How old are fountain pen enthusiasts?

[sumgaikid]

I'll be 52 tomorrow.

 

I took a passing interest in classy books about FP's back in 1993,but didn't really get involved in collecting

until 10 years later and that only in vintage pens. Just last year I started to get serious about 'contemporary"

pens and have 2--both Auroras--to show for it. I now keep my eyes open for both vintage and newer pens.

 

John

 

Happy early Birthday

 

As for me, I'm a 20 year old college student. Got into fountain pens when I found my old student Sheaffer fountain pen and decided to search up fountain pens. I found FPN and I've been hooked ever since.

 

Thanks for the B-day congrats

 

John

 

[JAPeN]

I am nearly 60,

 

What are we to do with you ..."are you nuts!!" you know the rules.

 

Rule1. When you are 2-3yo, you are "I dont know 20-ten I think"

Rule2. Ages 4-8 you accurately state you age as proof of your grasp of numbers (awwwwrrr ...so grown up)

Rule3. Ages 9-25 "I am nearly" and take your age to the next year, eg, a 9yo is nearly 10

Rule4. Ages 25+ YOU NEVER SAY YOU ARE NEARLY 60 WHEN YOU WERE BORN IN 1950.

 

YOU ARE 59!!

 

Alright, I suppose that I have to cough up.

Well I write like a 10yo but I am 47 (but look much younger)(Does having a young wife count?)

[rsx]

I am nearly 60,

 

What are we to do with you ..."are you nuts!!" you know the rules.

 

Rule1. When you are 2-3yo, you are "I dont know 20-ten I think"

Rule2. Ages 4-8 you accurately state you age as proof of your grasp of numbers (awwwwrrr ...so grown up)

Rule3. Ages 9-25 "I am nearly" and take your age to the next year, eg, a 9yo is nearly 10

Rule4. Ages 25+ YOU NEVER SAY YOU ARE NEARLY 60 WHEN YOU WERE BORN IN 1950.

 

YOU ARE 59!!

 

Alright, I suppose that I have to cough up.

Well I write like a 10yo but I am 47 (but look much younger)(Does having a young wife count?)

 

I'm 59, but since I'm just a teenager at heart, I can say "I'm nearly" 60.

 

Besides, grown up rules don't apply to us kidz.

[sumgaikid]

Just turned 56 a couple of days ago. All in all, a pretty good age; but then again, aren't they all?

 

They are indeed. Congratulations on your birthday :clap1:

 

John

 

[Chazzozz]

I'm 59, but since I'm just a teenager at heart, I can say "I'm nearly" 60.

 

Besides, grown up rules don't apply to us kidz.

 

Heh. the best quote I ever read was:

 

Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional. :roflmho:

 

[ribbit]

26 here. Why fps? Beautiful pens and a galaxy of ink color choices-how can a bic compare? Plus I have a major anachronistic streak-history major, pocket watches, needlework, etc.

[Denny]

I am 60, so I can say I have been with ink pens for 54 years. I got my first fountain pen about 50 years ago.

[gibsona9]

42 yrs young here. I have fallen in love with vintage flex nib pens, and Copperplate-style writing...

[lookingforleroy]

35, used one for awhile in University because they are easier on the hand. Just getting back into uses them because I was looking for a little pizzaz when writing to my customers or signing books.

[darkgreen]

There's something much more "gadgety" about them than other pens. I also like the way the ink flows, the wide selection of inks, and the really cool lettering I can do with a flexible nib. And that's where my current love of fountain pens lies: I still like them for everyday writing, but I'm currently especially interested in copperplate calligraphy. It's so completely different from any other pen-based activity I've tried, and I find it mesmerizing.

 

Nicely put! Yes indeed, now that you describe it - it is the gadget technology, as well as the ability to individualize a combination of pen, nib, ink and paper from a wide range of options. And I believe that the act of writing is more enjoyable. Too bad about the inky fingers.

[JHeels]

I'm 24, and I use fountain pens because I prefer my hatchet-job handwriting over any of the fonts available on my computer, and if I'm going to write by hand, I'm going to do it in the manner that gives my script the most character.

