accidental new fountain pen cult member

how it started

It roughly happened like this.

A couple of weeks ago, while browsing through my RSS feed reader, a post title caught my interest.
And, unusually, I found it again to get the link.

Left-handed people can't use a fountain pen - Kev Quirk
https://kevquirk.com/left-handed-people-cant-use-a-fountain-pen

Why did it interest me? Probably because I'm left handed, and I used to like writing with a fountain pen.

Although I had difficulties with using one way back in my school days – the paper used in the cheap school exercise books back then was woeful, and by the time I'd written a single line, my little finger was stained, and the ink had bled, both on the writing where my hand had smudged it, and through the page to the other side.

I did still actually like the feel and flow of writing with a 'proper' pen over the cheap biros. But, in the end, and after one too many accidents at the refilling stage involving clothing stains and a ranting mother, the biros won out.

These days I hardly ever write anything on paper, and haven't used a fountain pen again for years. However, I had been making some notes manually recently (using – shock – a pencil... in a notebook!) and it appeals to my current drive to take the opportunity to both slow down and enjoy being low tech.

I thought I'd like to try more of this old-school, analogue writing nostalgia with a fountain pen again.

A lot of science now shows the greater physical movement and connection to the process of writing helps to remember things you manually write better than typing does. (sort of sciencey link)

I need all the help I can get with that.

In his blog post, Kev was saying that, as a fellow leftie, all these smearing and bleeding difficulties were just not an issue for him now. He wrote that the quality of the paper in good journals and notebooks he uses these days eliminate the smudging as a concern. And there was even a video of him writing, and showing this to be the case.

So I wanted to try it all out. And now, a bout of fixation had well and truly kicked off too.

some old pens

Luckily, it seems I had played with trying my fountain pens out before, because after rifling through the assorted stationery sitting idle in the desk drawers, I found two fountain pens, and I had a few fresh ink cartridges left to try out in them.

Why had I abandoned using them before?
No idea.
Can't remember when it was either.

This is all perfectly normal.

I tried the old Parker pen first. I think it's a 25? (I looked up Parker 25, confirmed it was the UK-made model 'Flighter 25', and stole a picture from the website I found it on. It's a vintage model now, worth... about £15).

It is actually the very same model of pen I had used throughout school, 45 years ago or more. But not the original. I vaguely remember having purchased it from an antique store years ago as a vintage pen, because it of course reminded me of the now long lost original, which was gifted to me by my now gone, but dearly loved grandfather, on the occasion of me starting Grammar school.

After a bit of a shaking with a new ink cartridge inserted to get the flow going again, it worked well, wrote nicely, and strangely I enjoyed using it. And no smudging, even on the cheap printer paper I was trying it out on.

This was a revelation, so I was keen to try more.

There was also a Cross made pen (model unknown) too. When I was part of a sales team, we were presented with them, as a thank you for perfoming well over the sales target once. Anyway, that one refused to work as it was, so it needs a proper deep clean to clear out some ancient dried up ink I think.

suddenly wanting a new pen

While searching specialist pen shops websites later (see how this fixation thing works?) to see if I could find a similar Cross model to find out what it was, I came across the Lamy brand, and the previously unknown to me option of buying their pens with a 'left handed nib'.

The idea intrigued me. Does that really work? Is it necessary, really? I wonder what it actually feels like to use a specifically left-handed nib?

I wanted to try it out, of course, so I've ordered a Lamy Safari (because that's the cheapest model they had with one of these left handed nibs) in a nice bright yellow. (Always go for the brightly coloured one of anything, it makes it easier to find among piles of stuff on the disorganised mess of a life I call a desk - unless everything on the desk is bright yellow I suppose. It's not though, so that's fine.)

welcomed into the cult

Oh, the cult thing. Yes. I posted on my Mastodon account that I'd ordered a fountain pen, and mused that there were probably, because the Fediverse is that sort of place, many enthusiasts for that sort of thing there.

I searched the hashtag #fountainpens, and of course there were enthusiasts there. And because I'd used the tag, many of them replied to welcome me as a fellow user.

One even informed me that my choice of notebooks that I purchased at the same time, Moleskine, was not always favoured for fountain pen use. In fairness, I only chose that brand because they worked out the cheapest in stock option at the store I was already at, and I might not actually use them much once (when) this current enthusiasm (obsession) wears off.

All of a sudden, I'm waiting for the arrival of a new pen, some inks, and some notebooks. Good thing is I haven't spent an awful lot on it. In fact, everything is at the cheapest possible end.

So far.

I hope the almost itchy one-channelled brain that has lead me this far lasts long enough to open the parcel and use it all.

I'm betting this blog will not turn into a nerdy, #fountainpen enthusiast/cult and fancy journal fan site any time soon.