Comments on: On pens

By: Tdave

Tdave — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:34:33 +0000

Yes, I feel like such a philistine for using smudgy erasable ink, but I mostly do crossword puzzles with them not writing a “Magna Carte” with them. Sometimes I put a napkin under my sweaty hand to prevent smudging.

I have a “nitrogen powered” Fisher Space Pen. I put it away, somewhere, after I had to rescue it from the garbage. (someone here has throw-stuff-out spells.)

By: Cinnamon

Cinnamon — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:13:21 +0000

Pilot Razor Point – super fine line, fast-drying ink, neat colors (green is my fave). I have loved these for almost 20 years.

By: Carol

Carol — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 23:45:11 +0000

My Spouse has a pen that he has had then entire time I have known him. It is one of those fancy pens that you can replace the insides when the ink runs out. Woe be unto the person who loses that pen. If he lets you use it, he stands there to get it back. We call it the sacred pen.

By: Melinda

Melinda — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 21:11:54 +0000

The Pilot Precise V5 is a good little instrument, but nothing will ever surpass a good fountain pen. I’m a writer, and to me, my fountain pens are a natural extension of my fingers. I have a nice collection, but my two workaday favorites are a red Lamy and a silver Waterman, a heavy-duty number. There’s something magical about the soft scratch of a pen-point on good paper.

By: Sid Morrison

Sid Morrison — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:29:03 +0000

You like that erasable ink? I remember when those pens came out — I was in grade school at the time and for a while everybody had to have them. Our teachers made us write everything in pen (except math) and cross-outs weren’t allowed in most classes. You goobered up something and you wrote the page over… hence the appeal of erasable ink!

Anyhow, it soon became apparent that the ink rubbed into a smudge long after it was written and was a disaster for left-handers as it smudged whilst they were writing.

By: Tdave

Tdave — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 06:59:43 +0000

I have to use erasable ink. I skrew upp too muhc to use regugler inc. I love that I can write in ink but erase mistakes like it was pencil.

By: Daniel Kim

Daniel Kim — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 04:13:29 +0000

Man! This is starting to sound like a support group!

Oh well, I haven’t yet started using up the grocery money for pens and ink, and I don’t keep pens hidden from my family (although I do keep the best ones in my office so nobody else gets to use them).

When I was in college, I put a lot of money in a Koh-i-noor Rapidograph with India ink. I liked the way it gave a dense, consistent black line that did not glare under a high-intensity lamp.

By: Griff

Griff — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 02:03:53 +0000

For general use, just about any pen given out by various companies … my current favorites were provided by Polar Supply Company here in Fairbanks.

For special use, I get really picky … dates back to my days running a drafting board, where a pen that could produce a consistant reliable line was worth its weight in gold. (Nothing worse than being six hours into a drawing and having the pen puke, bleed under the ruler, or start skipping.)

By: puddle

puddle — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 01:50:52 +0000

There is no question about the best pen available. The Pilot Dr. Grip Center of Gravity pen makes life worth living. I find it a near impossibility that anyone could use it and not love it. I keep two extras still in the package stashed at all times in my desk in the event I might lose my others.

By: Sid Morrison

Sid Morrison — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:26:15 +0000

A followup… us fountain pen geeks get to be pretty geeky when it comes to ink as well. The crap that comes in the replacable cartridges is terrible — always fill from a bottle. I like Waterman Purple and also Private Reserve Sherwood Green. If I need to do something formal (like a sympathy card), I’ll switch to black though.