A Traveling Pen?

[ins0ma]

Or, A Pen to Travel With. . .

I'm going to be hitting the road soon for work, and I'm thinking about bringing a fountain pen with me, since I've come to enjoy jotting things down in a Moleskin lately. I don't want to bring the Cross that SWMBO gifted me a few years ago, and it occurred to me that with the wealth of knowledge around here, someone has surely been down this road before, and figured out a few good choices for a travel pen.

A few criteria:

1. It needs to be able to endure being carried in a backpack on planes, trains and automobiles, without making a mess;
2. It needs to write smoothly, and I'd like to be able to write in my notebook while in transit, so a bump or two shouldn't spell disaster;
3. It should be easy and not messy to refill/reload the pen. I think carts probably make sense here but I'm open to suggestions. I'll also need to take a good supply of ink with me, as I won't be able to count on finding a store conveniently everywhere I'm going.

Any ideas?

 

[airmech]

Parker "51" aerometric filler!

Kaweco Sport

Pilot Vanishing Point

Tom

 

[cursethis]

What type of budget are you looking at?

 

[ins0ma]

I'd like to keep it around $50 (or under!).

 

[KindestCutofAll]

Parker "51" aerometric filler!

Kaweco Sport

Pilot Vanishing Point

Tom

What's a Tom? Does it come in a flex nib?

 

[Slivovitz]

Lots of good choices, of course. I'm getting set for a trip soon, and thought I'd take a couple of decent cartridge pens. I've got converters, but this will be a good chance to use up a few of the cartridges that I have anyway.

One of them will be a 1990s Sheaffer School Pen. With a medium nib, it's a surprisingly smooth writer, it's sturdy, and although I'd regret it if something happened to it on the trip, it's not like risking one of my really nice ones. Uses a proprietary style cartridge, which is still available, but will also use the current Sheaffer converters.

Mine cost me $15 for an NOS one on eBay. You can probably find them between $10 and $20, although not necessarily NOS. Here's how mine looked about 2 minutes before I opened the package. I've had it for over a year now, and if it doesn't get more use, it's only because I have too many pens.

 

[syngent]

If your packing it.. have a zip lock bag... not sure what an un-pressurized compartment would do it a pen on a plane

 

[Rockminer]

I think you would be happy with any of the cartridge pens we usually mention. Pilot metropolitan, Lamy, Nemosine etc. You could also go with a disposable and not have to worry about carts or losing it.

 

[Craig9802]

On my last trip - 3+ hour flight to FL - I took my F-C Model 27 B&B LE II with the converter and a no-name British FP with a cartridge. The only issue I had, on either the flight there or the return, was that the cartridge pen splattered a little when I first pulled the cap off a little aggressively. I'm sure United knows how to get ink stains off of their interior walls. Otherwise, both pens wrote flawlessly while on the plane and after landing. Just keep the cartridge or converter as full as possible while in the air, keep the pens nib-up as much as possible, and use caution when removing the cap.

I'd have no problem taking something like a Parker 51 or Shaeffer Imperial on the road, as they were designed as "working" pens and can handle abuse. If you want a c/c pen, maybe a Shaeffer 330 (I prefer the vintage ones), instead of an Imperial or 51. I would tend towards taking whatever pen I wanted to write with at the time, and bring along some cartridges or load up some 5 ml ink sample vials with my favorite color for the trip.

 

[syngent]

I believe one of our members who flies says he just doesn't completely fill the pen to allow a little expansion during the pressure changes, and that's how they avoid problems IIRC anyway

 

[cursethis]

Never fly with Noodlers in your pens.... when I opened the caps ink bled all over me.

Also, I think there was a pen that advertised being airplane friendly that was in the $50 range. I can't remember the name of it for the life of me. I do remember that it had a harpoon looking nib though.

