What do you use your pens for?
- Thread starter Claudel Xerxes
- Start date
Don't use FP for work, in my profession, Gel Pen Rules. I generally use mine for note taking at home and grocery list and cannot forget journal entries in my beautiful Midori Knockoff I got off Etsy about 3 years ago. I only correspond to s couple people via FP & Stationary. Everybody else is text and emails. <sadly>
Work, when I'm in meetings or an office environment.
Out in the field, at a plant or a mill, a gel pen and way north in winter, a mechanical pencil works better.
Out in the field, at a plant or a mill, a gel pen and way north in winter, a mechanical pencil works better.
Fountain pens all day every day. Only use a modern pen when I need to complete a carbon copy receipt. Other than that I use one of several fine points, such as a Pilot Metropolitan, for general office work and for my day-planner; and I tend to use a nice smooth writing medium point Waterman Phileas for signatures...
Pilot --
Waterman Phileas---
Pilot --
Waterman Phileas---
Work and personal. I write things down to help me remember them. For work, it is tasks and requests. Programmers get lots of requests from different directions, especially when they are the oldest rat in the barn and the last person who knows the obsolete languages.
Personal is more for meetings and church stuff. I do write down where I am supposed to be and what I am supposed to do. Shopping lists and such as well.
Personal is more for meetings and church stuff. I do write down where I am supposed to be and what I am supposed to do. Shopping lists and such as well.
I used to take notes with them.
Nowadays I mainly use them to diagram DAGs or trace data through poorly documented helper functions (so, most of them).
Nowadays I mainly use them to diagram DAGs or trace data through poorly documented helper functions (so, most of them).
I just learned that signing my name with a FP on one of those new chip credit card machines makes the cashier really angry.
I use a vanishing point to take notes and sign prescriptions. Had to move to a permanent ink though when I started signing prescriptions. I use 54th Mass. from Noodlers. Kind of a shame as I loved my iroshizuku inks. I use two Pilot Preras loaded with bright colors to help me with "to do's" and "finished" on list of patients on the floor. I can use more fun colors as these pages will be destroyed/shredded at the end of every day.
THREAD RESURRECTION!
I wanted a pen I could use for any purpose. Three years ago, I bought a Metropolitan after reading here. I liked it a lot, but I was having issues with ink on the nib top. So I capped it and it sat for a couple of years. Until, I decided I wanted to use that pen. I enjoy how it writes and how it feels. And thanks to help from The Nib crew, I learned I am carrying/storing it in a manner that leads to the issue I had. Store and carry upright, and vee-Oh-Lay, all is fine! And speaking of fine, I bought a second Metro with the fine nib, and discovered that is the nib I prefer!
As this year progressed, I have added some Lamy Safaris and Platinum Plaisirs. These have become my work day pens. I really like that the Plaisir can be thrown in by lab coat pocket as it has that special cap to keep things from getting messy.
The Lamy pens, with that triangular grip section, really helps me get the pen oriented quickly when I need to take notes during a call.
There you have it. Hopefully someone new may read this and see some inexpensive starter pens. And while inexpensive, I think the look and feel great in the hand. Just this past week a co-worker commented that they loved that pen I was using, which was the Lamy Safari black graphite, under $20! I love it, too, which is why it is my go to pen at work!
I wanted a pen I could use for any purpose. Three years ago, I bought a Metropolitan after reading here. I liked it a lot, but I was having issues with ink on the nib top. So I capped it and it sat for a couple of years. Until, I decided I wanted to use that pen. I enjoy how it writes and how it feels. And thanks to help from The Nib crew, I learned I am carrying/storing it in a manner that leads to the issue I had. Store and carry upright, and vee-Oh-Lay, all is fine! And speaking of fine, I bought a second Metro with the fine nib, and discovered that is the nib I prefer!
As this year progressed, I have added some Lamy Safaris and Platinum Plaisirs. These have become my work day pens. I really like that the Plaisir can be thrown in by lab coat pocket as it has that special cap to keep things from getting messy.
The Lamy pens, with that triangular grip section, really helps me get the pen oriented quickly when I need to take notes during a call.
There you have it. Hopefully someone new may read this and see some inexpensive starter pens. And while inexpensive, I think the look and feel great in the hand. Just this past week a co-worker commented that they loved that pen I was using, which was the Lamy Safari black graphite, under $20! I love it, too, which is why it is my go to pen at work!
