Got Arthritis Or Hand Pain - What Do You Want In A Pen?

[Fuzzy_Bear]

Add for the handwarmers, try this. Get some new tube socks. Take a pair and put one sock inside the other. Fill that with 2-3 cups of deer corn. Sew the end shut, though you could use ribbon to tie it shut. Microwave for two to four minutes, depending on how hot you like it. I use these for my hands.

 

I do not have RA, but I am a facilities tech and beat my hands on a daily basis. My thumb joints are the worst right now.

[sidthecat]

I like my pens small and light in any case...I have just a few more ringtops than I need.

 

The doctor told me that it should take a week for the cortisone to have full effect, and it's interesting: the click goes away, then comes back, then goes away again. It is an improvement of sorts.

Ah! Almost time for more Motrin.

[Witsius]

Ron Zorn has some great suggestions about this. I suffer from occasional hand and wrist pain. It's not anything as severe as what the OP has, but it is an issue when it flares up. I find very light pens work best for me. My Pelikan M200's are my favorites. Also, a pen that's really well tuned is crucial. Like Ron says, the pen should write without any pressure. I suggest buying a pen from someone who can tune the pen to your specifications.

[wastelanded]

I have arthritis in nearly every joint in my body. Driving a car or holding a pen at all aren't possible some days. For some reason, thicker straight-sectioned pens cause me more pain: just looking at a 149 makes my hand ache. For me, a Pelikan 400 is the perfect size and weight. And bizarrely, with a Lamy Safari I can write all day. I know, right?

[amk]

Well, I've been feeling a lot better this week as the medication starts to kick in, so I've spent a little time in the workshop with a couple of bits of firewood, starting to carve two dip pens freehand. One will have a thick section with carved out thumb and forefinger grips, which lets me keep the section very big to form the hand around; the other will have a big flare to the section. They're roughed out at the moment and I'll try to get them finished next week and put some photos up together with my success (or otherwise) using them.

 

My calligraphy classes restart in October so I'll be able to lend them out for feedback.

[Bo Bo Olson]

celesul

 

burbot an ugly fish, that tastes like 'poorman's lobster', has the biggest liver of fish and is not only good tasting but used for many things....A burbot is a type of freshwater cod....and it's oil if 4-5 times more loaded with good stuff than any other fish......so if fish oil then the best. It has a centuries long history of medical use besides tasting good.

(the things I learn writing a western.... )

Edited September 11, 2016 by Bo Bo Olson

[furious]

A semi-flex, wet writing nib is a must. That and a light plastic barrel that's not too thick.

[sidthecat]

It's interesting: I'm glad I asked the doctor how long it would actually take for the shot to be effective. He told me it would take a week, and if I didn't know that I would have been very disappointed.

As it is, the drug works in fits and starts: the joint works smoothly; then it doesn't.

Five days after, it's still got a ghost of a 'click', but it's worlds better and doesn't affect my writing at all.

Lucky.

 

And...I didn't expect it, but the cortisone has also helped my sore foot! Props to Dr. Raven!

I can't tell him, though, cause he'd probably bill me.

[T4TEXAS]

Write a note to him.😉

[pajaro]

I have had arthritis in my left writing hand for at least twenty years. I found the Parker 51, Conway Stewart 87 and the Montblanc 144 to be the most comfortable pens for me. Pelikan M400 OK also. Similar light pens would probably be OK. It's amazing how different pens are more comfortable for different people -- large, heavy -- large, light -- small, light.

 

I found the MB 149 and Pelikan M1000 uncomfortable, but I liked them and had mixed feelings about selling them. At the time I don't think I understood why they seemed awkward.

[displacermoose]

My favorite pen when my arthritis is acting up is a rather large Guilder. It's an Indian ebonite pen with a nicely shaped section (little flare right before the nib, no step between the section and the barrel) that is very fat (13mm iirc). Ebonite is like gold when my hands are bad; it is lovely and light but never cold or slippery. I've been trying to decide on a second ebonite pen for quite some time b/c although I love Thufir very much, I've never been able to get the burping under control.

[View from the Loft]

I know exactly what wrecked my hand - sitting at the counter in a ticket office, writing out 200 plus tickets every shift, having to use a ballpoint to press through 5 sheets of waxed NCR paper.

 

On a good day, my M200 is a delight. On a bad day, my larger pens such as modern Onoto Magnas and modern CS100 are the only pens that will do.

