What's Your Utilitarian Set ?

[Estycollector]

Thanks all !!!

[Parker51]

My current EDC are a black Parker Duofold International Fountain Pen and a red Parker "Big Red" ballpoint with a rollerball cartridge.

[bemon]

If I'm traveling I just bring my Fisher Bullet ballpoint. But I do kind of view my Vanishing Point and L2K as my strictly utilitarian function over form pens.

[Wahl]

Any of my P51 pen/pencil sets, to which I will add a red V Pen.

[sandy101]

I forgot to mention that my "I'm off on holiday set" was a Tombow Object 101.

 

A nice writer that takes International Cartridges.

 

The aluminium body takes a lot of abuse and writes nicely.

[Antenociticus]

For everyday work purposes, a Lamy 2000 and a Sailor multifunction pen.

 

For a short trip, a Sailor Pro Gear Slim and cartridges (usually Seiboku), plus a Kaweco Sport with an EF nib and cartridges in a contrast colour (usually Diamine Blood Orange), and a Pentel P205 mechanical pencil. I also stick a Fischer bullet pen in my bag.

 

For a longer trip, a TWSBI Vac Mini and the TWSBI Vac 20A ink bottle replace the Pro Gear Slim.

 

But I haven't had need of any such kit for months now.

[Mangrove Jack]

My EDC is my utilitarian set. Bulletproof reliable, ergonomic and comfortable and pleasure to use.

Pelikan M200 fountain pen and Pelikan K200 ballpoint with a fine point Jetstream refil.

 

[jchch1950]

Lately with two fountain pens. If working on a paper or a conference one more fp with fine nib to correct.If I work with a notebook a red ink gel pen to number the pages for the index.

Edited August 24, 2020 by jchch1950

[Black Spot]

my travel pen set is

a lamy safari

A jotter, perhaps a similar pen for back up

a pencil.

 

I tend to stick the Safari in a cigar tube to keep ink spills contained.

 

a few disposable pens for people who forgot there pen so no one walks off with my good or better pens.

[aimi]

For ink I like to travel with the small Iroshizuku bottles which are square and feel robust.

[wspohn]

Without doubt this is my travel pen. Next thing to indestructible, has a smooth accountant's nib, and an excellent writer.

 

http://www.penantique.com/Penantique/Pen/Parker/Vintage_Parker_Pens_1/Parker_51_Flighter_Fountain_Pen/Parker_51_Flighter_Fountain_Pen_5.JPG

[corniche]

Hi Esty, et al,

 

I rarely leave the ranch anymore these days, (even before Covid), but when I do; I have a gray/black cracked ice Levenger fp/bp set that serves me well.

 

The bp has a Schmidt 9000 broad tip refill.

 

 

- Sean

[Shaggy]

Usually I travel with a Pilot Prera with cartridges (blue-black) and a few Uniball Signo gel pens (I prefer the BLX off-black inks).

Edited September 6, 2020 by Shaggy

[Estycollector]

Hi Esty, et al,

 

I rarely leave the ranch anymore these days, (even before Covid), but when I do; I have a gray/black cracked ice Levenger fp/bp set that serves me well.

 

The bp has a Schmidt 9000 broad tip refill.

 

 

- Sean

I have another Parker coming. I gave the other to my eldest with a gel refil. I've been reading about those Schmidt refills. Do they always come with a Parker adapter?

[corniche]

Hi Esty,

 

For now, yes. The Parker adapter, (aka the G2 refill), has become the international standard - including an ISO classification. It would be great if they did like Monteverde and made refills available for Cross, Lamy, etc., but nuttin yet.

 

 

- Sean

[bayindirh]

Tomorrow I am traveling. I just put out the Lamy Al-Star and a plastic version of a mid '60's Autopoint "Rocket" pencil. Both, AFAIC, are utilitarian instruments.

 

Do you have such as set?

 

• Safari Umbra, F.
• Lamy black cartridges.
• C'Arandache #849 Ballpoint (Or a Pilot Acroball 3)
• Faber Castell TK-Fine, Rotring Visumax or similar pencil with completely retractable tip.

