How Do You Write With A Fountain Pen?

[Blue-Black]

I'm new to fountain pens and I was wondering if there is a good technique when it comes to writing with them. Do you move your fingers when you write or just your arm or wrist?

Thank you,
Blue-Black

[Honeybadgers]

There's no officially wrong way as long as you're holding the pen with the shiny part of the nib facing up. Doing it the other way is called "reverse writing" and only some pens can really do it very well.

 

And don't press down. A properly tuned fountain pen shouldn't need any pressure to write.

 

That said, fingertip writing is usually a habit we learn from ballpoints that require a lot of pressure. Fountain pens don't need pressure to write, so you should try to start relaxing your fingers and using your wrist and forearm.

Edited August 8, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[Freddy]

I'm new to fountain pens and I was wondering if there is a good technique when it comes to writing with them. Do you move your fingers when you write or just your arm or wrist?

 

Thank you,

Blue-Black

Blue-Black......For your consideration..write with it as you write with your Parker "51". Hope you got rid of that smell.

As a matter of usual practice...wrist

Fred

Edited August 8, 2019 by Freddy

[Parker51]

For me it is arm, but I was taught a long time ago how to write.

[Bibliophage]

generally, arm on the table, and hand doing the work, fingertips outstretched with the section gently held. Most of my writing is done with the fingers, rather than ball point "clutch" style with the wrist or entire arm.

[Addertooth]

Using arm and wrist tends to make for smoother loops, which are especially important in artful text such as copperplate and spencerian text.

Many stationary and office stores sell books on "brush pen" writing, which uses the same mechanics for artful block characters with flex nib pens.

I am only now starting to learn to use wrist and elbow, as I am an evil lefty, and my big challenge is trying to avoid dragging my hand through the fresh ink.

Funny how a good pen encourages you to work on your writing.

[Bo Bo Olson]

If 90 degrees is pure vertical...45 degrees is right after the big index knuckle....40 degrees at the start of the web of the thumb. Because it takes even with a gel pen lots of work to force the ball to roll everyone in ball points has the Death Grip.....and have to hold the ball point more vertical than one holds a fountain pen.

 

(95 % of scratchy comes from misaligned tines and holding a fountain pen like a ball point.)

 

The pen is held behind the big index knuckle....and one holds it lightly like a baby featherless bird.

 

Then the pen will rest where it wants too. It can rest at 45 degrees right after the big knuckle, or rest at 40 degrees at the start of the web of the thumb.....if the pen is very heavy or long or both a fountain pen can rest at 35 degrees in the pit of the web of your thumb. By resting a heavy or long pen there, the nib will rest on the paper lighter than if forcing a heavy pen to a higher hold.

 

By striving to make a pen stay at 45-40 degrees you are adding pressure to your grip.

 

There is the classic tripod...but I find the 10-2-6 finger position leads to pressure of the Death Grip ....and deadly bent Kung Fu Thumb!!!

It can take months to learn to use the classic tripod lightly.

With Large un-posted pens you may well be condemed to that.

 

If you post standard and medium-large pens I use the 'forefinger up' method of grasping a pen.

It is an automatic light grip....takes some three minutes to learn how to use it. Un-posted standard or medium-large pens would be too small for this.

If one looks in the old how to write with a dip pen instructions of the 19th century, they gripped the pen much like the 'forefinger up'.

This is 'forefinger up', showing both 45 and 40 degree holds. Most important is the the thumb is held flat and at 08:30 instead of at 10:00 pressing down.

Help! How Do You Hold Your Fountain Pen?

[K Singh]

I've been writing using only arm movement for the past one-and-half years, and I must say that's how I intend to write for the rest of my life. Earlier I used to feel some pain in my wrists and fingers after writing a few pages, but since I shifted to arm writing I don't feel any such pain even after writing way more than that.

 

Also, I think it's a good practice to use arm movement when it comes to the health of your fingers and wrist in the long-term. At least that's what I think, maybe someone else can shed more light on this here.

 

For more details there is an excellent article at http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html that I have also recommended earlier here on this forum.

Edited August 8, 2019 by kSingh

[Arkanabar]

I hold mine nearly slack in a tripod grip, leaned way back as Bo Bo describes, and generally do not use any muscles below the elbow. This is how people were taught to write before there were keyboards, and did so for hours at a time. If you're in the habit of using finger muscles, do try to train yourself out of it, as it leads to writer's cramp.

[Cast]

Could some of the variation in grip be due to people having differing variations in the length of their index and middle fingers? My index finger is a good half inch shorter than my middle finger.

When I try to hold the pen with my index finger and middle finger straight, my middle finger is below the section. If I hold higher on the pen, my index finger is resting just over the end of the barrel. And my thumb is on the barrel. Or am I not interpreting the illustrations correct?

