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Your Very First Pen?


PolishSoldier

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First fountain pen was a Cross of Parker bought at Staples 20 years ago, with artistic hopes, for under $20. It wrote so horribly that I threw it to the garbages after few days and I gave up with that outdated writing medium.

 

2 years ago, I tried my luck again and bought a VG Faber-Castell Intuition that was writing better, but was skipping terribly because of a huge gab between the nib and the feed. I almost gave up with fountain pens forever, but the pen wasn't eligible to refund because bought at discounted price. However, I got the nib unit changed for a another one and it wrote a lot better... I was hooked.

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A Waterman Phileas gift set from my parents. Not knowing the first thing about fp'd I ended up with ink all over my pants and put the pen away for several years. Came across it later, learned how to properly fill the pen, and got hooked.

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A Sheaffer school pen, the kind with the translucent barrel that came in a blister package. That was in the early 70s. Yikes :)

Life's too short to use crappy pens.  -carlos.q

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A small, dark blue pen my parents bought me when we were in Italy on vacation when I was eight. I lost it before we got home.

 

I think my Parker Calligraphy Set, which came with a Vector, was next, maybe three or four years later. I've lost the extra nibs, but I still have the pen.

Currently in rotation: Wing Sung 698/Diamine Blue Velvet, Wing Sung 618/Diamine Golden Oasis, Lamy Profil 80/Pelikan Edelstein Aventurine

 

Website: Redeeming Qualities

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My first fountain pen was a black Pilot Varsity I picked up on impulse while waiting in line at a Border's Bookstore (now sadly defunct as a company...). I had never seen a fountain pen before (that should tell you just how common fountain pens are around here, or how oblivious I was at the time, or both) and I thought it was cool enough to spend $4 or so on it. I kept that darn thing for years... I didn't want to lose it or break it, so I would only occasionally break it out to doodle for a while and write at home (oh the naivety!). I also think I was afraid that it would leak all over the place if I carried it. Shockingly, over at least two years the thing never once failed to start up. Never dried up.

 

The first FP that I got intentionally because it was a fountain pen was a matte black Bulow X-750 "Vertrag", which I later learned was simply a Jinhao X-750 that was rebranded to make it sound German and put into a nicer (though still obviously cheap) clamshell pen coffin so as to justify the $16 price tag (vs. a Jinhao for $6?). It was a gift I had asked for probably 2 years ago for Christmas. Nice pen for the price. Later on put a Goulet fine nib into it and used it as a beater pen, eventually loaning it to a friend with a refilled cartridge's worth of BSB. The friend liked it so much that he bought it from me (for the cost of the Goulet nib minus shipping- he knew what the pen was and how much it was worth)

Here to help when I know, learn when I don't, and pass on the information to anyone I can :)

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First pen was a Pilot Varsity that my friend gave me. A the time I was beginning to get into nicer ballpoints, and wasn't considering fountain pens, but a friend gave me one. Still have it, and it still works a year later.

"Oh deer."

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My first quality pen was a Montblanc 149 I bought when I got my first job, a long long time ago, and when I rediscovered it recently, maybe 2 years ago, and found also FPN, I became addicted! Since that time, I have bought many FPs, essentially from Japan and German brands, and now I have decided to make a break, until I find my Graal, that could be a Nakaya!

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    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
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