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

[ENewton]

For about 20 years, I used only a Waterman Gentleman with Pelikan 4001 Violet. I still use that pen, but since 2015 it has been in rotation with several other pens.

[br549]

The pen I've owned the longest is an unbranded cartridge FP bought at Walmart in the early 90's, later upgraded with a converter. No markings whatsoever on the pen other than Germany on the top of the clip. It rarely gets used anymore because of how wet it writes compared to the others in the stable.

Edited October 14, 2020 by br549

[Brianm_14]

I used the same Waterman fountain pen (can't recall the model), which was given to me around 1970, through college, plus several iterations of grad school on my way to becoming a college professor, It was only retired when the plastic housing cracked near the nib around 2012. That's about 42 years of faithful service in nearly daily use. I wrote thousands of pages of course and research notes with that pen and either Waterman or Sheaffer blue-black ink.

 

The sad loss led me to FPN in search of a new fountain pen, and the innocent first purchase of a Pilot Metropolitan -little did I know what I was getting into.

 

Today, I am as likely to pick up one of my three TWSBI Eco's or a vintage Parker '51 as any of my more expensive pens.

[hbdk]

A LAMY Safari Umbra/charcoal that my parents gave me in the early 80'ies when the model had just hit the market. For many years it was my only fountain pen. It was out of use for a couple of years and I thought I had lost it until it turned up in a drawer where it was not supposed to be. Removed the cap and it wrote right away. Still inked to this day.

[sandy101]

I have one plastic WHSmith school pen that lasted six years - that was my only FP at the time until it cracked. (It wasn't made to last).

 

The oldest pen I've had has been a Cross Century 2 that I've had for over twenty years. It's been in and out of rotation, but still gets use.

 

I have older pens though - an 90 year old Swan pen of some kind, and my grandfather's 80 year old Parker Victory, and at least on of my Parker 51's is 70 years old and getting a lot of use.

[kestrel]

Pelikan M800 that I purchased in 2000 to celebrate a very significant professional accomplishment. I swapped out the nib for a Binder Italifine in 2011 after a most welcome medical report. I inked it with Bad Belted Kingfisher 20 years ago and it has been inked and raring to write ever since except for one period when it went on holiday to Indy Pen Dance for nib repairs after one of my cats decided to use it for a toy. Second place is a 1929 oversize Sheaffer's black and pearl Balance that has been in almost constant inked and ready status for most of the last 15 years. I give it a rest for a week or so every year but it always kicks up a fuss until I bring it back into the rotation. Always has to be the center of attention that one does.

[Mangrove Jack]

Pelikan M800 that I purchased in 2000 to celebrate a very significant professional accomplishment. I swapped out the nib for a Binder Italifine in 2011 after a most welcome medical report. I inked it with Bad Belted Kingfisher 20 years ago and it has been inked and raring to write ever since except for one period when it went on holiday to Indy Pen Dance for nib repairs after one of my cats decided to use it for a toy. Second place is a 1929 oversize Sheaffer's black and pearl Balance that has been in almost constant inked and ready status for most of the last 15 years. I give it a rest for a week or so every year but it always kicks up a fuss until I bring it back into the rotation. Always has to be the center of attention that one does.

 

Has the Pelikan M800 been inked with Bad Belted Kingfisher throughout the 20 years ?

BBK is my favourite ink along with Noodlers Black Bulletproof (yes, I have a liking for archival inks because of bad experiences with inks fading over time).

[kestrel]

Has the Pelikan M800 been inked with Bad Belted Kingfisher throughout the 20 years ?

BBK is my favourite ink along with Noodlers Black Bulletproof (yes, I have a liking for archival inks because of bad experiences with inks fading over time).

Yes. BBK is a high maintenance ink and the nib gets a thorough cleaning every third fill. I also monitor the piston and add some silicone grease to the barrel when necessary. Richard did a magnificent job on the Italifine nib and it forms a lovely combination with the BBK.

[Dimy]

Camlin trinity, now no longer a primary pen but still used in for over a decade (13 years to be exact) till 2018, pens still alive and kicking just not in use as often as it used to be, apart from nostalgia of school days sometimes.

 

Second would be wality 69EB for 7 years, untill it was lost, bought another one recently still using. Rest of the lot are relatively new (same as me in FP spectrum).

[Mangrove Jack]

Yes. BBK is a high maintenance ink and the nib gets a thorough cleaning every third fill. I also monitor the piston and add some silicone grease to the barrel when necessary. Richard did a magnificent job on the Italifine nib and it forms a lovely combination with the BBK.

