# Pen freaks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 23, 2000, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039 "2000-01-23T20:15:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2000, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/1 "2000-01-23T20:15:00Z")
Do you write with anything that’s handy, or do you refuse to write something down until you find your favorite pen? How upset are you when someone borrows your favorite pen and walks off with it? Do you chase them down and demand they return it? Even if it’s your boss? Do you always know where your favorite pen is? Is J.K. Gill your favorite store? I used to think Pilot Precise ball pens (Extra Fine) ruled, but I’ve discovered the Uniball Deluxe Micro. Awesome instrument! Incredibly smooth, doesn’t leak, lasts a long time. ---
**Author:** ![OldBroad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@OldBroad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldBroad)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2000, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/2 "2000-01-23T20:31:00Z")
My favorite pen is a beautiful Waterman fountain pen. NOBODY else touches this pen. I always know where it is. One of the best parts is that fountain pens are so uncommon in the general workplace that it always catches attention when I use it to take notes in meetings. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2000, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/3 "2000-01-23T20:42:00Z")
Wish I had the cash for a really nice fountain pen. As it is, I mostly write (class notes, etc) with PaperMate gel-ink pens. The line is kinda broad, but the writing is very smooth. For my final exams in December, I used my silver w/ gold accents Cross pen, engraved with my initials, that my folks got for me when I got my BA. Had to do something special, ya know? Over the years I’ve accumulated about 5 Cross pens, about 3 Cross pencils, and recently got an interesting Pierre Cardin pen and pencil set. Haven’t used them yet. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2000, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/4 "2000-01-23T20:43:00Z")
Everything I write is handy. I like Bic pens though. ---
**Author:** ![Bluepony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Bluepony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluepony)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/5 "2000-01-24T03:09:00Z")
The Pilot VBall extra fine pen (black). I buy 'em by the case. I keep a few in every room the house and always have one handy. This has resulted in several loads of ruined laundry and my wife’s constant plea to seek professional help. I wrote a speeding ticket recently to a lady and she drove off with my Pilot pen. I was miserable the entire day, having to deal with a sputtering Crayola-type Bic pen with its crappy blue ink. Uh…but I’m not a pen freak, oh no… * * * “…send lawyers, guns, and money…” ``` Warren Zevon ``` ---
**Author:** ![mega\_the\_roo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mega\_the\_roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mega_the_roo)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/6 "2000-01-24T03:15:00Z")
I’m not a super freak when it comes to my pens. BUT I do have a pen that I only use when writing to or about someone in particular. * * * “human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein ---
**Author:** ![Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/7 "2000-01-24T03:49:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Bluepony: > \*\* The Pilot VBall extra fine pen (black). I buy 'em by the case. I keep a few in every room the house and always have one handy. This has resulted in several loads of ruined laundry and my wife’s constant plea to seek professional help. > \*\* Tell her you’ll quit if she’ll give in on the bathroom issue. ---
**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/8 "2000-01-24T05:01:00Z")
Ii love good pens. My favorite, and it has ruled my desk for years, is the Pilot Razor Point pens. * * * Yer pal, Satan ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/9 "2000-01-24T05:16:00Z")
## Pilot Precise V5. Black only. Possibly the finest pen ever created. I damn near refuse to write with anything else, and I’ve always got one nearby. My only complaint is that they’re so bloody expensive. Jeremy… Nobody ever calls me after they’ve done something smart. ---
**Author:** ![TheUnforgiven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TheUnforgiven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheUnforgiven)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/10 "2000-01-24T06:02:00Z")
I loathe it when I’m forced to write with a pen for an essay or something. I love my Zeze automatic pencil, though. I’ve had it for at least five years. * * * “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.” -H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu” ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/11 "2000-01-24T06:16:00Z")
I’m not so much a freak about quality pens as I am about collecting as many interesting ones as I can. Since I work in a hospital, I get to indulge this obsession regularly. The pharmaceutical companies are always giving away uniquely shaped pens! We get all kinds of nifty designs. Of course, they usually only write for about a week but that’s okay since we have so many! * * * The Top 10 Greatest Things About Procrastination: 1. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/12 "2000-01-24T06:32:00Z")
I generally stick with Sanford Uniball micro since I like them and the office manager keeps then in stock but they are not immune to leaks. I tried a cheap Parker fountain pen and was quite please so I may get a better one. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/13 "2000-01-24T07:31:00Z")
