The Future Of Fountain Pens.

[gryphon1911]

First - I do not agree that a fountain pen can never be as "simple" as a ballpoint. The Pilot Varsity proves that to be untrue. That kind of pen very well may be the future of where fountain pens go if the luxury end of it starts tanking.

 

I too find that while there is convenience and speed in electronic communication, there is something to be said for hand crafting something and presenting that to someone.

 

Since taking up calligraphy and writing with fountain pens, I write letters to my wife frequently. I have a special place in my house that I put them and she is excited to walk by there and see one. The personal touch cannot be felt the same if I just sent her an email or text message.

 

There is always a market for something that is quality crafted. I have a Mont Blanc Meisterstuck Ballpoint pen I received years ago as a reward for my years of service at an IT firm. I hardly ever used it because the writing experience with it was not really that much better than a $5 ballpoint. The writing experience with a fountain pen, is a whole other world to me....and to many others as well.

 

The amount of option, customization allows one to make a pen personal to them. I found that I love to write with medium nib and 0.8-1.1mm stub nibs. Some of those options just are not there for me in any other pen type.

 

Even if all the fountain pen companies went out of business tomorrow - there would be people that get them rebuilt like people rebuild custom hot rods. Third party companies would spring up and provide for after market parts.

 

We still have blacksmiths, people still ride horses and there are civil war re-enactors that I know that will only get replacement items from a blacksmith that works in the same way that a blacksmith worked in the 1860's.

 

All markets ebb and flow, but if there is enough demand for anything, it will be possible to continue on with it.

[inkstainedruth]

Last week I was at a meeting (related to my other hobby) where some people were attending remotely, via Google Hangout. At the end, there was a discussion about several Facebook groups and the hostess was saying she is thinking about joining the one for new people to teach them stuff. I said I hated FB because I always feel as if my IQ is dropping 20 points every time I go on there -- but I DON'T feel like on FPN. So one of the remote location attendees asked what FPN was and so I told everyone, and one of the other remote attendees (a new guy) said he is a teacher and seeing a lot of his students using fountain pens.

So there's hope....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bluey]

I think there will always be an appeal for fountain pens, just like there will always be an appeal for luxury items. Luxury is never going to go out of fashion any time soon, even if the utilitarian aspect has long since passed with the digital age.

 

There is always that yin yang thing to consider; with the increasing digitalisation there is often going to be a counter reaction by people who prefer to keep things simple or who need an alternative to their digital overdosing in their day to day lives.

[Piper 987]

Companies still make fountain pens because people still buy them. As long as there is a market, they will be made. How many of us get around on horseback? Yet you can still buy saddles and all manner of tack. I shave with straight razors which are still being made... because people still buy them.

[Rednaxela]

Fountain pens have never appealed to me in the sense of them being cutting edge writing tools. I think technologically, pretty much everything has been said and done about FP's by now, and the last significant step forward may actually have occurred decades ago.

 

When I look at the concept of the fountain pen from the context of the world we live in, I cannot help seeing a thing from the past. It was not until looking at it from even further in the past, i.e. as a solution for the fundamental limitations of the dip pen, that I really started to appreciate fountain pens for what they are. Fountain pens now intrigue me more than I ever thought they would.

 

The future of the fountain pen? I don't know. To be perfectly honest, if writing comfort would be my only criterion, I'm not sure if I would choose to write with a fountain pen anno 2016. Just as I wouldn't go for a turntable nowadays when sound quality were my only concern. That said, it is true that I haven't found my perfect fountain pen yet. But the fact alone that this quest even exists, and let's be honest, takes so much time and money, might actually be more of the fountain pen's curse than its blessing when it comes to its future as a writing tool.

 

(Personal opinion only and YMMV!)

[katanankes]

Well...

 

[zwack]

Just as I wouldn't go for a turntable nowadays when sound quality were my only concern.

And you would be missing a truly impressive sound experience...

 

Sure modern turntables ďont provide perfect sound reproduction, but neither do amplifiers.

 

However the sound of an old 78 being played on a wind up gramophone with a bamboo needle can be exquisite. It is not "accurate sound" but it is a very pleasing and plasant sound.

 

But I digress.

