Travel With Your Pens? What Do You Carry?

[maukapens]

Ive grown to love traveling with the Pilot Vanishing Point and Decimo. One of the best things about the Pilot Decimo is its portability and that its always ready to write with the push of a button. Brought it with me to Hallstatt it held up great on multiple flights and trains all the way to this beautiful lakeside village.

[CraigN]

Grant,

 

My wife and I are currently on a cross-country trip. We each have Opus 88 Picnic pens, chosen for their ink capacity. I re-inked mine after almost 4 weeks of journaling and my wife has yet to refill hers.

 

We are camping and have travelled from Maryland to (now) Utah. The elevation changes present no issues for the pens.

 

My only regret is that I only brought one pen for what will amount to a 6+ week trip. I don't journal except on trips and should use this as an excuse to use more pens.

 

Your VP is a good choice but I would have to re-ink mine often under current circumstances.

 

Regards,

Craig

[Beechwood]

I travel with this small no name brass pen, if there is a flight involved I fly with an empty pen and put a cartridge into the pen when I arrive.

 

 

[kestrel]

My two favorite pens, always. Pelikan M800 with Binder 0.9 mm Italifine and a 1929 oversize Sheaffer's Black and Pearl Balance. Several others depending on what is in the rotation at the time and how long the trip will be, usually a mix of mostly vintage (Esterbrook J, a large vintage Conklin crescent, Parker Senior Duofold) and a modern or two. My pen travel case holds six pens.

[Mech-for-i]

I travel with a dedicated pen case which hold 4 / 5 pen depending on their size and I usually goes with oens with all integral filling ( aka not C/C ) ; if its short business trip I would be taking my petite pen purse which hold my Montblanc 114 set of mechanical pencil; ballpoint and the fountain pen - that can go into the dress suit jacket inner pocket with ease

[Karmachanic]

Penbbs 355 and Wing Sung 699. Large ink capacities and shut-off valves. More than enough ink to last me five weeks. Easy and inexpensive to replace, should they go astray.

 

Or Wing Sung 698 and a sample vial of ink.

Edited September 14, 2019 by Karmachanic

[maukapens]

Grant,

 

My wife and I are currently on a cross-country trip. We each have Opus 88 Picnic pens, chosen for their ink capacity. I re-inked mine after almost 4 weeks of journaling and my wife has yet to refill hers.

 

We are camping and have travelled from Maryland to (now) Utah. The elevation changes present no issues for the pens.

 

My only regret is that I only brought one pen for what will amount to a 6+ week trip. I don't journal except on trips and should use this as an excuse to use more pens.

 

Your VP is a good choice but I would have to re-ink mine often under current circumstances.

 

Regards,

Craig

What other pens would you have taken if you could? Also how do you re-ink on your trip?

[kazoolaw]

Always a 51 Flighter, which leaked while in an upright position on a flight yesterday. First flight leakage I've had.

 

gary

[Beechwood]

Always a 51 Flighter, which leaked while in an upright position on a flight yesterday. First flight leakage I've had.

 

gary

 

 

There is a current and very lively debate on another forum which says that air travel with a pen is risk free. I have had pen leaks on two flights and hence the reason I carry empty pens on flights, only 2 out of 8 contributors say that it is not worth the risk of carrying a full pen.

[Karmachanic]

How the pens are carried is of great importance. Full and nib up rarely gives rise to problems. If one must write in-flight, wait until cruising altitude before uncapping, with tissue/napkin on hand, in case.

 

Pens with shut-off valves are safest.

[Beechwood]

How the pens are carried is of great importance. Full and nib up rarely gives rise to problems. If one must write in-flight, wait until cruising altitude before uncapping, with tissue/napkin on hand, in case.

 

Pens with shut-off valves are safest.

 

 

The two that leaked for me were full cartridge pens, left capped during the flight and carried nib upright throughout the flight. The caps were full of ink when I landed and the cartridges were emptied, one Parker, the other a Lamy.

 

I agree your point on shut off valves, not many of those around though, is there?

Edited September 14, 2019 by Beechwood

[ParramattaPaul]

How the pens are carried is of great importance. Full and nib up rarely gives rise to problems. If one must write in-flight, wait until cruising altitude before uncapping, with tissue/napkin on hand, in case.

 

Pens with shut-off valves are safest.

I learned the hard way about fountain pens and high altitude flights circa the mid 1960s. I opened my pen to fill in the customs and immigration documents and ended up with blue fingers and unreadable forms.

 

Now,I always empty my fountain pens before flying -- just in case.

