using the Berol School Handwriting Pen - http://www.berol.com/product.asp?sectorID=11. As many people who experienced this pen in their childhood could testify it felt awkward and difficult to use as the barrel was difficult to grip with it's thick, shiny surface. The pen also had a tendency to leave an unsightly thick and inconsistent line. Thus my writing skills suffered early on.

Fortunately whilst perusing a local newsagent and bookstore I came across the Pentel Disposable Fountain Pen - http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...aded&start= Yes it was cheap, and the pointed fibre nib suffered from breakage but the instrument wrote far better than the Berol Pen. Thus my results improved dramatically, and in response received compliments not criticism from the teacher.

Once I left primary school I then purchased my first true fountain pen, a cheap Parker fountain pen with the standard steel medium nib.

I was 10 when first show it in a shop during summer holidays. It was first sight love. the last day of the holidays I bought it, it was a cheap plastic fp. Next year in school most of the children had their own, immitating me. My mother hates them and was sure I will throw it, as it scratches, as she said. Apparently she was wrong.

In fact I have two first memories. The first foutain pen I ever saw was my grand dad's "big red". I remember finding it stowed away in a box I was not supposed to peek into.Can't remember the punishment Actually it was a Danish Parker from sometime before WW2 - like this:
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My next memory was a few years later sometime in 1963 when I had some school supplies for my birthday and amongst them this beauty:
Click to view attachment
A Pelikano school pen.
I can't remember anyone in my family actually used fountainpens - much too cumbersome and unreliable compared to ball pens I was told. So my Pelikano didn't see much use either. It was more of a "status symbol" - something you had to have, but didn't use much.

regards Henrik

The first pen I remember was my grandfathers Shaffer Flattop. He worked for the Erie Lackawanna and had to write some sort of report every week. So I remember him sitting down every week at the kitchen table and writing with that big green pen. Later I went to private school, this is in the early 60's, and I had to write with a fountain pen. My mother took me to Macy's in Herald Square to buy a pen for school. I wanted a pen just like my grandfathers and was told they don't make those anymore. So I asked for one like my grandmother, I know now it was a parker51. My mother bought a pen "Just like your grandmothers".

Several years ago I was visiting my parents and I was helping clean out the attic and we came across my grammar school stuff, mom just can't throw away anything. In a box of pens was my first fountain pen which turned out to be a Parker 21. I guess mom judged a Parker 51 to be too expensive to hand to her always loosing things son but a Parker 21 was not that expensive. I replaced the ink sac and it has become my everyday pen. I've got a bunch of 21s. If they get broken or whatever I don't shed too many tears.

My recollection of fountain pens goes back to my first year in primary school. At that time we were allowed only to use dip pens in primary school and I dreamed of the day when I would move up to secondary school and be allowed to use a fountain pen. This happened in 1960 and my first fountain pen was a blue Esterbrook J double jewel. I used that pen for a couple of years and discarded it for a maroon Sheaffer Snorkel, but I don't remember the model although it did have the white dot on it. Well, I found I couldn't write very well with the stiff Sheaffer nib (and to this day I don't like writing with a Snorkel) and traded it in for a Parker 21 Super. I still have that Parker 21 Super; I used it all through secondary school, university and periodically during my working life. The pen functions flawlessly today, after 46 years; I replaced the sac six years ago, as a precautionary measure, and replaced the nib hood as the plastic was deteriorating.

Not terribly exciting, but my first awareness of a fountain pen was almost certainly one of those ubiquitous Sheaffer school pens with the translucent barrels and silver-toned cap. Mine was yellow, and I think it had black or blue-black ink.

Even back then the discord between barrel color and ink color bugged me a little bit. And thus started a lifetime's worth of fussy color-coordination. But I didn't really start using fountain pens until decades afterwards, with one of those late-night TV ads for a set of twenty pens or so, one of which was a fountain pen. It was a no-name thing with a silver-tone barrel and again, not a very exciting writer (the Sheaffer school pens are better!).

Several years passed until I got my first Rotring ArtPen, a teal-colored italic, which I still have.

Must have been 4 or 5 at the time. Both my father and grandfather used Parker 51s and 61s (they are mine now). Every Sunday at church - this was a time when sermons would go on forever - I would take their pens and draw on my arms. I think I was the world's youngest tattoo artist

Later, had to learn penmanship from the 2nd grade. The wealthy kids would use their Parker 75s and fat Sheaffers whilst the rest of us made do with cheap Hero and Rotax FPs. That's when I decided the day I could afford it I'd also use pens like theirs. Hence my love for Parker 75s, Premiers and Sheaffer Connaisseurs. Guess those kids had their use after all.



Shangas, corrected the error - so much for my British English education

Now that's an idea...drawing pictures on your son and grandson's arms...

What was it like?

Oops, when I re-read my post I realise how that must have come out.

Actually I took my father and grandfather's pens and drew pictures on my own arms. Loved the tingly feel and thought I was quite the artist. Mom didnt't.

