"A bit much? Social class and fountain pens.

[Slivovitz]

No need to talk about my job here at length, but although highly technical, it would hardly count as white collar. I'm described as a "Lead Electronics Technician". My usual work attire is jeans and a T-shirt. Pocket T, of course, the pens have to go somewhere. I shave every day, but nobody at work would care if I didn't.

So a couple of days ago I was showing a new guy how we do things, and took out an Esterbrook SJ to sign a form. It's a nice looking pen, only cost me around $13 including the price of the new sac that I put in it, but it could easily pass for something more expensive. Of course, most people probably think $13 is expensive for a pen anyway, but that's another story.

New guy says "A fountain pen? Isn't that a bit much?" Now I'm used to mildly critical reactions to FPs, but I didn't know what he meant, so I asked. It seems he thought of fountain pens as status symbols used by executive types, not us ordinary Joes.

I tried to explain to him that fountain pens just write better, which is desirable for anyone who writes, but he informed me that ballpoints were "much smoother". Sigh. I told him that it was a matter of learning how to use them properly, but didn't want to go too far off on a tangent. So we got back to the work at hand.

The thing that struck me was not his lack of information about fountain pens, that's just normal, but the fact that he saw them as status symbols for the wealthy. Now I never had that impression, even before I tried them myself. Certainly I knew that you could get really expensive ones that most people couldn't afford, but then the same thing is true of mechanical watches. I can't afford a Patek Philippe, but that didn't stop me from getting a couple of Seiko automatics.

Among the odd reactions that Nib members have had to their fountain pens, I wonder if anyone else has been told that they're writing with a rich person's pen. Of course, some members are actually more well to do than others, and some are in executive positions, but I know that we have a wide range of jobs represented here.

 

[purerockfury]

I have always thought of fountain pens as an expensive accessory. Especially when I was younger, to me it was either someone collecting expensive old pens or had more money to burn than I made in a year. There is very little info for the average person about fountain pens. Most people think fountain pens are from earlier times when ink came in bottles and people sealed letters with wax and a stamp (if they know that much). When you see a movie and someone signs something with a fountain pen it is usually some ceo or boss or lawyer. Never the ups guy handing a fountain pen for someone to sign for a package. It is the image that they have always been portrayed as.

Until more recently I thought there was only old (George Washington, John Hancock) or older days. Or you got pens like that from Mont Blanc and were a couple months pay for someone like me. I am glad though I descovered them and that you can get a decent one for relatively cheap. The best part is the inks and their variety of types and colours.

 

[Cartier]

Interesting. I have never had that reaction. Whenever I have pulled out a fountain pen people usually seem to back up as if it is going to explode in a shower of ink. I've tried handing them to people a couple times to educate them and the same thing happens. They refuse to take it and look wary of it.

No one has ever accused me of being excessive.

 

[pinecone]

No one at work or any where else made the error of thinking I was wealthy. They think of me as a old geaser, wearing hats, writing with a FP, and I do not hide the fact I shave with a straight razor! Most do however think I am nuts, and I do not even try to prove them wrong.

 

[oc_in_fw]

I, too, get the geezer treatment- if I get any reaction at all.

 

[jumper]

I've been using a fountain pen almost exclusively for over 40 years and I've never had anyone react like that. It is almost like shaving, when I started shaving everyone used a double edge blade razor and I never changed. Same with the pen, just about everyone used a fountain pen and I never changed. I've hard comments like 'nifty, or old school or wow' but that was about the extent of it.

 

[syngent]

but he informed me that ballpoints were "much smoother".

I think its more interesting he even had this opinion, most guys I talk to have never even used a fountain pen to know what they would think is smoother

wonder where he had ever picked one up before and what it was he had used

 

[celestino]

Wow, i had never even contemplated that thought, before! No one has ever insinuated this to me when i tell them or show them my limited number of pens.

 

[cb91710]

My boss just comments that the ball point was invented a few years back

 

[Mr5x5]

No one at work or any where else made the error of thinking I was wealthy. They think of me as a old geaser, wearing hats, writing with a FP, and I do not hide the fact I shave with a straight razor! Most do however think I am nuts, and I do not even try to prove them wrong.

+1/2 as I am closer to middle-age and prefer a Greek Fisherman's Cap, though a nice fedora like I remember my grandfather wearing in the late '60s is on my wish list.

