Hi, Any Tips For Using Fountain Pens In School?

[TrinTran]

So, I am going up to the next grade level in school. I recently got a Pilot Kakuno around a month ago. Also, I got a Jinhao x750 and Jinhao 8802 a few weeks ago too. My parents (actually no one in my family ) isn't into fountain pens like I am so I got into the hobby myself thanks to forums like this. My school supply list never specified what pens I had to use, it just said "black or blue pens." I guess I'm free to use whatever pen and blue I want then. Where I live, no one really has heard or seen a fountain pen so I think that when my new classmates see my fountain pens they might be confused. My friends were shocked by me casually using around 10 dollar pens to write and draw with. So, I want some tips about dealing with classmates in school, and possibly the dreaded pen thief. Perhaps some recommendations on blue ink. (Though, my mom will only buy me one bottle of blue ink so I have to choose wisely.) I use mead five-star paper since after buying some really nice pens, my mom isn't really into buying some good paper for them.

[Bo Bo Olson]

If it's a screw on cap, you don't have to unscrew it every time, just let the cap rest on the up turned pen, and slip it off.

A slip off cap is the same just more solidly on....it too can be just loosely on if you wish.

 

I had all my pens back in the days when only the well off had a color TV stolen.

Get the pen engraved or at least the clip!!!!!!

Buy a shirt or three with pockets and put the pen in your pocket every time you are done with it. Every time.

 

I almost lost a sterling silver P-75 in collage, leaving at the cafeteria table for the 8 steps I took, before . The guy at the table had not called "Hey you left your pen." So I marked him down in my not trustworthy book.

Pelikan Royal Blue 4001, is washable....should you get some on your cloths. It is Not Waterproof.

 

Cartridges are super expensive, so carry one as a back up and use a converter!!!! Make a habit of filling your pen, every night after homework....and save the expensive cartridge for emergencies. You can fill a cartridge with a needle syringe....tell the guy at the pharmacy, you want it to fill cartridges for your fountain pen. Have it with you. You want a long thick needle, 10-12 cc syringe and take a sharpening stone with you so he can watch you make the needle vein proof.

Goulet(sp) has a rubber needle syringe.

 

Someone else can give you the names of other blue inks.....Noodlers is cheap in the States. But living in Germany, only have two, and neither are blue.

 

I don't know Mead paper, but Staples offers some inexpensive Brazilian sugarcane paper that many experienced fountain pen users here rave about as good to very good cheap paper. Not the stuff from Vietnam....nothing but bad news that paper.

No Ink Jet paper.

 

There are free templates that allow you to print lines of the width you wish on your paper.....wider than collage wide.....in case you have a M or B nib you would like to use.

Collage wide, can be a bit narrow for wider nibs.

 

Don't tell them you know of folks that spend....$100, or much more for a fountain pen.

 

Look up the price of Pelikan or MB ball points....in case someone thinks $10.00 is expensive.

Luckily mine are the old and cheap ones. I can't afford new ball points of those brands.

Hell I find the cost of good Parker ball point refills to be $$$$$$$ (always were even in the days of Silver Money .). I buy Schmit for half that price.....being cheap where it counts.

 

Do have a cheap ball point with you at all times in case you got to lend a pen for a second.....and Don't let the Ham Fisted Ball Point Barbarians even hold your pen....or you can add your sad... :crybaby:story to the many.....bent my nib stories.

[TrinTran]

If it's a screw on cap, you don't have to unscrew it every time, just let the cap rest on the up turned pen, and slip it off.

A slip off cap is the same just more solidly on....it too can be just loosely on if you wish.

 

I had all my pens back in the days when only the well off had a color TV stolen.

Get the pen engraved or at least the clip!!!!!!

Buy a shirt or three with pockets and put the pen in your pocket every time you are done with it. Every time.

 

I almost lost a sterling silver P-75 in collage, leaving at the cafeteria table for the 8 steps I took, before . The guy at the table had not called "Hey you left your pen." So I marked him down in my not trustworthy book.

Pelikan Royal Blue 4001, is washable....should you get some on your cloths. It is Not Waterproof.

 

Cartridges are super expensive, so carry one as a back up and use a converter!!!! Make a habit of filling your pen, every night after homework....and save the expensive cartridge for emergencies. You can fill a cartridge with a needle syringe....tell the guy at the pharmacy, you want it to fill cartridges for your fountain pen. Have it with you. You want a long thick needle, 10-12 cc syringe and take a sharpening stone with you so he can watch you make the needle vein proof.

Goulet(sp) has a rubber needle syringe.