Ye gads! I should probably be disqualified. I’m a designer, and my pen preferences border on fetishism. I have no less than 60 different pens lined up in a row across the back of my board, and pencils in such an array that I actually have to dig through a box to find my Derwent set. Fer day-to-day sketching – Pilot Razor Points, Pentel Sign Pens, and good old Flair Pens. Felt-tips can be mashed and shaped to give you a line variety that can’t be matched. Fer technical drawings and finished artwork – too many to mention. Fer everyday writing – it’s high maintenance, but nothing matches a properly broken-in MontBlanc Fountain Pen. Dr. Watson “Crisis? Again?” ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/14 "2000-01-24T09:02:00Z")
I used antique fountain pens for years, in high school, and college. I learned not to lend them to anyone, ever, for even an instant. I used to carry a nasty leaky old cartridge pen just for loaning out. It tended to discourage the borrowers. Pencils were a pretty important issue too. No. 2 ½ Venus Velvet, the only way to go. Hard to find, too. I had a sharpener in my pocket, with a sandpaper point dresser. Then I went through a period when an engineering drawing pen (000) with India Ink was my weapon of choice, for all things. I would sign multiple copies rather than use a ballpoint. No one wants to borrow one of those, and can’t make it write on the first try, anyway. The platinum plated tungsten steel points were tough enough to take fairly high levels of abuse. The ones I used were fairly leak proof, but I forget the manufacturer. I have twenty year old notes still crisp, black, and unfaded, from those days. Now days it’s a Pilot Precise V7, with a Bic to loan out. Still like my real wood pencils, too. I got to the point where I like No. 2, though. I can’t see as well as I once did. I don’t carry the sharpener any more. ## **\

Tris\** I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. – \*\*Diane Ackerman \*\* ---

**Author:** ![sorrel554](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@sorrel554](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sorrel554)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/15 "2000-01-24T14:41:00Z")
I have used fountain pens for years (I can’t remember how I got started with them). I have received several nice ones for gifts, including a lovely Cross Metropolitan for Christmas three years ago. However, the ones I use most, and probably like the best, are the extremely cheap (like $5) Sheaffer cartridge pens I can buy in the university bookstore. They absolutely refuse to clog up, unlike my Cross. I haven’t often taken either kind to school because people ask how I can “manage” to write with a fountain pen! This comment is, however, less prevalent in grad school than it was in undergrad. If someone asks to borrow your pen, remove the top and keep it while they use the pen. This prevents people from going through the automatic pen motions of closing it up and putting it away–with their own stuff. I have found that this usually works. ---
**Author:** ![CanadianSue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@CanadianSue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanadianSue)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/16 "2000-01-24T14:58:00Z")
I used whatever I can find at work. I sit in the mainstream of things here and everybody that walks by takes pens, staplers, etc. off my desk and doesnt return them. I’m a chewer of pens so occasionally I take a trip through the school and collect all of them back. * * * We are, each of us angels with only one wing,and we can only fly by embracing one another ---
**Author:** ![OldBroad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@OldBroad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldBroad)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/17 "2000-01-24T15:38:00Z")
A destination for pen freaks: [www.penshow.com](http://www.penshow.com) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/18 "2000-01-24T16:46:00Z")
I use a blue, marbled, Waterman “Phileas” fountain pen. It writes well and at about $30, it’s cheap. I never use ink cartridges because I like filling it’s reservoir from an ink bottle. I usually keep the cap if someone wants to borrow it. For everyday work at my desk I use whatever’s handy. ---
**Author:** ![Vestal\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@Vestal\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vestal_Blue)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/19 "2000-01-24T19:45:00Z")
I’m partial to fine point Sheaffer cartridge pens, but mostly I use a 3mm blue Sanford uni-gel. I find it extremely difficult to find a good roller ball fine point in black ink; most skip or blot like crazy! Being left handed, I push a pen rather than pull, which is hard on them, even though I have a very light touch. How light? My pencil is a Sanford Pro Touch II in 3mm. Most people snap it off just setting it to paper! As mentioned already, I also used to use a drawing pen, and loved it! My kids ruined it, and now I can’t find another; any leads? It was a Staedtler Mars, .03. * * * VB Remember, you can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish! ---
**Author:** ![Dirty\_Devil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Dirty\_Devil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dirty_Devil)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pen-freaks/13039/20 "2000-01-24T20:21:00Z")
Writing? With a pen? You mean there are other ways to communicate besides the keyboard? Where have I been? Actually, I use Sanford UniBall’s (Fine and Micro points). And yeah, I’ll usually go way out of my way to find one. I also get pretty anal when it comes to pencils, too. Dixon Ticonderoga #2.5 and #3 only. And they gotta’ be really, really sharp.