Why Do You Use A Fountain Pen?

[GabrielleDuVent]

Fountain pens provide me the opportunity to express my own individuality and make my unique mark upon the world.

 

Or maybe I write with them because I am just trying to copy ethernautrix.

 

Its one of those two things, I am sure

 

I'm going with the latter.

[Strombomboli]

I love cleaning my dishes and taking out the garbage that I came into this hobby with one goal in mind to clean BSB stains in unreachable parts of pens. ...

 

This is the most reasonable answer of them all.

 

To slow the world down just a bit.

 

This is why I bought a big ream of very good paper two or three years ago and deciced to send out handwritten letters again, because I was frustrated with the speed of e-mails.

 

I also checked "I have weak writing pressure." but what I really wanted was "I like to use little pressure when writing"

 

Same for me.

 

And I want to add to my former answer that I love to see wet ink on paper. So much so, that I'm not really satisfied with the very short drying time of Heart of Darkness. But my other Nooder's inks are perfect in that respect, especially when flowing out of broad nibs. I also like their smell.

 

All in all, I just love the whole process of writing by hand and with a fountain pen. And even though I have become a writer who delivers files instead of manuscripts (like most of us do), my greatest joy still is to form words on paper. Maybe I only started to add a little meaning to these letters to have a justification for endlessly forming letters on paper.

Edited June 22, 2013 by Strombomboli

[Biff]

I prefer a fountain pen for the same reason I prefer a mechanical watch over a quartz. They have more soul. By the way, your avatar is one of the most striking I've ever seen.

Edited June 23, 2013 by Nicolas_Rieussec

[Lloyd]

Because I want to be just like all of you! Also, the XXF nibs are excellent to remove ticks.

[N2theBreach]

A secondary reason for using fountain pens (other than I want to be like Llyod) is that I can practice this hobby without spending a lot of extra time. I was drawn to it while studying for my master's, working full time, and commuting 3 hours a day. Any time spent doing something extra came from my sleep.

 

I had to write anyway, right? Voila! No lost time, except to fill the pen and that didn't take much longer than trying to find a BP that worked. So, I'm enjoying my hobby every day at zero cost... well, zero cost in time, we won't talk about financial cost.

[hermanlab]

I don't fly with the flock. Fountain pens can be messy and may require a bit of maintenance, but they still outperform all other options.

 

When I was a kid my teacher once said my style of handwriting would tend to attract better marks. He felt that it conveyed an air of sophistication and that teachers would give my spelling the benefit of the doubt. That little encouragement cemented my love affair with fountain pens.

 

My script looked old-fashioned and different compared to that of my friends. They all used ball point pens. I only used fountain pens. They only used blue ink. I was the only one who wrote in black. Fountain pens were not even allowed in my school. I defied convention and nobody object. Ball point lettering is dull and bland. Fountain pens have subtle line variation and a depth of colour which creates an image of smartness.

 

Using a fountain pen made me aware of the need to maintain a distinguished handwriting that would compliment a distinguished pen. It caused me to put more care and thought into the written word - to have more respect for it.

 

Using a fountain pen is a privilege. Every time I unscrew the cap and let that golden nib kiss the paper, it feels like a treat.

[Plume145]

I just love the sensory feedback. I haven't found that with any other writing tool, even the most sophisticated, highly-engineered stuff, hehe. And it's not because I stick to the same stuff or anything, I don't, I love experimenting and trying new pens and pencils and always have, even when I was a school kid and pretty broke lol.

 

Gels, rollerballs, fancy BPs, cheap BPs, erasable ink, fineliner markers, rapidographs and the markers that mimic them, wooden pencils, mechanical pencils, I've tried them all, often in all of the colors they were made in. Not only just to test, either, I've actually used all of these to write with for some time (or draw for the rapidographs). But none of them compare to the experience of writing with even a cheapie FP, like a Pilot Petit.