 

[RichieRich3902]

I've flown with pens plenty of times, I even made a tongue in cheek thread about it last time. I've flown with Waterman, Lamy, Parker, Pelikan pens and made it out just fine. They range from piston fillers to converter pens and even two aerometric fillers and none burped. I filled each before leaving and used several in the air and again on the ground. The pens have been filled with two flavors of Noodlers, Mont Blanc, Private Reserve, Diamine, J. Herbin, and Sailor, non burped. The key was probably having them full or near full and keeping them nib up on the plane. Men and women have flown with fountain pens for decades, you'll do fine.

 

[airmech]

What's a Tom? Does it come in a flex nib?

It is a twisted hard headed cuss of a writer!!!

Tom

 

[cursethis]

Never fly with Noodlers in your pens.... when I opened the caps ink bled all over me.

Also, I think there was a pen that advertised being airplane friendly that was in the $50 range. I can't remember the name of it for the life of me. I do remember that it had a harpoon looking nib though.

Now I remember... it's a Rotring Initial.

 

[ins0ma]

I've flown with pens plenty of times, I even made a tongue in cheek thread about it last time. I've flown with Waterman, Lamy, Parker, Pelikan pens and made it out just fine. They range from piston fillers to converter pens and even two aerometric fillers and none burped. I filled each before leaving and used several in the air and again on the ground. The pens have been filled with two flavors of Noodlers, Mont Blanc, Private Reserve, Diamine, J. Herbin, and Sailor, non burped. The key was probably having them full or near full and keeping them nib up on the plane. Men and women have flown with fountain pens for decades, you'll do fine.

Well put. It makes a lot of sense not to over-think things sometimes.

I like the look of the Kaweco Sports, they look like a good size for traveling, and the screw-down cap seems reassuring. . .

 

[Slivovitz]

Seems like everyone is concentrating on the possible airplane leakage aspect of taking a fountain pen, but I think that was only a small, possibly implied part of the original question. For travel, I don't like taking my "nicer" things; I'll just worry about them. That's why it's nice to have some durable but less expensive pens that write acceptably well, and can take cartridges if you don't feel like bringing an ink bottle along.

 

[Suzuki]

Basically, take any pen you wouldn't be broken up about if you lost.

I travel with FPs on planes all the time and haven't had any problems - the only advice is (as others have said) to make sure the ink supply (be it piston, converter, cartridge, aerometric - or whatever) is either almost full or empty/almost empty.

A great option is a fine Platinum Preppy - so long as its not eye-droppered (which means you can use the cartridge, a converter or a cartridge/hack - which is an empty cartridge that someone has converted into a bulb filler).

Other good choices include the Kaweco Sport (very compact, robust, inexpensive and great nib - one of the best I've used on a sub $25 pen and better than the nibs on many much more expensive pens) again, so long as its not eye-droppered, it is a great choice.

 

[Aristeros]

I fly for work, sometimes for very ling periods of time. We all carry pens; I have never had a problem with a pen when we had a pressurized cabin. I brought a FP once or twice and had no problems.

At altitude, gasses expand (more volume). This is why in, say, cargo aircraft, they use oxygen masks and regulators when not pressurized. For -unpressurized- flight above 10000 feet, I would recommend an empty converter, or, if you must, an absolutely full one, and ensure the cap is secure. Cruising altitude is 30-40000 feet. The flight crew will generally pressurize the cargo compartment. The compartment will be really, really cold, though. Probably above freezing. Does that affect ink?


Or, just have the pen in your carryon--the cabin will be pressurized to under 10000 feet (usually 8000). Under these conditions, everything is essentially the same and whatever you choose should work fine. If the cabin wasn't pressurized, those little masks will deploy and you'll be worrying about more than your leaky pen.

 

[KW Driver]

I fly unpressurized, with my P51 in my sleeve pocket, and it always seems to burp into the cap. This last trip I was only at 5000. So, any flight above say, 3000, I'm wiping the barrel and q-tipping the cap clean. I've got an eyedroppered Preppy, a Lamy using a piston converter, and a Sheaffer that made the ride just fine. Here's what my P51 looks like post flight: