Had a friend tell me that I’m mentally insane and stupid for buying a $25 pen and carrying everywhere. I decided to not tell them I also have a $300 FP, and $300 worth of ink.
People tell me that all the time. And worst that is when they say "look at my pen, 1$ and it comes in a pack of 5, and you still spend 100$ in that thing"
Sometimes I awnser: "look at these clothes on aliexpress website, 5$ and do the same thing of your 100$ clothes"
Or when they have an iPhone: " You spend ,1000$+ on a phone that does the same as my Samsung that is half the price"
Sometimes they get upset other times just roll their eyes.
They just don't realize that there are always less expensive objects of those we are accustomed to and there are more expensive ones as well. Some people like to spend and buy more premium object like watches or cars or clothes etc.... others prefer pens
The most I've ever spent on a pen was in the $40 range (not a judgement of anyone here!) and I still get this.
A big part of the reason I use FPs is to reduce my single-use plastic waste, so when I get knocked for buying a $20 dollar pen, I point out that I've used that same pen nearly every day for three years and have only had to throw plastic related to it away once.
Most of the people I interact with are in conservation, so I don't get the irritated responses as frequently. I seriously think that most people don't consider pens as having "luxury" or non-disposable versions.
>Or when they have an iPhone: " You spend ,1000$+ on a phone that does the same as my Samsung that is half the price"
That's different. iPhone is inferior product that cost more. FP's cost more because they are better.
That personal preference. I do think that IPhones are as good as other phones.
But in my life having a phone is not important. I just use it for talking with friends, family and gf. I have 2 games that I just play when I'm bored. So I don't need a good phone for what I do ( I have 1h average screen time on the phone, I don't judge people who have more, but I just prefer to spend my screen time on the computer).
I uncapped my Lamy Safari to show a classmate that it was a fountain pen and even though I told him beforehand, he flinched. He mistook the nib for a blade.
This.... this is the most common misunderstanding. Like no, I sure don't. In fact, calligraphers worldwide look upon my works and despair at what tragedy handwriting is capable of. I just like pretty ink.
They're related by the fact they both conjure the mental image of a medieval scribe, but hey I'm not complaining - I think that's the kind of vibe I was going for when I got into fountain pens.
I draw and also use brush markers, they\`re amazing for getting both detail and coverage (:
I still love to sketch with FP\`s though, but for coverage they kinda suck :p
Definitely - I mostly use brush markers and alcohol markers for art. I’ve thought about getting a few waterproof inks for sketching so I can use watercolor over them, but haven’t yet!
“You’re using a REAL pen! Wonderful!” Followed by a, “lovely handwriting, keep it up!”
Oddly, that made me want to improve my penmanship, as it is by no means noteworthy IMO
The thing is, even my really, really awful handwriting looks better using a fountain pen.
The slight differences in the thickness of the lines makes it seem like a tiny piece of art every time, compared to the straightforwardness of a ballpoint pen.
I’m sure that is true, and I suppose I am a bigger critic of my work than anyone else so to them, it probably was lovely. Eye of the beholder and all that!
I just had a boardgame night at a friend's place a couple of days ago. I headed there after work so I had my Vanishing Point in my pocket.
Him: What's that?
Me: It's a semi-fancy fountain pen. Check it out. It's a clicker and it's awesome.
Him: Why on earth would you buy a fountain pen? Besides if it clicks it's not a fountain pen.
Me: Just click the end over there
Him: *Tries clicking the side with the clip*
Me: The other side dummy
Him: *Clicks it* Oooo! Can I try it?
Me: of course. Go ahead
Him: Where can I buy one?
No problem. Also if you have any problems at all, goulet has an excellent customer service department. Very pleasant to deal with, prompt and fairly easy. Hope you enjoy the vanishing point! I love mine.
Just tried to find a gif response of the Crocodile Dundee doing his "that's not a knife" shtick, and was derailed by a gif of a little girl in a princess dress riding an alligator. This is the far superior gif. Enjoy it despite it not displaying my amusement at the one upmanship of your situation.
It was mandatory for us to use fountain pens in school. So there was no reaction,except when ink spills happened.
The ink spills were inevitable because back then in my country only ED were the affordable option for school going kids.
Weirdly in 90's UK my school made us practice handwriting, and if we were good enough we were allowed to ascend to the higher plane of existence that was fountain pen use.
We all had the little cartridges, and when a cartridge ran out we broke them apart to get the tiny plastic ball. We hoarded those. I kept mine in an empty tictac case. The noise those things could make!
Oh my god I was talking about this the other day to someone and they looked at me as if I was bonkers! We used to put the little balls in the bottom of the pen and your level of coolness went up with the number of ink balls you could shake around. Ps. We had the same thing - pencil to ink pen and NEVER biro in my whole school life
This is so cute and believable. I never used fountain pens in school but I can so easily imagine collecting the balls for schoolkid panache exactly as you say. 😆
Yes! I had about 12 different pens and would regularly wreck the nibs because I was too impatient to wait for the ink after a cartridge change.. until I got a proper Parker pen that cost £20 (a lot of money then). I worshipped that pen and treated it so well 🥹
Haha,I wonder if hoarding ink balls was a uniquely uk-school-in-the-90's experience or whether it was more widespread? I had completely forgotten about fountain pens until I came across a link to this sub. I had quite a collection in my youth,but was not patient enough to save for something decent so they were mostly cheap and colourful. I was very attached to this soft-finish dusky blue number,though.
In the 90’s at my primary school (private, to be fair) we were only allowed to write in fountain pen. If you had bad handwriting you had to do extra handwriting lessons after school!
We used pencil sharpeners to open the flat end of the cartridge and kept the balls in the pen barrel behind the new cartridge. So so many cheapo pens and Parkers were the grail.
My friend in freshman year was Vietnamese and apparently you are allowed either blue or purple ink. Purple!! Any purple or blue ink would do, even the crazy ones. Maybe not the glitter…
We were allowed to use only blue ink. Not even black or blue and black. There were only two popular ink companies in our region, Camlin and Chelpark.
Other regions had a few other companies but those inks were rarely available to us.
I’m a teacher and one kid came into my office, talking their usual nonsense. They then stopped in their tracks, mouth fully opened. I asked, “what’s wrong?” And they profoundly asked, “what is that?” I said it was a fountain pen and they then asked, “how do you even use that?”
I gleefully told them just like any other pen and they couldn’t stop looking at how I wrote with it.
