My oldest took on a new hobby over the past year or so and has now spread the contagion to me.

Fountain Pens, Ink & Paper.

My first fountain pen I purchased about 1 week ago. Along with it came 8 sample bottles of various inks and a pen for the Mrs. so we can enjoy our new addiction together.

The Monteverde Invincia Vega.


Does anyone here share this interest?

I have ordered my 2nd pen and a 2nd nib for this one (Fine point) and converter (refillable ink cartridge) along with some premium paper notebooks.

My penmanship is horrible. It is getting slightly better though. I intend to write at least a few pages every day. It will take a lot of practice to get better.

I love really good pens!!

My penmanship is pretty crummy (in both of the languages that I write in) but that's ok. I love writing things out by hand and find that often, it helps me think if I'm stuck.

I always wanted to learn calligraphy but never did, and now I have piano occupying my hobby time.

I’ve never gotten in to pens and writing but I find the whole field fascinating. We have friends who collect papers of various kinds and send us the most amazing holiday cards!

I love fountain pens, but I hardly use mine any more. I have several; my favorite is probably my Waterman.

My younger son went through a pen phase in middle and high school. He’s left-handed, which makes it a bit more difficult. He had a bunch of pens (still does), including Lamy and Rotring Core.

I ended up with my father-in-law’s fountain pens after he passed. He was left handed, too. I passed his Namiki Vanishing Point pen on to my younger son; that’s a nice keepsake. (Vanishing point, clicky like a ballpoint pen.)

I took calligraphy in high school (italic, uncial, German black letter) and took another class as an adult. I learned to write copperplate script (ugh, so hard). I could probably still fake all the above. I have a friend who is really good at it, teaches it, exhibits, amazing stuff. More fine art than just writing. Check out her Instagram if you’d like to see some beautiful letter art.

I have a whole bunch of vintage fountain pens. For actual use I have a pretty Waterman and my wife had a big Montblanc. They have been out of use for decades, and when I took them to the local fancy pen dealer, I was told we hadn’t maintained them properly, no further explanation.

Oh well…my fascination with them has diminished over the years anyway. At this point in my life I’m trying to simplify. I appreciate beautiful fountain pens but they’re not a focus for me any more.

I've had a fascination with letterforms that goes back to early childhood. I suspect my maternal grandfather was to blame. He had the most gorgeous handwriting and always wrote us letters in that beautiful script. He was a typographer and printer--had a print shop in lower Manhattan. As a kid I not only had a collection of fountain pens, I also had quill pens and one really gorgeous inkwell type pen with a gold nib and mother of pearl handle--I still have that one. I was always designing letterforms. I too became a typographer and graphic designer. I was fortunate to work with some of the greats of typography, including Tony DiSpingna, whose incredibly graceful script you would immediately recognize if you saw it.

I am very, very fussy about the paper and pen I write with, but I don't do fountain pens any more. The Vision Elite pens feel very much like a fountain pen--effortless ink flow. I have dozens of them. But now I am writing in a SuperNote electronic notebook. Staedtler (makers of the Rapidograph pen) have created an incredible electronic pencil that is as satisfying to write with as the very best ink pens. So I write with that in my electronic notebook. Which converts all of my handwriting to typed text at the push of a button. No more piles upon piles and boxes upon boxes of notebooks. And it is searchable, too!

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
But now I am writing in a SuperNote electronic notebook. Staedtler (makers of the Rapidograph pen) have created an incredible electronic pencil that is as satisfying to write with as the very best ink pens. So I write with that in my electronic notebook. Which converts all of my handwriting to typed text at the push of a button. No more piles upon piles and boxes upon boxes of notebooks. And it is searchable, too!

That’s really cool. And of course you’re backing everything up somewhere, right?

In the last 24 hours I have ordered 2 new pens.

Last week I ordered a fine nib for the Monteverde which has a medium nib along with a couple of premium paper notebooks and some ink.

4 samples of various shades of purple for Mrs. Mark and this Limited Edition collection from a company called Colorverse that has a whole line of astronomy themed inks. Of course they have my number and I will be getting a few more of their inks but my first purchase from them is the New Horizons Ink Set.



I will be ordering at least one additionL ink in the near term. The Diamine Eclipse



The second pen I ordered is a Conklin Demo (clear) with a fine nib.



And then after talking to my daughter this morning I ended up ordering a Japanese pen shop (Bungubox.shop) exclusive limited edition Kaweco "The Little Witch" (actually made in Germany but ships from Japan) in a extra fine nib.



This should hold me for quite some time. A Medium. Fine and Extra Fine nib in 3 pens with a choice to switch out the medium for a fine nib in my original Monteverde, if I decide I like it better.

Loads of ink and a few notebooks including one I tossed into the cart at Bungubox with Japanese premium paper in it.

Is the Little Witch one of those shorty pens, that you put the cap onto the back and it makes it normal length? I have a silver and a pink that do that, don’t remember who makes it. It’s upstairs; I’ll check in a while. I bought them at Uwajimaya.

One of our Lamys was clear; it leaked, eventually. But it was cool to be able to see inside.

Impressive!

I haven't tried it. I'd just make a mess. I have the penmanship of an MD. I can't even read my handwriting.

Yes,you "post" the cap to make it longer. Some people like the shorter pens. I am finding that I like not posting the Monteverde. It's a weighty pen and I am just finding it more comfortable as a shorter and lighter pen.

I'll second piqué's recommendation of the Vision Elites. She recommended them to me when she interviewed me for her Grand Obsession book.

We have other nice pens too...we have some Pilot G2s around, and some other one for check-writing with gel ink.

quote:

That’s really cool. And of course you’re backing everything up somewhere, right?

SuperNote automatically backs up every pen stroke to the cloud.

If any of you are interested in an e-notebook, I highly recommend the SuperNote after trying out an researching pretty much everything else that is out there. They upgrade the software regularly and send it to you automatically, making it unnecessary to upgrade the device itself. The user support is unparalleled.

https://supernote.com/?gad_sou...yHSYnyMaAhk1EALw_wcB

The next items on my office list are a desktop or laptop and a printer.

I had a word processor with a built in printer after my year at UF. It's retro now but I miss it a lot.