Inky T O D - Letting Someone Else Use Your Pen

[Karmachanic]

Yes I'm familiar with the wear/fit myth.

 

I like my pens the way they are. It can take a week or more for me to get the nib the way I like it. Write with it for a couple of days, make a slight adjustment. Write with it for another couple of days make a slight adjustmant.

 

I did let someone use one of my pens once. It took several days to get it back to were it was before that person used it. So no, you may not use my fountain pen. Happy to let you use my mechanical pencil though!

[amberleadavis]

I may revise my earlier position. I did a workshop at the LA Penshow. I had 5 brand new pens that I let the attendees use to test what kind of pen worked for them. By they time the class was over, all five nibs had issues caused by abuse.

[by_a_Lady]

I'm wondering about all the people on FPN who said that they're carrying ballpoints for these encounters (if you yourself need ballpoints for often-occurring bad paper situations, that is obviously different):

Since when have we (and I don't mean fountain pen users or FPNers, but people in general) become pen caddies for people who come in unprepared? I can't think of one likely real-life scenario where people wouldn't be able to either scavenge a promo pen from some free-for-all tray or just use the notepad app on their smartphones!

 

 

Dominique

[JakobS]

I don't carry ballpoints at all, but also have not been asked to borrow a pen in public since high school. That one time didn't end well for the asker as the Bic ballpoint I did give him exploded all over his hands mid class, no one seemed to ask after that! The places I write either abound in pens being around (work), or replaced by phones/computers as the dominant way to "write" (libraries, cafes, bookstores), leaving the post office the one place that the question might arise, but then can be redirected to one of the handful of pens that are chained to the desks in the waiting room, or P.O. Box area.

 

There is something to be said for feeling that there is an amount of entitlement in asking to use someone's pen. At the same time, it is fair to be honest, and say "No, perhaps one could be found at X", or "No, this pen is important to me/ has sentimental value, but you can find one at X". "No, this is a fountain pen", or "Sure. but this is a fountain pen", is usually is enough for them to look elsewhere, depending on how prominent fountain pen use is the given culture. It may also appear haughty, though the follow up suggestion of where they could find a pen might decrease this a little.

 

At the same time, I am not against having others use my pens, as long as I know who they are, and their attitude towards borrowing is. Most people won't ask to use my fountain pens though, not because I don't want them to, but because they don't want to, they see them as something difficult to use...

[miwishi63]

I had this happen to me just a couple hours ago. I was at a local coffee shop with two colleagues having an informal meeting and one of them, who uses his Macbook for *everything* wanted to write a note on a document the other colleague brought with him. He reached over and grabbed the Preppie I had on the table in front of me (leaded with BSB - LOL) and began trying to write with it upside down. I gently reached over and rotated the pen so it was properly oriented. He finished his note, apologized, and jokingly said that he he wouldn't be borrowing my pens because he didn't know h ow to write with them. No harm, no foul since I never set my good pens down where someone can unthinkingly grab them.