My late mother used a Universal fountain pen, tiny hooded gold nib, blue silvery resin body metal cap. I wound up owning it, have had it restored more than once, and now have many. Old, new, mass produced, individually made, no longer made, classic, unusual, originals, copies, metal, plastic, hard rubber, wood, and more. I do give pens away, rarely sell one, and am hopelessly addicted. Today I ordered more, despite promises not to.
I purchased my first fountain pen in October 2020. I had decided to learn to write with my off hand and wanted something to try and make the hours of practice more bearable. I immediately put the wrong kind of ink in it which lead me to RUclips for information and I ended up ordering an ink sample set online. I was blown away by every one of the inks and the rest is history, as they say.
A lady whose RUclips channel I used to watch (she’s inactive now) sent me some fountain pens and got me started. I’ve been a user/collector for the past four or five years, and have a collection of both new and vintage pens; and I’m in Tennessee.
I enjoyed your story! I'm getting into fountain pens, now. I bought my first pen earlier this, a LAMY Safari, but I didn't use it much. Now, that the year is almost over, I am back into fountain pens. I recently bought TWSBI and Parker Jotter. In 2025, I'll be doing more writing with fountain pens for sure.
Good to hear your pen journey!! Mine started in grammar school with the Parker ball point . I don’t remember writing much with it’s all about possession of such a beautiful instrument. My next pen of note was a Lamy allstar aluminum ball point or roller ball . With that pen I started to journal more or less . The pen that changed my world was a Namiki Falcon fountain pen .
I had a friend gift me a Karas rollerball during lockdown and it started me down this journey. It was much better than what I was using to take TTRPG notes but still annoyed me. My first fountain pen was a Lamy AL-Star. When I quickly started acquiring more, I sold it to a friend with a collection of Lamy nibs to see if his wife would find something she liked. 4 1/2 years later and my collection of pens and inks are very large and everyone I play TTRPGs with has at least one fountain pen.
Hey, I have a couple of those!! They are both wonderful writers. I think older pens scare a lot of people, but they are great and just as easy to maintain as new pens.
really nice video and memories 🙂 I'm of an age that here in the UK we used fountain pens (a standard plastic model) in junior school - so from the age of around 5 or 6 I was using fountain pens. Then that stopped and we had standard school issue biros. Before I did my A'levels at 18 I decided to get a fountain pen and take a bottle of ink rather than having loads of spare pens in the exam room. And that pen was... a Waterman! It was a rolled silver model called a Torsade. I still have and use it now although I have over 30 pens! Throughout my work career I always used a fountain pen which got me some strange looks, especially if there had been an ink-related accident!!
I get the looks thing. I used to travel about a week for month for work, and I would get to a site and pull out my Rhodia pad and pen roll, and it always generated some questions or odd glances.
As a junior high kid I got into calligraphy, both with cartridge and dip calligraphy pen sets. My mother had been messing with it for a while and I took it upon myself to learn. That morphed into cartridge fountain pens (I don't even remember the brands I had) and lasted throughout high school. I don't have any of those pens anymore, but there's a good chance my dad does, buried in a storage unit somewhere. Over the years I would wend my way in and out of the fountain pen world but never really collected. They were tools for writing in the 11,203,302 notebooks I have, as I've had a weakness for, and love of, stationery since I can remember. It's something I inherited from my father's love of the same. I used cartridges still and didn't really go past that. Then I got my first Pilot Metropolitan sometime in 2013 and the floodgates opened up. That took me down the path of seeking out inks to fit the simple converter they provided, which led to me exploring more (and better) pens and more and varied inks. Eleven years later fountain pens are one of the only hyperfixations that has stuck with me for an extended period of time, and I don't see it going away in my lifetime. As a writer, writing is what I must do and having the right tool at the right time is very important. I can load up a pen that speaks to me with an ink that demands my attention and away we go. I love the analog, visceral nature of it. I enjoy having inky fingers. I find zen in maintaining my pens. I still have that Metropolitan.
Thanks for posting that. I like to think of pens/stationery as a hobby that can be used in almost all other hobbies, so it is one that is easy to keep with, even if you drift away for a while, it will return at some point.