 

 

As for a fountain pen. It is a different experience, but even with a steel nail nib it is a very pleasant writing experience. It is massively different from a ballpoint pen or dragging a finger or stylus across a screen.

 

I was recently asked to suggest a pen for a colleague and he did not want a luxury pen, one criteria was $100 all in or less.

[jmccarty3]

Today yet another hospital got shut down by hackers taking over the computer system and holding all the records for ransom.

 

 

+1

[Ecriveur]

It's one of Marshall McLuhan's more famous observations that all forms of communication end up as art forms, and we may be seeing this with handwriting. Why write anything anymore rather than type it on a keyboard? One reason (though not the only one) is that we just like writing, or like the way our writing looks on the page. Aesthetics matter.

 

As to the state of the fountain pen industry, it seems a bit surprising to me how vigorous it is, given the small size of the market. We have very old, established veterans and new upstarts, relatively large companies and small boutiques, we have companies that concentrate on high end luxury pens and those who provide more entry-level products. We have companies that stay with the traditional model of a fountain pen and companies that are trying new things. Overall, we have a very large number of competitors in a small market and that competition is giving us a lot of choice.

[Ecriveur]

Today yet another hospital got shut down by hackers taking over the computer system and holding all the records for ransom.

 

 

In the recent move Kingsmen: The Secret Service, the evil computer genius who wants to destroy most of the world's population doesn't type things into a computer himself - he writes with a fountain pen. And at one point in the movie, he holds up his pen and says something like "you know what I like about these things? They can't be hacked."

[jar]

 

 

In the recent move Kingsmen: The Secret Service, the evil computer genius who wants to destroy most of the world's population doesn't type things into a computer himself - he writes with a fountain pen. And at one point in the movie, he holds up his pen and says something like "you know what I like about these things? They can't be hacked."

During the night one of my cats hacked one of my fountain pen. I found the pen but they are still holding its kimono for ransom.

[Rednaxela]

However the sound of an old 78 being played on a wind up gramophone with a bamboo needle can be exquisite. It is not "accurate sound" but it is a very pleasing and plasant sound.

 

You're right. Old stuff can sound lovely. For instance, this recording never fails to amaze me, certainly SQ-wise too.

[Pickwick]

My generation grew up in a world before the ballpoint pen became a reliable writing instrument. Once this technology proved viable I for one readily abandoned fountain pens and ink in favor of them. The main reason no matter how well a fountain pen was made it was still vulnerable to leaking when it was carried around, particularly during hot summer months. I can remember many a shirt ruined from a fountain pen when carried in a shirt pocket disgorging ink.

 

I never gave fountain pens or dip pens for that matter any more thought. It is also apparent the majority of my generation did likewise, seeing the advantages the ballpoint pen brought when they eventually became a reliable writing instrument.

 

The fountain pen manufacturers tried countering this trend with cartridge fountain pens. However given the realistic economics, ballpoint cartridge being cheaper, it was inevitable that ballpoint pens easily won out in the end.

 

I confess that sometimes i correspond with a roller ball. One of my favorites is the Schmidt P8126. A very smooth writer needing only a light touch.

 

It wasn't until a relative passed away and left a collection of fountain and dip pens along with a full bottle of Montblanc black ink my interest was rekindled, and thanks to the internet providing FPN along with its members, who helped me in obtaining the necessary parts in restoring these inherited writing instruments.

 

Unfortunately I seem to be in the minority, because the surviving peers I regularly correspond with exclaiming the merits of pen and ink once more, insist on replying with a ballpoint or roller ball, writing letters with a bemused smile, in turn exclaiming the merits of their own pens and deeming I must have entered into my second childhood!

[Arkanabar]

Today yet another hospital got shut down by hackers taking over the computer system and holding all the records for ransom.

 

The ability to put an electronic medical record to use simultaneously for treatment, utilization review, and billing, is the reason why health care will not revert to paper records unless there is a total societal collapse.

 

Fountain pens are a niche item and a collectible today. Older people like me who used them as children will use fountain pens, so there is a sort of market for a while. Then there are collectors and people who think it's quaint to write with a fountain pen. Eventually they will be collectibles mainly. I personally see no need to buy any new pens. To me they are junk compared to the workhorse pens I used in school and in my IT career.

