Your First Fountain Pen

[andrew98]

What was the first fountain pen you ever purchased?

Mine was a red plastic Parker Vector with a medium nib, and I think I paid around $4 for it in 2005. I got it at the University of Tennessee bookstore during the last year of my master's degree. I still have it and will likely never part with it. What would be the point, right?

I do actually like the way it writes, but I haven't used it in ages. I also have my girlfriend's blue plastic Parker Vector. She never uses it, but she's the one who suggested I get one. Her adviser in grad school required everyone in his research group to use a fountain pen for their lab notebooks, which he kept upon a student's graduation. I used to go to the pub with her, some of her co-students, and their adviser who would usually buttonhole a student with tons of questions about their research. Those sessions occurred over many pints of beer and always required the use of a fountain pen and quality notebook. I found it entertaining, and it made me feel glad that I wasn't a chemist.

My girlfriend eventually moved on to a Waterman Phileas, and I moved on to about 75 other pens in the past 8 years. I still blame her for my FPAD.

-Andy

 

[oc_in_fw]

Mine was a Cross Century I bought around 1988. I bought it out of the downtown Cleveland Higbees for $50 (according to the handwritten tag). It has a fine nib, which I have found I hate. But that is the same store that the Santa Claus scene from "A Christmas Story" (which was filmed in Cleveland while I lived there). I "lost" it for over 20 years, and re-discovered it in a box a few years ago. That lead me here. The pen has much nostalgia for me. I don't think I will ever get rid of it, even if it is a C/C pen.

 

[dcobranchi]

A Sheaffer cartridge pen ca. 1979 like this one. I was still in high school. I lost it at college a couple of years later.

 

[Shutterbug57]

The first FP I purchased was a no name pen from a vending machine in grade school. The first pen I bought with money I earned was a Waterman Opera with a medium nib. I still have it and use it. I bought that pen in the mid 1980s.

 

[coachschaller]

This place got me back into it.... Darn enablers. I first bought the Charcoal Lamy Safari in broad 1.1 mm nib. Now I have bought several more cheap FPs and even got my wife and daughter into it...

 

[the_edski]

Mine was a Fuliwen Shakespeare that I purchased from Benton Clay last year for $9.99. I still use it on almost a daily basis, but it's not my favorite anymore. It's a little scratchy and the converter fills up with air bubbles no matter how far I put the pen in the bottle of ink. But it's my first love, and you never forget your first love. It hasn't got jealous of my dozen or so other FP's, so that's another reason I keep it around.

 

[Snargle]

Mine was a Fuliwen Shakespeare that I purchased from Benton Clay last year for $9.99. I still use it on almost a daily basis, but it's not my favorite anymore. It's a little scratchy and the converter fills up with air bubbles no matter how far I put the pen in the bottle of ink. But it's my first love, and you never forget your first love. It hasn't got jealous of my dozen or so other FP's, so that's another reason I keep it around.

Same here...the Shakespeare was my introduction/gateway drug. Mine doesn't get used anymore...the cap has developed a serious case of the loosey-gooseys and doesn't fit tightly, and the thing really doesn't write that well. It is a pretty pen, though!

 

[LouieGrandie]

I started at the top, mine was a Waterman Le Man 100.

 

[BigWill]

The first time was in middle school with some (Scheaffer?) FP I got at the local drug store.

I was re-introduced to FPs with a Pilot Metropolitan. I wish I could say it stopped there.....

 

[nemo]

I found a black Esterbrook J in a drawer that I used for school during the sixties -- the horrible 1550 nib was so scratchy. Finally I moved up to a Sheaffer Admiral (wire band).

I still have the Esterbrook and the sac remains original to this day.

 

[Slivovitz]

Mine was a Parker IM, bought from Amazon. When I decided I wanted to try a fountain pen, like many people I was amazed at the prices that are taken for granted, pens costing $40 being condescendingly called "good starter pens". The IM was about $22, much more than I'd ever paid for a pen before.

It didn't work that well, either. That is, it would write very nicely once you got it started, but put it aside for even a few hours, and it was a major problem to get it started again. Now, with a lot more experience and a lot more pens, and having read a helpful thread about the IM on another forum, I have a better idea of what was going on with the nib and feed, but never mind that now. At least, when it was working, it gave me a good idea of what using a fountain pen could be like, and that got me to try other things. If it hadn't worked at all, I might just have stuck with rollerballs.

It's sitting in a pen storage case now, with relatively little chance of being used. I may take it out in a few years and give it another try.

 

[brianw]

Back in the dark ages... Shaeffer school pen with cartridges that leaked. After that Ballpoints, Rollerballs.... when I started back in FP's... Gramps parker "51" flighter. Found it in a drawer I was cleaning out....got a bottle of Quink, and so it started again

 

[strop]

Entry level Montblanc, I don't even know what model, after trying a friends. 1979, in school. Really out of my price comfort zone, but the Ramen noodles tasted pretty good! Thought I had lost it, but found it again a couple of weeks ago. Now I just need to send it back for repair.

 

[Dave258]

My first fountain pen was a Pilot 78G with a fine nib. Almost 2 years to the day ago. Here is my very first thread about fountain pens...http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/195444-You-guys-are-killing-me

I cannot believe what this ended up turning into!

 

[The Nid Hog]

I guess the first one I bought myself was a Pilot Varsity or one if its precursors. I used to pick them up in Japanese stationery stores in the 80s. After that, I used FPs that I got from relatives for a while, esp. a Montblanc Noblesse that my father-in-law had used at work. I bought a black Waterman Phileas when I started grad school in the early 90s and ended up with a couple more not long after that. However, when B&B reignited my interest in FPs a couple of years ago, the first pen of any note I bought was a Lamy 2000. That was a lot of pens ago!

 

[Rockminer]

Pilot Varsity here as well. Really wanted to find out if I enjoyed fountain pens before going any further. Now I have pens and everything that goes with it.

 

[wherndon]

My first was probably Sheaffer cart, late '60s for High School.
Then when I found my Granddaddy's Parker, a few weeks back, y'all talked me into the Cum Laude.

 

[Mr5x5]

Platinum Preppy from the B/S/T

 

[ChefJohnBoy-ardee]

Noodler's Nib Creeper that I have sitting in a box because it is a PITA... Needs flushed a lot. Grrr.

I had a cheapy Sheaffer Calligraphy cartridge pen in High School but I did not like the ink in the carts and eventually tossed it.

 

[jzuzphreek]

I was piffed a Pilot Varsity by a thoughtful individual in the Never Ending PIF last year. Much more thoughtful than me, because I can't remember who it was. I used it until the ink ran out, and realized how much I liked writing with an FP. On a visit to an antique store just before Christmas, I found a Sheaffer TD and and Esterbrook J. They are my daily writers along with a Platinum Preppy that came with a bottle of ink for Christmas.