How Many Pens Do You Actually Own?

[PaulS]

quote from mitto ....... "Last I tried to count, a few months ago, they were 1263. Now the number might be ariund or above 1300. 99% are vintage"

what a relief, at last someone with more than me.

perhaps pen collections are like icebergs - it's the two thirds you don't see that are the real worry, and there's this theory - a bit like building more motorway lanes - the more space you create the more pens you will accumulate.

[trdsf]

I... don't know. I shouldn't be surprised if I were in the vicinity of a hundred by now, not all of which are in ready-to-write condition (need to get back on my restoration work). I'd count them this weekend, but I'm going out of town. Something to do next week, I guess.

[jmccarty3]

I do not own any pens. The pens own me.

[BillH]

quote from mitto ....... "Last I tried to count, a few months ago, they were 1263. Now the number might be ariund or above 1300. 99% are vintage"

what a relief, at last someone with more than me.

perhaps pen collections are like icebergs - it's the two thirds you don't see that are the real worry, and there's this theory - a bit like building more motorway lanes - the more space you create the more pens you will accumulate.

 

 

Indeed, a pen on the desk needs a safe place to nest so you buy a nice box. But instead of admiring the pen in the box those of us with this disease addiction hobby begin to fixate on the empty slots. Until they are full. Because then it just feels RIGHT.

 

Until we buy one more pen, and it sits there on the desk all lonely and everything...

 

lather, rinse, repeat

[fpenluver]

 

 

Indeed, a pen on the desk needs a safe place to nest so you buy a nice box. But instead of admiring the pen in the box those of us with this disease addiction hobby begin to fixate on the empty slots. Until they are full. Because then it just feels RIGHT.

 

Until we buy one more pen, and it sits there on the desk all lonely and everything...

 

lather, rinse, repeat

 

Totally describe it.

until we decide to do this

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/319496-how-do-you-decide-when-it-is-time-to-thin-your-collection/

[inkotheque]

"Oh no honey! This is not a new pen. Is the one I told you about 2 weeks ago"

[thx1138]

"Oh no honey! This is not a new pen. Is the one I told you about 2 weeks ago"

If it works for women's shoes, I can't see why it would not work for pens.

[JotterAddict62]

Want to come over and count my fountain pens, Jotters, Mechanical pencils and any thing else that I have pen related? Then we both will know how many pens I have...

 

Inventory time.....

[sandy101]

Somewhere between too many and this is getting beyond a joke.

[aderoy]

How about N-1? There is always room for one more.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

At least it's not 10^n-1!

Edited March 19, 2017 by Fuzzy_Bear

[Driften]

Just counting fountain pens. I have 16+

I have 5 vintage

For modern pens

5 Piston Fill, 6 cartridge/converter, and quite a few I made that could be fountain pen or rollerball depending on which nib I have installed. For a while I was turning pens and still have a number of them I never sold.

 

If we were counting ball point pens well... way too many to go though.

[Yaakova]

More than I need. Fewer than I want. In round numbers: 50+ counting only the regular fountain pens - 60+ if you count dedicated lettering pens.

[thygreyt]

I have 19 pens and 36 bottles of diferent ink. I have emptied 4 bottles thus far this year

[deepak23]

One hundred and ..... No no no, if i say aloud it is gonna jinx it... So... Let's just say, lots ☺

[inkstainedruth]

Well, I have over a hundred at this point (plus two in the mail) -- not sure of the exact number (and that's not counting my old set of Rapid-o-graphs from college, or stuff like the dip pens -- mostly Speedball -- from calligraphy classes I've had over the years; and one sentimental click BP with a friend's business info on it).

In my defense, though, I'm an "accumuluser", rather than a "C-worder". I buy pens to write or draw with -- not to stick in a display case. So overly large or heavy pens? Nope. Maki-e pens with urushi lacquer? Beautiful as they are, it's again, nope.

I'm not *quite* to the point of thinning the herd -- yet. But there are some that are on the "well, maybe..." list (I don't really need *two* Cedar Blue 51 Vacs, for instance).