My father was an accountant who often did work at home. He used two separate Esterbrook desk pens (one loaded with red ink, the other with blue) to enter debits and credits. He always used Skrip ink -- I can still smell the 1950's Skrip.

I still have one of the Esterbrook desk pens. I don't use it a lot, but when I feel the need to write precisely with a fine nib, I ink it up again.

The first fountain pen I had in hand was a gift by the medical degree.
Until then he had seen only in photos or movies ... was passion at first sight. I have a collection with some.

The problem is that in Brazil they cost 3 to 5 times as expensive as outside. Only now with the Internet I am able to increase my collection and use them for day-to-day.

I remember my father writing with a gold pen engraved with his initials. When I turned 6 and was sent off to first grade, I was given a blue Esterbrook, but I always wanted my father's pen. A few decades later, he gave it to me and I became enamored with fountain pens. That pen was a Parker 51 Signet and his initials MMB are the same as mine. How convenient! That pen got me into the pen collecting game.

I also remember my grandfather's Parker Vacumatic. I never got it from him because he died before I became interested in collecting pens, but I have since bought several pens like it. One of the things I love about collecting pens is that every time I see a Parker 51 or a brown Vacumatic, I remember my father and grandfather. It doesn't get any better than that!

-Mario

My dad used to keep a red ebonite lever filler in his desk drawer and would use it a lot.

Before I own my first FP, I was thought that FP is for Italic writings only. Until I meet Parker Vector...

When I was in the third grade (1954), only adults were allowed to use fountain pens. We started cursive writing using dip pens. The ink wells were embedded into the top right corner of the desk. There were quart bottles of Sheaffer blue ink and the stuff was all over the place - floors, fingers, desks and clothes. Around 1955, Paper Mate hit the market with inexpensive ballpoints. Our school quickly required all students to have one and banned the use of liquid ink. However, Parker and Sheaffer were still selling 51s and touch downs advertised in full page ads in Life Magazine. A year or so later Sheaffer introduced the Snorkel and in 1958 my father was awarded by his company a maroon Sheaffer snorkel pen and pencil set. However, he never used it and, worse yet, wouldn't allow me to either. In 1964 I purchased my first fountain pen, a Parker 61. Long after his retirement my father gave me his mint Snorkel pen set. I still have them and both are very good writers.

My grandmother had a 1940s vintage Parker 51. She was born in 1894 and used the thing as a dip pen along with a bottle of Quink. She said she didn't use it enough to justify keeping it loaded with ink. Now that I have all the vintage pens that I want, I follow her example. I like to rotate using my pens and the filling and cleaning process is too cumbersome when changing pen usage regularly. The only one of my pens that I use daily and keep well inked is a black Esterbrook desk pen in a round black ceramic base and an identical ballpoint one chained to the base which has a decal stating: "Please Replace Pen In Socket".

First grade, age 6, 1967...

My first school desk still had the hole for the inkpot.
In Italy use of FP was compulsory, my first pern was an Aurora Auretta, lasted me 2 weeks (tines misteriously bent...).

Inky fingers, five more pens only for the first year...

After a couple of years, we were allowed to use BPs, so BPs only till University, were I got caught again by FP (cheap...).
Heavy use at note taking.

Since then, FP always - since a couple of years FPs only...

P.S.: now in Italy they teach children to write using erasable BPs.
My eldest daughter is the only child (no, young girl at 12...) who has/use a FP in her class (two, actually...).

From some history articles I've read it seems that I grew up in the decade right before fountain pens started becoming increasingly difficult to find at your local drug store. Since my mother was very much into writing (and anything related to writing: paper, pens, cards, pens, stickers....did I mention pens?...) I basically grew up with fountain pens everywhere. Wherever I found myself in the house there was a fountain pen either on a table, under a table or one in a paper bag from the drug store waiting for it's new residence in the proximity of a table somewhere in our home. They were so plentiful that I probably did my teething on the things (...probably why my teeth ended up being so bad).

Needless to say...I thought every kid in the U.S. grew up this way. As I grew older I began to realize that most people I spoke with (who are around my same age) talk about fountain pens as being a little ancient/archaic...something they essentially picked up once when they came across this strange device and wanted to see why it looked kind of like a pen but was so mis-shapen. Usually that seems to be their one and only attempt they made at writing with one.

Having only been recently converted myself (to the joys of using a fountain pen of course) I am now singing it's praises to my friends and family and see myself soon becoming baptized in the wide world of inks.

Mike

I can remember my Grandfather and Father using FP's.

My Father had two Montblanc FP's and a Duofold, I cannot remember what my Grandfather used although I do remember it being a dark maroon colour and lever filled (I was only about 5 or 6 years of age).

On a personal note, my first FP was provided by my Junior School, we used to pay about ten pence each term and we received a BP pen, a Pencil and a Fountain Pen with Five international catridges (Blue). The FP was blue plastic with a steel nib, it started thick and tapered out towards the end, it had a black plastic screw top.

We could buy replacements if we lost our pens but we had to pay twenty pence for the FP.

Some of the teachers encouraged us to use our FP's whilst others really didn't care.

