Who Gave/received Fountain Pens For Christmas?

[Tom Kellie]

He did buy me a fountain pen for my birthday - a lovely Waterman Carene with a fine nib.

 

But as he told before Christmas, he would prefer that I purchase the fountain pen that I want. He knows that I have been trying to condense my collection to just the pens that I really want to keep. But he also knows that I have had my eye on another Montblanc.

 

~ DrDebG:

 

May 2020 be the year when another Montblanc fountain pen arrives on your writing desk!

Tom K.

[WLSpec]

I discovered that a friend of mine in Canada has been writing with a Rotring Art pen. I sent him a Lamy Safari, a Wing Sung 3008, and a German calligraphy set, and a bottle of Noodlers Heart of Darkness. He's thrilled and I so was I.

Nice!

[brokenclay]

As I have acquired my small inventory of fountain pens, my husband has been very interested, and has tried them all. He had a Shaeffer Snorkel in his youth. For Christmas he received my black Nemosine Singularity with an F nib, and De Atramentis Edgar Allen Poe, as he wanted a "British racing green" ink.

 

My eldest son already uses a Waterman Charleston that he received as a gift from his high school English teacher (!). I gave him a red Retro Pop Metropolitan with a medium calligraphy nib, and a sample of Noodler's Saguaro Wine.

 

My daughter has been using the very self-same roller ball for 5 years (she is very frugal). She received a green Retro Pop Metropolitan, M, and a sample of De Atramentis Jane Austen. Both were a big hit, as they match her new green journal. She is already planning to buy a bottle of Jane Austen.

 

My youngest son received an orange Retro Pop Metropolitan F and a sample of Noodler's Apache Sunset. The dog took a liking to his sample (thank goodness it wasn't a permanent ink!), and so I substituted Monteverde California Teal. He is intrigued, and is trying it out.

 

I think I have probably converted them all to some level of fountain pen use. As soon as the pens were unwrapped there was a flurry of inking and trading around of pens to try them all out.

[inkstainedruth]

Didn't give any pens (most of the family think I'm pretty weird to begin with). But I got a US-made NOS Parker Vector Geometric. And when I was in NYC at the beginning of the week, I went on my more or less annual pilgrimage to Fountain Pen Hospital. Picked up a bunch of Parker twist converters (since I discovered that I had more Vectors than I realized -- and therefore more Vectors than that style converter ) and once that was remedied I also picked up a back up bottle of MB Beatles Psychedelic Purple, since it was still available.

If there is a gift exchange/Yankee swap at something I'm going to in a few weeks, I may pick up an inexpensive calligraphy set to bring.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Freddy]

All the time including ink/paper....me wife gets 'em year round including Christmas Anniversary Birthday...et al

Grandchildren...Friends....others...........

 

Fred..

everyday is Christmas...life is good....and I never met a pen I didn't like.......

[jchch1950]

I received a MB 144 with silver cap and barrel

[sanphoemo]

I received a Pelikan M1000 with M nib from my husband. He knows that I love fountain pens and that I wanted a green striped M1000 to keep my M1005 Streseman company.

Edited December 28, 2019 by sanphoemo

[PAKMAN]

No pens but my stepson gave me a bottle of Pelikan 4001 royal blue for Christmas!

[TSherbs]

No pens but my stepson gave me a bottle of Pelikan 4001 royal blue for Christmas!

good boy

[vivdunstan]

I didn't receive a pen but my husband bought me a bottle of Diamine Scribble Purple ink for Christmas (80ml).

 

I was actually buying it myself, and emailed him to confess. He emailed back "Erm, please don't!" Which was rather weird. Phoned him up, discovered he'd ordered some direct from Diamine for me as a present (I'd been talking about the ink the night before). So promptly changed my Cult Pens order to my usual colour bottle I can always use.

 

Both bottles arrived on the same day! I had to wait for my piston filler to run out of ink - I was scribbling furiously on Christmas Day to use it up! Got to the new purple ink just after midnight, so the start of 26th December. Love it.

 

An absolutely marvellous Christmas present from my adored husband. Who'd have thought a present of a bottle of ink could be so exciting

[melissa59]

No and No.

 

This Christmas we chose not to give gifts to each other.

The past five or so years our family has not exchanged Christmas gifts. We've found that doing so removes a lot of stress during the holidays. No spending money some of us can't afford to spend. No buying a gift that the recipient might not like or use. No fighting the crowds. And less guilt when we spend a money on ourselves during the November Black Friday sales.

 

We do play a white elephant gift game with a big pile of $1-2 items gathered throughout the year from visits to Dollar Tree or Harbor Freight (mini flashlight, pot holder, nail polish, candy, lottery scratcher, back scratcher, kitchen spatula, keychain, etc.) It's a lot of fun that includes a bit of unwrapping, a bit of "stealing" and lots of laughter.

 

Things might be different if there were children in the family. For whatever reason my sons, niece and nephew have chosen not to have children. The youngest in our family is my eldest son's 18-year-old step-daughter. She is the only one I gave a gift to (on the sly, when I walked her out to her car). It just seemed appropriate to get her a fountain pen, what with her starting college last fall.

[Thymen]

A Moonman M600S, and two Jinhao X750. From my brother in law. My wife brought them with her when she returned from Beijing the day before Christmas.

[bemon]

Not for Christmas, but my daughter who turned 4 today woke up asking “Daddy since I’m a big girl can I have one of your special pencils?” Took me a while to unravel that, but then my wife reminded me I told her I’d get her a “special pen” when she was older.