Like Yaakova said: more than I need, fewer than I want. I really thought last year I'd be cutting back -- but well, then stuff happened. This year, it's going to definitely fewer overall, but more "big ticket" (for me, anyway -- YMMV). If the two Pelikans come by the end of the week or the beginning of next week, I'll have cut way back to what I had planned for LAST year -- roughly one per month. That of course will go to you-know-where in a hand basket the next pen show I go to, since I actually have a real shopping budget for once (minus the cost of the two in the mail, of course...). So I have a shopping list. But it's not like some years when it was "ooh, pretty!" because a lot of the ones I had wanted I now have (like an Emerald Pearl Vac -- hit that milestone in November at the OPS, and now I think I have nearly all the Vac colors I want; I'm not playing the "Pokemon, gotta catch 'em all" game...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[mcorrea]

I'm at 40-ish right now, plus some parts and nibs. And 20-ish bottles of ink. Also an accumul-user.

 

Matias

[Cryptos]

Eleven. Seven good ones and four mistakes.

[Cryptos]

Double post <sigh>

[banjomike]

I own 16 pens that are all used in regular rotation, and about 8 others that are either in need of repair, are worn out beyond redemption, or were pretty much junk when they were new.

 

For many years, I owned only Parkers and Shaeffers mostly. I received a couple of odd branded pens as gifts. There was no particular reason why I limited myself to those brands; they were simply the most available to me when fountain pens became my main writing tool again.

 

I learned how to write at a time when the fountain pen was still very widely used; I'm 72 now. Back in the 9th grade, I had a very old-school English teacher who required all her students to use them, and the first pen I bought was a student-grade Shaeffer cartridge pen, purchased in 1959. It was a good little pen.

 

I also have a very fond memory of a Shaeffer my father owned that I only saw once, when I was around 3 or 4, in his jacket pocket. My dad was a cowboy and didn't use a pen very much. He most often carried an indelible pencil instead, as they had a waterproof lead in them. My grandfathers also used them.

 

Not all my pens are top o' the line. I have definite limits on how much I will spend for a new pen, and I've never owned any vintage pens except those that were given to me.

 

I'm a big fan of the Parker Duofold, after being given one for Christmas just after they were re-introduced in 1989. That pen got me back into using fountain pens regularly. I felt that I should use such a beautiful gift, so I began keeping a journal in Jan. 1990, and have never stopped since. I'm presently on #74, and always use 200 pg. student spiral-bound notebooks. Typically, I fill 4-6 up a year now.

My most often used pens these days are:

3 Duofold Internationals. 2 are NOS, made in 1989-90, and 1 is 2 years old. One of the NOS pens replaced my original, which was lost after about 10 years. It took a very long time to find another like it.

2 Lamy Safaris

1 Waterman Phineas

3 Pelikans (my latest bunch of purchases)

3 Shaeffers, all American-made and at least 15 years old

 

I am very slow to purchase a new pen generally, but for a few years recently, I binged and bought 2 in one year, followed by a 3rd then next. All were Pelikans, a brand I knew well from their art products.

 

I've found I like the whole process of anticipation more than leaping for a new pen impulsively. A lot of my buys have been impulsive, but most were well within my comfort level of spending money.

 

I've found, though, that my top spending limit crept upward quite a lot over the past few years. My latest Parker cost a lot more than the other 2, as did one of the Pelikans. But so far, all were worth it in their enjoyment.

I chewed on buying another spendy pen over the winter for months, but finally purchased a new nib for my newest Parker instead; the one that came with the pen was a bit too broad for me. That seems to have taken away my new pen Jones for a while, but I'm always tempted by something new I see.

 

Like a lot of things in the 21st century, fountain pens are really an anachronism, but like a lot of other things, I honestly think that the new pens are some of the finest ever made.

Just like new banjos. I own a lot of banjos, and the new ones are consistently better in every respect than the old ones at the professional-grade level.