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10 year fountain pen user. Nobody seems to have mentioned what are, in my opinion, the most compelling and practical reasons for fountain pen usage: their ergon
by person101x 3y ago
10 year fountain pen user. Nobody seems to have mentioned what are, in my opinion, the most compelling and practical reasons for fountain pen usage: their ergonomics.
Fountain pens are supposed to be held lightly, so much so that someone should be able to pull it right out of your hand without friction (apparently schoolteachers once did this to test students' proper grip). Additionally, because of the water-based ink and capillary action of the pen, very little pressure is needed to mark the paper. Fountain pens are also able to be held at a greater angle than most other pens allowing a grip where the pen lightly rests on the back of the hand. This provides the ability to write for long periods without fatigue.
This is in contrast with ballpoints which require a significant amount of pressure to mark and which also cannot mark at the greater angle required which would allow the pen to rest comfortably on the back of the hand. This leads to all kinds of awkward hand positions that people learn to write with (a teacher or student will be able to attest to the numerous hideous and painful hand contortions some students employ) and more rapid hand fatigue because of the pressure required. It is not uncommon for carpal tunnel syndrome to develop in writers of ballpoints, and for doctors to subsequently recommend the switch to fountain pens. I also find that it is considerably more difficult to produce good handwriting using a ballpoint rather than a fountain pen. The hand positioning and technique really makes all the difference.
- Engineering-MD 3y agoThis is exactly it- the required pressure to write. Fountain pens are effortless in marking, and flow. This leads also naturally to flowing cursive text. While I love fine liners, ball points or gel pens, few write like a fountain pen (and the ones that do are called fountain pen like).
- makeitdouble 3y agoProvided we're all talking about our own preferences, the ergonomic argument is I think pushed too far and kinda idealized. For instance looking at the Lamy 2000 mentionned in the article, it's 25g for the plastic version, 54g for the metal version [0]. A Pilot G2 weights 11g, that's half to a quarter of matter to move around. [1] From personal experience the G2 is also extremely smooth, and while I never bothered buying premium fountain pens, it was way lighter and smoother than any fountain pen I've used as a student. Then when we try to go further on the form factor, needing an ink cartridge limits the minimal size of a fountain pen. I recently switched to much thinner triangular shaped pens, they were more comfortable for my current writing style (and I almost don't write much anymore), but it's just not an option outside of ballpoint. So yes fountain pen can be great, but if ergonomics is the primary concern, there will be many other (potentially way better) choices out there on the market. [0] https://thenonessentialists.com/the-lamy-2000-fountain-pen/ https://thenonessentialists.com/the-lamy-2000-fountain-pen/ [1] https://www.jetpens.com/Pilot-G2-Gel-Pen-0.38-mm-Black/pd/268#index=1 https://www.jetpens.com/Pilot-G2-Gel-Pen-0.38-mm-Black/pd/26...
- slowmovintarget 3y agoThe ergonomics generally are not about the weight of the pen, but about how hard you must grip it to press it to the paper so friction can melt the ink when you roll the little ball across the page. You also have to write at a higher angle to keep the ball on the page. Gel pens are great. I keep my wife supplied with them, because she thinks fountain pens are too fancy. But the difference is still night and day. I let her use my Lamy 2000 once. She picked it up and started making a snarky comment, "See I don't need a fancy... Oh!" The moment it hit the page and she started writing it literally shut her up. She never made a comment about "fancy pens" again after that. We had a good laugh about it.