 

I guess since she’s aware she woke up older she figures she’s ready. So I ordered her a Lamy ABC. 4 is probably far too early, but it may actually encourage her to work on her letters. And if she gets messy, then she gets messy. She’s 4

[bemon]

The past five or so years our family has not exchanged Christmas gifts. We've found that doing so removes a lot of stress during the holidays. No spending money some of us can't afford to spend. No buying a gift that the recipient might not like or use. No fighting the crowds. And less guilt when we spend a money on ourselves during the November Black Friday sales.

 

We do play a white elephant gift game with a big pile of $1-2 items gathered throughout the year from visits to Dollar Tree or Harbor Freight (mini flashlight, pot holder, nail polish, candy, lottery scratcher, back scratcher, kitchen spatula, keychain, etc.) It's a lot of fun that includes a bit of unwrapping, a bit of "stealing" and lots of laughter.

 

Things might be different if there were children in the family. For whatever reason my sons, niece and nephew have chosen not to have children. The youngest in our family is my eldest son's 18-year-old step-daughter. She is the only one I gave a gift to (on the sly, when I walked her out to her car). It just seemed appropriate to get her a fountain pen, what with her starting college last fall.

I like that. We drive ourselves further into debt each year buying stuff we have no space to store. I try to suggest the no gifts theme each year. Except for kids. We at least dialed it back this year to mostly stuff we actually needed like clothes or in my dads case a box of craft beer Edited December 29, 2019 by bemon

[JulieParadise]

How sweet! And, let me tell you, 4 may not be too young ... my children got fountain pens when they were 4 and 3 years old, always using them when supervised, of course. Since both could handle brushes well at that age I figured their motor skills might be developed enough and, alas, those pens I got from a dollar store equivalent here in Germany survived until we gave them as "extra pens" to the class for when someone forgot their pens. -- The Lamy ABC is a perfect choice, as it is fun and sturdy and getting replacement nibs should neither be difficult nor expensive.

 

So, Daddy not only holds his promise but chose wisely. Have fun with your daughter and her writing endeavours!

[corgicoupe]

I received a Wahl Eversharp Skyline barrel at a "Christmas gift price" to replace the one I destroyed trying to remove the J-bar.

 

My daughter gave me a Tactile Turn Titanium bolt action ball point pen to replace the one I'd lost last year.

[bemon]

How sweet! And, let me tell you, 4 may not be too young ... my children got fountain pens when they were 4 and 3 years old, always using them when supervised, of course. Since both could handle brushes well at that age I figured their motor skills might be developed enough and, alas, those pens I got from a dollar store equivalent here in Germany survived until we gave them as "extra pens" to the class for when someone forgot their pens. -- The Lamy ABC is a perfect choice, as it is fun and sturdy and getting replacement nibs should neither be difficult nor expensive.

 

So, Daddy not only holds his promise but chose wisely. Have fun with your daughter and her writing endeavours!

Thanks! Yeah I figured if she mashes a nib I can just pull the duplicate off my safari that I don’t use anymore. But she actually used a Zebra disposable fountain from Staples before and I just let her do whatever she wanted with it. Out of my own curiosity. She doesn’t have the strength to bend a nib without dropping it.

 

I also wanted the Lamy because I’ve personally had incredible customer service experiences with them. My daily is a Lamy 2000 and it’s on its second cap, second cap fastener, and second nib section. Six years of pretty hard use. Even my sister’s bf bought a Safari, it arrived with a crack and they expedited a replacement no questions asked. So they deserve the business in my opinion.

 

Can’t wait for her to open it up! It should arrive in a week or so. Just in time for her to get bring home some home work.

[Misfit]

Hey, I got the AL-Star bronze too! How are you liking it so far? I have a F nib on it and it is quite nice.

I like the color of the pen a lot. I was mainly trying out inks I got, so I have not tried the Al-Star yet. I also got the bronze cartridges. Mine came with a F nib also. I usually change them out for a 1.1mm italic nib. However I decided to use a smaller nib size in the Travelers Notebook calendar insert I received. At the front you can write in information for each day in each month. Enough room to write a holiday name or birthday. Maybe I’ll use the bronze Al-Star and bronze ink.

[Noihvo]

 

[…]

 

Finally .... she got me a Montblanc Meisterstück Solitaire Tribute to the Mont Blanc White Mozart with rose gold trim & (M) nib. It's still in the original box with papers. I am a little bit in awe of this pen. It is a disontinued LE, and occasionally auctions off for absurd amounts of money. (She bragged about sniping it.) Like my beloved wife, it is small, beautiful, fair, and precious.

 

Unlike my wife, it isn't really something I want to keep. I do my best to love people and use things, rather than the other way around. So my approach to things is largely utilitarian. I don't like to have stuff laying around for which I have no use. And because it is small, and kind of heavy, and slim, and the finish is apparently rather delicate, it isn't really useful to me. I like pens that are lightweight, moderately girthy (9.3-11mm at the section), long enough to reach the web of my thumb when writing, and robust enough to take the battering that comes with my chosen avocation of nursing. This pen fails on every count.

 

Fortunately, my wife already knows that I am super particular about my pens, and her goal with this one was to have me in awe of her deovtion and the purchase, rather than to purchase a beloved jewel for writing that I would cherish forever.

 

[…]

 

 

[corgicoupe]

A gift can surely be kept because it was a gift even though it isn not useful.