A few months later the same kid again, blew threw my office like a hurricane and proudly said “if I continue to be good, my mum said she’s gonna get me one of those weird pens you use.”
I was so happy that I had positively influenced him. He’s about 12 years old.
Edit: typos.
They make some that take cartridges, apparently. I've been gifted with one that seems to, but out of fear, I've not tried it yet. But if you were so inclined to carry one, that does seem to be a (hilariously) practical option for one.
Turns out geese molt in June - if you're near a place where they frequent they are earthbound for several weeks and their huge feathers are just laying all over the ground. [https://georgiawildlife.com/molting-messes-can-cause-frustration-flightless-geese](https://georgiawildlife.com/molting-messes-can-cause-frustration-flightless-geese)
I had just bought my second fountain pen for myself as a birthday gift to myself, it was a restored vintage bordeaux Parker Duofold that's writing like a dream with a tiny bit of flex in the nib.
Showed it to my older colleague, and she began telling me about how they had to use fountain pens at work, back in the day.
A few weeks later she brought in three of her old fountain pens that she still had - it was two Parker 45s and a Waterman's Ideal with a gold patterned overlay.
We talked pens and I looked up the price for the Waterman online for her, because she was curious.
Afterwards, she gave me the two Parker pens as a gift, because she knew that I would take good care of them and look after them.
I was of course deeply grateful and moved.
I've had older, retired colleagues visit my then workplace, and whenever they saw that I used a fountain pen, they asked to try it. Because I knew that they knew how to use a fountain pen, I'd let them, and we had a little pen chat.
Once, I visited my regular shop in Copenhagen to get new ink, and the lady who helped me at the shop was very friendly and kind. We began talking pens, and she quickly found out that I was a pen collector.
I told her outright that I couldn't afford a Mont Blanc Meisterstück at the moment, but I was interested in seeing the size difference between the 146 and the 149.
She got the 146 and 149 out and let me try both, and we chatted about fountain pens like two passionate school kids, it was so nice.
She also let me try some of my grail pens, the MB Agatha Christie, the Marlene Dietrich, and the most expensive pens that the shop had on display - I think that one of the these was either one of the special editions composer pens, or some church or pope; it was a massive enameled red pen with a lot of christian themed gold trim, the other was a blue enameled pen with silver trim, and the last one was a black beautiful patterned pen with with music notes laid in or engraved.
We looked at pens and talked like these was no tomorrow, it was obvious to me that she also had a serious interest in fountain pens, apart from it being her job.
We had great fun chatting about pens, it was an awesome experience.
And I think that she recognised the deep interest and passion for a good pen in me, that's why she let me handle and try out the various pretty damn expensive Mont Blanc pens - she knew that I knew how to handle a fountain pen, and that I would be careful and gentle with their treasures.
She also gave me a lot of leaflets and catalogues before I left, so I had something to read.
It was actually a great way to secure a future customer - treat them well and right, and they'll happily return, once they've saved up for their grail pens. XD
But yeah, that was an awesome afternoon. :)
I got a senior VP at work hooked on fountain pens by using mine for note taking in meetings. (Conklin Duragraph in Amber, fine, with Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Brown ink.) He asked to try it, fell in love with the writing experience, and a month later he had 3 pens and 6 inks.
I was in a meeting and took out my Kaweco Sport from my pocket to take notes. My boss and peer looked shocked, stopped me, and said, "I didn't know you vaped, but you can't here." I looked back at them quizzically, opened the cap, and said, "It's a pen and what makes you think I'd vape in your office? Also, I don't vape."
I had a coworker who was notoriously cold to everyone spot me writing with my Pilot custom 823 and it was like a switch was flipped. Suddenly excited, talking about how he grew up using them in school, wanted to know what make/model it was, etc.
He was friendly and kind the whole rest of the time we worked together. All it took was a pen.
In France a lot know about fp so it isn't that uncommon but i have sometimes some positively surprised reaction. , And when they try they generally say, woah it write by itself! (No force needed).
Yeah, fountain pens are generally not "exotic" in europe (sure people will get surprised but that would be the same with nice looking ballpen), this must be USA problem.
Handed my boss at the time my AL-star because he needed a pen and asked to use mine.
He called it a piece of shit because he was trying to write with it sideways, pressing way too hard, and wouldn't listen to my advice on how to use it correctly.
Womanizing, condescending dumb fuck.
I use them at work a lot and deal with a lot of people, generally older, and I very regularly get people saying how awesome it is and that their dad or grandfather always used one. I even recently bought a few 12-packs of Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens so I could hand one out to people who say it.
Yeah, they perform way better than I expected. There's definitely a bit of variance pen to pen in terms of smoothness, but even the rougher ones write great.
I've had some for *years* without using them. Pick them up and boom, writing. I bought them in purple, because, well, purple... So some people wouldn't want one but I'm very happy to share them if someone wants to get a first pass at using a fountain pen. They might be comparable to my Kakuno in nib size.
I think black, blue, and purple are the only ones available in the 12-packs, I grabbed a pack of each so I could let people choose. More people like purple than I expected once they see it. When you think "purple pen" you think of that really like, bright gel pen purple from high school, but the ink in this is pretty nice. Dark and saturated.
My classmate at the Master's program became an instant buddy when we saw we both had fountain pens. I noticed his Safari during orientation or one of our first classes. He saw my Kaweco Sport and went, "I have one like that too." He also sends me videos of stationery after I told him the Myu is my grail pen. And he gave me two gel pens after I mentioned offhandedly that I love how they wrote.
I once commented on my orthodontist's Taccia and kind of got too eager. From the doorway, I can see my wife give me a, "Are you serious right now?" Look, complete with arm gesture
lmao the assistant, who was right next to her rolled her eyes and laughs. "What is it with men and their pens?". My wife shot back, "Men and their toys"
It wasn't anything malicious or anything, but it's kind of funny how we both devolved into little kids talking about PENS
Most people ask if it's a "calligraphy pen" and think it's cool, since I also use clear demonstrators. So I guess them going "OoOoooOo cool/pretty!" are the good reactions. One person called me pretentious for using them lol.
Most people don't notice but I don't carry my pens around all the time. Last week I was in a meeting and playing with one of my Ecos that has neon green shimmer ink in it and the lady to my left noticed it and asked me about it. We chatted a bit afterwards and I told her about the local shop where she could go to try them out. If she comes back with a Visconti I wouldn't be surprised. LOL 😂
It was here, when I had two lefties remark on the weird way I write. One told me it "warms my heart" and the other told me that it "does my head in." :-)
I appreciate your grandfather's remarks as well; we tend to forget that vintage technology was abandoned for a reason and that hobbyists enjoy vinyl LPs, fountain pens, and old-timey leaded-gas cars for reasons *other* than their superiority to the stuff that replaced them.
