What Do People Say When They Notice Your Fountain Pen?

[sandy101]

"I haven't seen one of those for a long time." (Lamy 2K)

 

"Oh what a beautiful pen" (Visconti Rembrandt red)

[jar]

Nice pen.

[mdav1979]

Variants of the follow:

 

"That is really cool! I think I have my grandfather's pen around here somewhere."

"I had one of those explode on me once..."

"I would totally lose it."

"Why don't you just use a tablet/laptop/etc."

 

Last but not least...

"Can I try it?" Followed by me letting them borrow a Pilot Metropolitan or Lamy Safari.

[Bluey]

People sometimes say something along the lines of "I didn't t know they still had them" or "haven't seen one of them for a while", but most of the surprise is that they find it unusual that I should be using fountain pens while being a techie. Apparently you have to like one or the other. For me it's all about balance.

[EdeIstein88]

Friend : "WOW your pen so Big!! Can i try it??"

 

Me ; "..........no"

[redbike]

Outside of the house, the only place I really use my fountain pens is at work. No one who knows me says anything anymore, which is fine. Some new(er) employees look closely, and occasionally someone asks about my pen, but it's rare.

[AoKiu]

What Do People Say When They Notice Your Fountain Pen?

 

"...oooh, you must be the fountain pen nutcase"

[marcelo]

 

Last but not least...

"Can I try it?" Followed by me letting them borrow a Pilot Metropolitan or Lamy Safari.

Hehehe... Great move!

[sidthecat]

"What's that? Is it an e-cigarette?"

[requiescat]

I've had a couple older gentlemen remark that they hadn't seen one in a long while and admire the pens; one asked to write with the pen (which I was happy to allow).

 

An engineer/gamer of my acquaintance noticed the pen and remarked that he would find them annoying to write with. Which is fine; I realize we all like different things. My husband's an astrophysicist and his choice of writing implement is the mechanical pencil.

[benbot517]

If people notice and want to try I'll let them, but only after showing them the correct orientation of the pen and nib, as well as telling them to write lightly. I want to show them the very best of how a fountain pen can write.

[kestrel]

From the other end of the spectrum:

While standing in line to have a book signed by Neil de Grasse Tyson after one of his lectures I noticed that he was using a large fountain pen. I asked, "Dr. Tyson, which Visconti is that? He replied, "Red marble Kaleido Voyager," then stared at my shirt pocket. "Is that an Art Nouveau? May I take a look at it?"

 

Pen nuts turn up in the strangest places.

[marcelo]

From the other end of the spectrum:

While standing in line to have a book signed by Neil de Grasse Tyson after one of his lectures I noticed that he was using a large fountain pen. I asked, "Dr. Tyson, which Visconti is that? He replied, "Red marble Kaleido Voyager," then stared at my shirt pocket. "Is that an Art Nouveau? May I take a look at it?"

 

Pen nuts turn up in the strangest places.

Cool! :-)

[Runnin_Ute]

Usually some variation of.... nice pen, or the calligraphy pen comment or I didn't know they still made those or some such thing.

[inkstainedruth]

Mostly people don't notice at all. Or they ask if I do calligraphy. Ironically, the pen that's gotten the most notice is one of the resin body Noodler's Konrads.

Some of my friends now have this joke of "Of COURSE Ruth has a pen...." I told them that it was "Joke #51...." Of course my husband makes a point of telling people that I *used* to collect pens, but that my REAL hobby is collecting ink....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Jerome Tarshis]

"That's a real pen."

 

With a Parker 51 in particular, and especially if the speaker is a Chinese-American woman, the Chinese seeming to have a special relationship with the 51: "My father wrote with a pen like that."

 

Time passes, and increasingly it is, alas, "My grandfather wrote with a pen like that." I have warm feelings about the people and the underlying sentiment.

[ethernautrix]

Some polite sounds when I unveil the cigar case in the small pouch hung over my shoulder to show five Nakaya Piccolo Cigars -- only amongst pen people (recently, Madrid Pen Show). More curiosity shown about the case. Hehe.

[PAKMAN]

Older folks say wow you write with a real pen! Younger folks say, why don't you write with a real pen!

[Ron Z]

Between the radio station where I worked in Syracuse, the church, and my own stuff, I was in the hardware store down the road quite often. For the church and station I was always signing for purchases on their accounts. I got to be known as "the cool pen dude."*

 

*emphasis as on the pen, not the dude.

[Witsius]

Hmmm, I don't think anyone has ever spontaneously commented on my fountain pens.