I Must Be The Odd One Out

[bemon]

So I generally use three pens over and over again only swapping out ink:

 

Pilot VP, Gold Broad

L2K, Medium.

Pelikan M600, Medium.

 

These are inked at the same time as I have a different use for each. Occasionally I ink up a random from my collection, but then I only use it at home and generally just stick to the above mentioned. Mostly because 2/3 of these pens are duplicates in my collection so I don't mind if they get a little banged up in the work place.

 

Does everyone else pretty much cycle through pens regardless of value? Of do ya'll just leave the most valuable pens at home?

[Sleebus]

I buy my pens to use. My daily driver is a MB 149. I switch out between others I have, some Sheaffers...whatever hits me that day.

[bemon]

I felt like I'd get that sort of response. I should really get to using pens from my collection more often. It's pretty ridiculous to hide them away so they don't get scuffed. After all, if I had a Cadillac I'd drive it.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I often have 17 pens inked...........should never go to Inky Thoughts............grab which ever one is near in a pen cup. Mostly vintage and semi-vintage. In I prefer those nibs.

[ThomasB]

Same here...Bought them to use them...I typically carry 3 pens - 1 for notes, 1 for signatures (usually an italic or a stub) and 1 RB/BP for when people ask to "borrow a pen"...I select each based on no logic whatsoever so the high dollar pen can be seen in my case next to the low dollar pen.

[bemon]

Same here...Bought them to use them...I typically carry 3 pens - 1 for notes, 1 for signatures (usually an italic or a stub) and 1 RB/BP for when people ask to "borrow a pen"...I select each based on no logic whatsoever so the high dollar pen can be seen in my case next to the low dollar pen.

I also carry a Parker Duofold Roller and a Waterman Hemisphere roller-turned-ballpoint with a Montblanc cartridge in it. Same thing- either for loaning or just when I need something a Fountain pen can't cover.

 

But again- it's always the same pens. I do like my daily carry's quite a bit, so I guess that's all the justification I need to use them. But I've got a whole collection that gets neglected.

 

On the plus side some of the high dollar pens that are mostly just stored might be worth something down the road for my Daughter after I'm gone. Especially if they're reasonably scuff free.

[sandy101]

The MB Writers' Edition stays at home. It's too big for the current case.

 

 

Everything else comes with me in an unorganised rotation. My favourite pens at the moment are the Cross Century 2 and C'DA Madison.

 

Heavier pens stay at home at the moment, but cloths are lighter and heavier pens don't fit so well into smaller pockets.

[ParkerDuofold]

Hi Bemon,

 

If there's a pen I have a sentimental attachment to, I WOULD NOT take it out of the house... but the rest are fair game. Mind you, my L2K is ALWAYS on my person... even when I'm in the shower... don't ask.

 

Seriously, though, if you can take your pens to work, you should... if you're anything like me, you spend more time there than at home.

 

That said, if you have a very physical job or if your co-workers make you think of cast of Goodfellas... then you're probably better off leaving your good stuff at home.

 

- Anthony

 

EDITED TO ADD: I do not have a pen pouch, I keep 3-4 in my desk at work and carry two in my pockets... and I'll occasionally get an a second glance because they're not a matched pair.

Edited June 26, 2017 by ParkerDuofold

[LizB]

...........should never go to Inky Thoughts............

 

 

 

Agree - Inky Thoughts is a dangerous place to hang out.

 

 

I use my cheap pens (Jinhaos mainly) for work, then sometimes carry a few 'decent' pens in my handbag, then all the rest stay at home. 99% of them will be used at some point, as the mood takes me.

[Kelly G]

Same. I will use them all eventually. I do tend to get in a rut of a dozen or so pens inked at a time. I carry two or three daily and stick with the same pens several weeks at a time. Today it is: Waterman Carene in Amber Shimmer, M nib; Bexley new style Prometheus in Raspberry-Black Ebonite, M nib; TWSBI Diamond 580, EF nib.

 

 

 

Bexley Prometheus - Classifieds - The Fountain Pen Network

May 20, 2017

Bexley New Style Prometheus In Raspberry-Black Ebonite ...

[Erik Dalton]

I do much the same as you do. There are pens I buy for my collection. Most got a taste of ink upon arrival when I tuned their nibs. Some have never been inked. Then there are those that I use and carry each day. At any given time I can have as many as 12 pens inked up in rotation. When doing repairs, and testing out inks, I've had as many as twenty inked at a once.( playing with them is fun, but clean up is a pain..lol.)

There are unique, and higher end pens that I really like to write with. Of those, I have duplicates that I use in my everyday rotation. Even inked up in rotation, my good pens stay at home.

My normal edc is a Pelikan M200 or P200.

So I guess I do a little of both.

[bemon]

Hi Bemon,

 

If there's a pen I have a sentimental attachment to, I WOULD NOT take it out of the house... but the rest are fair game. Mind you, my L2K is ALWAYS on my person... even when I'm in the shower... don't ask.

 

Seriously, though, if you can take your pens to work, you should... if you're anything like me, you spend more time there than at home.

 

That said, if you have a very physical job or if your co-workers make you think of cast of Goodfellas... then you're probably better off leaving your good stuff at home.

 

- Anthony

 

EDITED TO ADD: I do not have a pen pouch, I keep 3-4 in my desk at work and carry two in my pockets... and I'll occasionally get an a second glance because they're not a matched pair.

