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Comment by joyj2nd | Hacker News Reader

In my European home country, all kids in school must write with Fountain pens. At least in Elementary school and as far as I can remember.

They may have some style and look good cool, but honestly, I prefer ink rollers.

This is one of the best pens I know:

https://www.amazon.com/Zebra-Dx5-Liq-Ink-Rollerball/dp/B000T...

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I had to learn to write with fountain pens in Italy, too, when I was in Elementary school. I am glad I did: nowadays I try to only use pencils and fountain pens when writing long pieces, just because other pen types just require too much pressure and give me pain the wrist and/or fingers. With the right ink, the writing is also very contrast-y, which helps readability IMO. Of course, it doesn't count much if the handwriting is not intelligible!

In Germany in the 70s when I was in elementary school and forced to write with fountain pens there were two camps: Geha and Pelikan - you were one or the other and they had different ink cartridges.

Later on we upgraded to fancier pens like Lamy or Montblanc but honestly, the mass market kid pens worked better.

There were also strict rules about which colors we were allowed to use.

When we spent some time in a US school during my dad's sabbatical we were amazed that the kids used pencils - so convenient and erases better than the "Tintenkiller" we had to use.

It is hard to beat a Pelikan and they have some fancy range.

It is strange you didn't mention Rotring. They are quite affordable, nice design, good pens.

I didn't use Rotring till college. For drafting I had a set of 4 pens with the thin cylindrical shaft in different diameters.

It’s funny how different brands have different perceptions over time and space. Today, as an American, upgrading from a Pelikan to a Lamy makes no sense to me; for me Lamy produces cheap intro pens (2K excepted), while Pelikan produces gold nibbed introduction luxury pens.

Montblanc remains luxurious, but I have a hard time imagining them being purchased by a child or student; I associate them with older executives who would proudly display it on their desk.

In Germany of early 90s it was Lamy or Pelikan, Lamy having the long cartridges and Pelikan the small ones (if I remember right).

I also love rollerballs (bad name since even the shitty 20 cent ballpoints are technically rollerballs). I personally prefer the Uni-Ball Vision Elite, and compared to the cheap but well-regarded fountain Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen (which I used for 6 months before giving up on it), I really prefer the Vision Elite by a large margin.

The big 0.8mm ball feels much better to write with, and the ink is really great. While you don't have the same variety in ink as fountain pens, the black is really dark (& waterproof), and Uni-Ball has some nice BLX colors - the dark blue is also great. But the rollerballs are less sensitive to any imperfections in the paper, will write at any angle and rotation, never leak (so I don't need to constantly pay attention to what angle it is in in my pocket), don't get ink all over your fingers, and don't need special handling to take into airplanes. Just much more practical overall, and more of just a tool that works rather than an art piece that needs strict care (analogy).

Using rollerballs is more expensive over time; a bit less so if you buy refills instead of a new pen every time. But it's worth the convenience. And while I do keep them close since they're expensive, they're cheap enough that I never have to worry about losing one of the pens. I can afford to buy 12-packs and have 3 pens scattered around the house + a stockpile of extras.

You know, in my decade of using a fountain pen, I have never had a fountain pen just leak.

I have also stored them up right and so forth, I have never had a fountain pen just catastrophically leak somewhere while I was writing with it. I have made them burp before, or dropped them or waved them when I was brand new to them, but I've never had an otherwise normal riding session spoiled by ink going everywhere.

Maybe I am just lucky in what fountain pens I use? Or just lucky in general?

The large perception of fountain pens, vintage or modern, around the internet seems to be that they are like small grenades that will any moment to go off and leave you drowning in ink, and I just haven't seen that.

Anecdote not data etc

I’ve had pens leak 2-3 times while on flights. Several of the pens I use can be closed up for when you fly. But sometimes I forget.

What pens have you had success with on flights?

Vacuum fillers are known to tolerate flights well; that was part of their original sales proposition during the early jet era. Purportedly they can even write on an airplane, but I personally wouldn’t dare try.

The trick with flying with fountain pens is storage angle. The air pocket that remains in the pen is going to be at a much higher pressure than the air in the airplane, so it is going to expand. If the pen is stored nib up, that air pocket is close to the top, and can escape through the nib with minimal leakage. If the pen is stored nib down, the air pocket will expand and drive ink out of the nib.

The TWSBI pens tend to do well. A pen that doesn’t do well is the Pilot Vanishing Point.

I think the comment on what angle you keep it at until you reach flight level is spot on. If you can store it so that the air bubble is up and the feed doesn’t have a huge amount of ink in it, it should be okay.

Some variations of vacuum fillers also have a piston that you unscrew to let ink flow from the reservoir, but close when you fly.

(Sorry if this is a bit vague. I’m more of a user of fountain pens rather than a collector so I tend not to geek out as much when it comes to the technical details. I mostly tend to choose pens based on what kind of writing I’m doing :-))

Every single one of them if you keep them upright during the takeoff which isn't too difficult if you put them in your top pocket when you go to the airport (even if you don't you will be getting a reminder when you go through the TSA line and you have to make the pain run through the X-ray).