I write webnovels, so one day a fan commented on my writers block that I should start writing on paper, it will be more enjoyable and could take the distractions away as you are not looking at a screen with some kinds of notifications all the time. I started writing with a G2 and got tired of changing the refill every few days. Just then I saw an advertisement of a fountain pen in facebook. I bought the pen. It's a Hongdian 1861 Pro. Chinese pen. I bought one bottle of pilot black ink along with it. Soon more and more advertisement and group posts started to come in my facebook wall. Now I have over 100 pens and about 60 bottle of inks.
I ran a fountain pen playlist as mindless background. I ignored it while I worked. Then I realized I knew what “posting” meant. That much had snuck into my subconscious. Then I remembered a student pen I had back in fifth grade, 50 years ago. I called the nearest Office Depot - a 100 mile round trip - and discovered they had a Waterman Allure on the shelf. A hundred miles later, I had my first fountain pen as an adult.
I found a Parker 21 in a drawer that belonged to my grandfather who passed away (it was the year 2000) And I asked what it was and my father got me a bottle of ink and then I used it for school. I was afraid of loosing it so my father got me a Parker Vector instead to bring to class. I got a Rotring 600 Newton for college and then I stopped using them. Then, like 8 years ago I found about Lamy Safaris and jumped back in and now I have a job so too many pens end up in my hands and I guess I am in the hobby now. Uh... I have also one of those watermans!
That is cool that you got started with a pen that had been your grandfather's. I have always been curious about the Rotoring, but haven't ever tried one in person.
Very cool! My journey had a few starts, I think I had a fountain at one point as I was a bit curious, but it didn't write very well. I went to London and purchased a souvenir dipping pen set at the Kensington Gardens souvenir shop. Then I lost track of fountain pens until I saw you mentioning them again. Using the Lamy Safari really hooked me in at that point. Now there's no turning back. :)
Mine was a Pelikan Pharo from the bookstore in college. This caused me to look at cursive, how I was trained, and how I wanted to change my font. I then asked for a Pelikan m400 on graduation, which dad got me. This was followed by a Waterman Phileas and now many other FPs. I have a drawer full of inks, several active penpals, 10 years of journals, post crossing stacks of post cards from all over the world. It's a wonderful pen life!
What a nice video. My first fountain pen was/is an Esterbrook Camden Northern Lights in Manitoba Blue, which was a gift from my pen obsessed daughter. Now I have 120 fountain pens, but the Esterbrook is still one of the nicest.
I was hesitant about journaling at first, but it was very freeing to empty the brain onto the pages. What are your current front runners for a first pen?
Do you write fairly small, or do you write larger? A Lamy being a German nib will be wider than the Japanese equivalent, so I would probably say to start with a Fine.
No one has ever asked and I have never told where I started to use fountain pens. I found an old Esterbrook in a dresser drawer that my father used back in college (just before WWII). This was back in the 60s. I believe I was the only nerd in grade school and high school that would use a fountain pen. I would hunt thrift stores to find ones that I could afford. I remember having a Parker 45 and a Sheaffer gold duo tip (which I still own). I didn't use fountain pens in college, but I found a Parker 75 at the San Jose Flea market for $5 back in 1980. I never used it because the nib was a gusher and I could not afford to buy a different nib. They were about $25 at the time. I ruined that nib later trying to make it write better. But then about 20 years ago I found a modern Parker 45 at Staples on closeout for about $7 each. I purchased a handful of them to give as gifts. But I started using one of them and because I could now afford more, the race to find the perfect fountain pen was on.
Whole time in my late teens through early 20s I envisioned myself as an up-and-coming businessman... and that meant having a gold or silver Cross roller ball. I had several of those and then from my 30s to now at 62 just used normal pens or cheaper Cross pens as I got interested in hifi, all types of cycling and other expensive hobbies. Then my Facebook started becoming flooded for adds for fountain pens---likely because I'd occasionally check out some of the belt or watch ads. Well we know where that led. I have acquired a quick 15 pens at an average of 300 a pop over the last 4 months. And yes, binders, cases, notebooks, many inks, a loupe......
You sound similar to me, where when you start a new hobby, it is full tilt or nothing. I also had a cycling phase after college, and then I went into photography for many years. Now pens and scuba diving take up my time.
