Inky T O D - Letting Someone Else Use Your Pen

[amberleadavis]

When I got my first fountain pen, my friend, Al, told me that I should never let anyone else use it because the gold nib would "learn" my handwriting and letting someone else use it would be "bad" AND I should only use it for writing, never drawing or doodling. IF I was in a bad situation and I HAD to let someone use my pen, I was to hold on to the cap, so that I would get my pen back.

 

Thirty + years later, and I must say, I doodle with my pens, I color with my pens and I have

I have loaned them out. (See the loaner programs at the bottom of the thread). I have even let another person use a fountain pen while posted.

 

Now, to keep this inky, I will say that others love seeing my pens in action and I nearly always get a comment (most often a compliment). Most people promptly comment about my retina searing ink choices.

 

 

So, what about you? Did you here this same tale? What did you hear? Do you let others use your pen? When and Why do you let someone else use your pen (and which pens)? Finally, do you draw/doodle/color with your pens?

[lapis]

But Amber, of course you can use my pen! Any of the 12 or so!! As long as you don't fillerup with any pink....

 

Mike

[T4TEXAS]

I heard the piece about lending it undoing the adapting the nib had done to my way of writing. And to hold on to the cap. I usually do not loan and I do hold onto the cap if I have to loan. (And I have had someone start to walk away with my pen until they realized they had an inky-pointy thing in their hand and nowhere to put it.) If I purposely let a friend try one out, I gently point out that they do not need to press down like with a ballpoint. Fortunately some people have heard the business about not loaning, and that makes it a little easier.

 

I never heard not to draw or doodle. I do doodle and would draw if I had a shred of drawing ability.

 

All that said, I plan to buy a supply of Preppies to loan and give away.

[TSherbs]

If I am using a pen in front of someone, then I will let that person try it if he/she asks. If I don't want a pen used by someone else, then I won't write with it in front of anyone. Seems only fair. I am a teacher; my students can try out my pens. But I don't lend them out to them. I will lend books to students, but not other objects of material worth--it isn't really proper. Adults aren't interested in my pens.

[ac12]

Only if I know them and trust them. I've seen toooo many people SHOVING their ball pens into the paper. I would hate to see them do that to my fountain pen, even a cheap $4 Chinese pen. While it may be cheap, I also don't burn $1 bills for fun.

 

Other FP users, generally yes, they know how to write with a FP. But there are the occasional HARD writers that need a manifold nib.

[white_lotus]

Like ac12 says, I tend not to lend out my FPs because many non-FP people don't know how to write them them. My Lamy 2000 survived it's experience with an rollerball user but I'm glad I didn't loan them a nice pen with a 14K nib, or even just one of my Edisons.

 

I keep some rollerball pens around my work to loan out when the need arises.

[Zhenni]

I remember hearing the warning that pens match your writing style over time, so for the longest time, I was afraid to buy a vintage pen. I suppose there must be some truth to it but now that I finally own a vintage pen, I don't feel like it was ever fighting me or difficult for my handwriting style.

 

My students thoroughly bent the nib on a Preppy already this school year. Looking at the damage, one of them must have put a lot of pressure straight down onto the nib. However, the sacrifice of that one pen has turned about 20 of them into future fountain pen owners. Some of them even want to get into calligraphy and dip pens.

[ENewton]

Whether I let someone use a pen of mine depends on the person and the pen. Many people exert more pressure when they write than some of my pens would bear. It isn't just a matter of whether the person habitually uses a fountain pen. I know people who would not ordinarily use a fountain pen and to whom I have been able to demonstrate just how little pressure to exert; I also know people who habitually use fountain pens and who write too hard for me to lend certain pens.

 

For example, I own a Monteverde Invincia Deluxe stub that always makes me feel as if I were writing with a small trowel. A fountain pen user accustomed to writing with a nib that sturdy could easily damage the nib of my Waterman 3V with extra fine point.

[Arkanabar]

Most of my pens are cheap school pens. Most of my coworkers know about my obsession, and I have even lent out a Jinhao 599 that was PIFed to me to some of them for all-day usage. If it still capped, I'd do so again. (To be fair, I do not like the Safari because of its faceted section, and the 599 is deliberately similar.) I will offer my pens to coworkers to try out, with a bit of instruction, and holding onto the cap.

 

I work in mental health, in records, so all the clients who come through wanting copies or to have theirs sent off wherever come to me for help, which generally means I need them to sign something. I don't bring my fountain pens out of the records room with me in these cases. I carry either one of the office ballpoints (like a Bic Biro, only cheaper) or sometimes a found Pilot Precise V5 rollerball that I've claimed for my own. I've seen how they fill out the demographics forms. It isn't pretty.

[migo984]

Brought up with FP users & never heard any old wives tales, or if I did I discounted them as daft. I have many vintage pens with soft gold nibs & none are haunted by the hands of previous owners.

 

I put all my inked pens into the same pen tray with my partner's, & we just dip in & share.

Over the decades I was at work I lent my pens (cheap ones, new ones, expensive ones, vintage ones) to many people & never once, in nearly 35 years, had a problem. The single time one of my pens got damaged it was my own silly fault.

