Fountain Pen Horror Stories?

[bjcmatthews]

Any threads here dealing with personal stories/tragedies relating to beloved pens??

 

I thought that if there wasn't, everyone could share them here...

 

I've been fairly lucky, worst thing I have had done to my pens is a sibling 'borrowed' my lamy safari and somehow busted the nib completely, and my lamy 2000 got snatched off me at university by some overzealous females who proceeded to write with it like a ballpoint (and whose hands were covered with greasy food in the process).

 

I had a mate whose mother borrowed his Lamy studio with a gold nib, and dropped it onto a slate floor, nib first.

 

Being students though our creme de le creme pens aren't all that irreplaceable or hugely expensive, but it got me wondering if anyone has any seriously unpleasant stories regarding there pens?

 

Share your pain:D

[stine4115]

My mother used my Parker Sonnet Cisele and crammed/forced the cap back on and wrecked the prong thingys inside the cap which had to be repaired. Needless to say, I've not ever let her touch any more of my pens. Its amazing how quickly something like that can happen! Its all in slow motion as I was saying "No, let me help you with that" and it was already done/wrecked and hurt!!!

[777]

Hmmm, wow, sad stories. I've done nothing to horrible. Dropped my first FP ever at least 7-8 times on the floor. Probably twice nib first. It's a cheap Chinese pen but seems to be built to survive nuclear holocaust. Just the other day I dropped a piece of the c/c converter for that pen down the sink drain ...

 

Regards,

777

[zutalors]

How about damage done withfountain pens? The ink in particular can cause some troubles. I got Diamine Poppy Red on a snow white shirt at work and looked like I was a stabbing victim until I got home. I use my pens every chance I get, but I live in horror that I will end up getting ink all over someone else's expensive clothes and face some kind of compo claim.

[jar]

I posted a story about one of my pens here.

[penicillin]

Probably not the worst: When I (49 years ago) left for college with my trusty Parker 21 Super, my Mother, who had given me the pen in high school, gave me some advice. She told me that a classmate would try to borrow the pen, but if I kept the cap, the pen would certainly be returned to me. Sure enough, in a physics lab freshman year, they guy across the table asked to borrow my pen. I kept the cap. He returned the pen, and without thinking about it, I put it in the breast pocket of my white shirt, uncapped. Filled with Scrip Permanent Black. Lab partner stared at me. Found that $5 pen had ruined $7 (if I remember correctly) shirt. Pen writes beautifully and is still in rotation; shirt is not.

M

[RyanWakefield]

Once I stupidly allowed a girl in my English class to borrow my Parker Vector (when I was just starting with fountain pens) in order to grade her workbook. I figured no one could damage a pen with just a few checks and x's. I was wrong. When I got the pen back, the tip of the nib was completely bent back. The girl had written with the nib upside down and must have used ridiculous pressure, because it is hard to bend a steel nib. I still have that pen for some reason.

[irbyls]

This thread makes me frightened for my pens! I'm so sorry that you've had these experiences.

 

Nothing bad has never happened to me (yet). Probably because everyone I know realizes in about 2 seconds that I will give them a death glare if they try to borrow a pen without permission. (I give a terrifying death glare; it's apparently very out of whack with my regular smiling/laughing visage.) Even after they ask I keep the pen and say, "Now, have you ever written with a fountain pen before?" If they say no, then I tell them how to do it and watch them like a hawk.

 

At least no one--except for a few fountain pen buddies I have--asks me for a pen twice.

[ethernautrix]

You mean like the pair of Bohemes (FP & BP) in a leather case that fell out of my pocket probably on Delancey Street in New York City and is gone forever?

 

I got a story like that.

[Ernst Bitterman]

About 2006, I'm writing away with a medium-low end Waterman of the 1980s. A hair more pressure than I usually put on a pen and *bang* the section dumps its threads, leaving me with a horrible spouting head in my hand and a slowly leaking decapitated body on the desk.

 

I sure wish I had someone else I could blame for that one. The trauma has turned me into a fountain pen hoarder.

Edited August 13, 2010 by Ernst Bitterman

[OMASmaniac]

For some unfortunate reason, looks like my favourite fountain pens are doomed if they're borrowed by someone:

 

At secondary school my favourite one was a blue Aurora magellano. I really loved that pen. Almost insanely!

Once, a professor borrowd it to sign some papers. The pen never wrote again as before... it started skipping, leaking (A LOT!), having all sorts of problems... now it lies in a drawer, unused since then. I stll wonder how that idiot could destroy a pen with just a signature! And there were no noticeable breakings in the pen! The nib looked just fine, everythig looked fine, but... probably the pen felt shocked and refused to work well from that moment on ...

