Any Dopers fans of the Fountain Pen?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

MacTech, thanks for the read. Such thorough research on the topic was sorely needed.

I"ve always used fountain pens, and I’d written off Waterman because of unsatisfactory results in past decades, so I guess I’ll give them another look.

My husband knows my love of such pens, so 15 years ago, he offered me a Mont-Blanc, the slimmer version, for my birthday. I would have never spent that kind of money on a pen, personally. I love it, I use it all the time. But I have a question: should I paint the white star over so that people won’t think I’m posing with a status symbol?

Normally, I won’t wear anything that has someone else’s name or initials on it. Now I feel guilty for having used that pen in front of other people. <insert tearful smiley>

42

Moodindigo even though I’m a newb when it comes to fountain pens, I honestly couldn’t tell the difference between a Montblanc and some other inexpensive pen masquerading as one, but I don’t think I’d have a problem with you using your MB, because you’re actually using it, not hoarding it, Gollum-style, using any pen, especially a fancy luxury pen makes it okay in my book…

now…if you carried it around and didn’t use it, you only carried it to “impress” people, that i’d look down on…

no worries here :slight_smile:

43

My love of fountain pens was renewed in freshman year of college when one of my instructors gave a bunch of these pens out as freebies. (It was one of those “don’t be scared, it’s just college” mandatory courses, so there were perks.) Since then, I’ve gotten really into good notecards and my dip pens. I haven’t really had time or the opportunity to pick up more disposable fountain pens, but when I get to the point where I’ll need to shop for pens again, I may pick up a few.

44

Before I went to my apartment tonight, I decided to stop off at home and scare Mom and Dad with my newfound knowledge…

I took a couple voided checks, inked them up with various inks, and tried my final chemical test…

91% Isopropyl alcohol

the effects were immediate
Noodlers; unaffected
Uni-Ball Signo; unaffected
Cross ballpoint; 5 seconds for smearing to occur, ink gone after about a minute or so
Fisher Space Pen; 5 seconds for heavy smearing, ink 98% gone after about 2 minutes

Both Mom and Dad were shall we say, stunned at how easily ballpoint ink vanished from the check, but what scared me is the fact that the alcohol barely triggered the tamper-proof ink on the check, unless you knew what to look for, you wouldn’t notice the tiny, faint blue and red dots on the check paper, and when the alcohol fully dried, the paper was just as pliable and unwrinkled as it was before it’s alcohol bath.

a cursory glance of the check shows nothing suspicious, it looks like a blank check (aside from the Noodlers and Uniball ink writing), there is just no ballpoint ink left on the check, the alcohol removed it totally

So, after i showed them how easy it was to wash a check, I gave each of them a Uni-Ball Signo 207, and reccomended they use it, they were quite appreciative

It’s great to have a technically-minded, analytical son who does all sorts of unneccecary but cool experiments…

45

I’ve been testing a few more inks and added a couple new pens to my collecion

first off, I tested the standard Parker Jotter ballpoint refill, the Paper-Mate stic ballpoint, a Rotring 600 Rollerball refill, and a MontBlanc rollerball refill, immersing the inked test paper in 91% Isopropyl alcohol;

the Paper-Mate and Jotter refills faded rapidly, within the first 5 seconds of exposure, over 80% of the ink just dissolved, after 5 minutes, the ink was almost completely gone (I’d say about 98% gone), the MontBlanc and Rotring inks were unaffected, and I got the same results with Xylene

after a 5 minute water rinse, the ballpoint ink had completely vanished, and, surprisingly, the Rotring ink had faded by over 80%, it was almost gone, the MontBlanc ink was unaffected by water

as a final test, I sprayed the paper down (after letting it dry first) with SuperClean degreaser, the Rotring ink faded to 98% gone, the Montblanc ink completely dissolved, although at this point, the paper started to exhibit structural failure

Basically, most ballpoint ink is not permanent, and in fact can be washed off with common household chemicals, the only ballpoint ink I have found even remotely acceptable is Fisher’s ink, used in their pressurized “Space Pen” refills

If you use ballpoint pen to fill out checks or other sensitive legal documents, the ink can be quite easily removed from the paper, typically in under 10 minutes

I’ve also been documenting my tests over at “fountain pen network dot com”, I go by MacTech there too

