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When Word Processors Are Out: What's The Best Pen?
chensonny writes "Recently I was in a situation where there was no word processor, and several of us had to write, copy and sign a big amount of paper. It was then I re-realized the need for a good and comfortable pen. I saw some friends using a Mont Blanc, others like me using a felt pen or cheap ball-point pen. What does the geeks of Slashdot use for writing?" My favorite pen is an aluminum Lamy fountain pen -- can anyone recommend a good place to order Lamy ink in the U.S.?
The Logitech io Digital Pen and the USB Memory Pen.
These seem to be more for the rich geek, unfortunatly I'm only a poor geek. So I just use a Pilot Gel Pen.
Bugs are just features that have been fixed.
What is this pen device you speak about?
Uniball
Someone hates these cans.
These are excellent pens for the price- a 5-pack is $7 or so. Amazingly smooth and, uh... precise. Pilots are the best.
I don't know if they make one with a big comfy grip, though, if that's what you're looking for. I'm not sure if I like those big, comfy grips, though... they sort of make me feel like I'm in nursery school again, grasping one of those crayons that seemed to huge at the time. Wait, that's probably a good thing. I'll shut up, now.
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I prefer the old mechanical pencil whenever possible. Besides being erasable, it has such perks as:
-- Use it to label disks, and play the fun game of getting conductive pencil shavings in your disk drive
-- Graphite + Wall Socket = Fun
-- Get to shake it when your one stick of lead finishes so the next one will catch, until you open it up to insert the lead in backwards (through the tip) because its not catching, and then when you open it the lead falls out and snaps
-- Injecting graphite into people
Very heavy, more momentum when you write (meaning you don't need to work as hard). Buy one of those little foam gizmos that slips on the barrel, and you'll have a fine writing instrument. They're warranted for life.
I'm a writer, so I have a bit of a pen fetish. I have used all sorts of pens, including some ver' expensive Waterman fountain pens, and nothing writes for me like the Sheaffer. It has a very smooth, very precise action and nice ink flow.
For other purposes I use fine-point Sharpies.
I am a believer of momentum and curves.
They even have photographic emulsion in a spray can so that you can expose images on 3d objects. It's way cool.
Ooh! now I can take pictures of four-dimensional objects and they will be projected properly!
Karma: Meh (Mostly from meh.)
* You are in the bank depositing a bunch of checks from Indonesian gardeners, and you find yourself inexplicably without a pen. There is a little ballpoint pen on a steel chain at a table inside the bank. You would:
1. Leave and return the next day;
2. Run to the nearest Wal-Mart and buy a Montblanc;
3. Use the ball pen, but sign someone else's name on the checks;
4. Not know what the ballpoint pen is.
* Have you ever been in an argument over the actual derivation of the trade name "Duofold"?
* When watching old movies on video, do you find yourself freeze-framing to try to get a closer look at the pen Humphrey Bogart is using? Do you in fact know what pen Humphrey Bogart was using? Would you be willing to tell me?
* Do you own any of the following items:
1. A pocket protector (and you're not an engineer)?
2. A glass eyedropper?
3. More than one bottle of household ammonia?
4. Blotter paper
* Do you keep a bottle of ink in your carry-on luggage? More than one bottle in different colors?
* Do you find yourself sniffing at the end of pens (to tell whether or not they are made of hard rubber)?
* Are your pens cleaner than your kitchen?
* Can you identify the pens shown on the boxes of various word processing software packages? Do you feel resentful when you don't find any of those pens inside the boxes?
Pen Geek Check
I would much rather have a pencil not only because it's eraseable (mentioned already), but because you don't need to worry about getting it on your clothes or it exploding. I would have to vote for the Cross Classic Century Pencil...
It's very comfortable, and lasts a long time. The only disadvantage is that it does NOT work as a small pry-bar...which is why I need to buy a new one ;)
--<Mike>--
Sad, really.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
Just found a stash of them in my school bookstore a year or two after their discontinuation. A godsend. Great for chewing on and an amazing writing instrument. You can even take off the clip and any other exztraneous pieces nonessesntial for writing.
I will die with one of these pens in my hands.
---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
The Fisher Space Pen has pressurized ink and is waterproof. You can write upside down and in zero G. You can even write underwater.
"My God, this must be a truly remarkable corn chip, to be so widely and confidently touted."
I prefer the pen that is
1) closest
2) someone hasnt walked off with
3) I havent left somewhere
4) not under the HUGE stack of paper next to my computer in my 'paperless office'.
5) not dryed out
My first training in the arts was at a young age of about 8, my parents thought I had crappy handwriting (they were right) so they enrolled me in a calligraphy class. I still have crappy handwriting. Well, actually, nowadays my Japanese handwriting is much better than my English handwriting. Since that time, I've tried hundreds of pens of all manufactures, anyone who is really interested in writing wel should visit an art store, especially one that imports lots of oddball Japanese pens.
Anyway, I prefer fountain pens, mostly because nobody will ever borrow them so I never lose my pens to theft. IMHO the most bang for the buck is the Lamy Safari, it's cheap and writes well. I prefer the Lamy "joy" pen, it has a wider nib that satisfies my calligraphic urges. But you have to know how to write italic to use the joy pen properly.
But my favorite pen of all time is a cheapo crap Cross ballpoint. Mine has the IBM logo on it, I got it as an award for selling my first $1million of IBM equipment. I use it solely for financial transactions, it's sort of a weird superstition of mine.
