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Felt tip, hate them or love them.


Azkim Rikschum

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Just to talk about it. Curious to know your personal opinions on the matter.

 

For me, there is something about felt tip pens that makes me love and hate them simultaneously.

I like how they handle ink flow, but I'm okay with that for 30 seconds.... (for example for a signature or to write two words), but for continuous use there is something in the consistency of the tip that can not give me the pleasure that gives me a foutain pen or one with any kind of ballpoint (gel ink / roller water ink, but also normal oil based ink)
Maybe it's because it's "soft" or maybe it's because it's like I can feel the porosity of the tip against the paper.

 

I could never take notes for an hour with a felt tip.

At the same time I play with it occasionally. (But then I put it down.)

 

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I'll admit that Flair pens were my staple writing implement in high school....  And there are the occasional times when I really want a black Sharpie (usually when crossing out the bar code on mail that is getting tossed back to the post office as "REFUSED -- Return to Sender", because it seems like a waste of perfectly good FP ink).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I don't like them and so I'm always surprised that so many stores carry them. Clearly they sell well enough to justify the shelf space.

 

--flatline

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As an equal opportunity pen geek, I don’t hate them, but I generally don’t enjoy using them. My Dad liked Flairs and we had them in the house, but they always seemed to make too-thick lines for my taste. Any with ultra fine points would get flattened too fast. Sharpies are great for their particular purposes, but I never reach for other felt tips. 

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It depends on the surface. It sucks on absorbent paper, it's more tolerable on glossy media so you get a smoother experience.

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I use a sharpie, or specialist hard surface pen for work when I have to, but other than that, I have very little time for them to write with.

 

I do use some brush-type pens for drawing, but I suppose not many of them are really felt tips.

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There was a time when felt tip pens were nicely engineered with various width points and some color choices.

 

Felt tip refills for nice pens Watermans, Parkers, and others, were only available in black and blue mostly medium width.

 

Now, besides sharpies, I don't see the need for them.

 

 Good paper can handle fountain pens and ink rollers, all refillable.

 

For bad paper, run of the mill forms etc...  Gel rollers have multiple width points and ink colors, are easy to find, the way their felt tip pens predecessors were and have refills.

 

 

 

 

Is it fair for an intelligent and family oriented mammal to be separated from his/her family and spend his/her life starved in a concrete jail?

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The only felt tip markers I ever truly liked were the ones that were IIRC in the Pantone matching system colors.  Don't remember the brand offhand, but used them sometimes for art class projects in college.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I used to carry an Executive Flair (used refills, had chrome/steel cap and firmer plastic barrel) in school -- 69-72 range. At one time Flair had a non-felt-tip variant -- tapered plastic with a small opening at the tip (internally, visualize a Torx socket that is squeezed down to a point, the "star" forming capillary grooves). It didn't mush down like regular felt. My primary pen during this period was either a Sheaffer "School" pen, or my father's old Pilot fountain pen (until it slipped out of my pocket at school one day -- had to buy a Sheaffer 440 as replacement).

 

These days, if I must use something other than fountain pen, it is either a roller-ball (with liquid ink -- not oily ballpoint or whatever is in a "gel" pen) in the 0.5 tip size, or gradated Pigma Micron porous-plastic point in 05/03/01 range.

 

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I like them for drawing or colouring. I don't like them much for writing.

 

When I think back to my early days at work, though, I had a choice of FP, felt tip, Bic or early rollerballs, which were horribly scratchy. Felt tips easily beat any of the other non-FP pens. I think technology has changed the latter two categories a great deal since then, and FPs are no longersuch strong contenders.

Too many pens, too little time!

http://fountainpenlove.blogspot.fr/

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  • 2 weeks later...

There are a surprising number of pens that are technically felt tips, some with very fine points. The Sharpie Pen (not the marker) is one. The Pilot Razor V is another. But I'll always associate felt tips with the Bic Flair. Never had a Flair that didn't get a mushed point over time.

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I don't think the Sharpie Pen is a felt tip. They describe it as "porous tip" and it's rigid so I think it's likely made of fiberglass or something similar since it doesn't deform as you use it like a felt tip would.

 

I have porous tip pens from Sharpie, Staedtler, and Bic that all perform well and some of them are 10+ years old with no visible damage or erosion to the tip.

 

--flatline

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I remember the refillable Flair pens from the early 1970s - they seemed to have a good firm point that didn't mush until it was time to change the refill, and probably because I pressed harder as the ink faded out. My dad talked me out of that pen - wish I'd thought to replace it then! 

The non-refillable Flair pens never seemed as firm and durable as my original pen, but they came in such fun colours.

"Life would split asunder without letters." Virginia Woolf

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On 5/26/2021 at 10:39 PM, BigBlot said:

There are a surprising number of pens that are technically felt tips, some with very fine points. The Sharpie Pen (not the marker) is one. The Pilot Razor V is another. But I'll always associate felt tips with the Bic Flair. Never had a Flair that didn't get a mushed point over time.

 

"Bic Flair"???

 

As I recall, Flair was a sub-brand of PaperMate...

 

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When the kids were in elementary school, several teachers specifically requested the red Paper Mate Flair pens in the supply list.

 

Clearly, they have their fans.

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I somrimes use a Montblanc Fineliner refill, and like them.  Don’t know what the tip is made from.

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I don't mind them for certain chores - bordering something, filling something in, editing or making comments in the margins, making larger print signs or notices, etc.  However, for daily writing, I don't like to use them.  I agree with your original assessment that the experience of writing with them degrades over a very short time.

Conan the Grammarian

 

“No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.” ~ Robert Adams

 

“Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines” ~ Enzo Ferrari

 

Cogito ergo spud. [i think therefore I yam.]

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Never really cared for felt tips. The tips were too easy to mess up and tended to splatter and become unusable.

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