If you’re in the Boston area, there appears to be a Crane & Co. Papermakers location at 156 Newbury St. That may be the one that used to be in the Prudential Mall, which I noticed yesterday is no longer there. If it’s the same as the old one, they have one of the best selections of fancy pens I’ve seen (that’s not saying a whole lot, but… ). The internet says that Levenger still has a store in the Prudential Mall (open till 9:00), but I didn’t see it there. On the other hand, I was just hiding from the rain, not actually looking for pen stores. The selection was never as good as Crane’s, as I recall, but still several to chose from.
Bob Slate in Harvard Square was also pretty good, but it looks like they’re closed until they open under new management in the fall. I’m guessing the one you found is Bromfield Pen Shop downtown. That would probably be the place to go, but totally the sort of place to close at 5:30.
It does take practice to get used to real ink pens; and pens you dip into the ink are different from fountain pens (where ink flows continuously) yet again.
I don’t know how you learned writing back in school: our teachers forbade us rollerball pens during primary school, we were only allowed to use fountain pens (though with wasteful modern cartridges instead of old fashioned inkwells) because you hold the pen and write differently. A rollerball pen leads itself to sloppier handwriting and thus is only allowed in the upper classes after children have learned the basics of good handwriting.
I don’t know if it’s done different in the States.
But if you don’t keep writing long pages of text by hand, your handwriting, both muscles and dexterity and grip, deteriorate and so when you try to write nice it feels awkward.
However, if you want to learn calligraphy or just brush up your handwriting again and do it for 30 min. each day or similar, practicing letters and words, I’m sure you can easily become proficient again.
People who like (love) to write by hand usually swear on fountain pens because the way the ink flows and the tip feels, it allows for cleaner and nicer writing.
But, as has been said above, if it’s used only occasionally, or if your husband isn’t much into handwriting and for him “fancy pen = nice optic”, then a quality ball-point pen with a nice handle (wood; ornamented; engraved) is the right pen.
As of the last decade or so, handwriting has been largely dropped from curricula and no handwriting scripts (“cursive” or “joined-up writing”) are taught.
Fountain pens were used in schools several generations ago and largely died out before the 1970s. When I started school in the '70s we were prohibited from using anything but pencils. Once we got to junior high (7th grade) we no longer were restricted to pencils, but by that time there were no longer any handwriting exercises and no restrictions on what kind of writing implement to use (although someteachers had their own individual requirements, such as requiring submitted work to be in blue or black ink. Science and math were still done in pencil.)
Indeed, none of my classmates had ever seen a fountain pen or dip pen except perhaps as curiosity amongst their grandmothers’ knickknacks. And our schools certainly didn’t like the idea of kids’ having access to free-flowing ink in bottles or pens.
I have a “student”'model fountain pen with lever-pump filling mechanism, the kind that could be used to shoot ink at someone, but fountain pens commonly available widely for school use had disappeared long before my time.
Someone gifted me a Mont Blanc, and it’s my favorite, absolute pen in the world. Prior to that I was a fan of Cross (well, still am. Just no longer my favorite.).
Long term fountain pen user here. I started in early high school, and although I experimented with just about every writing instrument known to mankind whilst an undergraduate, I always returned to fountain pens. Started with the basic Parker, and currently use a ridiculously expensive Caran d’Arch. I bought it myself to celebrate getting my PhD. Part of the logic was that a very expensive pen induces enough fear into one that one always knows where it is, and thus won’t lose it. So far this has worked. It has paid for itself many times over in lost cheap pens.
Fountain pens are very individual. I walked in to the shop convinced I would walk out with a Mont Blanc. But they just weren’t for me. Just wrote and felt wrong to me. The Caran d’Arch felt totally different and was right for me. I also quite like the feel of the Lamy pens, which are one tenth the price.
The downside? I often have ink stains on my fingers, and I have got very good at maintaining pens. It isn’t hard, but it is exacting and fiddly. I can tear down, clean and rebuild a pen reasonably quickly and confidently. But many people prefer to have it done for them.
I would not swap for any other pen. But they really getting so rare, using it has now started to draw comments, when not all that long ago using one would have gone unnoticed. Which is sad. But they are a joy to use.
There is a whole slightly lunatic luxury pen industry too. It used to be that a Parker Duofold was the height of conspicuous consumption. Now most pen makers make special issue pens, with breathtaking prices. Probably the most ridiculous being the pen celebrating Mahatma Gandhi. The idea that a pen costing four figures could somehow represent his life struck rather a few people as more than a little ridiculous.
Fountain pens are not really all that fragile. Nib pens were once what everyone wrote with if they didn’t use a pencil. What does matter is that a fountain pen nib will wear and adapt to the owner, and if someone else uses it for any time they can affect that adaptation. A worn in pen nib used by someone else seems more apt to catch and scratch too. Most manufactures have a range of nibs, including ones for left handers, and it is well worth going trying a range out.