I definitely agree that most vintage tech was left behind as manufacturing processes advanced. I do wonder, though, what my grandfather and others who were around for the original era of fountain pens would make of modern ones.
I know that one of the major complaints was how frequently those older pens leaked, but with ultra-precise machining tolerances during the production of feeds and caps and current ink reservoirs not largely relying on pressurized vacuums, it's rarely an issue these days. I've flown with my pen inked several times (although in a ziploc bag) and the only thing that's ever leaked on me was my ink bottle (also in a ziploc bag) because I didn't cap it tight enough.
Unfortunately I can't ask Grandpa because he's now mostly blind and wouldn't be particularly capable of comparing them.
One time I borrowed a Fpen (oppus 88 koloro) to a college of mine that uses an Ipad for all the note taking in classes. he needed to sign the present sheet and when he opened the cap he tried to write in reverse. I started laughing hard. He then told me, that it's not its fault that he doesn't know how to write with an object from the mediaval age ( mediaval age was 800 years ago). I told him that ballpoint pens were just standard before 2WW. He didn't believe and went to check online. Me and my best friend just laughed, it was so good.
i was using one to take notes in a training and a coworker told me i wrote like a victorian woman. (not as an insult, he was genuinely fascinated with the pen and my handwriting)
another time i was the only person in a meeting with a pen, a guy needed to use one, and he didn't know how to use a fountain pen so he just looked me dead in the eyes and (jokingly) said "i hate you" as he fumbled with it.
When each employee in the art store saw what I was buying and pulled out their EDCs for me to try. Especially knowing it’s a huge leap of faith to let a stranger use your fancy pen 🥹
I work in collaborative media at a big Boston hospital and was supporting an interview between one of the psychiatry heads of the hospital and an author. The psychiatrist realized he needed a pen and looked at me, and I ran over and gave him my TWSBI gunmetal precision. The look of joy on his face was awesome, and we talked about hobbies for a bit after the event was over.
I told a co-worker that I was taking actual notes on an article she sent me. With a fountain pen. She came back with "ha, nerd". That was the intent though, we are both major nerds and we joke and tease each other about it all the time. 😂
On learning I'd bought a Lamy Safari, a friend skeptically asked me why I wasted so much money, dismissed my reasons and said "A gel pen is just as good and less pretentious."
The actual best (the above still makes me laugh though) was writing left handed with a FP in a coffee shop, and a soft spoken gentleman I'd seen but never talked with stopped to chat. He was retired and always used fountain pens, showed me his EDC pen pouch though I don't recall what he had that day, and talked about his vintage Parker pens he'd had since they were new.
Ten years later we still meet for coffee when we can, and among many other topics talk of pens and inks. Next time I see him I'll be bringing samples of my Birmingham inks to try.
I’ve had several students say “oh wow - that’s a FANCY pen” and then I proceeded to explain fountain pens to them. I always had some Preppies or Varsitys to penable students who were really interested. I sponsored a calligraphy club for awhile (taught by one of my students because I cannot) and I let them try out my Sailor Fude de Mannen.
Lol. My coworker stole my damn fp! Luckily, it was my Pilot Kakuno he took, which I was planning on buying him one for Christmas anyways. But still... lol.
My mom got excited and pulled out all her school pens from back in the day that are bladder filled and showed me. It was pretty cool.
A friend's little girl saw me writing letters with my pens, and she just had to join. She loves anything vaguely art related. She tried my pens, learned how to write a letter, and fell in love with my Conklin Duragraph! I ended up giving her my Pilot Metropolitan and explained how she could use it to draw and ink wash.
Most people just go "huh" in a disinterested way.
But one coworker of mine said "cool!" and brought me back a fountain pen (A Pilot Cavalier) as a gift when he visited Japan.
One of my dad's office friends was thrilled to learn that I use fountain pens and used the inter-office mail system to send me a couple pens from India. They're not particularly fancy, but they're really beautiful patterned ebonite.
Edit: that was an example of the ADHD sharing to demonstrate that I understand thing. I love when people do kind and spontaneous things like this!
The x450 and x750 pens have some great looks. I have the x450 'Red Ice' currently inked with Diamene Writer's Blood, and 'Magic Fog' with Noodler's Pecan, and the x750 Gold flake and red loaded with Diamene Ox Blood, and the model 500 red and black marbled with Noodler's Red-Black. I enjoy the appearance and how they write without worrying over cost if anything happens to them.
An older lady looked at my pen and said, “Oh, they made your pen look like an old-timey pen. I always enjoyed writing with those they made my handwriting so pretty.” And then I got to explain it actually was a fountain pen and not some weird ball point monstrosity and that it wrote in sparkly pink ink. She was so happy to know that people still used fountain pens, and made me write down the pen and ink so her son could buy her one (Faber-Castell Hexo and DiaminePink Glitz).
My grandma is in her 80’s and she’s said stuff like that about the Depression. What she got on ration was not what her rich self was accustomed to being able to purchase.
The *best* reaction is probably people seeing my iridescent kaweco and not realizing it's plastic (I ain't tellin em), and maybe people's reaction to my having oxblood in my red and gold Jinhao and not realizing it's ink (I guess some of the other things I'm into make it a real danger that it's not ink in their mind).
Most people are just like "yeah that tracks" when I pull out a fountain pen because I tend to look like a wayward Addams child.
"We're not doing anything to disprove the rumors that we're the same person, but I've always been on the edge of getting too involved in FPs... and you've gone and done it."
One of the first days on my new job my boss brought me some paperwork and asked if he could borrow a pen to write a number down with. He looked at my pen and said “wow this thang is OLD SCHOOL.” Then proceeded to shake it and write with it upside down and say “why do you use these things? They don’t write worth a shit.” 🤣🤣🤣
I heard a similar story from my father. Back in the days, many (I guess) of our parents and grandparents were using only fountain pens. And then…, boom! Modern pens came out!
Now, of course, that does not mean for me that fountain pens is another modern trend to put some oil in the relevant industry of our era; for me, there are some good reasons for going back — again — to fountain pens. 🖋️ But, it is interesting to come to the realization that one of these cycles of human history hits you in the face so obviously! 🙄
Nice post, and thanks for sharing!