I work at a dealership in an area of town where there's a fair amount of theft, but I don't think it's my co-workers. Last year I was using my Century Classic ballpoint which I'd had for 10 years. Put it down in the showroom taking a measurement for a display I was working on, turned around and it was gone. There was a brown coffee ring on the hood of the car I rested my notebook on but the pen was gone :/

 

I didn't even hear anyone walk up. Anyway, it wasn't an expensive pen just one I had an attachment to.

 

I keep a lot of "nice" things at my desk in the upstairs offices like a leather mouse pad, good quality bluetooth mouse and keyboard, leather wrapped notebook etc and nothing ever goes missing. Though if I was on the showroom floor I'd have to bolt everything down.

 

Good advice- I'll start traveling with the collection more often! I keep them in a leather pouch with separated compartments for four pens so they won't get scratched in transit.

 

And yes, the L2K is die hard. It doubles as my pointer in presentations- that's a pretty physical job.

[Chrissy]

I felt like I'd get that sort of response. I should really get to using pens from my collection more often. It's pretty ridiculous to hide them away so they don't get scuffed. After all, if I had a Cadillac I'd drive it.

 

I used to not use some of my valuable pens.

 

So I sold them and use the ones I have.

[ac12]

I leave my valuable pens at home. Value defined as both $ value, and sentimental.

I had a gold Cross, that was a gift to me, stolen from my desk. This was my 2nd job out of college, so I financially could not easily replace that pen. But the fact that it was a gift pen that was stolen was what really hurt. That was the end of my taking any pen of value into the office. After that theft, it was supply cabinet pens only.

 

Today, I have my pocket protector with "office pens," which are "expendable." These are the pens that I take out of the house.

 

However, at home (where it is safe), I do have my favorites, that stay in the pen cup, while I rotate other pens in and out of use.

 

Some of my collection pens will be rotated into use.

Some of my collection pens will never see ink, for a variety of reasons, including not being restored.

Edited June 26, 2017 by ac12

[sharonspens]

I currently have one FP in use, solely because i am doing the "one pen, one ink, one month" challenge this month (Pilot CH 92, Bungbox Ink of the Witch). [My Platinum 3776 is also inked with Iroshizuku Fuyu-gaki, because it is the pen I am keeping inked for the whole year, but I am not using it this month; this will be my test of the "slip-and-seal" mechanism's functionality]

 

Normally, though, i have 3-5 FP inked at any given time. The rotation historically has been fairly random; I may witch from all vintage to all modern, but there has not been an order to the decision. Same with inks; I have historically used whatever strikes my fancy at the time. Periodically i will decide to use all shades of ONE color at a time (i.e., all of my browns or blues), but typically it has been random.

 

However, I think I will take this opportunity to develop a more organized system, at least for the rest of 2017. If nothing else, I may be in a better position to get rid of a few items that have lost their appeal to me.

 

Sharon in Indiana

[penmanila]

I've used an Agatha Christie as my daily writer for the past three years. Have taken it to the mountains, to the beach, to a dozen countries, etc. I'm 63, and I plan to enjoy every good thing I've got while I can. If I lose it, then it joins many lovely things I've lost in a long but full and happy life.

Edited June 26, 2017 by penmanila

[praxim]

I have made occasional mistakes where I bought a tool which had no frequent use. So far, that has not happened with any pen.

[welch]

So I generally use three pens over and over again only swapping out ink:

 

Pilot VP, Gold Broad

L2K, Medium.

Pelikan M600, Medium.

 

These are inked at the same time as I have a different use for each. Occasionally I ink up a random from my collection, but then I only use it at home and generally just stick to the above mentioned. Mostly because 2/3 of these pens are duplicates in my collection so I don't mind if they get a little banged up in the work place.

 

Does everyone else pretty much cycle through pens regardless of value? Of do ya'll just leave the most valuable pens at home?

 

I leave a pen home if I find I dislike it, but the rest "work for a living". I find that I always have a half-dozen Parker 51's inked and maybe four Parker 61 c/c pens plus a very few others that somehow wind up in that coffee mug behind the monitor on my desk. I have a Pelikan 600 with too much gold-glitz on the cap -- it draws stares -- but no pen is so expensive that I would worry about taking it to work.

[Moonshae]

I buy my pens to use, so I cycle through all mid-to-expensive ones to use whether home or out. Cheap pens are actually the ones I rarely use except to try out an ink.

[corgicoupe]

I felt like I'd get that sort of response. I should really get to using pens from my collection more often. It's pretty ridiculous to hide them away so they don't get scuffed. After all, if I had a Cadillac I'd drive it.

 

Well, I have a Cadillac that my dad bought in 1949, and although it needs a new paint job, I drive it as a it is. Folks say, "Nice car"; no one has said "It needs a paint job".

 

All my pens get carried except a few with sentimental value that stay at home, like my dad's 1946 Parker 51 and the Parker 51 awarded to me when I finished grammar school in 1951. Other than the 1990s Pelikan 800 and the 1991 Duofold LE, nothing cost more than $100, so I'm not risking big value. Now the Cadillac...? But I'm not getting younger, and it's fun to get looks, comments, and "thumbs up"

Edited June 27, 2017 by corgicoupe