Just found you! I started in 2020 after a hand surgery- my writing hand. I enjoy journaling, but hand hurt with ballpoint. A doctor said to use a fountain pen. That started it for me. My first was a silver Pilot Metropolitan. It was perfect. I found Goulet Pen Co, and learned about fountain pens. Can you tell me your first name? Or should I call you dwrdnet? Blessings
I thought it was interesting you began printing in your journal. I was a draftsman for over almost 20 years and began my journal by printing. I had almost forgotten how to write in cursive. I started mostly writing in cursive to remember how. I haven't printed in my journal in a while. My handwriting doesn't look like it was done by an epileptic ferret anymore.
I had a teacher in high school who made me re-do a test since she could t read my cursive. She made me print it and ever since then, it has pretty much been small print. I try cursive every so often, but it still looks like crap.
I had a zerba cheap fountion pen but never liked it but the fase forword into my college years my dad got two of the same cross mediom nib fountion pens one for him, and one for me, and I started using it, and loved it. Infaked I used it in a creative writing class for all of my short stories that I wrote, and that is when the obseshion started for me.
I had a zebra a long time ago too, but it was terrible, so I never pursued fountain pens more in high school. I actually ordered a kit from a tv infomercial in college, and that was also terrible, so I just needed to find the right way to start it seems. Thanks for watching.
I love my Waterman Allure pens. They are get writers. My first pen was a Schaeffer that I got at an office supply store. I don’t know where that one went though.
My late mother used a Universal fountain pen, tiny hooded gold nib, blue silvery resin body metal cap. I wound up owning it, have had it restored more than once, and now have many. Old, new, mass produced, individually made, no longer made, classic, unusual, originals, copies, metal, plastic, hard rubber, wood, and more. I do give pens away, rarely sell one, and am hopelessly addicted. Today I ordered more, despite promises not to.
I purchased my first fountain pen in October 2020. I had decided to learn to write with my off hand and wanted something to try and make the hours of practice more bearable. I immediately put the wrong kind of ink in it which lead me to RUclips for information and I ended up ordering an ink sample set online. I was blown away by every one of the inks and the rest is history, as they say.
That happens quite often of the wrong types of inks. Glad you didn’t let it shy you away from the hobby.
A lady whose RUclips channel I used to watch (she’s inactive now) sent me some fountain pens and got me started. I’ve been a user/collector for the past four or five years, and have a collection of both new and vintage pens; and I’m in Tennessee.
It is always good when someone is able to penable someone else.
I enjoyed your story! I'm getting into fountain pens, now. I bought my first pen earlier this, a LAMY Safari, but I didn't use it much. Now, that the year is almost over, I am back into fountain pens. I recently bought TWSBI and Parker Jotter. In 2025, I'll be doing more writing with fountain pens for sure.
Sometimes it takes a second try to find the “write” combo that works for you.
Good to hear your pen journey!! Mine started in grammar school with the Parker ball point . I don’t remember writing much with it’s all about possession of such a beautiful instrument. My next pen of note was a Lamy allstar aluminum ball point or roller ball . With that pen I started to journal more or less . The pen that changed my world was a Namiki Falcon fountain pen .
I had a Falcon in the past, but I don’t really use flex nibs, so I sold it to my friend.
@ I use a Sailor Pro Gear now along with a few other humble tools
I had a friend gift me a Karas rollerball during lockdown and it started me down this journey. It was much better than what I was using to take TTRPG notes but still annoyed me. My first fountain pen was a Lamy AL-Star. When I quickly started acquiring more, I sold it to a friend with a collection of Lamy nibs to see if his wife would find something she liked. 4 1/2 years later and my collection of pens and inks are very large and everyone I play TTRPGs with has at least one fountain pen.
I have inadvertently brought many friends into the hobby over time as well.
Hey, I have a couple of those!! They are both wonderful writers.
I think older pens scare a lot of people, but they are great and just as easy to maintain as new pens.
Some of the vintage pens are the most fun to use, especially when you think of the what they could have been used for in the past scenarios.
really nice video and memories 🙂
I'm of an age that here in the UK we used fountain pens (a standard plastic model) in junior school - so from the age of around 5 or 6 I was using fountain pens. Then that stopped and we had standard school issue biros. Before I did my A'levels at 18 I decided to get a fountain pen and take a bottle of ink rather than having loads of spare pens in the exam room.