 

Someone else can give you the names of other blue inks.....Noodlers is cheap in the States. But living in Germany, only have two, and neither are blue.

 

I don't know Mead paper, but Staples offers some inexpensive Brazilian sugarcane paper that many experienced fountain pen users here rave about as good to very good cheap paper. Not the stuff from Vietnam....nothing but bad news that paper.

No Ink Jet paper.

 

There are free templates that allow you to print lines of the width you wish on your paper.....wider than collage wide.....in case you have a M or B nib you would like to use.

Collage wide, can be a bit narrow for wider nibs.

 

Don't tell them you know of folks that spend....$100, or much more for a fountain pen.

 

Look up the price of Pelikan or MB ball points....in case someone thinks $10.00 is expensive.

Luckily mine are the old and cheap ones. I can't afford new ball points of those brands.

Hell I find the cost of good Parker ball point refills to be $$$$$$$ (always were even in the days of Silver Money .). I buy Schmit for half that price.....being cheap where it counts.

 

Do have a cheap ball point with you at all times in case you got to lend a pen for a second.....and Don't let the Ham Fisted Ball Point Barbarians even hold your pen....or you can add your sad... :crybaby:story to the many.....bent my nib stories.

Thanks for the tips! Unfortunately, the school I go to has a uniform policy. (Solid color polo style shirt with uniform pants, I can use any jacket so I'll get one with a decent pocket.) I labeled my Kakuno with a piece of paper taped on to it, but I'm not sure it will work. I mainly use converters instead of cartridges but I'll be sure to keep a few just in case! Those ballpoints are pretty expensive, my friends aren't gonna believe that! I don't have a Staples where I live but the Mead Five Star paper is pretty good. (The Five-Star not the normal Mead) I always have several "normal pens" with me at all times. Especially colored ones for lining my artwork. I have this style of using multiple colored ballpoints to outline my art instead of opting for just black. I'm not sure if I can do the same for fountain pens.

[Arkanabar]

If you have Pilots, the cartridges can be refilled and resealed. There's a couple of YouTube videos.

 

 

[old4570]

Yeah , use a pen that does not leak / burp or give other issues like hard starting .

I used a fountain pen in High School for about 3 months and after the burps , the leaks - I gave up and just went ball point and never looked back .

 

Yes , ball points can leak - run dry ( Hard start ) ..

When I got my Sheaffer memory clip ( brushed SS - blue ink ) , it became my go to pen for school .. Never gave me any issues , except that some people hated that pen ( Memory Clip )

[two2tone]

All of your pens are great school choices. My favorite blue ink is Waterman -- and very affordable.

 

When I was in school, I would use fountain pens for assignments, reports and tests. My classroom note taking, however, was fast and furious and mechanical pencils were the best for me.

[ac12]

Fountain pen, gel pen, ball pen and pencil; each has a purpose/specialty, so don't try to make the FP do everything, cuz it can't.

You will sometimes have lousey paper to write on, then use the gel, ball or pencil.

Always have a "sacrifice" cheap pen if someone wants to borrow a pen.

 

As you mentioned school is a high risk place, I would not bring any pen that if it were lost/stolen or broken would create undo financial hardship on you. IOW use cheap pens, I did.

 

When you get up from your desk, ALWAYS check that you have your pen on you.

The one day that you leave it, it will be stolen.

 

As for ink for school, don't get fancy; Sheaffer blue-black or blue, Waterman blue, Parker blue-black.

Blue inks are sometimes kinda light, which is why some are doped with purple, to make it write darker.

I do NOT recommend any bright inks, like turquoise, magenta or similar. They may be nice to look at, but can be difficult on the eyes to read. And you really do not want to do that to your teacher.

 

Tip. Carry TWO fountain pens, when #1 runs out of ink, switch to #2. Then refill both when you go home. Don't bother trying to change cartridges in the middle of class. It takes too long. If not a 2nd fountain pen, a gel pen as #2.

 

Gud Luk

[SoulSamurai]

If you run out of ink, get a little bit of water into the cartridge or converter (maybe half-fill at most) and you will be able to keep writing for a while (obviously your writing will be faded and washed out, but probably still readable). It should get your through the day at least.

[old4570]

Hehehehe , If memory serves , my last year in High School .. I had like a 100 Pens N Pencils .

Funny thing , we had this game ( Gambling ) and currency was pens .. ( Dont recall the name of the game )

But the goal was to split your opponents ruler ( wood rulers ) ...

Yeah , you tended to go through rulers that way .

 

But I had like anywhere from 50 to 100 pens at any one time because of that game ..