[Sasha Royale]

If you lend, you are taking a chance. Only you can decide whether it is worth the risk. If the person ASKS, you have the absolute right to refuse, without explanation. If you do not have that absolute right, then it is a DEMAND. In that case, the answer should be "hell no !" I have done both many times.

 

"Can I use your pen?"

"No."

"Why not ?"

"Because you are kind of person who asks 'Why not?' "

[jmccarty3]

 

"Can I use your pen?"

"No."

"Why not ?"

"Because you are kind of person who asks 'Why not?' "

 

[haruka337]

I say nay.

 

In the past, loaning a fountain pen to a stranger or acquaintance has always been disastrous.

[thudthwacker]

I tend to put "Can I borrow your pen?" into the same category of question as "Can I have your underpants for a minute?" -- we'd better know each other very well before you even ask, I'm going to need some convincing that you've explored other options first, and the answer is still likely to be "no."

 

One of the reasons I bought the print of the Noodler's "Dragon's Napalm" label is that I can't help assuming that the expression on the dragon's face goes along with him saying "Can you borrow my pen?" I can sympathize -- my first inclination, too, is to breathe fire on the person asking.

 

(Note: This, er, extreme standpoint is reserved for people who have just discovered that they need a pen, and figure that they can use mine. If someone is genuinely interested in fountain pens and wants to try one, I've generally got a Jinhao 599a or Varsity somewhere nearby for them to experiment with after I've mentioned that you only need to touch the nib to the paper to get a line.)

[knarflj]

Yes, I heard the tale about the nib conforming to your hand, but I never heard that you shouldn't draw or doodle. I think I would have drawn and doodled anyway if I were any good at either, but I didn't let other people use my pens until I learned that it wouldn't affect my nib.

 

It doesn't come up very often, and almost always it's not someone asking to borrow my pen, but someone who thinks it's really cool and wants to try it out. I pretty much always let them, unless I'm writing with my only gold nib and have a hunch that it may be too hard to make them understand what "don't press too hard" means.

 

Jenny

[Andrew-]

If I do lend, the key thing is to uncap the pen myself.

Not so I am sure to get the pen back but because I remember the semi-shriek I let out the very first time I lent a pen when I saw the person try, with some force, to pull the screw cap off!

[Sailor Kenshin]

After one near-disaster... Nope..not even with those who should know how to use fountain pens because they own them.

[by_a_Lady]

Just yesterday I had an unpleasant experience that made me reevaluate my policy on loaning out pens to strangers:

 

I was in the main public library, working on a letter (for which I like to use multiple pens and colours), and the person sitting next to me asked for my (one) spare pen because they had forgot to bring one themselves. As I was nearing the end of the page and wanted to use the other colour on the next one, I told them that I would just quickly fill the last three lines and then loan them my current pen, since I wanted to change colours. To which they replied with a CBF and a very nasty remark about how I don't actually need a new colour.

I'm always trying to be helpful to others and spare them unnecessary errands - but what I hate more than anything else is when people think that it gives them any kind of claim over my time and resources. I wasn't trying to be petty by asking them to wait for two minutes (tops), and I didn't say it in a tone that might be interpreted as mocking - in fact, I believe I was being quite apologetic about the unusualness of my request.

Needless to say, they ended up having to borrow someone else's shítty ballpoint.

 

This hasn't been a singular experience, neither; I've had people go ballistic on me for alerting them to the fact that fountain pens require no pressure to write or else they would get damaged, which I don't want to happen. Is it too much to ask that my instructions regarding the handling of my belongings be at least acknowledged? I don't think so, and that's why people won't get nice things from me from now on.

 

 

Dominique

[inkstainedruth]

I've had other people use my pens, and not just in the process of passing them around at a pen club meeting where people know what they're doing (in fact last month a guy wandered over from another table and it turned into us shoving pens in the guy's hand going "How do you like that nib?" and "Is that a good weight/girth for you?" for the next twenty minutes; he may actually show up at the meeting next week).

OTOH I had a conversation with a guy who is a long-time calligrapher at something I was at last weekend (he had a Rotring Art Pen and the Waterman his wife bought him, and he talked reverently about his old Osmiroids). He was someplace a number of years ago (I forget if it was Fahrney's or FPH or where) and some guy came in going "My Montblanc isn't working right!" So they called out this little old guy with coke-bottle thick lenses on his glasses, who took a look at the nib and said "You let someone else use this, didn't you?" The guy apparently admitted he had, and it turned out whoever had borrowed the pen had knocked the tines slightly out of alignment because the nib was 18K gold (which is softer). But the nibmeister did a few quick tweaks and got the pen back writing like his owner was used to.

OTOH, as people have said in other threads, the tipping is sufficiently hard that that you'd have to be doing an awful lot of writing for an awfully long time to wear that down....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[senzen]

Depends on whether the person has experience with fountain pens, and whether it's a gold or steel nib. Since a decent pen will barely be touching the paper, you'd be writing on a cushion of ink, I think it would take 4,500 years to adjust to your hand.