And that pen was... a Waterman! It was a rolled silver model called a Torsade. I still have and use it now although I have over 30 pens!
Throughout my work career I always used a fountain pen which got me some strange looks, especially if there had been an ink-related accident!!
I get the looks thing. I used to travel about a week for month for work, and I would get to a site and pull out my Rhodia pad and pen roll, and it always generated some questions or odd glances.
As a junior high kid I got into calligraphy, both with cartridge and dip calligraphy pen sets. My mother had been messing with it for a while and I took it upon myself to learn. That morphed into cartridge fountain pens (I don't even remember the brands I had) and lasted throughout high school. I don't have any of those pens anymore, but there's a good chance my dad does, buried in a storage unit somewhere.
Over the years I would wend my way in and out of the fountain pen world but never really collected. They were tools for writing in the 11,203,302 notebooks I have, as I've had a weakness for, and love of, stationery since I can remember. It's something I inherited from my father's love of the same. I used cartridges still and didn't really go past that.
Then I got my first Pilot Metropolitan sometime in 2013 and the floodgates opened up. That took me down the path of seeking out inks to fit the simple converter they provided, which led to me exploring more (and better) pens and more and varied inks. Eleven years later fountain pens are one of the only hyperfixations that has stuck with me for an extended period of time, and I don't see it going away in my lifetime. As a writer, writing is what I must do and having the right tool at the right time is very important. I can load up a pen that speaks to me with an ink that demands my attention and away we go. I love the analog, visceral nature of it. I enjoy having inky fingers. I find zen in maintaining my pens.
I still have that Metropolitan.
Thanks for posting that. I like to think of pens/stationery as a hobby that can be used in almost all other hobbies, so it is one that is easy to keep with, even if you drift away for a while, it will return at some point.
I write webnovels, so one day a fan commented on my writers block that I should start writing on paper, it will be more enjoyable and could take the distractions away as you are not looking at a screen with some kinds of notifications all the time. I started writing with a G2 and got tired of changing the refill every few days. Just then I saw an advertisement of a fountain pen in facebook. I bought the pen. It's a Hongdian 1861 Pro. Chinese pen. I bought one bottle of pilot black ink along with it. Soon more and more advertisement and group posts started to come in my facebook wall. Now I have over 100 pens and about 60 bottle of inks.
I fully get writing stuff down. There is a better connection mentally at least for me when using a pen.
I ran a fountain pen playlist as mindless background. I ignored it while I worked. Then I realized I knew what “posting” meant. That much had snuck into my subconscious. Then I remembered a student pen I had back in fifth grade, 50 years ago. I called the nearest Office Depot - a 100 mile round trip - and discovered they had a Waterman Allure on the shelf. A hundred miles later, I had my first fountain pen as an adult.
Haha that is great. I have one other Waterman besides the one in this video. They are great pens.
I found a Parker 21 in a drawer that belonged to my grandfather who passed away (it was the year 2000) And I asked what it was and my father got me a bottle of ink and then I used it for school. I was afraid of loosing it so my father got me a Parker Vector instead to bring to class. I got a Rotring 600 Newton for college and then I stopped using them. Then, like 8 years ago I found about Lamy Safaris and jumped back in and now I have a job so too many pens end up in my hands and I guess I am in the hobby now.
Uh... I have also one of those watermans!
That is cool that you got started with a pen that had been your grandfather's. I have always been curious about the Rotoring, but haven't ever tried one in person.
Very cool! My journey had a few starts, I think I had a fountain at one point as I was a bit curious, but it didn't write very well. I went to London and purchased a souvenir dipping pen set at the Kensington Gardens souvenir shop. Then I lost track of fountain pens until I saw you mentioning them again. Using the Lamy Safari really hooked me in at that point. Now there's no turning back. :)
I do remember when I got hung ho and indirectly brought some friends in for the ride, but hey, who doesn’t love a good pen at their core?
Mine was a Pelikan Pharo from the bookstore in college. This caused me to look at cursive, how I was trained, and how I wanted to change my font. I then asked for a Pelikan m400 on graduation, which dad got me. This was followed by a Waterman Phileas and now many other FPs. I have a drawer full of inks, several active penpals, 10 years of journals, post crossing stacks of post cards from all over the world. It's a wonderful pen life!