 

As far as a hospital being shut down by hackers holding data for ransom, I think there should be a death penalty for computer hacking by unauthorized and non-governmental hackers. Former governmental IT manager here, we would get thousands of hack attempts every day. Eradicate them and identity thieves.

 

I strongly suspect that the great majority of successful hacks involve users installing things they shouldn't. And the ability to put the complete kibosh on this sort of thing is one reason that a really locked-down deployment of OpenBSD should be the default desktop OS for any EMR.

 

 

I agree with you regarding the high end pens. Their increase in size and elaborate decoration demonstrates clearly the movement towards becoming status symbols. There is a reason that most pens from 50+ years ago are much smaller than said oversize pens, and that is that pens back then were the only writing instrument available, and so practicality was the foremost concern.

 

However, regarding the entry level market, my impression is that it isn't in decline at all. The quality is quite high (Pilot Metropolitan, Lamy Safari, TWSBI ECO, Faber Castell Loom, etc.), and the value proposition is definitely increasing. 3/4 of the pens I mentioned are relative new comers to the fountain pen scene, which shows that firms are finding fertile ground for new product lines.

 

I'm going to add the Platinum Plaisir as another recent, high value, entry-level pen. And Pelikan M200 and M400 are nicely sized pens, shorter even than my Estie J and Parker "51." And we're also seeing more entry-level pens from Nemosine ($15 Singularity) and Rosetta (the $10 Explorer).

[zwack]

+1

-1 for their IT department.

 

-100 for the member of staff who clicked on the email saying their password had expired sent from a new york state school district when they work on the west coast.

 

(I work in IT for a very large hospital chain and have seen those emails...)

[zwack]

The ability to put an electronic medical record to use simultaneously for treatment, utilization review, and billing, is the reason why health care will not revert to paper records unless there is a total societal collapse.

More than that... If you are hundreds (or thousands) of miles from home it is useful if the Dr can pull up your medical record and see your history. Or when you get back home your own Dr can see what tests have been done and treatment provided.

 

But security needs to be part of that, and I have to say that locked down desktops actually make it a lot harder for me to do my job. I use tools that most of the hospital staff (all outside of my speciality) have no need to use.

[jmccarty3]

More than that... If you are hundreds (or thousands) of miles from home it is useful if the Dr can pull up your medical record and see your history. Or when you get back home your own Dr can see what tests have been done and treatment provided.

 

 

But they don't really do that, now do they?

 

They do make life wonderful for the billing department, the insurance people, the IT folks salivating over their profits, the suits analyzing their "metrics" . . . in fact, they're wonderful except for two groups of people, the doctors and the patients. But no one cares about them any more.

[zwack]

But they don't really do that, now do they?

 

They do make life wonderful for the billing department, the insurance people, the IT folks salivating over their profits, the suits analyzing their "metrics" . . . in fact, they're wonderful except for two groups of people, the doctors and the patients. But no one cares about them any more.

Well, I work for a not for profit... And yes, we do do that... We have hospitals in five states, you can walk into one of our hospitals or doctors offices and they can pull up information from any other visit. In fact most of the Electronic Health Record systems used can transmit data from one to another. To some extent this is mandated by medicare/medicaid under Meaningful Use.

 

Anyway we are now WAY off topic so...

 

Despite working in IT (and the fact that my company provides some of the least fountain pen friendly paper ever) I make notes and plan work with a fountain pen and paper pad.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Since I don't make a living either making or selling any kind of pens, the future of them is something I don't worry about excessively.

 

The world does move on, and none of us individually have that much control of it. We can pursue our interest in pens and other writing paraphernalia, talk about it here, and try to set an example in our real lives. Maybe it will have an effect, maybe in fifty or a hundred years even ballpoints will be a rare curiosity. Maybe cursive writing will undergo a revival, maybe handwriting will be restricted to block printing in capitals and used only in emergencies, when the batteries on all one's electronic devices are dead at the same time.

 

I'd like to think that in 2116, my Lamy 2000 and Pilot CH92 will be someone's lovingly restored and occasionally used vintage pens, alongside models made in that year. But it's out of my hands, and not really worth worrying about.

[inkandseeds]

Well...

 

Great video! I will have to show to my technology class today. Thanks.