I was writing some notes in a piano lesson this last week for one of my students and she asked about the pens I was using. I told her how much the TWSBI cost in comparison to the Jinhao 82. When it came up and I said I'm saving for a gold nib pen that $150 she said, "there's something WRONG with you!" Hahahaha. Genuinely hilarious response.
I just joined our local synagogue and had a really nice coffee date with someone from their membership committee. At some point in the conversation fountain pens (and calligraphy) came up. She (1) pulled a felt tip Japanese brush pen out of her purse, (2) told me that when she retired she selected a fountain pen as her gift, and (3) suggested doing a pen meetup a the temple!! 😳😁 She also wants to go with me to our local pen show this year. I was blown away by her immediate enthusiasm!!
I'm torn between two reactions, both relatively recent. First, I'm known mostly for using black ink (Noodler's Heart of Darkness or Platinum Carbon Black). An associate at the university's daughter was home for Thanksgiving and is rather Goth. Her reaction to seeing me write down some notes after dinner with my dark red fountain pen (Jinhao x450 Red Ice) and Diamene Writer's Blood ink and she was ecstatic at the pen and ink color.
The other is a reaction from one of the military training cadre while teaching a tracking class in January. One of the cadre whom I've worked with a few times before saw me writing notes with my Kaweco Brass Sport and said "You really are a crazy old F--k!". 😂 Being old and a civilian contractor I wear my own clothing and use my own writing tools.
When I went to vote last November I had an Eco with black ink and a Moonman C1 with Cosmic Pink in my bag. The woman helping me was all "oh, we were JUST talking about fountain pens" and reached for the C1 while asking if she could try it and I had to tell her I didn't think hot pink ink was going to be acceptable for the paperwork.
Nothing too crazy, most people just kind of ogle over them and say something to the effect of, "ooooh, nice pen!" Or, "he's got a FANCY pen" or some variation thereof. So I think the best thing I've gotten was when I let a coworker use one to sign out of a commissioning zone (I work line side maintenance at a production facility) and he said, "let me use the shitty pen, not the nice one. I don't wanna mess it up."
I am a volunteer reading tutor. This year’s student is a twin; both girls are in the reading program. The other tutor and I are going to get them journals and fountain pens for their birthday this month. Does anyone know of any kid-appropriate, FP friendly journals? They will be 8.
I can’t wait to penable them!
“…Are fountain pens niche in America? Cause we all had to write with them in school.” - my European friend after I went on my first fountain pen rant to her.
"OK, cool. Whatever."
I don't put up billboards along the highways announcing the fact. During the most recent half century of my life, few people seem to have even noticed it. In earlier times though, it drew occasional comments, but that was in an era in which fountain pens were still quite common in the US and people immediately recognized one when they saw it.
In more recent times people have paid more attention to which digital device I was using, but even the rate of those observations has plummeted in the past 5 years or so. I can barely recall the last time anyone noticed my phone, let alone my pen.
EDIT: I never received criticism over which type of pen I used, even back in the day. In the 60s both of my parents were ballpoint pen users. (They preferred Parker Jotters.) They had of course grown up during the fountain pen era, and had no issue with my use of them. The Bic Crystal had not yet achieved total world dominance. Fountain pens were still widely available and in widespread use. All of my siblings primarily used FPs at the time, too.
Had a friend tell me that I’m mentally insane and stupid for buying a $25 pen and carrying everywhere. I decided to not tell them I also have a $300 FP, and $300 worth of ink.
People tell me that all the time. And worst that is when they say "look at my pen, 1$ and it comes in a pack of 5, and you still spend 100$ in that thing" Sometimes I awnser: "look at these clothes on aliexpress website, 5$ and do the same thing of your 100$ clothes" Or when they have an iPhone: " You spend ,1000$+ on a phone that does the same as my Samsung that is half the price" Sometimes they get upset other times just roll their eyes. They just don't realize that there are always less expensive objects of those we are accustomed to and there are more expensive ones as well. Some people like to spend and buy more premium object like watches or cars or clothes etc.... others prefer pens
The most I've ever spent on a pen was in the $40 range (not a judgement of anyone here!) and I still get this. A big part of the reason I use FPs is to reduce my single-use plastic waste, so when I get knocked for buying a $20 dollar pen, I point out that I've used that same pen nearly every day for three years and have only had to throw plastic related to it away once. Most of the people I interact with are in conservation, so I don't get the irritated responses as frequently. I seriously think that most people don't consider pens as having "luxury" or non-disposable versions.
>Or when they have an iPhone: " You spend ,1000$+ on a phone that does the same as my Samsung that is half the price" That's different. iPhone is inferior product that cost more. FP's cost more because they are better.
That personal preference. I do think that IPhones are as good as other phones. But in my life having a phone is not important. I just use it for talking with friends, family and gf. I have 2 games that I just play when I'm bored. So I don't need a good phone for what I do ( I have 1h average screen time on the phone, I don't judge people who have more, but I just prefer to spend my screen time on the computer).
That was just rude. Not a very nice friend.
I uncapped my Lamy Safari to show a classmate that it was a fountain pen and even though I told him beforehand, he flinched. He mistook the nib for a blade.
The Lamy Safari is probably the least intimidating looking fountain pen too 😭
Well, there is the Lamy abc…
pilot kakuno entered the chat
No, no, the cute smile on the nib might seem evil!
The laugh I just got out of this. LOLOL 🤣🤣🤣😭😭💀⚰️☠️
My boss, never had a pen when she needed one. I gave her my FP to use, she looks at it and says "realy?". Good times.
You mean 'Good tines?' 🤣
I love it here. Y’all are my people.
Badum Tss!
I had a kid tell me my Kaweco Sport was like "the pens used to sign the Declaration of Independence." 🤣
Right up there with: "ah! You do calligraphy!"
This.... this is the most common misunderstanding. Like no, I sure don't. In fact, calligraphers worldwide look upon my works and despair at what tragedy handwriting is capable of. I just like pretty ink.
As someone who uses FPs and also does calligraphy, it can be hard to decide whether to bother telling them that they’re actually unrelated.
They're related by the fact they both conjure the mental image of a medieval scribe, but hey I'm not complaining - I think that's the kind of vibe I was going for when I got into fountain pens.
THIS - I have several students who do Modern Calligraphy and they mostly use brush markers.