What a great way to get started.
What a nice video. My first fountain pen was/is an Esterbrook Camden Northern Lights in Manitoba Blue, which was a gift from my pen obsessed daughter. Now I have 120 fountain pens, but the Esterbrook is still one of the nicest.
My wife's first real pen was her Esterbrook Estie oversized, and even with her having more pens now, I still think that one is her favorite.
That is kinda how my journey started with pens. Still looking for my first fountain pen. I’m new to writing in a journal.
I was hesitant about journaling at first, but it was very freeing to empty the brain onto the pages. What are your current front runners for a first pen?
@ I’m thinking a lamy to get started. From reviews I’ve read looks like it’s a good one to start with.
That is a nice start. Do you think you will start with a medium or a fine nib?
@@dwrdnet what is best to start with?
Do you write fairly small, or do you write larger? A Lamy being a German nib will be wider than the Japanese equivalent, so I would probably say to start with a Fine.
No one has ever asked and I have never told where I started to use fountain pens. I found an old Esterbrook in a dresser drawer that my father used back in college (just before WWII). This was back in the 60s. I believe I was the only nerd in grade school and high school that would use a fountain pen. I would hunt thrift stores to find ones that I could afford. I remember having a Parker 45 and a Sheaffer gold duo tip (which I still own).
I didn't use fountain pens in college, but I found a Parker 75 at the San Jose Flea market for $5 back in 1980. I never used it because the nib was a gusher and I could not afford to buy a different nib. They were about $25 at the time. I ruined that nib later trying to make it write better.
But then about 20 years ago I found a modern Parker 45 at Staples on closeout for about $7 each. I purchased a handful of them to give as gifts. But I started using one of them and because I could now afford more, the race to find the perfect fountain pen was on.
What a beginning. Thanks for sharing.
Whole time in my late teens through early 20s I envisioned myself as an up-and-coming businessman... and that meant having a gold or silver Cross roller ball. I had several of those and then from my 30s to now at 62 just used normal pens or cheaper Cross pens as I got interested in hifi, all types of cycling and other expensive hobbies. Then my Facebook started becoming flooded for adds for fountain pens---likely because I'd occasionally check out some of the belt or watch ads. Well we know where that led. I have acquired a quick 15 pens at an average of 300 a pop over the last 4 months. And yes, binders, cases, notebooks, many inks, a loupe......
You sound similar to me, where when you start a new hobby, it is full tilt or nothing. I also had a cycling phase after college, and then I went into photography for many years. Now pens and scuba diving take up my time.
Just found you! I started in 2020 after a hand surgery- my writing hand. I enjoy journaling, but hand hurt with ballpoint. A doctor said to use a fountain pen. That started it for me. My first was a silver Pilot Metropolitan. It was perfect. I found Goulet Pen Co, and learned about fountain pens. Can you tell me your first name? Or should I call you dwrdnet? Blessings
Fountain pens are easier on the hands. My name is Derek.
I thought it was interesting you began printing in your journal. I was a draftsman for over almost 20 years and began my journal by printing. I had almost forgotten how to write in cursive. I started mostly writing in cursive to remember how. I haven't printed in my journal in a while. My handwriting doesn't look like it was done by an epileptic ferret anymore.
I had a teacher in high school who made me re-do a test since she could t read my cursive. She made me print it and ever since then, it has pretty much been small print. I try cursive every so often, but it still looks like crap.
I had a zerba cheap fountion pen but never liked it but the fase forword into my college years my dad got two of the same cross mediom nib fountion pens one for him, and one for me, and I started using it, and loved it. Infaked I used it in a creative writing class for all of my short stories that I wrote, and that is when the obseshion started for me.
I had a zebra a long time ago too, but it was terrible, so I never pursued fountain pens more in high school. I actually ordered a kit from a tv infomercial in college, and that was also terrible, so I just needed to find the right way to start it seems. Thanks for watching.
I love my Waterman Allure pens. They are get writers. My first pen was a Schaeffer that I got at an office supply store. I don’t know where that one went though.
Waterman is not that common these days, but they are great writers.
Go beard.