Thanks. I have had BBK in a Pelikan M200 for the last 2 years and never cleaned or flushed it out yet. It works fine. However, I think it's time for a good flushing. Edited October 28, 2020 by Mangrove Jack

[Mercian]

I bought my first fountain pen in 1994. It’s a Parker Vector (with a ‘Medium’ nib).

 

I don’t have it in-rotation constantly, but it does still get used, and it is inked at the moment (with a cartridge of Quink Blue/black).

[Honeybadgers]

It was my wing sung 698 with pilot plumix stub (3 years and counting) but I lost it a couple months ago.

 

And then I refound it, so it's still my longest running user (it never technically was without ink!)

[Runnin_Ute]

During the period of 1998 - 2004 I had one or both of the following continuously inked: a Lamy Al Star with original aluminum finish and a red marbled Waterman Phileas. These are the only pens I had between 1998 and December 2012 when I picked up another Phileas. There were stretches where one or both was not inked.

 

More recently my Pelikan 140 has been inked continuously since its arrival in August 2017. With Pelikan 4001 Blue Black for all but one or two fills.

 

Most of my pens "get a turn" though.

[Honeybadgers]

My mom used the phileas I got her (well, six year old me begged my stepdad to buy her) for about 20 years straight. But she only had one fountain pen, so it kinda doesn't count.

[MarioR81]

On 10/28/2020 at 8:14 PM, Honeybadgers said:

It was my wing sung 698 with pilot plumix stub (3 years and counting) but I lost it a couple months ago.

 

And then I refound it, so it's still my longest running user (it never technically was without ink!)

 

This sound like an interesting setup. Do you have writing sample of the 698 with the pilot plumix stub?

[mizgeorge]

I was given a Papermate flighter (currently wearing Waterman Serenity Blue) for a significant birthday in the very early 80's and a MB149 (always filled with MB emerald green, the old version) three years later for another big birthday. Both are on my desk and in use pretty much daily, as they have been throughout the last almost 40 years.

 

But they're beaten by some way by my first 'proper' pen - a lovely battered old Pelikan 140, currently filled with Diamine Green Umber that seems to match it very nicely) that I've had for 50 years and it was a good 10 years old when I got it. I used it this morning. I grew up in the Parker 25 era, and of course I had a couple (along with all the other 'school' pens - but I never liked them much, and always went back to the trusty 140 - despite being the only person left using bottled ink rather than cartridges.

 

All three will doubtless by written with again before the end of the day, and none have ever needed anything other than the occasional water flush to behave perfectly. 

 

I have lots of other pens, and use all of them, but these three are the special ones.

[Karmachanic]

9636 miles.

[Manofadventure]

A Waterman Charleston GT with the sweetest 18K M nib, which I bought after a personal and professional milestone in 2008 and a couple of years after the sad loss of my Inoxcrom Elleste, which a dear friend had gifted me back in college in 1999.

 

Since then, I have gotten myself quite a few fountain pens, most of them vintage including an MB 142 Meisterstuck and a Soennecken 510, Pelikan 140s and 400s and a truly delightful Waterman 12 and some splendid Waterman lever fillers - W2, W3 and 515.  With the exception of my Waterman 12, all of these stand eclipsed by bog standard Indian ebonite eyedroppers from Gama and ASA, which are just so much more rugged, simplistic, minimalist and comfortable and pleasureable for long form writing compared to these marquees.

 

And yet, the ones that sing with my soul above all else, in descending order are my Waterman Charleston, a celluloid Omega Supernova fitted with a flexy 18K Waterman nib B~3B and my Waterman 12 with its flexy 18K nib B ~ 3B.

[ipse dixit]

I got my sterling silver Parker 75 at Foleys in Boston for $25 in 1972.  I still use it, along with the matching ball point I got later.

[Targa]

I still have, and sometimes use, my first "good" pen, which was a Senior Maxima Vacumatic my wife gave me when we were young lovers. (I still have the same wife too, BTW.)  It looks like it, too.  The clip and band are worn just about flat.  I later bought a Sr Maxima "Azure Blue" just to keep one pristine, and it has never been inked.  It has aged rather better than I have.  

The other longest-use pen I have is another gift from my wife, which was a then newly-released Duofold in fall of 1987.  That has at least 9637 miles on it (of ink, but more like several hundred thousand in air travel miles.  Since it was quite good at not burping ink on an aircraft, it accompanied me through many trips across both the Atlantic and Pacific over the decades.)  Along with a matching pencil for crosswords and sudoku in the airline mags.  And a matching BP for when I ran out of real ink at some long-winded meeting.  .