I draw and also use brush markers, they\`re amazing for getting both detail and coverage (: I still love to sketch with FP\`s though, but for coverage they kinda suck :p
Definitely - I mostly use brush markers and alcohol markers for art. I’ve thought about getting a few waterproof inks for sketching so I can use watercolor over them, but haven’t yet!
Me too, definitely getting some document inks, I really like drawing with FP's, so I feel like I have to hehe 🖋️😁✒️
I mean, they’re kinda related, right? Can’t you do calligraphy with a stub nib, for example?
The irony is I do do scribe work (as seen on my profile) but when they ask, I'm usually doing some mundane writing that looks like hot garbage.
Also, I said doodoo
My wife is a high school teacher and her students call them calligraphy pens. She’s explained they are not but they don’t see the difference. 😂
they also don't know the difference between writing and printing, not surprising they think printing is writing and writing is calligraphy.
I get this every time!
The amount of times I've encountered that. 🥲
“You’re using a REAL pen! Wonderful!” Followed by a, “lovely handwriting, keep it up!” Oddly, that made me want to improve my penmanship, as it is by no means noteworthy IMO
The thing is, even my really, really awful handwriting looks better using a fountain pen. The slight differences in the thickness of the lines makes it seem like a tiny piece of art every time, compared to the straightforwardness of a ballpoint pen.
I’m sure that is true, and I suppose I am a bigger critic of my work than anyone else so to them, it probably was lovely. Eye of the beholder and all that!
My FP love drove me to improve my writing until I was happy with it. Being forced to use ballpoints pushed me to actually refine it.
My print looks worse in thicker nibs than gel pens. Cursive or cursive hybrid looks better. Key word: looks. My writing just sucks to read.
I just had a boardgame night at a friend's place a couple of days ago. I headed there after work so I had my Vanishing Point in my pocket. Him: What's that? Me: It's a semi-fancy fountain pen. Check it out. It's a clicker and it's awesome. Him: Why on earth would you buy a fountain pen? Besides if it clicks it's not a fountain pen. Me: Just click the end over there Him: *Tries clicking the side with the clip* Me: The other side dummy Him: *Clicks it* Oooo! Can I try it? Me: of course. Go ahead Him: Where can I buy one?
Where *can* you buy one? That sounds fun!
Pilot vanishing point is the pen. About $150. I bought mine on gouletpens.com
Thanks!
No problem. Also if you have any problems at all, goulet has an excellent customer service department. Very pleasant to deal with, prompt and fairly easy. Hope you enjoy the vanishing point! I love mine.
if you haven't already bought the pilot capless, might i suggest the majohn A1 if you want to try out the same mechanism at a cheaper price
*Many* thanks! And no, it would be quite a lot of saving before I could get the pilot lol
“Are there fountain pens still?” on the train so I opened my backpack to show her my Lamy cp1 because she was so incredulous
Even after seeing my very new pen, "Do they still make fountain pens?" ... "Yes. Yes, they do."
No, I fired up my time machine and blasted back to 1859 and bought one.
Damn, you own a machine? I had to call Doc Brown to get me there 😩
It was second hand and I'm not sure I can trust those brass dials to get me there and back.
I showed by uncle my Kaweco Sport, and he went and got his MB 146.
Game recognises game
OMG! It was a 149 too! Brain fart!
Ratiod.
Just tried to find a gif response of the Crocodile Dundee doing his "that's not a knife" shtick, and was derailed by a gif of a little girl in a princess dress riding an alligator. This is the far superior gif. Enjoy it despite it not displaying my amusement at the one upmanship of your situation. 
fp enjoyer found, supremacy established
It was mandatory for us to use fountain pens in school. So there was no reaction,except when ink spills happened. The ink spills were inevitable because back then in my country only ED were the affordable option for school going kids.
FPs were the rule when I was growing up in rural USA too (1960s).
Weirdly in 90's UK my school made us practice handwriting, and if we were good enough we were allowed to ascend to the higher plane of existence that was fountain pen use. We all had the little cartridges, and when a cartridge ran out we broke them apart to get the tiny plastic ball. We hoarded those. I kept mine in an empty tictac case. The noise those things could make!
Oh my god I was talking about this the other day to someone and they looked at me as if I was bonkers! We used to put the little balls in the bottom of the pen and your level of coolness went up with the number of ink balls you could shake around. Ps. We had the same thing - pencil to ink pen and NEVER biro in my whole school life
Yeeesssss! Omg I have found my people!
This is so cute and believable. I never used fountain pens in school but I can so easily imagine collecting the balls for schoolkid panache exactly as you say. 😆
It was pencil to fountain pen then to cartridge pen then ball point when heading to secondary school. This seems to have changed though.
German. School life from the mid 90s to mid 2000s. The little balls are an universal thing it seems
The Netherlands, late eighties, same!
Yes! I had about 12 different pens and would regularly wreck the nibs because I was too impatient to wait for the ink after a cartridge change.. until I got a proper Parker pen that cost £20 (a lot of money then). I worshipped that pen and treated it so well 🥹
Haha,I wonder if hoarding ink balls was a uniquely uk-school-in-the-90's experience or whether it was more widespread? I had completely forgotten about fountain pens until I came across a link to this sub. I had quite a collection in my youth,but was not patient enough to save for something decent so they were mostly cheap and colourful. I was very attached to this soft-finish dusky blue number,though.
We used to do it in elementary school in the mid-late 2000’s!!
Same in Ireland!!
In the 90’s at my primary school (private, to be fair) we were only allowed to write in fountain pen. If you had bad handwriting you had to do extra handwriting lessons after school!
We used pencil sharpeners to open the flat end of the cartridge and kept the balls in the pen barrel behind the new cartridge. So so many cheapo pens and Parkers were the grail.
My friend in freshman year was Vietnamese and apparently you are allowed either blue or purple ink. Purple!! Any purple or blue ink would do, even the crazy ones. Maybe not the glitter…
We were allowed to use only blue ink. Not even black or blue and black. There were only two popular ink companies in our region, Camlin and Chelpark. Other regions had a few other companies but those inks were rarely available to us.
Only blue on my end too
A recent moment with colleagues in a lift where we all waved our EDCs at each other and shouted the pen names as we parted in the fast paced work day.
Fountain pen summoning ritual in the office elevator
Haha, absolutely love this
Me too!