I would come home and empty my pen N pencil box because it was full ..

And by the end of the week it was full again ..

I think it was 1980 and that year we had a lot of pens at home ..

[Bo Bo Olson]

Well here in Germany we were a good decade or a bit more behind the power curve with gel or hybred pens.

When I got started with fountain pens a decade ago, none of the 200 free pens were gel, and hybred hadn't happened yet. I sold most of them .... in the end in rubber band bundles of 10 for 1 Euro..

 

Last year....I found another 40 free ball points and a couple were gel or hybred.....those got put in the dark of a drawer. They were not bad at all, even allowing one to hold behind the big index knuckle.

 

Pasting a label on the pen is not going to prevent your pen joining someone's free collection. It has to be engraved.

I hate thinking of DIY butcher jobs.........but they are 'cheap' pens.

I gave my god son who is in the States, a fist full of cheaper fountain pens over a couple years. I had his initials engraved into the clip.

 

Which is a good memory reminder, should you ever give one of your pens to a girl friend. You are not giving her 'a pen' but 'your very own' pen.

Sigh cubed, as a working man's kid, all I had was the ugly metal capped Esterbrook, Wearever or even cheaper Venus pens. (The earlier P-45 was of course stolen.) They were common....so wouldn't be as big a deal as now when fountain pens are scarce in school use.

I use to get a cheap fountain pen and a Jotter every year for school start....but by 10th grade, the long Bic came in. They too were stolen. One had to put the cap in one's pocket to keep even a Bic.

And had I my name engraved on any of them, I'd not had them stolen. Well, they could be horded at the thief's home, but he could never show it off.

 

There is or may be a shop somewhere nearby that engraves sports trophies. They could do the job. Just the clip will do.

 

Fountain pens are not designed for pants pockets unless it's a Kaweco Sport. But there are leather pen holders one can find perhaps on Ebay cheap.

 

Should ask at your school if there is an alternative 'useful' polo shirt with a shirt pocket for a serious student's needs.

Shirt pockets by the way were invented @ 1895 so one could put one's fountain pen in it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Advice I should have done...only did it a couple of times in some collage courses....read ahead one chapter. First you know where the chapter being covered leads, second it allows you to have questions on the current chapter.

 

In the chapter you are to be covering do all the questions before it is covered.....see if you can come up with one or two questions for your self.

It will make you appear smarter to the teacher if you keep coming up with a question, that was not covered in the back of the chapter questions.

Could help your grades, in the teacher may give a 'smarter' student a tad of slack when it comes to grading.

If you start off being a chapter ahead, it is not hard to stay there.

Read the full book at least lightly, if you can....if you put your mind to it. Can make a full grade difference, if nothing comes as a surprise.

Knowing what is important later, can cue you to test questions not covered in the back of the chapter questions.

Anything the teacher says twice....underline.

Re-type your notes into your computer that day, and print them out into their own three ring binder, for test review. By retyping the notes when they are fresh, you reinforce your learning. And end up with no surprise questions on tests..

Edited July 19, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[sciumbasci]

Get a hooded nib pen like a Hero 616 or a Wing Sung 601, lots of pros:

 

- extended cap off time

- it doesn't scream LOOK AT ME I'M THAT GUY WITH A FOUNTAIN PEN

- goes under the radar. Get a basic black and nobody will ever think it's not a normal pen

- cheap, no big loss if you lose it or someone borrows it for a long, long term

- thin lines will work well with cheap school paper

[Brandywine]

One rule cannot be mentioned too often:

 

NEVER EVER leave your pen unattended!

 

The forums here a full of sad stories where ham-fisted morons (a.k.a. "classmates")

spilled ink everywhere, ruined nibs, shirts and homework because they

"just want to look" what a funny pen you have.

Apparently respect for another one's property no longer is a subject in school or at home!

[Bo Bo Olson]

They have good zip lock plastic thingies for putting in your three ring binder....in you are not allowed civilized shirt pockets, that is where you must put it...always when out of class. Good for holding your spare cartridges also. Zip and go....don't get caught holding a fountain pen in the dangerous grabbing idiot loaded hallways.

We had them way back when only the well to do had Color TV. Of course fountain pens were so common, the hallway idiots didn't grab them. I'm sure they did other things....once, in there was after school.

[TrinTran]

Thanks for the tips! I'm looking into Waterman Serenity Blue as my blue ink. I have this pencil case with a lot of compartments so I'll use that for storing my fountain pens and a few cartridges. It has a strap so I can carry it around. Also, the strap is on the side and it's in a way so I can carry my fountain pens nib up.

