The Fountain Pen

Prior to the refinement and mass-production of the fountain pen in the late 19th century, writing with ink had some serious drawbacks. The dip pen had to be continuously dipped in ink, while the quill—made from a feather plucked from a live bird—required frequent sharpening. By contrast, the fountain pen held liquid ink in a reservoir until needed, at which time the ink was fed to a nib via a combination of gravity and capillary action. How was ink inserted into the first fountain pens? More...

I love fountain pens and own quite a selection of expensive ones. The idea is to get a new one, entirely dissemble it and reassemble it before writing with it. Collecting fountain pens is an expensive, but enjoyable hobby!

Just thought of learning to write with it again and went looking for it in a stationery store last month, but found only one brand left in the store.

Such a soothing leisure activity for me who's so tired of banging on keyboard.

There was a fountain pen craze at my primary school for a while. We wrote with the cheap fountain pens with ink cartridges. I use a lot of pressure when I write, a very bad habit, which makes writing with a fountain pen an arduous task. When I write I usually leave an indentation many pages deep. Spies used to read private messages by going over the top page in a notebook with a pencil to reveal the message written on the previous page. I'd make a bad spy.

The fountain pen was a formidable weapon at school. Unfortunately it left its own version of a paper trail so offenders were quite easily identified.

Of course, fountain pens are pretty obsolete, but I still enjoy using them sometimes. They remind me of early 1970s, when I attended high school.

We asked you for your reasons, through Facebook , Twitter and Reddit , and this image is based on the hundreds of responses we received.




http://www.inknouveau.com/2014/01/12-reasons-why-you-should-write-with.html

Ahh..

How fun was the fountain pen??

http://www.fountainpenhospital.com/Index_Showcase.asp?BOD=/vintage_pens/vintage_pens.asp?PG=0-96&showall=1&s=msnw

Shaeffer, Waterman, Parker and all the memories of nibs, snorkels and endless ink stains..

No one could write with a pen in my 1st and 2d grade combined class (1-12 grade school house) in 1944.

India ink was the worst of all.. Black and unforgivable, it stained hands, clothes, desk tops and seats as well as floors, books and Miss Gallipoo's (yep! that was her real name) memory of those first graders that messed up and spilled that horrible stain across the spartan landscape of her weekly domain.

Yikes!! I wonder how my cousins and I made it thru those early days of institutional training alive..