» What was your first fountain pen?
My first fountain pen was a red Lamy Safari that I purchased in late 2007 from Pendemonium. I called them to help me select the nib, as I had no idea how it might write when compared to a typical gel pen or roller ball. They suggested a medium which I do believe at the time was a good choice. There is a bit of a learning curve when writing with a fountain pen. You don’t need to bear down on the nib for the ink to flow, but it’s still easy to do so as that’s what historically has been necessary to get the ink moving out of a pen. If you lean hard on a fine or extra-fine nib, you could damage the nib or simply find that it’s too “scratchy” compared to what you are used to. Writing with a fountain pen needs only the lightest touch…
So what was your first, or what will be your first fountain pen?
Image courtesy of misseviestevie vis Instagram
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My first fountain pen, the one that converted me to loving fountain pens, was a Pelikan Go! They aren’t made any more. It fills by twisting the end. I like that about it a lot. It is a very smooth writer and the ink flows well. I still have one left.
Like many others of my generation, in sixth grade we were required to use fountain pens. No ballpoints on pain of death. We all got transparent Sheafer school pens. Green, blue, red or clear. The ends were rounded like a cigar and they took cartridges. Ink was blue or black but in the 10th grade I discovered Peacock Blue, mixed my own purple and discovered Parker 45′s, one of which I still have. The former a fine, the latter a medium. I recall a fellow 2 years older than me with whom I walked to school. Every am before we left he would ritually fill a lever filler
My first fountain was a Waterman Preface Thriller Red (a lovely solid slim pen) with an 18K fine nib. 13 years later I still have it along with 58 other Fps, ten of which are other Preface models (I need only two more for all colours of Prefaces made)
My first was a Retro 51 Tornado purchased in 2005, which I no longer have. My 2nd was a LAMY Safari Charcoal. Which I still have!
Ah, this question takes me back. I was 15 and asked my grandmother for a Shaeffer Targa from the Service Merchandise catalog. That pen wrote like a dream and went everywhere with me until I lost it in the early 2000′s:( I’ve been toying with the idea of bidding for one on Ebay but I’m not sure I want to….you can’t catch lightening in a bottle twice…..
My first fountain pen was a really cheap one that I got for school (our teacher had asked me one for handwriting practice). I fell in love because of how effortlessly I could get it to write and how *truly* black the ink was (vs/ the black-greyish of ballpoints).
I’ve since lost that pent and when I got back to them a couple years back my first choice was the Lamy Vista with a F nib. It works wonders and now my collection includes Noodler’s and Kaweco pens :)
Mine was a Lamy Safari demonstrator, also a medium nib, that I purchased in Amsterdam. I loved it and was very sad when a few months later someone at work sat on it accidentally and crushed it, but it gave me a reason to get a new one … and another … and another …
A Sheaffer No Nonsense, in high school. Still have it! <3
My first fountain pen was a beautiful Parker Frontier, glass green…
I grew up in Pakistan and in Middle school we were only allowed to write with fountain pen. They did this because there was a major emphasis on handwriting and fountain pens had less resistance.
So, I got my first fountain pen about 18 years ago. It was a maroon pen made in Pakistan by a company called “Hero”.
I remember stained fingers and packing a bottle of blue ink in my backpack.
good times!
My first fountain pen was a 1930′s Waterman.
I needed a pen to learn to write in the third grade. It was 1963, and my father gave me his brother’s abandoned pen. I used it all through grade, high, college and grad school and still use it today. Michael Masuyama resacked it a few years ago.
I used it last year to make some illustrations for Carrier Pigeon Magazine. In some ways it is my quintessential pen; I judge all pens by it.
And, in a pinch, it can do anything I ask of it.
My first fountain pen was a Parker 45 that I received as a gift when I entered high school in 1965. I still have it and it still works although I do not use it much anymore.
Mine was a Waterman Phileas with a medium nib that I bought at OfficeMax in a kit. It came with the pen, cartridges of various colors, a bottle of Waterman black ink, and some blotter paper. After a couple years, I sent it to Pendemonium to have the nib custom ground into an italic cursive pen. A year after that I sold it.
Now I own two fountain pens. A Hero 330, and a Scheaffer No Nonsense calligraphy pen. I use both daily.
Bob
My first fountain pen was a parker vector fountain pen that I bought when I was a kid. I loved that pen.
In 1966 when I turned 16 I bought my first fountain pen with my own money. A Mont Blanc 122 with a super luscious Medium nib. My seconf fountain pen purchase followed the same year – a Pelikan 120 with a factory stub nib that I still use and enjoy! My FP love began early and has remained strong throughout my life!
My very first FP was a crappy plastic FP, that worked with cartridges and leaked costantly. That was when I was in 6th grade.
When I graduated high-school, my parents got me a Daniel Hechter FP, fabulously green with a very nice Medium nib which I’ve kept well into the University, and that got me hooked up on FPs.
Cross back in the early 90′s and it was horrific. Two years ago this month I purchased a Lamy Studio and my journey really got restarted!
My first was a blue Waterman Phileas. Still have and still enjoy it.
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