Miss Newbie

[TxTilly]

Hi y'all.   I was referred to this group and am so glad to to meet all y'all.

 

I'm old, many decades ago, my teachers often used fountain pens.  Our desks had a place for ink wells.  I didn't use a fountain pen until I was a teen, but in those days there was no way to get such information.   So with poor results I gave up.  Now 55 years later I have come back to it.

 

I've spent the last few months dusting off my cursive skills.  I haven't written anything besides a signature in over 30 years.  I guess I rode the wave of technology.

 

I'm here to learn about ink, paper, and pens.

 

Thank you!

 

[langere]

Welcome!  You will find out a lot.  I have figured out that this site helps me enjoy my pens (and the accompanying paraphernalia) much more.

 

It will also enable you to purchase more stuff! 😁

 

Erick

[TxTilly]

Thanks!

 

That's great because I want more pen paraphernalia!  I just need to be sure my pens will work together as far as parts go. 

 

And I have no idea how to know when a nib needs replaced.

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

Welcome to FPN!

 

4 minutes ago, TxTilly said:

And I have no idea how to know when a nib needs replaced.

 

Nibs on fountain pens (as opposed to dip pens) just about never needs replacement unless it is damaged by physical impact — such as by being dropped, point facing down, onto a hard surface, which appears to be an uncannily common occurrence if you believe what you read in online forums — to deform the tines. Chemical corrosion, or rusting, rarely happens to modern fountain pen nibs.

[TxTilly]

That is good news!!  Thank you so much!

[boilermaker1975]

Welcome @TxTilly I'm old too. I used fountain pens in grade school, but only got back to seriously using them less than 2 years ago. I also went back to writing cursive, I had been printing. I was surprised how rusty I was at first but now I have a hard time printing as I unconsciously shift to cursive.

[TxTilly]

Thanks!

 

I started typing in hugh school and just never went back to writing once I got out of college.  All those essay exams you know....

[boilermaker1975]

@TxTilly Writing by hand is good for our brains. It is really a detriment not to have students learning to write and utilizing it more.

[PAKMAN]

Hello and welcome to FPN!! Glad to have you join us! 

[Wahl]

 

I will not say I am old, I am antique 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

18 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Nibs on fountain pens (as opposed to dip pens) just about never needs replacement

Dunno about that; I've worn out more than one Pelikan steel nib, just from constant heavy use. In my experience, if it feels like you've got a flat spot, with hard edges, it's probably time. Thankfully, Pelikan nibs, like Esterbrook/Osmiroid nibs, are a bare-hands field replacement.

 

At any rate, welcome to the squirrel-cage, and look out for the nuts. We're all (as the late Douglas Adams would put it) "mostly harmless" around here.

[Mark from Yorkshire]

[inkstainedruth]

Greetings from Pittsburgh, PA!  

I remember desks with inkwells in them, but of course I didn't know anyone back then who used a fountain pen (when I took calligraphy in art classes and then when I was a sophomore in college, everything was done with Speedball dip pens; my first roommate in college, who was a year ahead of used one when she was taking calligraphy, but when I took it the following year, it was with a different professor and, well, back to the Speedballs..).

I was interested in fountain pens since I was a kid, though.  Found what had been my grandfather's pen/pencil combo on my dad's dresser when we got home from my grandfather's funeral.  No clue what brand/model it was, and of course I promptly lost it -- I thought the leads for the pencil side went in what was, in retrospect, the lever box to fill the pen end).  My mother could not FATHOM my fascination with it (uh, it was blue and had been my grandfather's?) because my parents both grew up during the Depression and probably never had a GOOD pen -- mostly likely they just had 3rd tier brand junkers).  