[Karmachanic]

I agree your point on shut off valves, not many of those around though, is there?

 

There is some choice. Penbbs 355, 456, Wing Sung 699, 3013, TWSBI 700, and mini vac, Opus 88, Demonstrator, Koloro, Picnic, Pilot 893, and Conid come to mind. There are also vintage Japanese ED pens with shut of valves.

[BaronWulfraed]

I have memories of only one definitive in-flight leak (and maybe one other occurrence) during my time at Lockheed, and undergoing TDY trips from Sunnyvale to the UK two or three times a year (for near 20 years).

 

It was a cheap pen, and sitting in a pocket in a rather horizontal position (I suspect I was also rather horizontal given the duration of a flight between SFO and LHR).

 

Don't recall any problems with the other pens I'd carried over that time period (cartridge/converter models -- it was years before I obtained a piston fill Pelikan). Mostly Sheaffer models (Targa, Balance II, Intrigue, Legacy), Parker Duofold, Sailor Magellan, Waterman LeMan 100 Opera...

[ethernautrix]

I've only ever had leaks with vintage pens, but not all (of my) vintage pens (that I've travelled with).

 

Can't remember a modern pen leaking, but it probably happened at least once. For the past several years, though, my modern pens have not leaked during at least one roundtrip international flight per year. I make sure the pens are topped off and then go. No plastic bags, no making sure the nibs are up.

 

I'm flying out again in a couple of days, will bring three or five pens. Or nine. Struggling over this. Definitely taking Pilots and Nakayas.

Edited September 14, 2019 by ethernautrix

[ncpenfan]

Usually one ball point and one fountain pen. Parker 51 or Parker Sonett ballpoint. Pelican fountain pen is Incredibly reliable. They hold a lot of ink Especially if you are using a smaller nib size.

 

Cross Townsend fountain pen is also an incredibly good choice.

[kestrel]

Several hundred flights carrying one or more fountain pens, modern and vintage, various filling systems, various states of fullness without a single leak. I always carry them nib up and never try to use them on the ascent.

 

I posted this under another topic:

 

I have carried pens in breast pockets for more than 30 years and never had a burp/leak problem with any of them. Vintage pens, modern pens, fully inked, partially inked, shutoff valve, no shutoff valve, on airplanes and helicopters, on long drives through mountains. The key factor is which way the nib is pointing. Nib up allows air to escape as it expands with heat or pressure changes because it is at the top of the sac/converter/cartridge/barrel. Nib down, on the other hand, will lead to burps (and colorful metaphors from the owner of the resulting damaged clothing/luggage) when ascending as decreasing external pressure causes the pressure in the pen to force the ink out. Ditto increasing temperature which causes the air in the pen to expand, forcing the ink out. Writing with a fountain pen on a plane that is going up is risking blobs. Writing during descent can cause skips and dry writing depending on the feed as air is pushed in through the ink channel to equalize pressure and interrupting ink flow.

 

 

Knock on wood.

[ParramattaPaul]

Interestingly, I noticed that all, literally all, of the airport shops at KLAX had Lamy fountain pens on sale when I passed through there this past January.

[Runnin_Ute]

Currently on vacation in Cancun. Left SLC on the 12th with a layover in Atlanta. Used my Pelikan M150 during the SLC to ATL leg. Acting like it was empty or near empty so I switched out to my Parker 45 Flighter. No issues with either during the flight. The M150 has a smaller capacity than the M200 line. How much I am not sure.

 

Since arriving I have used a Pilot Metropolitan and Parker 51 Special. Have a Jinhao 599 with me too, but haven't used it yet.

 

Dont recall any ink splatters during the flight. All were kept nib up, most were full or near full when we left.

[DrDebG]

I fly a lot. I always take two pen cases with 4-5 pens in each. Why so many? One pen case if full of "giveaway" pens (i.e. Pilot Metropolitans, Platinum Preppys, etc.) In my other case, I generally carry 4 Lamys - generally a couple of Safaris, an Al-Star and a Studio. The converters are generally full and I bring along extra Lamy cartridges. Both pen cases are zipper cases, but they both fit into a ziploc bag, and are carried "nib up" in my carry-on. I have used my pens in-flight (at cruising altitude) and have never had a problem.

 

The only time I have had a problem was when I was driving through the Rockies. At the top of a 10,000 foot pass, I stopped to take some photos and make some notes using my TWSBI 540. That night in my hotel room, I opened the pen case and noticed that the pen had leaked inside the case. Thankfully, it was a quick cleanup, and the case easily washed up. The next morning, the case was dry and I packed up my pens and moved on to my next destination.