What Is The Longest You’Ve Ever Used A Pen?

[ncpenfan]

What is the longest youve ever used a pen?

I have seen posts of fellow pen users that state that they have used the same pen for over 10 years at work.

 

If you were one of these folks:

What was the pen?

What was the preferred ink?

 

Im looking through my collection at the moment. I have discovered that a vanishing point, the pelican 200 and 400 and 600 and a townsend have been in my regular rotation. That is a far cry from a single pen.

[silverlifter]

I bought my Sheaffer Targa in 1984 and it is still in my rotation.

 

It was constantly inked from then until 2017 when the rubber sac in the converter perished. So I went online to see how to replace it and discovered that the Internet and fountain pens were a thing... Suffice to say, things changed. Over those years, I only had two pens, Now, I still ink the pen up from time to time, but now it has to compete with others.

Edited March 15, 2020 by silverlifter

[langere]

Never more than a month or three. I just have too many pens I need to attend to and give them my attention. Right now I have a whole bunch of newly acquired pens that I need to use first and see how they work before I get back to my regulars. Before, I mixed in my rotation the pens in my collection with the new ones, but now I want to get through the new ones and experience them first. Too many new ones for me to add my old reliables...

 

Erick

[KBeezie]

This is particularly one of the reasons I want to continue shrinking down what I have.

 

One particular pen I have, especially during college has been consistently in my rotation and got used quite frequently between 2014 onward and that is my 1956 Pelikan 400NN with a 14K Semi-flex EF, mostly for notetaking with the various art history classes (would have taken history of architecture too had they not said I already had enough credits to graduate).

 

Despite usually doing a seasonal rotation, that pen has usually always been kept ready to use, least until I got my Montblanc 14 with an 18C EF.

[inkstainedruth]

Not anything like ten years, but the 1937 Vac Red Shadow Wave was in regular rotation for over three without any sort of flushing or need for attention -- just refilled with ink as needed. I do need to flush it out now, because it's been sitting, and I also need to fix the jewel screw on the blind cap.

But once that's done, it may very well go back into rotation relatively soon, because it's nice size and a pretty pen and it writes well. Not too shabby for something that has been around for over 8 decades, and bought "as is". It didn't even need any rehab when I bought it (although I did have it checked out on the grounds that it WAS bought "as is". I did baby it some, by using a "safe" and unsaturated ink (Waterman Mysterious Blue); I have plenty of pens for more saturated or "problematic" inks.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[kazoolaw]

Parker 51 Flighter-the first one was in daily rotation until it was sold off for a passing fancy. Its successor has been in daily use at work for 20+ years. Not the wide nib as the first, but it's fed a steady diet of Private Reserve DC Super Show Blue for a clear distinct line. It usually has another pen along but it's a go to pen, so much that the frosted finish is now polished steel.

 

gary

Edited March 15, 2020 by gary

[Arkanabar]

For over ten to twenty years after I bought it, my blue swirl F Pelikan M200 was always inked. My dad was a one man one pen kind of guy, and his black and lustraloy F Parker "51" was continuously inked from when he first bought it (presumably 1954, after he left the Army and entered university) until at least 1980, when the Pentel Rolling Writer came on the market.

Edited March 15, 2020 by Arkanabar

[jchch1950]

About five years when I was student. When you have only one pen that is good writer even if you have more pens in the desk. I still have that pen formally retired . After I began to have income then the new pens start to come in, until you realice that you have a small collection and I became a collector . Since then a rotation has been the rule.

[Roger W.]

Sheaffer Targa 1982 and it is in my pocket presently. I use Skrip ink that was bottled in the 50's blue-black or black usually. I actually have the Sheaffer school pen from 1980 that has Skrip peacock in it on my desk.

 

Roger W.

[yubaprof]

In 1973 I bought a Sheaffer Targa and used it daily until 1986 when my wife gifted me a Montblanc 146. That started an accumulation of other pens, but I still have the Targa and still use it. It's battered and mended, but still writes a nice line.

[Trekker]

I used a Parker Duofold from 1993 to 2018.

 

My preferred inks while they were available were Penman Ebony and Penman Sapphire. I switched to Aurora Black when I ran out of Ebony.

[chravagni]

The pens that I used longer, and still use, are the school Pelikano pens from the eighties (model 5). I have some and are still the quickest to pick when I need a workhorse pen. My first is from 1984 and still in rotation. (I used the model 3 in the schoolyears before, but I don't use them anymore for fear of breaking them).

 

Then a blue Lamy safari with black clip from the nineties and an Aurora Marco Polo from about the same time. But old Pelikanos first.

 

Typos edited.

Edited March 15, 2020 by chravagni

[vicpen123]

Parker 45 bought new in the late 70s and used continuously until the early 90s when superseded by the computer keyboard.

 

Revived on an irregular basis since then when I needed a fountain pen fix.

[dadbar]

Still have the Sheaffer Imperial 330 that I bought in the 1970s when I was in college. It still gets used but not as much as when it was new.

[OMASsimo]

I used a Montblanc Generation with MB Blue ink from 1990 through 2003 as my only pen, so it was inked and used continuously. It broke twice and the second time I retired it. My search for a good replacement started out as an odyssey and gradually led me to vintage pens and OMAS. By now I have so many pens in my collection that non of them is inked continuously anymore. But I always have an OMAS, a vintage Pelikan, and a vintage Kaweco inked at any time. The only question is which of them and which inks to choose. (Currently an Amerigo Vespucci, 400NN, and Dia 805)

[DonM]

I purchased a Pelikan M400 in 1997 and used it exclusively until 2013. I bought it both because I found the blue stripe really attractive and it was a piston filler. I simple got tired of the Parker Duofold International's poor balance posted and the small ink capacity (a pen I had used for seven years). Now I prefer larger pens like the M800.

[sansenri]

Around 1970 my parents bought me a Pelikan, the model was probably a P474 cartridge pen, I've never found an identical one after it got lost many years later.

More or less, by rough calculation of when it was lost/misplaced, I have used that one and only pen for about 20 years (I remember the nib through use had become sort of oblique...). I did love it.

[Qoan]

My uncle gave me my first "proper" fountain pen almost exactly 25 years ago, an Inoxcrom ID with an F/M nib. I didn't start using it immediately as I was afraid of damaging it and I kept using a couple of cheapos, but I've been using it for sure over the last 20 years to different degrees. I started using it just when I was home, and then it became my workhorse during uni. Nowadays it doesn't see that much use, but I still keep it inked most of the time (the screw cap is tight, so there are no colour changes or hard starts even if I don't write with it in a couple of weeks). It is a very sturdy pen, very reliable, and it's still my "special" pen.

[jameswatts]

I bought my first Parker Sonnet in 1994, the year the model was introduced. It remains inked to this day, and has never given me a moment’s trouble.

[wspohn]

Parker 45 bought new in the late 70s and used continuously until the early 90s when superseded by the computer keyboard.

 

Revived on an irregular basis since then when I needed a fountain pen fix.

 

Same for me - don't use them very often (45 flighter FP and BP) but still get them out once in awhile. Too many other pens to have more than a couple of dozen regular use pens.