Fast forwarding several decades, and I ran across a book called The Artist's Way, which is a creativity course (I never finished it and not sure where the book is in the house at this point).  One of the things you do is keep what is called a "morning pages" journal -- you get up in the morning and the first thing you do is write 3 pages (basically whatever comes into your head goes onto the page, and then you go about the rest of your day).  I hadn't kept a journal or diary since high school -- it had devolved into basically a spreadsheet (although of course didn't realize that at the time) of songs I heard on the radio, and decided that was just stupid.  So in order to get myself back in the habit I decided to buy a "nice" pen and a "nice" journal.  Well, bought "pretty" journal -- which turned out to have lousy paper -- and a cheapie Parker Reflex c/c pen at Staples.  After awhile, the rubber on the section started to disintegrate, so bought another one.  Same thing happened, and when I went to get a 3rd one they'd stopped carrying them (I'd already been having trouble finding Quink Permanent Blue cartridges near me).  So went online, and found Parker's website, and learned that an old-time stationers' in downtown was an authorized Parker dealer, and bought a Parker Vector -- and felt SOOOO extravagant -- I'd paid a whole whopping $9 US just for a pen that I was ONLY using for the journalling.  And had also found some better journals by then.  Then one winter left the pen & journal and the bag they were in at my in-laws' place and didn't get them back for a month.  And by then?  Writing with a BP or marker in some boring composition book just didn't have the same "feel" -- and the store I'd got the Vector at no longer carried them, so my options were a Pilot Varsity or a $35 pen.  But the Varsity ran out in something like 3 days....  And in the process of finding something else?  I found the Goulet Pens website AND found my way here (and basically found "my people" as well).

I generally suggest that new folks to FPN click on the "New Content" button when they log in (you can adjust how much/often it refreshes.  And to check out the pinned Index to the Ink Reviews -- I'm convinced we live in the "Golden Age" of ink, with new companies popping up all over the globe and with all sorts of "features" -- sheening inks, shading inks, iron gall inks that aren't just blue/black, inks with fast dry times or which bond with the paper, even inks with shimmer particles in them (although those last ones are a PITA to clean out of a pen).  But I also warn them that they've found their way into a den of enablers, who will be more than happy to help them spend their discretionary budgets on pens, inks, paper, desk accessories, repair tools, pen shows, and ephemera...).

Have fun here -- and remember: the only dumb questions are the ones which don't get asked.  I'm astounded by the depth and breadth of knowledge on this forum (and not JUST pen-related at that).  And humbled by the generosity of this community in the sharing of that knowledge.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[Carguy]

Hello and welcome from a FORMER Texan in self imposed exile. I have learned to love this place with all it’s knowledge and wisdom and I hope you will too.

[TxTilly]

16 hours ago, boilermaker1975 said:

@TxTilly Writing by hand is good for our brains. It is really a detriment not to have students learning to write and utilizing it more.

You're preaching to the choir here.  The first year I got a class of 9th graders that couldn't read cursive really upset me. 

 

It's good for the brain.  But it's also art and good for the soul.  It's a second language. Beyond that they can never read historical documents.

 

I read a Swedish study said it is harmful for brain development not to learn at a younf age.

[TxTilly]

12 hours ago, PAKMAN said:

Hello and welcome to FPN!! Glad to have you join us! 

Thank you!

[TxTilly]

10 hours ago, Wahl said:

 

I will not say I am old, I am antique 

Lol!...  well, antiques are over 100 uears old...  so I am vintage.

[TxTilly]

6 hours ago, hbquikcomjamesl said:

Dunno about that; I've worn out more than one Pelikan steel nib, just from constant heavy use. In my experience, if it feels like you've got a flat spot, with hard edges, it's probably time. Thankfully, Pelikan nibs, like Esterbrook/Osmiroid nibs, are a bare-hands field replacement.

 

At any rate, welcome to the squirrel-cage, and look out for the nuts. We're all (as the late Douglas Adams would put it) "mostly harmless" around here.

That great to know.  And I'm mostly harmless too!

[TxTilly]

6 hours ago, Mark from Yorkshire said:

Good to know!  

[TxTilly]

4 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Greetings from Pittsburgh, PA!  I remember desks with inkwells in them, ....   I found the Goulet Pens website AND found my way here (and basically found "my people" as well).

 

Thank you for the warm welcome.   The year I finished with that school was the last and they tore down the 100+ years old building.   Also went the old desks.

 

I'm still trying to learn the terms and products.  

 

Is there a true difference between a $50 fountain pen and a $300 pen?