Do you still own a fountain pen?

Grampa Don

Grampa Don

Yep, that's me
Location
Orange county, Calif.
I came across this calligraphy set that my wife bought many years ago and I thought it might be fun to play with.

pens1.jpg


It was. I'm not very good at it, but it got my interest in fountain pens. I remember my Mother used to use one, but I don't remember if I ever did. Then I went on E-bay and saw a bamboo pen for $2.23 from China. That sounded cool, so I bought it and I like it. Before long it was joined by a clear plastic pen, a black metal pen and the latest, a red aluminum pen, all $2 or less.

pens2.jpg


I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I think they're neat. I really like the way they write, but I don't really hand write much anymore. I'm spoiled by the computer.

Don
 

I have quite a few laying around my place. Couple of fairly expensive ones and others of little or no value. I think my last bottle of ink dried up some years ago.
 
I have a fairly decent Waterman that gets used when I do the Christmas cards. Otherwise it is just too much trouble.
I tend to use rollerball pens for the bulk of my writing.
But I do remember using a plain old ink pen and an ink well when I was in grade school. Ball point pens made things so much easier.
 
Grampa Don said:
I came across this calligraphy set that my wife bought many years ago and I thought it might be fun to play with.

pens1.jpg


It was. I'm not very good at it, but it got my interest in fountain pens. I remember my Mother used to use one, but I don't remember if I ever did. Then I went on E-bay and saw a bamboo pen for $2.23 from China. That sounded cool, so I bought it and I like it. Before long it was joined by a clear plastic pen, a black metal pen and the latest, a red aluminum pen, all $2 or less.

pens2.jpg


I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I think they're neat. I really like the way they write, but I don't really hand write much anymore. I'm spoiled by the computer.

Don
Click to expand...
I remember my family had one...they showed me how to use it. I kind of wish I still had one, but I'd never use it.

Nice new Avatar @Grampa Don!
 
Aunt Bea said:
Left-handed people usually drag their hand over what they write and it smudges/smears.

When I was in grade school and had to use a pencil the side of my left hand would be covered in graphite.
Click to expand...

That's really interesting. I never thought of that. One of my sons is left handed. I'll have to ask him if he's had that problem.

Don
 
My mom who was also lefty was shocked when she noticed how my left hand was curled inward as we were taught to do. She wrote like a right handed person with her left hand. There was a time when lefties were considered "odd" and youngsters were forced to write right handed. I always hated three ring notebooks and spiral notebooks because they interfered with my hand.
 
palmer method.jpg
Fountain pens bring back dark episodes in my life. That lousy Palmer Method chart. In school, we had to pass a penmanship test on the Palmer Meithod. I had to rewrite it, over and over. The pens leaked big splotches. just as I finished. The pen ran out of ink about 2/3 of the way on the test. When you refilled it, the lines the pen made were twice as big as the previous ones. I'd finally get my paper just like the chart, and the ink would shmear all over. AHHHHHH! I can't tell you how many shirts I ruined with indelible blue/black ink. For some strange reason, we weren't allowed to use a ball point pen. Gampa Don may have loved them, I wished they all burnt in hell.
 
I'm old enough to remember fountain pens.

They are called that because they used an inkwell. The inkwell was in every school desk.

You dipped the pen in the inkwell to write.

Then came contained pens with the same type of nib and a cartridge for ink. The big name was Parker.

Then they invented the ball point pen and the selling point in advertising was that it could write underwater.

I traded something to a friend that had one of the first ball point pens marketed.

It was made by Reynolds Aluminum. All aluminum barrel.

They ran out of ink and were disposable.

To use a fountain pen you had to use a light touch. Beautiful handwriting as in the Constitution.

Probably a quill pen. Same principle.
 
rgp said:
Ah....didn't think'a that........Thanks.
Click to expand...

I could never understand left handed people dragging their hand across the page and writing like the hunchback of Notre Dame.

When we were taught to write we were told to slant the paper to the left because we were right handed.
So why weren't the left handed people told to slant the paper to the right?
 
fuzzybuddy said:
View attachment 79495
Fountain pens bring back dark episodes in my life. That lousy Palmer Method chart. In school, we had to pass a penmanship test on the Palmer Meithod. I had to rewrite it, over and over. The pens leaked big splotches. just as I finished. The pen ran out of ink about 2/3 of the way on the test. When you refilled it, the lines the pen made were twice as big as the previous ones. I'd finally get my paper just like the chart, and the ink would shmear all over. AHHHHHH! I can't tell you how many shirts I ruined with indelible blue/black ink. For some strange reason, we weren't allowed to use a ball point pen. Gampa Don may have loved them, I wished they all burnt in hell.
Click to expand...
I aced handwriting. My friend calls my handwriting 'penmanship'.

He gets me to write thank you notes.

All young people print everything now and some of them can't read script writing.

penmanship.jpg
 
Last edited:
Fuzzybuddy -- Sorry to cause bad memories. I can't remember ever having penmanship tests or even using liquid ink pens in school. Maybe it was so bad my brain has blocked it out. My handwriting has always been pretty lousy.

Camper6 -- My son teaches college English and many of his students can't read cursive.

Don
 
Grampa Don said:
Fuzzybuddy -- Sorry to cause bad memories. I can't remember ever having penmanship tests or even using liquid ink pens in school. Maybe it was so bad my brain has blocked it out. My handwriting has always been pretty lousy.

Camper6 -- My son teaches college English and many of his students can't read cursive.

Don
Click to expand...
So they can't read the old documents like the Constitution?
 
I remember when ball points first came on the market. My parents bought one for my grandfather, it was a real novelty.
 
Camper6 said:
So they can't read the old documents like the Constitution?
Click to expand...

That's true. But then, how many Americans have actually read the constitution in cursive? Here is an article that discusses that point. The constitution was actually distributed as a printed document. I still feel that cursive should be taught. As long as there are pens/pencils and paper, it is a useful skill.
 
Manatee said:
I remember when ball points first came on the market. My parents bought one for my grandfather, it was a real novelty.
Click to expand...
The first ballpoint I ever saw was when our family doctor was using one to write a prescription. I still remember it was white plastic. I thought it was really cool. That was some time in the late 40's.

Don
 
Camper6 said:
I could never understand left handed people dragging their hand across the page and writing like the hunchback of Notre Dame.

When we were taught to write we were told to slant the paper to the left because we were right handed.
So why weren't the left handed people told to slant the paper to the right?
Click to expand...


I've known lefty's that write as you noted however, I have a lefty friend that writes as you suggest, with the paper the opposite of a right-hander, and he BTW has near perfect penmanship.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top