[djpyle]

I'm 27 and have been using fountain pens for about six years. Until recently I had only one pen, a Waterman Phileas my wife got me for Christmas our first year together, but in the last year I've added several more pens to my collection. I'm a writer (my first novel will be out later this year), and for me the act of putting words on paper is too special for a throwaway ballpoint. If my book does well, I plan on rewarding myself with a Nakaya Portable Writer. Fountain pens are so much more romantic and full of history. I suppose I feel the same way about a pen as a musician does his or her instrument. Yes, you can play a song on a fifty-dollar acoustic you got in the toy isle at Wal-Mart, but it's so much more rewarding to rock out on a Rickenbacker. When you're doing something you love, you want to do it with a tool that emphasizes that feeling. At least I do.

[Doug Add]

I'm closer to your age than that of your children, but I did not use fountain pens as a student. Pencils, ballpoints, and felt tips were my writing instruments from kindergarten through graduate school.

 

Not until a month before my 36th birthday did I own a fountain pen (or even write with one, for that matter!). What drew me were the aesthetics of beautiful pens and multiple ink choices. As I began to write with a fountain pen, it was the slower pace of real writing as opposed to the frantic scribbling in which I had previously engaged that captured my imagination.

 

Writing (I do a lot of it every day) was no longer merely utilitarian, a task to be completed. It was now an anticipated pleasure, and that mindset shift has continued these past 11+ years.

[WendyNC]

I'm 52 (which sumgaikid/John will be in about 15 minutes, so Happy Birthday!). I've always loved pens and the whole paper/ink/stationary thing and started using FPs on my own in late elementary school. I used them all through junior high and high school and got my first good FP for high school graduation. That pen covered quite a few miles of lines in college. When my work make using FPs not practical, I switched to the .5mm Pentel pencil and I used those primarily for many years. Then, there was the age of every various kind of writing stick under the sun and I tried them all. When I realized my handwriting had deteriorated to chicken scratch, I came back to fountain pens and, after more than three months' practice, I can almost stand to look at my own writing again.

 

 

[PAKMAN]

52 here, no fountain pens required where I went to school. Bought myself a Sheaffers School Pen around 1972 to play with and used it until the cartridges ran out. Got back into them about 6 years ago and the rest is history.

[blopplop]

I've been using FP's since the early 1600's. So now, at 47, I've been using FP's for over 392 years.

 

Dave

[Phormio]

31 here. Seems odd - lots of baby boomers and gen y but not to many from gen x.

[georges zaslavsky]

30 here and I started to write with FPs since the age of 6. Started to collect FPs since 2006. I like old and new fountain pens, FPs are like a mechanical watch, it is always nice to have many.

[nofa]

30... no real experience with fountain pens until March of this year with a Pilot Varsity.

[de Servantes]

36 here.

 

Went to school in Belgium (Catholic "college" for about 12 years, then a "bachelor" in accountancy). We learned to write with pencils (woodcase), then "graduated" to BP (Bic Cristal were issued by school) and at about 5th grade (10-11yo) there was a FP on the shopping list. Probably the instructions were: not too expensive, easily replaceable when lost and filled with "Bleu royal" (which in those days, existed from many manufacturers as a color, with and without snowflakes). I got a Waterman school pen (never leaked on me if I didn't touch the nib).

 

The use of FP was mandatory until the 3rd year of high-school, and from then it was kind of anything goes, make your own choices and start living your life (as far as it came to writing INSTRUMENT, the COLOUR was still a mandatory "business blue". From then on I used blue fine-tipped felt pens, roller ball refills, and Parker BP refills, but started thinking about it when I was about 30: I cleaned out one of those old Waterman school pens, went by a big-chain stationary store in town (Hey, what's this then, Bleu Royal is now called Florida Blue? And when did Waterman introduce turquoise? And brown? ) Next to a box of Florida Blue, South Sea Blue, Violet, Havana I also bought a couple of Kulturs, started writing with FP at work and at night-classes, started thinking about environmental issues like landfills of empty cartridges, started looking around the internet, found this great bunch of enablers and started my collection (aquisition disorder, actually)...

 

 

Greetings

Miguel