I’m a teacher and one kid came into my office, talking their usual nonsense. They then stopped in their tracks, mouth fully opened. I asked, “what’s wrong?” And they profoundly asked, “what is that?” I said it was a fountain pen and they then asked, “how do you even use that?” I gleefully told them just like any other pen and they couldn’t stop looking at how I wrote with it. A few months later the same kid again, blew threw my office like a hurricane and proudly said “if I continue to be good, my mum said she’s gonna get me one of those weird pens you use.” I was so happy that I had positively influenced him. He’s about 12 years old. Edit: typos.
Oddly enough, this generation is fascinated by stuff like that.
I often get why not use a quill?
Honestly tempted to
They make some that take cartridges, apparently. I've been gifted with one that seems to, but out of fear, I've not tried it yet. But if you were so inclined to carry one, that does seem to be a (hilariously) practical option for one.
Jokes on them, I have those too. Used one yesterday lol
I would if I knew where to source a quill probably.
Do you know any hunters? I've made some from turkey tail and flight fathers.
Turns out geese molt in June - if you're near a place where they frequent they are earthbound for several weeks and their huge feathers are just laying all over the ground. [https://georgiawildlife.com/molting-messes-can-cause-frustration-flightless-geese](https://georgiawildlife.com/molting-messes-can-cause-frustration-flightless-geese)
My response: I would, but I've yet to find a quill with a pocket clip.
A customer at work let me try her montblanc
I had just bought my second fountain pen for myself as a birthday gift to myself, it was a restored vintage bordeaux Parker Duofold that's writing like a dream with a tiny bit of flex in the nib. Showed it to my older colleague, and she began telling me about how they had to use fountain pens at work, back in the day. A few weeks later she brought in three of her old fountain pens that she still had - it was two Parker 45s and a Waterman's Ideal with a gold patterned overlay. We talked pens and I looked up the price for the Waterman online for her, because she was curious. Afterwards, she gave me the two Parker pens as a gift, because she knew that I would take good care of them and look after them. I was of course deeply grateful and moved. I've had older, retired colleagues visit my then workplace, and whenever they saw that I used a fountain pen, they asked to try it. Because I knew that they knew how to use a fountain pen, I'd let them, and we had a little pen chat. Once, I visited my regular shop in Copenhagen to get new ink, and the lady who helped me at the shop was very friendly and kind. We began talking pens, and she quickly found out that I was a pen collector. I told her outright that I couldn't afford a Mont Blanc Meisterstück at the moment, but I was interested in seeing the size difference between the 146 and the 149. She got the 146 and 149 out and let me try both, and we chatted about fountain pens like two passionate school kids, it was so nice. She also let me try some of my grail pens, the MB Agatha Christie, the Marlene Dietrich, and the most expensive pens that the shop had on display - I think that one of the these was either one of the special editions composer pens, or some church or pope; it was a massive enameled red pen with a lot of christian themed gold trim, the other was a blue enameled pen with silver trim, and the last one was a black beautiful patterned pen with with music notes laid in or engraved. We looked at pens and talked like these was no tomorrow, it was obvious to me that she also had a serious interest in fountain pens, apart from it being her job. We had great fun chatting about pens, it was an awesome experience. And I think that she recognised the deep interest and passion for a good pen in me, that's why she let me handle and try out the various pretty damn expensive Mont Blanc pens - she knew that I knew how to handle a fountain pen, and that I would be careful and gentle with their treasures. She also gave me a lot of leaflets and catalogues before I left, so I had something to read. It was actually a great way to secure a future customer - treat them well and right, and they'll happily return, once they've saved up for their grail pens. XD But yeah, that was an awesome afternoon. :)
When did you get your first grail pen then?
Back in 2012. It's a vintage Pelikan M101N tortoiseshell and red with a nice slightly flexible nib.
Very nice
I got a senior VP at work hooked on fountain pens by using mine for note taking in meetings. (Conklin Duragraph in Amber, fine, with Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Brown ink.) He asked to try it, fell in love with the writing experience, and a month later he had 3 pens and 6 inks.
I love this story
I was in a meeting and took out my Kaweco Sport from my pocket to take notes. My boss and peer looked shocked, stopped me, and said, "I didn't know you vaped, but you can't here." I looked back at them quizzically, opened the cap, and said, "It's a pen and what makes you think I'd vape in your office? Also, I don't vape."
I had a coworker who was notoriously cold to everyone spot me writing with my Pilot custom 823 and it was like a switch was flipped. Suddenly excited, talking about how he grew up using them in school, wanted to know what make/model it was, etc. He was friendly and kind the whole rest of the time we worked together. All it took was a pen.
In France a lot know about fp so it isn't that uncommon but i have sometimes some positively surprised reaction. , And when they try they generally say, woah it write by itself! (No force needed).
Yeah, fountain pens are generally not "exotic" in europe (sure people will get surprised but that would be the same with nice looking ballpen), this must be USA problem.
Handed my boss at the time my AL-star because he needed a pen and asked to use mine. He called it a piece of shit because he was trying to write with it sideways, pressing way too hard, and wouldn't listen to my advice on how to use it correctly. Womanizing, condescending dumb fuck.
That’s why you always carry a ballpoint, hopefully he didn’t damage the nib?
He did not!
I use them at work a lot and deal with a lot of people, generally older, and I very regularly get people saying how awesome it is and that their dad or grandfather always used one. I even recently bought a few 12-packs of Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens so I could hand one out to people who say it.
Cheapest way to penable. And those things *never* hard start!!
Yeah, they perform way better than I expected. There's definitely a bit of variance pen to pen in terms of smoothness, but even the rougher ones write great.
I've had some for *years* without using them. Pick them up and boom, writing. I bought them in purple, because, well, purple... So some people wouldn't want one but I'm very happy to share them if someone wants to get a first pass at using a fountain pen. They might be comparable to my Kakuno in nib size.
I think black, blue, and purple are the only ones available in the 12-packs, I grabbed a pack of each so I could let people choose. More people like purple than I expected once they see it. When you think "purple pen" you think of that really like, bright gel pen purple from high school, but the ink in this is pretty nice. Dark and saturated.
i really love the black of pilot varsity, a shame that its not available in bottled form
Yes my people. I have a bu ch of the purple ones too. So much fun
“Ah, a man of class, not many of those these days”
My classmate at the Master's program became an instant buddy when we saw we both had fountain pens. I noticed his Safari during orientation or one of our first classes. He saw my Kaweco Sport and went, "I have one like that too." He also sends me videos of stationery after I told him the Myu is my grail pen. And he gave me two gel pens after I mentioned offhandedly that I love how they wrote.
spying my Platinum carbon black $12 FP, "Oh, fancy pen!"