 

I agree, every pen should write under its own weight with no pressure applied by me. Mostly, I prefer light pens (but the Waterman Carene is much heavier but with such good balance I don't notice that).

 

What I'm trying to say is that in a bad day I need:

 

Light pen

Fatter section around 14mm diameter

Concave grip to section

Good balance without posting (I never post, so the pen must be long enough without being posted)

[Fuzzy_Bear]

One thing I forgot. Non smooth grip section. When my hands is sore, I can't use the Monteverde Artista Cristal. It slips.

[amk]

I've finally finished my first arthritis-friendly dip pen. I modelled it to have a large girth, and to support itself on the 'web' between thumb and first finger s well as in the fingers. It was a bit heavy so I drilled out the middle and carved the fishtail at the end to reduce the weight. It was finished with two coats of oil on the outside and tea plus rusted iron / vinegar mix to darken the wood where it has been carved out.

http://i.imgur.com/4irOPj8l.jpg

I find it very well balanced and nice to use. (My calligraphy teacher thinks I've finally got the balance right, too. My earlier dip pens weren't so good from that point of view.) The finish is boiled linseed oil not varnish so though it's nicely smooth to the touch, it's not slippery.

 

Dimensions: 19mm long, 28mm widest diameter, 14mm narrowest part of grip.

 

However, the other pen I was making was carved out a bit more aggressively, and I managed to break it in two while finishing the carving. It did however work as a good proof of concept for a grip design modelled specifically for my hand (using plasticine to work out exactly where I needed the depressions for my finger and thumb, so it's like a Safari would be if you could customise it) and I've now started another pen using that grip, but with a simpler barrel design.

Edited January 12, 2017 by amk

[virgilio]

The most comfortable pen I have ever used is the Universal Scolastica, made from the 50s thru the 80s, tho that is just a guess. Universal is in Turin, Italy, and is the biggest purveyor of writing instruments in the world. Unfortunately they no longer make fountain pens.

 

I will describe the Scolastica for you. They are up on ebay periodically, and there is a thread here on them, with a picture.

 

They are super lightweight, which is best for arthritic or injured fingers, and in fact really best for everybody probably. Maximum diameter is exactly 1 cm. This is pretty thin, but not extremely so. The pen tapers however, which increases the comfort level. The cap is in aluminium. The nib is very smooth and with a little adjustment, very wet. The feeds are also wet. In the older design of the Scolastica, the cap is push-on, so there are no cap threads to irritate the fingers.

 

I think that if someone could persuade Universl to license this design they would make a fortune, provided only that the nib were made a little wetter from the factory. It is annoying to have to use a razor blade or brass shim to widen the nib slit.

[virgilio]

I forgot to mention that Gentlemen's Marlowes are also very nearly perfect ergonomically speaking. Vintage Banker-type pens from the 40s with semi-hooded nibs.

 

The Scolastica has an open nib and is a piston filler.

[virgilio]

Oh yes, avoid grip sections. Most of them just irritate the fingers, and are placed MUCH too close to the nib. I grip the Scolastica at about the joint between the section and the barrel, and that seems to tire the fingers less.

[virgilio]

And finally, I will add that hooded nibs force you to constantly maintain a very precise angle to the pen to make it write, which is tiring. Open nibs are better.

 

You might think that rollerballs, which write at any angle, would tire the fingers less, but that is emphatically not the case. After about a half an hour of using a rollerball, by thumb starts aching just like with a ballpoint. I imagine it is the constant struggle to hold the pen back that is so tiring; the ball has a mind of its own, and is always wanting to roll all over the place. It is like walking around all day on roller skates.

[virgilio]

Another thought: you might want to change your writing style. Long hand or cursive forces the fingers to traverse much wider curves than printing, and in my experience is much more tiring.

 

You can also eliminate unnecessary strokes from prining. In fact I have elminated at least one stroke from almost all my letters (I print in capitals). For instance, no horizontal stroke on the A, No vertical stroke on the B (so that it resembles 3, but that is no problem (how often do you mix up letters and numbers in daily writing?) and so on.

 

If you type, learn the Dvorak keyboard, which is much easier on the fingers that the Querty (or Azerty). Or you can even design your own keyboard layout.

[Jamesbeat]

No pen suggestions, but you might want to look into helminthic therapy.

A little gross, but after seeing my mother in law crippled by RA, I would do it in a heartbeat if I was diagnosed with it.