Oh, and the two pens I’ve added?
a Rotring 600 Rollerball, gotta love a pen machined out of a solid piece of brass, it’s got serious heft and balances exceptionally well, both posted and unposted, I was a bit annoyed that the Rotring’s refill didn’t use “bulletproof” ink (solvent resistant and water resistant pigment-based ink that bonds with the cellulose paper fibers), so I took a refill out of one of my UniBall Signo 207’s, trimmed about 1/8" off the open empty top of the refill, and swapped out the Rotring refill, now I have a ruggedized pen that uses Bulletproof ink

and a Lamy 2000 fountain pen, my first piston-filled pen, and I absolutely love the thing, made out of “Makrolon” (Fiberglass reinforced Nylon), this thing is built to take a beating and come back begging for more, it’s the SureFire G2 flashlight of pens, the Jeep CJ series of pens, plus it has the smoothest, most responsive nib i have ever used, buttery smooth and a small amount of flex adds to the expressiveness of the written word

46

I use an old Parker 75, sterling grid barrel, 18k fine nib.
I have a Mont Blanc-- a Meisterstuck 146, burgundy barrel, medium nib-- received as a graduation gift years ago. I don’t use it, though. The nib is too big and juicy, and the pen feels strange compared to the slimmer and heavier Parker. It’s a beautiful pen and I cherish it, but I write with the Parker.

47

I work at sea. Despite the fact I have the abilty to send and recieve e-mails 24/7 (Ah the joys of working in the Comms department) I often write letters. As we are sailing tommorrow, I have started my usual Captain Jack Aubrey style narrative letter to Mrs Nobbs. I think an FP adds to the personal touch, much better than a throw away Bic.

48

So this is a total FP newb question but… how do you not end up with ink all over your finger tips?

I had a fountain pen once, used it for maybe 2-3 days. I constantly had ink on my finger tips which would result in ink smudges on the paper, desk, nose, clothing, everywhere!

MeanJoe

49

Much of it is the way you hold the pen itself. I had to break myself of the habit of holding my pen much too close to the nib - for that exact reason.
You also have to be careful when you fill then pen (if you aren’t using cartidges) because you can get ink in places that you don’t normall have it, which then gets everywhere.

50

I also use the Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens, and have always been very pleased with them. I buy 40 at a time from a local office-supply store, with free delivery. Particularly for writing cards and for signing papers in bulk (which I have to for my job on a pretty regular basis), there’s nothing better. The feel of the ink flowing onto good bond paper, the clarity of the ink, the heft and weight of the pen in your hand… just great. I love 'em.

51

I used a cartridge-based fountain pen for calligraphy. I’d prefer a “real” fountain pen, but I haven’t done enough writing for a while to really justify buying a good one. I’m a lefty, so I have to write pretty carefully to avoid smearing.

In ball-points, pen nerds seem to be loving the Pilot G2. Very smooth writing, strong secure ink (though I doubt it has been subjected to tests as intensive as yours), comfortable design. There has even been a hack to replace the Mont Blanc refill with the G2, which reportedly writes better. I’m actually surprised that you didn’t have a G2 in your initial testing sample.

52

Just as a nitpick, but I wouldn’t include the G2 in the “ball-point” category. It’s a gel-pen, which I’d group more in the rollerball category (if not a separate “gel” category).

53

Ball point is the inclusive category, your nitpicks are just defining sub-categories. It’s like my saying that the animal in question is a dog, and you pointing out, “I wouldn’t include it in the dog category. It’s a Labrador, which I’d put more in the ‘working canine’ category.”

You’re not wrong, and you are being more specific, but you’re not correcting anything, so what’s your point in “nitpicking”? Why not just volunteer the information without quoting me and, perhaps inadvertently, sounding snotty?

54

:rolleyes:

Not quite. Yes, technically rollerballs are a subset of ballpoints (since they have a ball at their, y’know, point). However, the two are separate categories of pens at just about any store or website I’ve been to. I wouldn’t go to a ballpoint pen category and find rollerballs like a Pilot Precise or a Uni-Ball Jetstream. I’d expect to find Pentel RSVP or a Bic Atlantis.

Even the non-pen fanatics I’ve met separate the two into different categories.

55

Oh, so we’re categorizing things by how they’re marketed now? That must mean that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a wacky comedy, then.

I’m not going to say that it’s wrong to have a sub-category for those pens, but I am going to say that you’re a bit ridiculous for “correcting” me on the issue. And doing it again, no less.

56

Christ almighty, all I was doing was explaining why I had posted. Do you really think I’m emotionally invested in an internet messageboard thread about pens?

Fine: I’m so sorry, I was so incredibly wrong and such an asshole for making my little nitpick post. However will I live with myself? I’ll have to try to struggle on.