How much do you use fountain pens? Do you use it exclusively, only to write some letters or your journal, or just when you feel like feeling different and fancy using a fountain pen?

I try to use it as much as possible, Noodler's Bulletproof black at work in my lab notebook, other colors for taking notes at meetings (at work) and for snails and journaling at home.

I also alternate which pens I take to work. My Baoer filled with the Noodler's black is always in my briefcase, but the pens in my pocket (or my piquadro when it arrives) vary. I usually carry my Lamy 2000 filled with Legal Lapis, but my second pen is one of my DaniTrios, my Wallity 52, or my Duke Shark.

I really only use ballpoints when filling out carbonless forms, or signing the thermal paper reciepts at a restaurant.

French

Hi,

I use my fountain pen all the time, or a pencil.

Dillon

I use them almost exclusively. There were periods where I also have used mechanical pencils and the odd ball ball point, but FPs have always been my main writing instruments.

All the time.

all the time :
work, shopping (pen & non-pen) lists, to-do, calendar, anything except my checkbook but plastic money is taking over that guilt area of FP neglect.

Oh I have PDA because it does a great job keeping thousands of tel numbers and sorted nicely as compared to my Filofax. If I am to put them on my Filofax, just the tel section will be as thick as a phone directory.

But I can never get used to the graffitti data entry, too slow compared to a FP as data entry device.

I use FP as much as possible.
On the odd occation that I am forced to I have a few ball point pens (Sheaffer Balance II, Caren d' Ache, etc.)
I use pencils for my check-book and marking up drawings (sometimes - I use a Big Red Bold Fountain Pen)!!!

I would have to say exclusively.... I never leave the house with anything but 2 FPs in my pocket and that is all that is beside me at my desk at home...

Now, my wife on the other hand... I can't get her to use one.... My daughter and I got her a nice Lady Scripsert for Valentine's Day and it sat on her desk until I asked her if she was ever going to use it..... While I was not happy with the answer, I was happy with the fact that she prefers the Ballpoints and Rollerball pens I made her....

I can't remember the last time I wrote with anything but a fountain pen (but I'm sure I didn't enjoy it!)

Ray

I use it almost exclusively - except when signing credit card receipts... most of those papers don't seem to take fountain pen ink very well, or require you to press through to the carbon-copy bottom.

As a general rule of thumb, if I need to write on paper, it's done with a FP.

Not as much as I would like, unfortunately. Most of the pleadings and forms we receive here at the courthouse are printed on paper that refuses to take FP ink readily and I dont have the luxury of time to let the ink dry before I have to slam a casefile shut and move on to the next one. So I do the next best thing. I use my Pelikan rollerball that matches my M-605.

For personal use: all correspondence, lists, notes, etc are done with Fountain Pen, although I have to revert to the rollerball for some receipts, charge slips, etc.

Michael

Almost exclusively, with the rare exception of pencil.

I have a group of them for drawing/doodling, that I use at least once a week. /:)

Then I carry 2 fountain pens with me lately, one filled with Swishmix Tahitian Pearl (fast dry), and one filled with Swishmix Seminole Sepia (fast dry) so writing checks won't hold up the line.

I swore off anything other than fountain pens when my rollerballs (for drawing) were advertised as being waterproof and eternal. They were neither.

I have been writing with a fountain pen since I was thirteen. These days, I also use a pencil (Palomino 2B) for some marginalia and creative doodling, but besides that, all my writing is done with a fountain pen. I write my notes, drafts, editing, marginalia, I grade papers, fill out forms, and even sign credit card receipts with a fountain pen (I use a free flowing, broad stiff nib for that). I have written in planes, trains, cars and other stationary outfits with a fountain pen. And now, with the advent of Noodlers inks, I even write checks, address envelopes and write notes for bulletin boards with a fountain pen.

Probably better than 85% of the time. The only exceptions are when drawing diagrams/"mind maps", which for some unknown reason I still do in pencil; or when I'm writing on paper that doesn't take FP ink (Rite-In-The-Rain, thermal credit card receipts, NCR forms, etc.)

For those latter instances I carry either a Fisher Space Pen, or a Rotring '600' old style ballpoint which has a Fisher refill installed.