 

[Slivovitz]

I think its more interesting he even had this opinion, most guys I talk to have never even used a fountain pen to know what they would think is smoother

wonder where he had ever picked one up before and what it was he had used

I thought something similar, but it's also possible that he was just assuming, based on the pointy appearance of the nib, and things he had heard. Anyway there will be time to find out, if the subject comes up again.

 

[the_edski]

My boss often teases me when I'm signing documents about where "my quill is". It's good-natured so I don't mind it. The rest of my co-workers don't understand my pen fascination, but they don't look down on it, which is nice. My cubicle-mate equates it to the "$5 milk-shake" from Pulp Fiction, and I like the analogy.

 

[KW Driver]

No one at work or any where else made the error of thinking I was wealthy. They think of me as a old geaser, wearing hats, writing with a FP, and I do not hide the fact I shave with a straight razor! Most do however think I am nuts, and I do not even try to prove them wrong.

all my guys know I use a straight, and no one else is jumping on board. I had one who DE'd, and got another to use DEs, and that's about as far as that'll go. I broke out my P51 one day, and one of my guys was impressed. "that's a little touch of class, whipping out a FP. I like it." one other guy has seen mine and asked about the mechanics of FPs.

 

[Snargle]

At my advanced age, people just assume it's the pen I got when I graduated high school!

 

[rockviper]

My monocle always falls off due to the surprise I show when people suggest I'm snobby. Luckily, my manservant has always been able to catch it before it hits the ground.

 

[rider4life]

I think anyone who associates fountain pens with "high class" only knows about them from media. Similar to straights and the stigma attached to them (cut throat, etc.) most people just don't have any exposure to either how they work or the fact that there are many low cost options available. None of the people I work with associate me writing with fountain pens as high class...they know that if I'm working here I'm not well off.

The few that are interested and have asked about cost I've explained that there are levels, just like everything else. I've let them play with the Faber-Castell (before it broke...still need to get that fixed! ) and then with the Sheaffer or one of the Viscontis. They are able to pick out the least expensive one easily, but generally have a very difficult time figuring out which of the other three is most expensive as they all feel so similar. When I let them know how much each costs both new and (rough est.) used they typically start researching to see if they can find one. How much farther than that it goes I'm not sure as I haven't seen anyone else here break one out

It's fun being the odd one at work...When you work at an IT company everyone is already a geek or nerd. Adding in an extra element just makes you more unique.

Cheers,

M.

 

[Luke49783]

What's most striking to me is that the new guy had the nerve to call you out on it like that. Both while I was in school working internships and after I graduated and started at my current job, I always took the route of "keeping my head down and mouth shut" for the first few months until I got to know people and they got to know me. I've noticed in the last year or two, though, that people don't always seem to feel the need to do that and walk onto a new job acting like they've been there for 5 years.

 

[Doc4]

What's most striking to me is that the new guy had the nerve to call you out on it like that.

It all boils down to class. (Oh, there you go, bringing class into it again. ... but that's what it's all about, if only people would stop and listen.)

Look, if you are Dennis the Peasant ...

... and some bloke who you think is your social equal comes along with his Special Pen, given to him by the Lady of the Lake ...

... then maybe you start to get defensive about the bloke with the special pen as if he thinks he's better than the rest of us because he has that special pen like he's pretending to be a CEO or something.

A bit much? Probably. But it probably struck him that you were "giving yourself airs" above your "station" and people tend to dislike that. Not that they should, but they do.

Anyhow.

When I read this ...

It's a nice looking pen, only cost me around $13 including the price of the new sac that I put in it, but it could easily pass for something more expensive.

... I thought that maybe a "non-expensive-looking" pen ... say a Kaweco Sport? ... could fly under the radar a lot better.



Oh well. Maybe if you wear a bowtie to work, he'll forget about the pen.

 

[jzuzphreek]

Most, however think I am nuts, and I do not even try to prove them wrong.

Story of my life.

My monocle always falls off due to the surprise I show when people suggest I'm snobby. Luckily, my manservant has always been able to catch it before it hits the ground.

Oh well. Maybe if you wear a bowtie to work, he'll forget about the pen.

Or spats. Spats would work as well.

 

[Boro62]

Everyone just thinks im weird, I do get the occasional, "thats pretty cool" but thats about it.