Soft grip for fountain pens?

[tygor_tora]

Hello, all. While writing with some Pilot Metropolitan pens I got, with how I hold pens to write, the grip rests against the cuticle of my middle finger. With gel pens and other soft-grip writing implements, it’s not an issue, but the fountain pens have hard grips, and it starts to become painful after a few minutes. Is there anything I could slide onto the pens when I use them, like a temporary soft grip, to act as a cushion?

 

I’ve tried Google-ing, and I haven’t found much of anything. I’ve also tried holding the pens differently, but my writing becomes a lot messier as I don’t have as good control over the pens. 

[A Smug Dill]

5 hours ago, tygor_tora said:

While writing with some Pilot Metropolitan pens I got, with how I hold pens to write, the grip rests against the cuticle of my middle finger. With gel pens and other soft-grip writing implements, it’s not an issue, but the fountain pens have hard grips, and it starts to become painful after a few minutes.

 

Hmmm. I'm reading an ‘introductory’ course into (somewhat) calligraphic writing in Chinese with pens with rigid tips (as opposed to brushes) right now, and it actually tells learners to rest the grip on the pen so that it's half supported by the fingernail and half supported by the flesh over the nail bed, for both physical resilience in long writing sessions (with the nail bearing the brunt of any friction and impact) and control.

 

5 hours ago, tygor_tora said:

Is there anything I could slide onto the pens when I use them, like a temporary soft grip, to act as a cushion?

 

I think you best try a pen with a rubberised grip (although they tend to deteriorate and become tacky after a few years), such as a Lamy Studio in Brushed Steel, a Faber-Castell Essentio with Carbon Fibre barrel, or a HongDian 517D.

 

Sliding anything onto the gripping section would be a pain, since it'll most likely stop the cap from going onto the pen properly, so you've have to remove it after each writing section (and you don't get to cap the pen if you want to pause for a few minutes). That said, I vaguely remember fellow member @TheDutchGuy uses a grip attachment of some sort on his fountain pens, so you might ask and see what he has to say.

 

[TheDutchGuy]

On 2/12/2022 at 4:09 AM, A Smug Dill said:

 

…I vaguely remember fellow member @TheDutchGuy uses a grip attachment of some sort on his fountain pens, so you might ask and see what he has to say…

 

 

 

^—These were my thoughts on it back in June 2020.

[senzen]

Very useful info from TheDutchGuy, many more options if you do a search for vitility grip; I've been thinking about these but haven't tried them yet, for my Parker 50.

[Honeybadgers]

I can't stand soft-grips. They turn to absolute mush.

 

I would recommend those little pencil slip-covers and a thin pen with a cap that doesn't cover the section, like a muji aluminum. That setup could be had for about $15-20, and you can just throw away and replace the slip covers as they wear out, and a muji aluminum is an absolutely stellar pen.

[Arkanabar]

Amber lent me a Sheaffer Javelin with such a grip.  I regard a sleeve like that as an unforgivable design choice, as ink will be drawn under the rubber sleeve when filling from a bottle, no doubt to stain fingers later on.  And as Honeybadgers says, they degrade.  Such grips are also why I avoid the Lamy Nexx, any recent Pelikan Twist, Pelikano or Pelikano Jr., the Parker Reflex, and most of the Young Writers selections from Online-Pen.de

 

What I like about fountain pens is that when they're properly adjusted, you can hold them nearly slack and arm-write, not using any muscles below your elbow to manipulate the pen.  When you do so, you avoid writer's cramp, and can write all day.

[two2tone]

Try a rubber finger protector on your affected fingers.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Finger-Protectors/s?k=Rubber+Finger+Protectors

 

[Honeybadgers]

Finger cots might give you more grip, but won't help with stiffness, too-tight a grip, etc. It'd also be super annoying to have to put on a giant thimble every time you write, lol

[Arkanabar]

On 2/15/2022 at 1:52 PM, Arkanabar said:

Amber lent me a Sheaffer Javelin with such a grip.  I regard a sleeve like that as an unforgivable design choice, as ink will be drawn under the rubber sleeve when filling from a bottle, no doubt to stain fingers later on.  And as Honeybadgers says, they degrade.  Such grips are also why I avoid the Lamy Nexx, any recent Pelikan Twist, Pelikano or Pelikano Jr., the Parker Reflex, and most of the Young Writers selections from Online-Pen.de

 

What I like about fountain pens is that when they're properly adjusted, you can hold them nearly slack and arm-write, not using any muscles below your elbow to manipulate the pen.  When you do so, you avoid writer's cramp, and can write all day.

I will add that my handwriting quality degraded quite a bit as I trained myself to arm write instead of finger write, but that I did eventually get back both the speed and original (low level of) quality my handwriting had previously had.  It only took a few months.  More writing practice might have done it faster.