 

At high school my favourite was, for a certain period, a vintage pelikan that belonged to my mother. Borrowed once by a student ...... it stopped writing. He didn't even use it! He just tried to write, told me "Hey fabio, your pen doesn't write!" and gave it back to me ... it was able to use it only after 3 years, when I went to university in a big city and I discovered (!!!) that there were whole shops that sell pens and even repair them!!! Woooooha! It was the first of a long series to get repaired.

 

Apart from this, nothing particularly tragic...

 

OH, I FORGOT: some years ago I broke my very first pen, a Parker 25, I think :'(((((

I would give away all my pens (well, probably not all of them) but NEVER that Parker! Now it's still in the pencase, but is kept together by a rather un-professional repair made of super-strong glue....so "super strong" that I've already repaired it twice.... uff!!

Edited August 13, 2010 by OMASmaniac

[BamaPen]

This little pen wasn't beloved, yet, but it deserved much better than I gave it. It is (was) a Lakeside, Montgomery Ward's house brand; a tiny green marbled ringtop with a tiny 14K nib. It only needed a sac to be in top shape. I separated the barrel from the section, cleaned out the old sac, wiggled the pressure bar and decided that it must be deteriorated because it moved so easily. So, I grabbed the end with my needle nosed pliers and pulled it out, then realized it was a hanging pressure bar of the sort that National Pen Company frequently used. I could not replace the bar, so I tried to get the rest of it out and failed miserably. At that point, I figured I'd just slip a little J-bar in and all would be OK, so I turned to the section/feed/nib and drove the feed and nib out of the section. Unfortunately, I did more damage, cracking the nipple. I went ahead and cleaned everything in my ultrasonic cleaner, then absent mindedly re-fitted the feed and nib to the section, finally realizing I needed to repair the cracked nipple. A little super glue...oh, &%#@, it got on the feed, which I should have removed again. Tried to drive out the feed before the glue set...too late. The feed and nib broke. So, I have managed to reduce this pretty little pen to spare parts and I feel pretty foolish. The worst of it is that I was simply careless and did not think thru what I was doing.

 

I'm sorry, little pen.

[Koyote]

Jar, I followed the link and read the story of your grandfather's pen. I trust that it is true, but even if it were fiction it would be a wonderful story.

 

That reminds me that all morning I have been using a Sheaffer that my grandfather gave me as a college graduation gift 25 years ago. If I ever lost that pen I would be very upset.

[jar]

Jar, I followed the link and read the story of your grandfather's pen. I trust that it is true, but even if it were fiction it would be a wonderful story.

 

Everything I post is true, particularly the parts I make up.

[jniforat]

I bought a vintage sheaffer vac-fill at an Antique store when i was a n00b...i filled it up that night, and used it for a rather important african archaeology midterm (all in essay format). halfway through the test, the sheaffer released all the ink onto the paper and got all over me...

 

i destroyed the pen after the test out of frustration!

 

However, knowing more about pens now...it's more my fault than the sheaffer's as I shouldn't have assumed it would work buying it at an Antique store...and, furthermore, should have sent it off to repair before using it on a test!

[AtomicLeo]

I had just discovered fountain pens. I bought a yellow Lamy Safari and a bottle of Noodler's BP Black to go with it. I left it for a moment on my end table. My son, 18 months old at the time, found it and I turned around to see him sucking on the nib; his face covered in black, bullet-proof, beach-proof ink. The pen was fine and he didn't get any ink on the carpet or furniture, but the call to the pediatrician was not fun. Me (Pen+Ink Noob): "Well it's this special ink that doesn't wash off with water or bleach" Doctor: <long pause> You have a fountain pen?

[anaximander]

I've been lucky so far, but this thread has me almost scared enough to buy a Lamy Safari.

[skrutt]

Haha, the Safari is great! Had one in my bag for a couple of months, with ink, and when I was going to use it the ink was gone, but it was so easy to clean. No dry ink inside and the pen was just as nice looking as when I bought it.

 

I dont have any bad stories to tell, yet, and I hope I wont have any either!

So far the biggest problem I have had is ink on my fingers, both when refilling, and sometimes when writing, as I tend to hold the pen very close to the nib.

[pen2paper]

I had just discovered fountain pens. I bought a yellow Lamy Safari and a bottle of Noodler's BP Black to go with it. I left it for a moment on my end table. My son, 18 months old at the time, found it and I turned around to see him sucking on the nib; his face covered in black, bullet-proof, beach-proof ink. The pen was fine and he didn't get any ink on the carpet or furniture, but the call to the pediatrician was not fun. Me (Pen+Ink Noob): "Well it's this special ink that doesn't wash off with water or bleach" Doctor: <long pause> You have a fountain pen?

 

oh dear.. you know how everyone uses the "erupting in laughter..Spat my coffee all over the keyboard" comment?

the coffee was Very hot too!

 

so.. did the pediatrician Ever get over his pen-amazement, and give you an answer???

or did he compare notes on pens ; ) (probably a vp owner?)

[pen2paper]

Ps.. how long did your 18 month old, bear the "chow" look?