I use my pens for ……….. writing. Work notes, journaling, letters, misc. Just this week I figured out my 7 yo granddaughter, although not having been taught cursive yet, can read cursive - or at least my cursive. So, that evening I wrote her a letter. To make it fun for her, I used purple ink which is not my norm. I also mailed it. I don’t think she has received mail addressed to her before. It should get delivered tomorrow or Wednesday. It will be interesting to see how she responds.
Will you be able to get your coworker to take the fp dive?
Maybe you could get her a Pelikano or Lamy ABC for her birthday?
that thought has been rolling around in my head. The problem will be safeguarding it from her siblings who are 6, 4, 2 & new.
AimlessWanderer
Remember to forget me!
Firstly, here's what I don't use fountain pens for:
Work - retired on health grounds
Journalling - tried it, but found it tedious and unfulfilling
Correspondence - I tried the pen friend thing, but would much rather communicate via more efficient means.
Labelling - be it food for the freezer, or addressing an envelope or parcel, ballpoints or permanent markers get used.
Story draughting - if doing work on my novel, or other creative endeavour, a traditional wooden pencil keeps up with my thoughts far better, and I don't need to worry about drying time to quickly turn a page and keep scribbling.
So what's left?
Shopping lists - I almost always use a fountain pen these days. Be that weekly groceries, or birthday and Christmas ideas.
Exploration of thoughts - THIS is my primary use. Working through ideas and problems, and untangling the mess of conflicting thoughts. Be that things to do, christmas and birthday present ideas, progressing and assessing ongoing projects, offloading things that are taking up brain space, wish lists, or any other kind of thinking out loud.
Nothing gets kept for the future, as it's generally only valid in the moment, or maybe for a couple of weeks after. Then it's gone, and if I want to revisit any ideas, problems, or any other topic, I do so again with an open mind, never referring back to what was scrawled before. If I do happen to look back on old notes, a lot of it makes little sense, or is mind numbingly trivial, but in the moment, it mattered, and it helped..
Work - retired on health grounds
Journalling - tried it, but found it tedious and unfulfilling
Correspondence - I tried the pen friend thing, but would much rather communicate via more efficient means.
Labelling - be it food for the freezer, or addressing an envelope or parcel, ballpoints or permanent markers get used.
Story draughting - if doing work on my novel, or other creative endeavour, a traditional wooden pencil keeps up with my thoughts far better, and I don't need to worry about drying time to quickly turn a page and keep scribbling.
So what's left?
Shopping lists - I almost always use a fountain pen these days. Be that weekly groceries, or birthday and Christmas ideas.
Exploration of thoughts - THIS is my primary use. Working through ideas and problems, and untangling the mess of conflicting thoughts. Be that things to do, christmas and birthday present ideas, progressing and assessing ongoing projects, offloading things that are taking up brain space, wish lists, or any other kind of thinking out loud.
Nothing gets kept for the future, as it's generally only valid in the moment, or maybe for a couple of weeks after. Then it's gone, and if I want to revisit any ideas, problems, or any other topic, I do so again with an open mind, never referring back to what was scrawled before. If I do happen to look back on old notes, a lot of it makes little sense, or is mind numbingly trivial, but in the moment, it mattered, and it helped..
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I use mine for signatures (except on point of sale machines when running a credit card), check writing as I usually have enough pressure to mark the carbon copy of the check, grocery lists, work lists, work notes.
Basically anything the paper allows me to use a fountain pen on... I find some birthday cards and some glossy papers are only suitable to use with pencil or ballpoint pen (I use the Parker Gel ink pen refills).
Basically anything the paper allows me to use a fountain pen on... I find some birthday cards and some glossy papers are only suitable to use with pencil or ballpoint pen (I use the Parker Gel ink pen refills).
I use it at work, taking notes, minutes of meetings and doing rough calculations.
Haven't got use to MS OneNote ... yet.
Haven't got use to MS OneNote ... yet.
Rhody
I'm a Lumberjack.
Great thread revival here. Definitely for work. Although the bulk of my writing has to be transferred to electronic but I still use a fp for work notes and other writing. I use a gel or ballpoint for taking longer notes say in a long meeting where I might write several pages of notes. I don’t use a fp for checks (the few I write now) because I use washable inks in my pens.
Yesterday, 2 more inexpensive pens arrived, the Platinum Perfounte (I like the seal cap/tip feature, and the pen looks good for something getting knocked around in a lab jacket pocket), and a Pilot Petit1 for easy carrying on errands, especially if a don't have a shirt with a pocket! I am trying to find FPs that I can use for anything, at least that is my excuse for adding 4 to the 4 already present!
General writing and just for the pleasure of writing. The only two instruments I enjoy writing with are a pencil or fountain pen. Ive never mastered the ball point no do I wish to.
