General Chat

I use one.
It's the same Parker which my cousin sent to me for my 21st - rather a lot of years ago!!.
My handwriting is much better with a fountain pen, so I use it for letters (not so many these days) greetings cards, signing forms/documents/cheques etc.
I use a biro for scribbling notes, shopping lists and such, but lately I've taken to using a pencil. Quaint! But my handwriting seems better with a pencil than with a biro!

I agree Dermot, a handwritten note or letter is more personal than a typewritten or text message, somehow relaying the mood and character of the writer to the reader. And after all, aren't diaries, letters and notes the very treasure that we, as genealogists, savour whilst we carefully preserve and save them, feeling so very grateful that our ancestors used the written word? :-)

Hi MowtownGal
I'm glad this post had the effect of taking you down Memory Lane - and to be honest your descriptive powers took me down the same path! I could almost see the hands handling the tissue paper... wonderful !!

Gwyn...
Those were the days, weren't they? Did you carry on with the italics, I wonder.. such a lovely script!

Kay...
The bottles are far nicer - and you can smell the ink when you first open it. I didn't realise that the nibs were actually gold at the time - I was reminded of the fact just a short while before your reply, when I looked at the Conway Stewart home page - my interest has been resurrected!!

Dermot.....
You are so correct! - But I, for one, like the thought of white gloves and careful handling. It is very convenient to have information at the tip of our fingers - and it is becoming a necessity in our fast paced environment.......
But, yes! what is nicer than to receive a hand written envelope - the thrill of knowing who has written, the speculation of the content!
To find an old photograph, carefully printed with names and dates!
For example, I find it extremely poignant, looking at the shaky signatures on some of the early certificates - imagining the effort made, maybe in days of real hardship, to even be able to have had the possibility to learn at all.

Hi Karen
Your last paragraph mirrors my own sentiments also -
I wish I had kept better track of my own first pen now - it was a Conway Stewart Dinki, and I recall as I grew, I had to keep the lid attached to the wrong end to elongate it.
:-)

Inventions of the devil!
They blooped and blotted all over your schoolwork. The rubber reservoir perished and flooded everything in your bag with Royal Blue - including your lunch.
My first job included writing receipts in triplicate - and a nib just would not handle it, and pencil could be altered so I don't know what we used. The duplicates were sent off to HO for punching on the Powers Samas machine. If you remember them, you're an old fogey like me.
B

Solrosen ,

Not all Parker nibs are 14ct,mainly the older types 51's etc, and presentaton ones,,,,,,,,,the more modern ones which still ink fill and cartridge are S/Steel.

I have an old Watermans but the filler has perished overtime,but still a nice looking pen,

It was my dads and was used to fill in his flying log in ww2.

I don't remember Powers Samas but this might have been the fore-runner to the NCR machine - and I DO know what one of those is!! :-D :-D

Having been on Wikipedia it would seem possible that you could have used a ballpoint pen as they have been around for quite a while!!! ...and you probably had carbon paper, so the 2nd & 3rd copies should have been legible, even writing with a sharp pencil. :-)

But I really do wonder how they coped with duplicate/triplicate copies before all these inventions??? :-S

Hi Kay,

Oh, I see... I read that some of the Watermans pens have 18ct nibs also.
When I think about it, I had a Schaeffer also, and I think that was just a stainless nib.
Can't you get a replacement filler from Waterman's?
It is obviously a very treasured item for you - together with its own very significant history.
<3

Hi Solrosen,,
Yes most older pens can be re-furbished, but I doubt if I would use it and would only perish again,,yes it has a 18ct nib,,,,,,,,there is also a propelling pencil that matches it,sadly no box,

It was a thing I had some years ago,,pen collecting,amongest others collections, :-D,I have some vulcanised fountain pens,,,,,,boy,they are big old clumsy things and a nib as thick as a piece of 2x4.,they must have been terrible to write with,...... :-D

That last sentence made me chuckle :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

My grandchildren go to private school and are not allowed to use anything other than a fountain pen from the age of 7.

I still have a couple fo fountain pens around, although I haven't used them for many years ................ I did use them at work in the 80s, so the most recent are cartridge pens.


My 40 year old daughter loves fountain pens, and has collected them for many years .................... I bought her one as her graduation present from university about 15 years ago, and several more as birthday presents.

She buys her ink in small bottles, either on the web or from small local shops


............... or there is still the Vancouver Pen Shop which has been around for almost 30 years, and is still the "try before you buy, however many pens you wish to try"!

There is even a Vancouver Pen Club .... where members talk about and show their pens

the boys at the junior school I went to, delighted in filling the ink wells with torn up scraps of paper


they stuck to the pen nibs, and made horrible splattering messes on the paper as you tried to write


this was in addition to dipping the ends of plaits into the ink

I do love a good fountain pen, some years ago some friends bought me a vintage Mont Blanc pen for a "big birthday" - looks beautiful (silver, a bit art deco looking). What a disappointment when I used it, it's quite leaky and blobby. Not as nice as my old Shaeffer.

I used to mix the violet and turquoise inks to create my own colour.

My 12 year old grand daughter - goes to local comprehensive - uses a cartridge pen out of choice.

My youngest daughter bought me a pen set, that consists of a biro and a fountain pen. I don't use them, they form part of my weird/inappropriate/naff collection of religious artefacts/gifts.
The biro is Mary, the fountain pen, Jesus.

I will say no more....... :-D

Like Gwyn I also had to do Italic writing sessions. I hated it and I reckon it ruined my handwriting.

The best at writing in the Italic style were the artists !!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a solid silver Parker75 which I use often but not as much as I used to. There is no problem getting ink and it does not leak. It has a matching ballpen. I have other pens from other times eg Duofold, Cross, Shaeffer but this is the one I use.

I am not sure when the practice of printing out computer source code and annotating it for errors by hand stopped but I guess it must have been some years back. Funny how things change and are barely noticed at the time. Goodbye Mr Green Pen.

Being left handed I had major problems with real ink pens (be it Fountain or Dip)

At school it got to the point that my work was so messy, I had to use a pencil and print!

Thank god for Biros, posh ones or otherwise.... Me I used to love a good old Bic (Yellow casings the best).

Now I use (and own about 10) Sheaffer No Nonsense Pens. They are great. Sadly no longer sold in the UK. But as I have so many I will never run out!!!

I must be really old fashioned, Solrosen.

I still write Thank You cards.

My husband works for a lady who travels extensively, but always bring me back something from her travels. Usually something small, but personal.

She always says 'I dont expect a Thank You note from Maddie' but I always send her one, and I think she is secretly pleased.

It is only good manners, and the way I was dragged up!

;-)

When my son qualified as a solicitor/barrister we brought him a Mont Blanc fountain pen. For his 40th birthday I brought him another one, he uses them daily. He has beautiful handwriting, but not so good when he writes in ballpoint. :-S :-S

DC

I had forgotten those Sheaffer pens!

We didn't call them No Nonsense ........................ but I had 2 of them when I was working.

The white one always had a black ink cartridge, and the yellow always had red ink.


I still have the white one, but the yellow one seems to have disappeared.




My father gave me a Lady Sheaffer White Dot set (fountain pen and pencil) way way back in the 1960s. It had a red-maroon barrel and silver cap

I used the fountain pen a lot .................... but it was stolen during an office move in the mid-1980s.

I have the pencil, but how I miss that fountain pen! It was so beautifully balanced