Being a bit of an enthusiast for them, I do think it would be good to look into one. If noting else the look of a fine quality nib when writing is every bit as fancy as anything a manufacturer can do for the pen body.
Excellent tips. Too bad about Bob Slate, they were super close to where I live. I wasn’t even thinking about stationary stores. I did find the Bromfield Pen Shop online. I went there this morning before work since it is close to the Red Line. It was okay. The woman was nice enough, but I don’t think she took me seriously. I get that I don’t look like the type to buy an expensive pen, but that isn’t a reason to be so dismissive. She asked what I was looking to spend. I said 100-200, which in retrospect was probably a bad idea. Do you think that is a low amount for a fancy pen? Do you think I wasn’t worth the time? I guess I’ll confirm her suspicions and buy elsewhere.
I did learn that the Cross rollerball is nice and the Waterman rollerball was less nice. I didn’t try Mont Blanc as they seem kind of expensive. Plus, that leaves the door open to future upgrades. Also, I’m 95% sure he will lose this pen.
I think the shop I went to was kind of sucky. Their fountain pens didn’t have any ink in them. I couldn’t try it out.
If there is going to be a fountain pen owner in the family it will probably be me. He isn’t a fiddler.
Good to know about the need to keep ones pen to himself!
Thanks all. I learned quite a bit and the advice was extremely helpful. I’ve decided to go with a Cross Rollerball. Though I’m tempted to hike over to Prudential (via Newbury) during lunch. Cross Apogee
Rollerballs hadn’t been invented when I was going to school. We had ball point pens, and we were GRATEFUL. Seriously, we started with pencil in the first couple of grades. In third grade, we were taught cursive, and required to use pen on some assignments. In fourth or fifth grade, I discovered fountain cartridge pens, and I’ve used them ever since. I don’t absolutely shun ballpoints, and now rollerballs…I just prefer to use my fountain pens.
That woman was an idiot. You should be able to find a good pen within $200.
I’ve had this kind of experience with pen dealers who specialize in Mont Blanc. I don’t think you can get a Mont Blanc fountain pen for $200, and having tried a few, I don’t think they’re worth spending $400 for.
Mont Blanc is so well known to non-pen-enthusiasts that they can charge a considerable premium, because they have a considerable market of wealthy customers who don’t really know much (or care much) about pens.
Every pen and every pen user is slightly different and I can understand if a true pen lover loves his or her Mont Blanc, but considering the considerable difference in price, it’s my view that unless you find out through experience that Mont Blanc is the best pen for you, I don’t see any reason to consider them.
As I said before, Cross, Parker, Waterman, Pelikan, Sailor, Sheaffer, Aurora, etc., all make excellent pens.
Then there is the great pen mystery:
If I have a “fancy pen”, I tend to lose it within a very short period.
If I have a cheap pen, it will never be lost and always be the one I pick up - especially once the ink is gone and I need to quickly write something.
One great tip from Ann Landers years ago:
Someone wrote in and said whenever she lent someone her fountain pen to write something, they would forget it was hers and walk away with it. Ann’s clever suggestion was to take the cap off, hold the cap in your hand while the other person is writing, and then they wouldn’t be inclined to put an uncapped pen in their pocket/purse when finished.
Now, the only fancy pen I have is the space pen. It is small enough to fit in my pocket, always writes on almost any surface, looks cool and feels right when I write.
Good call on the Levenger suggestion. The salesman there was super nice. I have tried a fountain pen and I deem it awesome for me but probably unacceptable for my husband. While I wouldn’t mind dropping 400 bucks to get hubby a nice fountain pen, I can’t bring myself to buy one for myself.
I’m sticking to the rollerball for his gift.
This means that not only was the clerk unfriendly/ snobbish, they actually didn’t know about good pens; as the others have said, trying it out is important. It’s like a car dealer not having gas in the tanks to offer test rides.
Sorry - there is a difference? In German, it’s “Kugelschreiber”, which literally means “Ball pen” and to me always meant "pen that is not a fountain pen, but has an ink cartridge and a spring.
So it seems the correct English word for what I meant is only ball point pen, not roller ball. Sorry.
I’m afraid to ask* what the reason for that is, in case it turns out to be a case of “it was too difficult to teach the children, so we dropped it, caving in to the lowest denominator instead of devoting more resources to teaching better”.
and also afraid if I were to learn that this has happened in German primary schools, too - my memories are from the 70s/80s, and I don’t have regular contact with schools anymore.
There’s a difference…ball point pens use a thicker ink, and were invented first. Roller ball pens use a thinner ink, which seems to glide more smoothly. Roller balls came out in the 1980s or 90s.
However, the two types of pens are VERY similar, and the difference is really not very significant. I just remember hearing about them for the first time when I was an adult.
Ball points and roller balls don’t have springs in them, unless they have a button on the top of the pen which the user clicks to extend or retract the writing point. The types that don’t have springs will generally have a removable cap, which usually gets lost.