I normally carry this or a subset of this every day. If not travelling, ink changes to bottled version.

[Mercian]

For on-site use, or use in places I don’t want to look at all ‘flashy’, I (like bayindirh) have a LAMY Safari in Umbra with an F nib.

Pencil-wise, I have some rotring Visu pencils in various widths.

For use in less-‘field’ situations, or on a trip that will last a few days, I also have the ‘flighter’ (all-stainless-steel) versions of the Parker 45, Vector, and Frontier.

I also have the matching FP, BP & pencil versions of the Jotter, although I find the Jotter FP a little too small for my hand.

 

I have converters for the Safari & the Parkers, but have also taken advantage of the fact that the cartridges that each company makes are high-capacity.

This makes c/c pens by LAMY or Parker great choices for longer trips out. Pelikan c/c pens are also a good choice, because they will take long international cartridges (although I have found that Pelikan’s long cartridges cannot be refilled very often).

I have syringe-filled a cartridge with my preferred ink (e.g. R&K Salix, or Noodler’s Black) and put that in the pen at the start of my trip, and brought along one or two un-opened cartridges as back-up.

I have found the Frontier to be a really good pen for this, because I bought two made by Luxor under license. Their packaging included a converter and a little tin in which one can carry the pen. The tin is big enough to also hold my Jotter pencil & BP & some cartridges.

 

For short trips that are solely to offices, I will happily take anything that I fancy along with me.

I would happily take my Pelikan M805 out on trips that are ‘only’ to other offices. But its ‘fancy’ bi-coloured gold nib means that I wouldn’t take it out on-site, or use it in back-street pubs.

 

For short trips the best pen may still be an aerometric Parker “51”. It’s a joy to use, is a tank, has a good ink capacity, and doesn’t attract much in the way of unwanted attention. It’s also the perfect pen to use in any meetings that one might have to attend.

 

[johnsi02]

If I were to only take one pen on a trip, it would be a Sheaffer 444, xf nib and a 15 ml nalgene bottle with Noodler's Bad Blue Heron.

But I've never felt like I couldn't take some others for fun. So there's always a pen case with whatever suits my fancy and some ink samples in my shave kit.

[Estycollector]

I just ordered a Lamy Vista with fine point and the red tipped converter.

[txomsy]

For over 25+ years it has been a Montblanc Noblesse/Slimline (one each).

 

In the last years other pens have displaced the MBs for utilitarian purposes. I haven't traveled that much, but if I were to retake traveling for work, the MBs would most probably continue being the go-to pens, they are utilitarian, sturdy and at the same time up-to-the-job for formal occasions.

 

The pens that took over for every day, utilitarian use were, first the Kaweco Sport (AL Stonewashed or Brass) and the Kaweco Liliput (Copper). They came with me on some of my last work trips, but I was concerned they might be too easy to lose inadvertently (I'm notorious for being absent-minded -or careless if you prefer) and as I discovered cheaper clones I got some for my peace of mind. First it was a Delike Alpha (clone of the Brass Sport), and then a clone of the clone.

 

Currently, what I do always wear in a pants pocket are a couple of really cheap Kaweco Sport clones, which usually pop up in eBay unnamed and which I believe I just found are actually sold as "C3" pens on Asian sites. These two are brass, longer than the Kaweco Sport (and slightly longer than the Delike Alpha), take a standard cartridge converter, and are trivial to disassemble and substitute nibs, which allows me to have one with its original M-F nib and one with an Ease-My-Flex modified FPR Flex nib that has become a joy to carry around.

 

Summarizing: As an all-purpose pen, solid, elegant, all-terrain pen, for me, it is a set MB Slimline / MB Noblesse. For a cheap, EDC, carry around in a pant pocket, to toy and experiment with, and for carelessness (they're brass and cheap), two "C3" Portable Travel pens (ultra-cheap Kaweco Brass Sport clones).

 

Ideally, for the looks, heft, feeling and dimensions, I would prefer the Kaweco Liliput and metal Sports (but they are more expensive and less customizable).

 

(Edited for typos)

Edited September 9, 2020 by txomsy