[dennis_f]

Wrt to wrist/fingers or arm movement: I have always used my wrists and fingers to control the pen. However, a few days ago I was trying out pens and the gentleman behind the counter said "You keep rolling the nib. You want to use your arm, not your wrists when you write. That will stop the rolling".

 

I had never noticed that this was something that I do.

 

He then looked at the pen I was carrying with me (a lamy 2000), and he said "Yup, one of your tines is slightly out of line".

 

So I gather that there is a functional rationale for using the arm vs the fingers and/or wrist when writing (properly).

 

(He graciously fixed the nib -- which I never noticed as problematic -- and the pen writes so much better now).

[Bo Bo Olson]

Using the tripod pinch for decades of ball points, I developed a painful dent at my middle finger nail joint, that was very painful. The dent was still there when I went 'back' to fountain pens, and it was still painful.............it is no longer there, took a couple years for it to go away.

 

One of the things I did when changing my grip was to move the pen out of that dent, 1/3 of an inch down the finger tip.

In I was letting the pen rest upwards from the 08:30 placement of the long thumb dam, I wasn't pressing down from the 10-2 thumb-forefinger on the first middle finger joint.

 

I hold the pen 08:30 with a long flat thumb dam, @ 12:00-12:30 -13:00 with the index finger resting lightly on top and my middle finger is still at 6:00; the pen is just not at the nail junction.

 

The problem with the tripod, is the length of time it takes to actually achieve a slack grip....often is is said....six months or more.................I had Death Grip all my life.....more than likely starting with a pencil or a crayon.

Three minutes after some nice guy from over in the writing section showed us the 'forefinger up', I no longer had the Death Grip.....nor pain in my finger.

I didn't have to stop writing often to shake the feeling back into my hand....like I had most of my life, from the Death Grip.

[stylophilly]

As many have said, ideally you primarily use the forearm as it is less tiring that way. If you want a book that has exercise sheets to work on your technique consider Michael and Debra Sull American Cursive Handwriting. It contains a clear explanation of technique. They advocate primarily using forearm, while allowing for some use of fingers to execute parts of some letters such as the tips of the lowercase r and s. The book also talks about proper way to position and move paper for efficient handwriting, as well as the proper way to hold the pen. Great resource. I found it to be a great refresher course. But I think it would also make for an excellent primer for people in need of training. Note that though the book isnt exclusively on fountain pen technique, the technique definitely applies to fountain pens. If anything, the technique is easier to execute using a fountain pen because the ink just flows without having to bear down on the paper.

Edited August 8, 2019 by stylophilly

[Bibliophage]

Weird. I found the opposite: writing with a ball point, using my entire arm to write, is tiring to my hand. Clutch grip. Using my fingers and wrist is the opposite - I'm working all of them at various times, and so my hand is mostly loose.

[A Smug Dill]

Wrist for producing lateral movement, and fingers to modulate downward pressure.

[kealani]

Every fountain pen has a "sweet spot" on the nib tipping where writing will be the smoothest if the pen is held at that angle.

Some pens have very small sweet spots and some are more forgiving.

Regardless of writing "style", getting into the habit of writing at the best angle for smooth writing for each fountain pen you own is a good thing.

 

j

[Blue-Black]

Thank you for the advice everyone. My handwriting has improved noticeably, I hope it continues


Thank you,
Blue-Black

[FOUR X FOUR]

I'm new to fountain pens and I was wondering if there is a good technique when it comes to writing with them. Do you move your fingers when you write or just your arm or wrist?

 

Thank you,

Blue-Black

Just write slowly

[Dmact]

Every time i try to do arm movement it fails, and holding anything other than a dip pen "properly" equals a pen flying out of my hand... My jinhao x750 is my largest pen and i can BARELY hold that "properly"... But its uber heavy so not easy to control. Everyone must have gerbil hands compaired to me or my daddy was the jolly green giants pastey brother. I use a pretty standard ballpoint "death grip" but have learned to relax the grip and keep my pressure super light (using dip nibs helps with that cuz otherwise the tines "walk" or outright plow into the paper). Motionwise i write almost entirely wrist with finger movement for fine details.

 

A friend of mine is lefty and strangles his pen to the point it digs into all three fingers leaving deep impressions that look painfull, he exerts so much pressure when writing that his text is legible over 10 pages below the page he actually wrote on... His excuse is "formerly broken knuckles"... He's absolutly forbidden to look at my pens LOL

[Bo Bo Olson]

Dmact do try the forefinger up way of grasping a pen.....for me grip means hold hard like a ViceGrip plier, and grasp equates to being with in my grasp....ie easier. Has nothing to do with reality, but grip can have a connotation that is well used in Death Grip.

 

Help! How Do You Hold Your Fountain Pen?