 

I love the noises FPs make, that scritch-scritch-bump you can hear when it's quiet, the way they glide but still grip a little, sort of in between the grippiness of a marker or pencil and the smoothness of a gel. I like the way they look a little bit different depending on how you position the nib (well at least the ones that don't have a ridiculously narrow 'sweet spot'). This works with some other pens, mostly markers, but there's not enough variation and there's too many possible writing positions, it makes my hand all restless and twitchy when I have to use one because they'll just write in any position on a half sphere, it's annoying.

 

And of course, I love shading which you can't do with anything else, certainly nothing that carries its ink on board - maybe with a brush or a dip pen, but I think of those as art materials more than writing tools. And although I don't have weak writing pressure, I do appreciate the way they don't require much pressure to write, especially when I'm doing ten pages in one sitting! It's definitely a boon there.

 

I do like the color selection, but with so many types of pens coming in a huge range of colors now, it's not as important as it used to be even ten years ago. Online shopping has helped enormously there as well, because you can get ink from other countries too.

 

For me there may also be a tiny bit of the 'in memoriam' reason, for my dad - he passed away when I was 8, but still had time to feature big in some of my earliest FP-related memories, including the first time I loaded a cartridge in a pen. A good half or more of my pen stash is actually his.

 

I definitely don't think it makes me look posh, much less cultured! In fact that's one connotation to FPs that I wish would just die already, it leads people to assume a FP user is going to be snooty or superior, which is a perception I then have to fight.

[mhosea]

I like the way it feels to write with a FP versus rollerball (and way more than versus ballpoint), and I like that I can choose and vary my ink colors with a pen body that is always comfortable for my hand. That using fountain pens presents the opportunity for a hobby is a bonus.

[Ginner]

As I work on a computer most of the time, and usually only use my pens to write in my journals (or use my Parker 51's for jotting down notes), I like the idea of having to manually put ink in the pen and the way the pens look and feel. It is almost a 'ritualistic' event when I write with my fountain pens...and I like that.

[dot]

I actually think my handwriting looks best when I use a Gelly Roll. I had never thought about writing pressure until I discovered that, with fountain pens, I don't have to press on the pen. I don't care about public opinion of my writing instruments, and nobody in my family uses fountain pens (although there's probably a nostalgia factor considering the number of artists and authors who have used fountain pens and who I admire.)

 

Primarily, I use fountain pens to bring art into my everyday life--I love the design of a well-crafted pen, the subtle line variation and ink shading even in the nail-iest and finest of nibs.

 

I'm also struck by the waste in our society and the idea of a pen that can be used for ages and even appreciate in value, if cared for, really appeals to me. The whole idea even of caring for a pen instead of having infinite plastic ink sticks around losing their threadless caps is different and nice to me.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I think I like fountain pens because they have a lot of colors of ink to choose from, and different colored ink costs just the same as blue and black for the most part. Also, fountain pens seem to write a lot more smoothly than most anything else I've used. My mom uses fountain pens, and I thought my mom was cool. Also, you don't have to throw much of anything away like old refills and stuff like that or worry that your pen has to take a certain kind of refill.

 

Dillon

Edited July 9, 2013 by Dillo

[FountainPenCowgirl]

I voted for "improve my penmanship," which technically is true but very incomplete. Ultimately, it's about the sensory experience - of all parts of fountain pen writing. What pen in hand fits the mood and the job? What paper will make that pen glide across the page in a pleasurable way (only here will that sentence not sound creepy...)? What color ink do I want to see on that page? What color reflects my mood, or will go well with what precedes it in the journal? (Thank goodness for ink samples.)

 

All of those have fed my need to write to learn and reflect. (I'm one who thinks in writing). They also explain why my digital tools (loved for different reasons) simply fall short at times. They're fine for some forms of writing in my day, but others require a very different experience - and tools.

[Paladin1cd]

I checked tradition and other. For other I mean that I like that I do not tire my hand if I am writing for hours because I do not have to press down on the paper. Fountain pens are so... I am not sure what word I am looking for but I am going to use comfortable to write with. They are nice to look at and very easy on the writing hand. Color me hooked.