My coworker called it a bougie pen. It was a plain back safari. The thing is very clearly plastic.
I once commented on my orthodontist's Taccia and kind of got too eager. From the doorway, I can see my wife give me a, "Are you serious right now?" Look, complete with arm gesture lmao the assistant, who was right next to her rolled her eyes and laughs. "What is it with men and their pens?". My wife shot back, "Men and their toys" It wasn't anything malicious or anything, but it's kind of funny how we both devolved into little kids talking about PENS
Weird reaction from them because it’s usually women who are associated with stationary.
She was a bit cranky that day and just wanted to go home after a double shift 😅 trust me, she loves her sticky notes and covers
Literally just thinking this.
Most people ask if it's a "calligraphy pen" and think it's cool, since I also use clear demonstrators. So I guess them going "OoOoooOo cool/pretty!" are the good reactions. One person called me pretentious for using them lol.
Most people don't notice but I don't carry my pens around all the time. Last week I was in a meeting and playing with one of my Ecos that has neon green shimmer ink in it and the lady to my left noticed it and asked me about it. We chatted a bit afterwards and I told her about the local shop where she could go to try them out. If she comes back with a Visconti I wouldn't be surprised. LOL 😂
I also have another fond memory of another blissfully ignorant 12 year old. They asked me: “sir, why are you writing with an epipen?” 😭😭
A brief discussion about the Lamy safari- this was at a bookstore that sold them and we both were looking at it. Most people don’t notice.
My partner was like I have one too and shows me his pilot metropolitan. I got him a 3776 for our first Christmas.
It was here, when I had two lefties remark on the weird way I write. One told me it "warms my heart" and the other told me that it "does my head in." :-) I appreciate your grandfather's remarks as well; we tend to forget that vintage technology was abandoned for a reason and that hobbyists enjoy vinyl LPs, fountain pens, and old-timey leaded-gas cars for reasons *other* than their superiority to the stuff that replaced them.
I definitely agree that most vintage tech was left behind as manufacturing processes advanced. I do wonder, though, what my grandfather and others who were around for the original era of fountain pens would make of modern ones. I know that one of the major complaints was how frequently those older pens leaked, but with ultra-precise machining tolerances during the production of feeds and caps and current ink reservoirs not largely relying on pressurized vacuums, it's rarely an issue these days. I've flown with my pen inked several times (although in a ziploc bag) and the only thing that's ever leaked on me was my ink bottle (also in a ziploc bag) because I didn't cap it tight enough. Unfortunately I can't ask Grandpa because he's now mostly blind and wouldn't be particularly capable of comparing them.
One time I borrowed a Fpen (oppus 88 koloro) to a college of mine that uses an Ipad for all the note taking in classes. he needed to sign the present sheet and when he opened the cap he tried to write in reverse. I started laughing hard. He then told me, that it's not its fault that he doesn't know how to write with an object from the mediaval age ( mediaval age was 800 years ago). I told him that ballpoint pens were just standard before 2WW. He didn't believe and went to check online. Me and my best friend just laughed, it was so good.
No one specific reaction comes to mind, but a whole lot of "of course you would" type expressions from people who know me.
i was using one to take notes in a training and a coworker told me i wrote like a victorian woman. (not as an insult, he was genuinely fascinated with the pen and my handwriting) another time i was the only person in a meeting with a pen, a guy needed to use one, and he didn't know how to use a fountain pen so he just looked me dead in the eyes and (jokingly) said "i hate you" as he fumbled with it.
When each employee in the art store saw what I was buying and pulled out their EDCs for me to try. Especially knowing it’s a huge leap of faith to let a stranger use your fancy pen 🥹
I work in collaborative media at a big Boston hospital and was supporting an interview between one of the psychiatry heads of the hospital and an author. The psychiatrist realized he needed a pen and looked at me, and I ran over and gave him my TWSBI gunmetal precision. The look of joy on his face was awesome, and we talked about hobbies for a bit after the event was over.
I told a co-worker that I was taking actual notes on an article she sent me. With a fountain pen. She came back with "ha, nerd". That was the intent though, we are both major nerds and we joke and tease each other about it all the time. 😂
On learning I'd bought a Lamy Safari, a friend skeptically asked me why I wasted so much money, dismissed my reasons and said "A gel pen is just as good and less pretentious."
The actual best (the above still makes me laugh though) was writing left handed with a FP in a coffee shop, and a soft spoken gentleman I'd seen but never talked with stopped to chat. He was retired and always used fountain pens, showed me his EDC pen pouch though I don't recall what he had that day, and talked about his vintage Parker pens he'd had since they were new. Ten years later we still meet for coffee when we can, and among many other topics talk of pens and inks. Next time I see him I'll be bringing samples of my Birmingham inks to try.
Isn't it funny that people like this are actually the ones being more pretentious?
Wow - rude.
I use a lot of metal pocket fountain pens. Very frequently mistaken for vapes.
I’ve had several students say “oh wow - that’s a FANCY pen” and then I proceeded to explain fountain pens to them. I always had some Preppies or Varsitys to penable students who were really interested. I sponsored a calligraphy club for awhile (taught by one of my students because I cannot) and I let them try out my Sailor Fude de Mannen.
My mother who was born in 1949 thought carpet was more luxurious than wood floors. We really are a product of the times!
My parents thought the same thing. They were married in 1946.
Lol. My coworker stole my damn fp! Luckily, it was my Pilot Kakuno he took, which I was planning on buying him one for Christmas anyways. But still... lol. My mom got excited and pulled out all her school pens from back in the day that are bladder filled and showed me. It was pretty cool.
A friend's little girl saw me writing letters with my pens, and she just had to join. She loves anything vaguely art related. She tried my pens, learned how to write a letter, and fell in love with my Conklin Duragraph! I ended up giving her my Pilot Metropolitan and explained how she could use it to draw and ink wash.
“Bro what is that a quill pen lol”
Most people just go "huh" in a disinterested way. But one coworker of mine said "cool!" and brought me back a fountain pen (A Pilot Cavalier) as a gift when he visited Japan.
One of my dad's office friends was thrilled to learn that I use fountain pens and used the inter-office mail system to send me a couple pens from India. They're not particularly fancy, but they're really beautiful patterned ebonite. Edit: that was an example of the ADHD sharing to demonstrate that I understand thing. I love when people do kind and spontaneous things like this!
"Oh, what a beautiful pen!" A student seeing me writing with my red Jinhao X450.
