4 ms·
I always use roller/gel pens, but I have never tried a fountain pen. I cannot use a cheap stick ballpoint pen. My writing looks bad, my hand cramps up, I don’t
by bluedino 6y ago
I always use roller/gel pens, but I have never tried a fountain pen.
I cannot use a cheap stick ballpoint pen. My writing looks bad, my hand cramps up, I don’t know why that is.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- WalterBright 6y agoThe gel pens are my favorite, but I did enjoy using fountain pens in grade school - I just liked the way the result looked.
- ginko 6y agoHow anyone can enjoy writing with fountain pens is completely beyond me. They were the bane of my childhood.
- yoz-y 6y agoIn my school we had to use a fountain pen up until fourth grade (lefties had an exception). The day I could finally ditch the fountain pen was a happy one indeed. Nowadays I use gel pens, best of both worlds. I definitely agree that ballpoint pens are hard on the wrists.
- throwaway201101 6y agoThis is strange to me. When I was in school (1970s/80s in the USA) we used pencils almost exclusively. Rarely, the final draft of an essay might be required in ink (pen type immaterial), or typed, but not below grade 6-ish. I do like the feel of writing with a fountain pen but never used one until I was an adult. I still prefer pencil for note-taking and rough draft writing.
- Symbiote 6y agoFrom my point of view, writing prose in pencil is for little children. Under 8 years old, ish. I also don't see much appeal in fancy, expensive pens. The cheapest ones here are about €5 from a supermarket, so something for €15-20 is usually decent.
- stordoff 6y agoI had to use a (cartridge) fountain pen at school (90s, UK primary school), and they were awful - the nibs were scratchy, and prone to breaking if you pressed even slightly too hard, and they leaked fairly often. A decent fountain pen is a completely different experience. I've mostly switched over to Staedtler Triplus fineliners for general writing - they're much easier on my hands/wrists[1], but retain the convenience of ballpoints. [1] I have a joint disorder, and writing more than a couple of lines with most ballpoints will make my fingers and/or wrists hurt. I can write for 20-30 minutes with the fineliners before they trigger the same issue.
- pjc50 6y agoThey're especially annoying for left-handed users.
- zasz 6y agoFountain pen technology has come a long way! I've never had any problems with leaky pens. You can get some very nice fountain pens for around $20 these days.
- falcolas 6y agoOne of my favorite fountain pens is the Pilot Varsity - it’s a disposable fountain pen. Lots of ink combined with one of the best nibs out there, no matter the price. There’s an entire set of users out there dedicated to figuring out ways to refill these so they can re-use the nib. I haven’t had a single one leak on me, either. They go for around $2 each.
- saalweachter 6y agoYeah, in my foreys into fountain pens they were one that "felt good" to write with. Some had tips which snagged when you end up "pushing" as a lefty, but the Varsity was smooth. If you want to feel fancier, the Pilot Metropolitan uses the same nib (in fact, since they don't sell replacements, you end up buying a pack of Varsities if you need to replace the nib).
- sjs7007 6y agoThis looks pretty interesting. Thanks for the tip!
- hinkley 6y agoI find the uniball gel pen substantially easier to write with, so conversely I find all other ball point pens harder to write with. I know in college there were certain pens that hurt to use all day and I quickly got rid of those. Most of my favorite pens at the moment are uniball, or take the same refill size and I’ve converted them. Somewhere I have a collapsing fountain pen but I had to be careful of the type of paper and I let it dry up at some point, got it working again, and forgot about it because I found another collapsing pen I could shoehorn the uniball gel into (by swapping the spring)