[ac12]

Primarily I enjoy the FEEL of writing with a fountain pen.

It is almost effortless to write.

The rollerball was the closest I could get to a FP w/o using a FP, but it was not the same.

 

The other factors are:

- I have my mother's desk set FPs, and now that she is gone, it makes me feel good to use them. I wish I had my father's FPs, but they are long gone.

- I do not like to write with a lot of pressure. Which I guess in a backwards fashion means that I have a naturally light hand.

- I also enjoy the inks, and the idea that I am not "stuck" to the ink in the pen. I can choose almost any bottle ink I want.

- Rebellion against the ball pen world.

- Writing with a FP has caused me to pay more attention to my handwriting/penmanship, and I think that is a good idea.

- And that has lead to an interest in caligraphy.

 

So my vote of "other" only means multiple reasons, not just one.

 

The negative to using a FP is that am being reminded of a problem I had in college. I have to pay a lot more attention to the paper. FPs are poor writers on crummy paper for both the feel of the ink on the paper and how the ink looks on the paper.

 

I used a FP in late grade school (cheap Shaeffer FP) thru college (Parker 45, 75 and 180), so I have been using a FP for MANY years.

But, once I entered the working world, reality took over. Someone "lifted" my expensive Cross pen (which was a gift to me), and after that I decided not to bring any of my good pens into the office. That lead to MANY years of using standard office pens out of the supply cabinet. It is only recently that I decided to get back to writing, and that rekindled my interest in FPs. Although that is also leading to an addiction to collect them, which like any addiction is financially tough And I have not begun to start playing with the different brands and colors of inks....yet The bottles are on the shelf waiting for the pens.

[bethesdachick]

I like to write with unusual colors. I don't even own black, and most of my blues are not standard shades like you find in ballpoints. Having lived all my life with a very unusual name (Velia, pronounced "Vah-LEE-ah", and I've never met anyone with the same name), I really appreciate the benefits of being different, having things that stand out right away. Poussiere de Lune, Ku-Jaku, Ancient Copper - when someone looks at something written with colors like these, before they even read a word, it makes an interesting impression, even if no one saw the pen I wrote it with.

 

Then of course there's the fact that writing with a FP is so much smoother!

[bethesdachick]

Very interesting question and discussion, thanks for starting it, Gabrielle!

 

As a fountain pen writes much more smoothly than a ballpoint, I always write longhand with a fountain pen, which helps me to get into the flow. When my writing is fluent, my thinking becomes more fluent too.

 

Fountain pens match my romantic notion of being a writer, sitting in a cafe with notebook, dreaming and writing.

 

I love discovering new inks and writing in colors that are brilliant and alive, which makes fountain pens perfect. I also love the fact that this makes me a bit different from most people around me. We all want to be unique in one way or another.

 

And, at the risk of sounding a bit woo-woo, I'm a Soul Coach and I love to find/create meaning in everyday moments. For me, writing with a fountain pen brings a sense of sacredness and being grounded in a world full of chaos, like a writing meditation.

Oh misslucy107, you captured something I couldn't put into words! The "create meaning" part. Writing with a ballpoint is just using a utensil to get a job done, mundane and unmemorable. Writing with a FP is an event.

[Sasha Royale]

POSH is a British "thing" , its origin precedes air travel and air conditioning.

I was told that fountain pen users become wealthy and cool and taller. Still waiting. Was I misled ?

[lengdutol]

I got into fountain pens and I'm using my fountain pens to motivate myself to write more, voted others.

[Meaty0]

I've been using one since Year 4 at school. That was 47 years ago - so I guess it's a habit I can't shake - and don't want to.

[cbaytan]

Now thats something, must have a very interesting social story behind..

 

I've been using one since Year 4 at school. That was 47 years ago - so I guess it's a habit I can't shake - and don't want to.