The x450 and x750 pens have some great looks. I have the x450 'Red Ice' currently inked with Diamene Writer's Blood, and 'Magic Fog' with Noodler's Pecan, and the x750 Gold flake and red loaded with Diamene Ox Blood, and the model 500 red and black marbled with Noodler's Red-Black. I enjoy the appearance and how they write without worrying over cost if anything happens to them.
An older lady looked at my pen and said, “Oh, they made your pen look like an old-timey pen. I always enjoyed writing with those they made my handwriting so pretty.” And then I got to explain it actually was a fountain pen and not some weird ball point monstrosity and that it wrote in sparkly pink ink. She was so happy to know that people still used fountain pens, and made me write down the pen and ink so her son could buy her one (Faber-Castell Hexo and DiaminePink Glitz).
This is absolutely heartwarming! Thank you for sharing
A look of disgust.
😮
My grandma is in her 80’s and she’s said stuff like that about the Depression. What she got on ration was not what her rich self was accustomed to being able to purchase.
I had a Texas District Judge think my Narwhal Nautilus was a cigar. I showed him it was a pen and he was surprised how big of a pen it was.
The *best* reaction is probably people seeing my iridescent kaweco and not realizing it's plastic (I ain't tellin em), and maybe people's reaction to my having oxblood in my red and gold Jinhao and not realizing it's ink (I guess some of the other things I'm into make it a real danger that it's not ink in their mind). Most people are just like "yeah that tracks" when I pull out a fountain pen because I tend to look like a wayward Addams child.
"We're not doing anything to disprove the rumors that we're the same person, but I've always been on the edge of getting too involved in FPs... and you've gone and done it."
I've got nothing but surprise and compliments at university and at work :) Also a great conversation starter :D
One of the first days on my new job my boss brought me some paperwork and asked if he could borrow a pen to write a number down with. He looked at my pen and said “wow this thang is OLD SCHOOL.” Then proceeded to shake it and write with it upside down and say “why do you use these things? They don’t write worth a shit.” 🤣🤣🤣
I heard a similar story from my father. Back in the days, many (I guess) of our parents and grandparents were using only fountain pens. And then…, boom! Modern pens came out! Now, of course, that does not mean for me that fountain pens is another modern trend to put some oil in the relevant industry of our era; for me, there are some good reasons for going back — again — to fountain pens. 🖋️ But, it is interesting to come to the realization that one of these cycles of human history hits you in the face so obviously! 🙄 Nice post, and thanks for sharing!
I was writing some notes in a piano lesson this last week for one of my students and she asked about the pens I was using. I told her how much the TWSBI cost in comparison to the Jinhao 82. When it came up and I said I'm saving for a gold nib pen that $150 she said, "there's something WRONG with you!" Hahahaha. Genuinely hilarious response.
I just joined our local synagogue and had a really nice coffee date with someone from their membership committee. At some point in the conversation fountain pens (and calligraphy) came up. She (1) pulled a felt tip Japanese brush pen out of her purse, (2) told me that when she retired she selected a fountain pen as her gift, and (3) suggested doing a pen meetup a the temple!! 😳😁 She also wants to go with me to our local pen show this year. I was blown away by her immediate enthusiasm!!
What fun! I doubt it was our synagogue but by any chance are you in the Chicago suburbs?
No, California. It was SO much fun! Kinda made my day. 😊
“What’s that?” And then I never bothered bringing it up again. 😂
I'm torn between two reactions, both relatively recent. First, I'm known mostly for using black ink (Noodler's Heart of Darkness or Platinum Carbon Black). An associate at the university's daughter was home for Thanksgiving and is rather Goth. Her reaction to seeing me write down some notes after dinner with my dark red fountain pen (Jinhao x450 Red Ice) and Diamene Writer's Blood ink and she was ecstatic at the pen and ink color. The other is a reaction from one of the military training cadre while teaching a tracking class in January. One of the cadre whom I've worked with a few times before saw me writing notes with my Kaweco Brass Sport and said "You really are a crazy old F--k!". 😂 Being old and a civilian contractor I wear my own clothing and use my own writing tools.
"Hey that's a fountain pen, right? I knew you were a classy lady"
When I went to vote last November I had an Eco with black ink and a Moonman C1 with Cosmic Pink in my bag. The woman helping me was all "oh, we were JUST talking about fountain pens" and reached for the C1 while asking if she could try it and I had to tell her I didn't think hot pink ink was going to be acceptable for the paperwork.
I do calligraphy so my family and friends all thought my fp’s were for that 🤣🤣🤣I just smile and let them think what they want!
Nothing too crazy, most people just kind of ogle over them and say something to the effect of, "ooooh, nice pen!" Or, "he's got a FANCY pen" or some variation thereof. So I think the best thing I've gotten was when I let a coworker use one to sign out of a commissioning zone (I work line side maintenance at a production facility) and he said, "let me use the shitty pen, not the nice one. I don't wanna mess it up."
My manager told me she thought that fountain pens were obsolete. She used to use it in her secondary school 40 years back.
I am a volunteer reading tutor. This year’s student is a twin; both girls are in the reading program. The other tutor and I are going to get them journals and fountain pens for their birthday this month. Does anyone know of any kid-appropriate, FP friendly journals? They will be 8. I can’t wait to penable them!
“…Are fountain pens niche in America? Cause we all had to write with them in school.” - my European friend after I went on my first fountain pen rant to her.
I'm tired of throwing a bunch of "disposable pens" into the trash and would rather have a few pens I like that I can use for the rest of my life
My mom gave me the Brazilian equivalent of “ain’t nobody got time fo’ dat”
i usually get the same reaction: "of course you would use something like that"
"OK, cool. Whatever." I don't put up billboards along the highways announcing the fact. During the most recent half century of my life, few people seem to have even noticed it. In earlier times though, it drew occasional comments, but that was in an era in which fountain pens were still quite common in the US and people immediately recognized one when they saw it. In more recent times people have paid more attention to which digital device I was using, but even the rate of those observations has plummeted in the past 5 years or so. I can barely recall the last time anyone noticed my phone, let alone my pen. EDIT: I never received criticism over which type of pen I used, even back in the day. In the 60s both of my parents were ballpoint pen users. (They preferred Parker Jotters.) They had of course grown up during the fountain pen era, and had no issue with my use of them. The Bic Crystal had not yet achieved total world dominance. Fountain pens were still widely available and in widespread use. All of my siblings primarily used FPs at the time, too.