I'm thinking back to 1976 here though

Kind regards
NIGEL

I had a general awareness of them, just from movies and so on. I never really interacted with anyone who used them, although I believe some of my relatives may own some. Anyway, my first solid memory is probably over ten years ago, when my family was watching the film "Babe," and the farmer gentleman filled out an application with a fountain pen. My mother, knowing me quite well, commented that I would probably enjoy using them.

Fast-forward ten years, to just months ago, and I stumble across a Pilot Varsity in my college bookstore. So yeah, not much of a history for me, just coincidence/providence!

I remember back in the early 70s my father using some black fountain pens with metal cap: he would not let me handle them.
One of those, gold capped, he named a "Parker" and I remember clearly how he pronounced the name respectfully.
Later, still 70s, in primary school, at around 8yo, we were required to use a fountain pen.
I owned one I believe it was an Auretta.
One day I accidentally dropped the pen on the floor, the nib was slightly bent and I could write no more.
I remember me crying loud for this misfortune.
But the teacher fixed it on the spot, and explained to me that nibs can be repaired. I, however, noticed the pen writing differently...
These are my first recollections...

A few days ago, my daughter Miriam turned six. She always wanted to play with my FPs but I consented only sparingly to let her handle them under close supervision.
I know she understands that FPs are "special" instruments, since I regularly give to her, for her amusement and curiosity, every gadget of mine without a flinch, when she asks, notebook, PDA, watch, cell phones. Not "special".
I bought her a red Pelikano as a birthday gift.
I helped her slide in the long cartridge.
I spilled a drop of ink on the sheet and she liked the blue expanding stain and we closed the pen. And then
I gave the pen to her,
and watched her happily playing with it.

When I was very young, I remember my father handling a particular pen with special care. He told me it was a "Parker." He still has it -- a Parker 45 "flighter." When I was older, he told me that as a baby I'd chewed up the barrel of his Sheaffer. I was very sad at my own handiwork, but thinking about it now, I am impressed by the strength in my baby jaws. I tried to have it repaired, but it was not to be ...

When I was growing up in India in the 70s and 80s, the only foreign pens available were cheap Heros and Wing Sungs. Parkers and Sheaffers were passed on from one generation to the next like heirlooms. In school, we had to write with fountain pens until the 8th grade, and I mostly used cheap eyedropper pens, though I remember a well-made Parker 51 imitation that I used for my school exams in the 10th grade. When I first came to the US as a graduate student in 1991, I was determined to buy a "good" fountain pen, and at a Sheaffer-organized event in the University book store, I bought a Sheaffer Triumph. I used it for many years before giving it to my Dad as atonement for chewing up his old Sheaffer [Just so you don't think that was the extent of my filial devotion, I should mention that I did give him a few new pens as well.]

I'm trying to interest my 4-year old son in pens, but he is only interested in gadgetry that makes sounds or flashes images on a screen: my mobile phone, iPod, and PDA, but not in my e-ink electronic book-reader with its boring monochrome screen, or in my fountain pens. However, I have already bought a Pelikano for him and hope to give him the FP bug sometime, and if he still is uninterested, I can always try with his sister, who is only 18 months old but has already attended her first "Pen Posse" meeting and will attend another pen collectors' club meeting this weekend with me

My first fountain pen was my first pen in my first year at school. It was a Geha, coloured a dark green. I used to bite on the end of the pen. I have vivid memories of the white circle at the end of it and a dark green ring around it, all surrounded by my teeth.
I finished the first nib by making a very accentuated full stop.
After that there were Pelikanos (much more respectable and grown-up looking than today's Pelikanos) and two Montblancs: my father's 252 (I think, because I was never allowed to touch it) and my mother's Monte Rosa (which I "inherited" about thirty years or so ago).

I remember pain and a sucking sound. I slowly and with difficulty pulled out the fountain pen embedded in my chest and it scraped a rib on the way out. I still call that my nib rib. The bright green ink gaily contrasted with the red arterial blood, adding to the Christmas cheer of the emergency room crew. Ever since, I associate fountain pens with sucking chest wounds, especially during the holidays. Why did that crazed accountant stab me with his pen? The last thing I remember before the pain was looking down the barrel of that Parker 45. Then I got his point.

OK, I'll stop sniffing the correction fluid...

My fountain pen history began in 4th grade. I had an extremely evil teacher who dem,anded that we do all classwork and homework in fountain pen. Can you imagine doing math homework with a fountain pen! We all used the really cheap pens that were less than a dollar at the local drug store. Sooner or laterm they ended up leaking and ruining our clothes. Oh, ho I hated that teacher. To this day, I still wish no good for her. I also vowed to never buy or use another fountain pen.

Well, about 5 years ago, my son ad I went to the local Woodcraft store. I needed a couple of new gouges for my carving. They were doing a pen turning demonstartion, and my son was mesmorized. After a couple of months of begging, I finally bought him a lathe. We both have one now, and I am hooked. Two years ago, I decided to try on eof the fountain pen kits, and loved it. I've been falling into the abyss since.

Dan