[bogiesan]

The environment poses many risks that out of your control. I say, buy disposable Pilots in bulk, always have two or three with you so you can swap out a dry pen, and save the status symbol pens for college, a job, or home.

 

A fountain pen could possibly be one of the many writing tools you need in school but, realistically, as long as none of your classes actually require a fountain pen, it’s a bit frivolous and totally unnecessary. A fountain pen cannot be used for many tasks that confront a student everyday. So one must ask, why do you think you want to carry fountain pens? The reasons don’t matter, they’re yours. Just be realistic about your expectations and budget.

[Corona688]

You write with the pointy bit.

[sandy101]

The trouble with ink in education is that it has to be able to write on whatever papr you are given. You don't want to go into an exam and find that your ink doesn't play well with the paper you are given.

 

The ink I've found that works best is Parker's Quink - it isn't the most exciting ink in the world, but it seems to work rather well on most papers and dries quickly enough. Another alternative would be Waterman's Florida blue, or Pelikan's Royal blue. Pelikan ink is dry and doesn't work in all pens. Cartridges are easier - you don't want to be lugging a bottle of ink around with you to school. Too much potential for accidents, and it is easier to refill mid-lesson with a cartridge than a bottle.

 

Just take one pen to school - it's easier to keep track of, and makes it less likely that it will get nicked. Classmates - just get on with what you are doing, you'll have more important things to worry about. It's not the tool that counts, but what you do with it.

[calvin_0]

So, I am going up to the next grade level in school. I recently got a Pilot Kakuno around a month ago. Also, I got a Jinhao x750 and Jinhao 8802 a few weeks ago too. My parents (actually no one in my family ) isn't into fountain pens like I am so I got into the hobby myself thanks to forums like this. My school supply list never specified what pens I had to use, it just said "black or blue pens." I guess I'm free to use whatever pen and blue I want then. Where I live, no one really has heard or seen a fountain pen so I think that when my new classmates see my fountain pens they might be confused. My friends were shocked by me casually using around 10 dollar pens to write and draw with. So, I want some tips about dealing with classmates in school, and possibly the dreaded pen thief. Perhaps some recommendations on blue ink. (Though, my mom will only buy me one bottle of blue ink so I have to choose wisely.) I use mead five-star paper since after buying some really nice pens, my mom isn't really into buying some good paper for them.

 

i dont recommended bringing fountain pen to a school where nobody have any respect for other people's property..

 

if you really wanted to, get bunch of platinum preppy or pilot varsity and carry that to school.. i recommended platinum preppy since it's eyedropper convertible.. it's suitable for long writing session and it come with asian sized nib which is generally finner than western nib, which is more suitable for writing on cheap paper..

 

for ink, you'll want permenent ink because well, you dont want your homework to fade away with just a drop of water... so noodler's ink should be fine.. a lot of people like noodler's black or liberty elysium for blue..

[Honeybadgers]

Send me a private message. I have a few surplus pens that I give away, and will throw in some ink as well. Always happy to help younger people who appreciate actually writing (bleep) down.

[JulieParadise]

How strange to see some people recommend to better not bring a fountain pen to school or only a cheap one whereas here in Germany almost every child from second grade on writes with a fountain pen. Sure, these are cheapo school pens as well and mostly cartridge fillers, loaded with short international cartridges of the generic royal blue that can be "erased" with a "Tintenkiller" if a mistake was made.

 

Children in elementary school here mostly use

Lamy abc

Pelikan Pelikano, Pelikano Up, griffix, Twist

Faber Castell Loom, Scribolino

Stabilo Easy

Herlitz myPen

 

A fountain pen in the price range from 10-25€ is considered normal here, an essential part of school supplies but of course to be used for several years. Which they are. Children here do not (usually) destroy their or others' pens.

 

Some of these pens mentioned above are geared towards really young children up to the age of 10-12, some are thought to be used by teenagers. Older students tend to use Lamy Safari or AL-Star, KaWeCo Sport.

 

Often it is mandatory to use a fountain pen with blue or black ink for all writing until 10th grade for legibility.

________________

 

 

In your situation I'd also recommend a Platinum Preppy or a Plaisir, a Pilot Petit or a Metropolitan, maybe a KaWeCo Sport or a Lamy Safari, Vista or AL-Star, something for about max. 20$. You get a decent tool but it would not totally ruin you if it gets lost or damaged.

 

I hope you find a pen that suits you and maybe even convert some of your classmates to these wonderful tools. Seems like with the help of Honeybadgers you're off to a good start!