Even the shopping list gets written with a FP. I usually forget to take the list with me but that's not the point...

I carry at least 2 fountain pens at all times. I use ballpoints occasionally.

I use pencils every day-- but only for Soduku

I try to use my Fountain pens most of the time.

I don't use my personal pens at work. -Bruce

I use a fountain pen almost exclusively except for my check register and cheap carbon copys that even a ball point has trouble in making a clear imprint. I usually carry a Conway Stewart ,Waterman Charleston , or Aurora Ipsilon Deluxe with me at all times filled with Noodler's black or Aurora black. I don't carry my Parker 75 anymore because it was a gift about forty years ago when I was in about the eighth grade and I took every test and and wrote every paper with it including college...just too special and too many memories.I never lose pens but if I did, that would be the one. I find a nice pen that writes well is pleasant to use and makes every day tasks just a little nicer, more civilized. It's the same reason I like to wear mechanical watches with exhibition backs so I can watch all the beautiful moving parts and appreciate the skill that the watchmaker put in to it. In this crazy, lighting paced world that we all live and work in, I like to appreciate all the skill and craftmanship that go in to such things, even the learning that our species had to undergo to even learn how to write. Look at all the centuries it took to learn how to make a fine pen!!

If you strap the list to a Yak, they are not as easy to forget..

I try to use them exclusively.
But I will use a mechanical pencil at times

I hear a llama works equally well.

Stephen

Most of the time with occasional use of a pencil...have not used a ballpoint/rollerball in months

Peter

I use a fountain pen every chance I get. The exception being quoted above from French and the rare occassion that I don't have one with me.

Almost exclusively. For chart entries I can use almost any fp, but for my business checkbook I use a Sheaffer Feather Touch nib to make a copy of the checks. For my son's math I use a fine nib or a pencil.

I use my fountain pens daily for school notes and tests and for my personal journal. I rotate pens, and I usually have at minimum two, but most often three in my backpack at all times. I also carry a red rollerball or gel pen for corrections and editing papers. I would use a FP for this task, but I don't use the "red" often enough to make it practical. I usually have a blue, black, or Legal Lapis ink in one pen and "fun" colors in the other two.

Exclusively now, unless forced to use other. I didn't like ball points before and now I REALLY don't. UGH.

Just about exclusively for the past 40 years.

I use them as much as I possibly can.

Hi,

Nah, the monster will eat the list. Got out and buy a BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB nibbed pen and write straight on the fur of the critter.



Anyway, if I need carbon forms, I use one of my super-stiff pens. I normally find a workaround for paper that does not like normal fountain pens. (find a special fountain pen with a special ink)

Dillon

I use my fountain pens every day, at work, at home, on the plane, etc. Actually I start to feel kind of panicky if I don't have a couple FPs with me... some kind of security blanket thing?

I have two 2-pen cases. One lives in my purse and one lives in my briefcase. They travel from home to work every day. I think I'd like a couple of pens to live permanently on my office desk... but then I'd miss them when I'm at home...

Gosh, this sounds pretty geeky, doesn't it?

I would like to invest in a couple of nice roller balls, though, for loaning out, etc.

Petra

This is what I use my Rotring Esprit for. It works quite well (just about as well as any ball point I've used) on the carbonless copy deposit slips (which is about the only ones I ever come across in my life.)

I use at least one fountain pen daily, and usually more than that. I always have one inked up and ready for general note taking and one for signatures.

It seems the only time I use anything other than a fountain pen these days is when I need to sign a credit card slip or when I'm using someone else's pen for something. And I usually don't enjoy the experience.

James P.

Every chance I get. I use them for snails, notes, lists, editing, writing sermon outline and ideas (although I write my sermon on the laptop), and anything else I can. Always looking for an excuse to use them.

I use FP's for everything but Credut slips and carbon forms.

I have begun to use my foutain pens more and more. With some of the waterproof permanent inks, I now use my FPs probably 90% of the time. I ahve a couple of pens I use at work (one with red ink, one with blue-black.) A couple I carry o'out and about' and one is dedicated almost exclusivly to journaling.