My fountain pens leak as well. Doesn't matter which one I use, Montblanc, Parker, Caran d'Ache, Waterman, Lamy, Rotring... The leaks are not severe, but holding area always has some, leaving inks on my fingertips.

You may want to check on the inner cap seal. I don't know about the others, but Montblanc might be able to do something about that.

The caps screw or use friction to connect to the body of the pens, with the cap covering the area you hold, the section. In many pens, there is an inner cap that seals over the nib and against the end of the section. It is intended to keep ink leaking into the cap from getting back on the section, but they don't always seal very well.

I've only had this happen when I did something kind of dumb like trying to use one on an airplane or walking outside in freezing weather with one in my pocket.

And you can react to that by saying "these things are crazy" or you can say "oh yeah, it's nothing but water, that makes sense."

There's still the occasional "too muck ink in the nib dripped into the cap" but that's hardly an explosion.

I was excited to bring my new fountain pen with me, on a job, outside in 105 degree weather. It was a cartridge and somehow ended up covering my head and face.

The adapter on my Jinhao can get disconnected from the body, which can make refilling a messy process, but that’s the only issue I’ve had.

My daily driver, a Twsbi Eco, has never leaked on me.

When I was at a school at age ten you had to hand-write a thesis on a subject of your choice, in fountain pen in joined up writing, in order to graduate to using a ball pen or some other more convenient pen. It was called your Master Scribe and I remember all the pupils taking it extremely seriously.

As far as I know they use or have used fountain pens, because it forces you to use more proper technique, e.g. not pressing too hard and be more careful while writing to not cause a mess.

Which I find interesting, because we often use highly simplified versions of things for kids and then give them the real deal later on. But I know very few Millenials or younger that used Fountain pens regularly after elementary school.

Maybe because of how much of a pain we remember them to be and never tried a more quality pen in a different context. I recently got into ink drawing with dip pens and quite enjoy their capabilities and limitations. I definitly wouldn't have as a kid.

Indeed. This was the case with me until I became 25 and bumped into the fountain pen topic and I was finally able to afford to buy a proper fountain pen (which happened to be a Parker Duofold Chocolate Pinstripe).

I do like a good pen, blue ink, but I don't miss the fountain pens from my school years in Bavaria.

But: What writing instrument you use should depend on the message and receiver.

Now that is old school! :D Using a fountan pen is definitively not continued where I live in Norway. The elementary school curriculum used to contain "løkkeskrift" up until the 70's, which is loosly translated to "curly writing," or fine writing. However most schools switched to using pencils during the 50's and 60's, so only older people in Norway remember having to learn "løkkeskrift" using a fountain pen. Lately there has sadly even been discussions on removing some of the pencil writing exercises entirely to the benefit of learning to type instead. However some studies claim that pupils retain more information, and hence learn more, when they use a pencil or pen to take notes, rather than a keyboard.

There are still some good reasons to learn to write with a proper pen. The nib gives quite a unique stroke, seeing as it's flexible, which is also why you see those varying strokes on good comics, such as those drawn by Albert Uderzo, or Franquin's hillarious Gaston Lagaffe, and not to mention his dark humour series, Idées Noires.

Personally I've always been drawn to fine writing, and I started learning calligraphy quite early, inspired by the wonderful written illustrations from Tolkien's world. I was overjoyed when I found a whole box of old nibs in a bankrupt store one day. Some of them dated back to as far as the 1800's, though most were from the 40's. So I got as many as I could afford, and that's when I started writing mostly using "dipping pens" for my fine writing. On a trip to London I also found "the best calligraphy store in the world," L. Cornelissen & Son, well in my personal opinion anyway lol. So if you're into that stuff, and nearby London, this is a wonderful place to stop by.

Interesting. In The Netherlands we still learned writing with fountain pens and 'curly writing' well into the eighties and possibly nineties.

(As a leftie, I was not too happy with that. Switched to a ballpoint whenever I wasn't in school.)

That shop is awesome

Finland was still teaching "curly writing" until a few years ago, but it was with pencils for the last few dozen years.

When I was in Germany, it felt like there was a calligraphy store on every corner. In the US, you basically have to order fountain pens online unless you happen to live in a major city because they’re not common at all.

The same in Romania. In the 90s, everyone I know had to learn how to write with a fountain pen. For me at least, I write horribly when I use a ballpoint pen, vs a fountain pen. Because the ballpoint slides on the paper much too easy, like on ice, and you need much more discipline to write nicely. A fountain pen nib is generally more scratchy and feels easier to control. My 2 cents anyway...

I can still remember the fountain pen randomly refusing to write and my constantly ink-stained fingers during primary and middle school.

For me it's gel pens. Pilot G-Tec ones are great.

I think ink roller and gel pens are very similar. In fact, I bought my first ink roller pen by chance, assuming it is a gel pen and only looked into the brand and type after the ink was finished and I considered it the best pen.

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