Jim

not as much as i probbaly would like to, as at work there is no way a fountain pen would stand up to the stresses of being used there. that aside everywhere else i do use the fountain pens that i have.

oddly enough this week something strange is happening. at work pretty much every ballpoint pen i've used this week so far, has stopped working, i have at least 9 pens in 4 days that simply do not work, after using them for a while
somehow i think maybe because since using fountain pens, my writing pressure is decreasing, and this is what making ballpoints go kaput, work collegues refuse to let me use their pens now.

nah. maybe its just a coincidence, or just a sign that i should use fountain pens more?

90% fountain pen, 8% pencil and 2% BP or RB, but in my defence I do use either a Parker Jotter if I need a BP and a Frontier SS Rollerball.

These days with the advent of Chip & Pin for Credit Card transactions, my need to use a cheap BP has all but vanished. Certain forms for business, my bank insists are filled out in Black Ball Pen. Two part NCR forms are easily dealt with by a Parker "51".

Jim

Particularly now that I have a bottle of bulletproof Noodler's black, just about all the time. Those waxy credit card receipts are the only exception.

I am surprised how little I use ball point pens since I got back to using FP's about a year ago. Really don't use BP's at all except for credit cards etc and I always use the store's pen since I don't carry a BP with me any more. I do frequently use a pencil for some old-fashioned worksheets I use---and for crossword puzzles.

like so many others - i try to use FPs for nearly everything. I do love MPs too though - and use them for diagramming and for crossword puzzles. I have a couple of ballpoints I use for checks and receipts due to the multiple copy thing - none of my FPs writes through my duplicate checks. Not even my Core.

Every day.
* On my journal I use my Cross Century II with an XF nib and Noodler's Midnight Blue (or Cross Blue-Black cartridges in emergencies).
* On my office notebook I use my Cross Century II with F nib and Aurora Black Ink.
* On my legal pad -- the one I use for Blog drafts -- I use the Faber Castell Ambition F nib with whichever wild ink I can use. Right now it holds PR Fiesta Red. Or whichever pen is available at the time.

Other pens get used as need or inspiration arises.

I use my fountain pens as often as possible. I used to use a mechanical pencil as my main writing tool until I started using fountain pens. The only time i don't use my fountain pen is with specific paper types eg credit card receipts and when doing multiple choice exams where you have to use pencil. I normally carry a medium nibbed fountain pen, ball point and a mechanical pencil and recently a fine width rollerball.

Fountain pen 98% of the time, for the remaining 2% where I have to sign carbon/NCR forms I use a ballpoint.

But then never any old ballpoint... I have a Cross Townsend at home in the study and on my desk in work I have a Montblanc StarWalker. Haven't used anything disposable in years!!!

Alright...apparently I am in the minority here. I work in a place that requires me to write on triplicate form all day long, so my usage is probably 80% RB, 15% FP, and 5% pencil and BP. I have tried to use my stiff nibbed fountain pens for these forms, but they don't reliably go through to the third copy. Besides, if you HAVE to push that hard when you're writing, it defeats the purpose of having a nicely tuned fountain pen. You may as well just use a pen that has a ball on the tip.

So with that said, I currently own almost as many rollerball pens as I do fountain pen. (16 RBs, 18 FPs.) I have tried to make my work writing as pleasant as possible by owning a nice selection of rollerballs: several Parker Sonnets, three Pelikan m200s, a Parker Frontier, a modern Parker Duofold, an orange Parker Big Red, plus a few modified Eversharp CA and Skyline ballpoints.They're not as enjoyable as my FP's, of course, but it's better than using a cheap disposable. Sigh...

TMann

Same here....I use a fountain pen as much as I use rollerballs at work. I also enjoy a well-made rollerball: collecting duofolds, sonnets, and a few others. However, I do "enjoy" using fountain pens more at work.

For personal correspondence - fps
For work - mostly rollerball. It's too hectic to be concerned about
damaging a nib or marring a finish, and i also have to deal with
triplicate forms.
For gentle vacations - fps
For active vacations (hiking/trekking, climbing, cycling) - rollerball or gel

I'm with Escribiente and others here - barring occasions when a pencil is necessary, if I'm writing, its with a fountain pen - and that's been so since I was a teenager.

Exclusively, since I received my first one in grade school. It is all we were allowed to use.