Pencils are another story. Everyone should have a really good mechanical pencil. The best kinds have retractable points so you don't poke holes in your shirt pockets. The Japanese have this one completely nailed. The Sanford Logo II 0.5mm is my favorite, although it doesn't retract the tip. For a good retractable-tip pencil, the Yasutomo Grip500 can't be beat. Rotring makes awesome mechanical pencils, although I don't personally like the harsh German design, I find them uncomfortable and hard to hold.
I'm a pen snob. And I'm not ashamed of it. In most situations, I write with a Pelikan Souveran 800 fountain pen. The nib is the most repsonsive of all of the fountain pens I've ever used, and the ink flow is superb. My two 800s are the best pens I have ever used.
In situations demanding a more durable pen, the Rotring 600 series have never failed me. They're made of solid brass, and are almost invincible. The list of potentially deadly situations my 600s have survived is long.
As a collector, user, and frequent gift-giver of high quality writing instruments, I have found Joon, a company based in New York, to be without match in all of my pen purchase needs. Check them out on the web at www.joon.com. For Timothy, they carry the entire line of Lamy inks and refills.
And just an aside- I've noticed some folks above me in this topic talking about Levenger. DON'T buy pens or ink from Levenger. They put a markup on their pens so high it's absurd, and their ink is shite. If I wanted to write with colored water, I'd buy food coloring.
--Use this space for notes--
Urban legend. Graphite shavings in 0 gee is bad. The russians also use Fisher space pens since the 60s.
Where do you get these pens? I have been searching for a pen with those properties all my life, but to no avail!
I've always loved fountain pens. I have a small collection built up over the years of both modern, and vintage fountain pens. I've actually found that a restored fountain pen from the 20's or 30' can have the most pleasant feel when writing. A good one holds a huge amount of ink (as opposed to those wimpy cartridges that the modern ones tend to use. This is good because the older pens also USE a lot more ink. The ink almost leaps onto the paper, making a nice dark line and also lubricating the writing process. Unfortunately I type a lot faster than I write, and since almost everything ends up in a computer these days it's hard to justify writing instruments at all. Unless you are very famous, no one is likely to read your diary when you're gone.
Like many, I went through a phase of using a Palm Pilot (or similar device) for recording thoughts when away from any computer keyboard. I've since gone back to just using these devices for addresses and appointments (which mean that the sub $100 ones do just fine). So I'm back to carrying a pen whenever I go out and generally a small notebook (the paper variety) too.
Sometimes I carry a fountain pen, but more often I'm in a hurry and grab a ballpoint. For cheap ones I like Parker clickable ballpoints. The ink capacities are huge and they write smoothly. For $20 or so though I'd recommend the Rotring ballpoints which are all steel, have a textured grip, large ink supply and are nice and techno looking. You can enhance either Parker or Rotring pens by replacing the ink cartridge in it with one from Fisher (the makers of the original "Space Pen"). These really will write upside down, under water and on practically any surface. When writing on ordinary paper they have a nice feel too.
I remember in the 60's Bic did a series of commercials on how durable their pens were. They shot them from guns into tree trunks and then took what was left (not much) and wrote with it. They also "simulated" strapping one to a car to see how many miles you could write with one. Very impressive. Unfortunately I think cheap pens are not what they used to be. I've found that many of these if left unused for a year or so refuse to ever write again no matter how much you tap, shake or scribble with it trying to get it started again. Unfortunately many of these more expensive specialty pens (like the ones with the special grips) have the same ink mechanism used for the cheap ones. So, go with ink mechanisms from Parker, Fisher, Rotring, Lamy, Mont Blanc, or Cross, unless you are in a situation, such as a waiter, where your pens are constantly stolen.
Finally, and most importantly, if you are going to write anything that you need to last for a long time, do the following experiment:
Take all your candidate pens and make a test mark (sign your name or whatever) on several types of paper that you typically use. If you use colored ink, do this in all the colors you plan to use too. Just as a control, make the same marks with an ordinary pencil, and also pick any ordinary black-ink ballpoint (not the gel pens though, plain old ballpoint).
Tape these papers to a window or somewhere else where they will get direct sun. The back window of your car will do too. Check them in a month. You might be surprised, and if you are writing for any sort of archival purpose you might change your mind about what you want to use.
There was a related story (sorta) to this Why Johnny Can't Handwrite a few months earlier.
When I was in school, we had to do a buttload of writing. Then I came to college in mi. I think I did more writing in the 5th grade than I did in 3 years at college. If it wasn't on computer, I probably wouldn't touch it.
The only stuff was signing credit card bills at convenience stores and taking the odd note in class.
Now I've taken a break and am studying by myself(maths, phy, elec engineering). I finish a 160 page double side A4 size notebook in about 10 days. I've used up about quite a few of those notebooks(>30). Biggest problem here is not writing but motivation. But I digress.
My hands hurt too when I did that much writing but I am used to it now. You gotta take it slowly just like the gym regimen.
Writing is best done with a fountain pen, rolling ball or gel pens. If you are going to write a lot, ballpoint pens are the worst.
Ballpoints are made for convenience. The viscosity of the ink is what tires the palm and elbow faster than the the rest.
Whenever I buy a fountain pen, I buy extra nibs. If the nib is smooth, nice; otherwise I use fine sandpaper. Sometimes this works, sometimes not.
I use Hero pens( Hero). Its pens and nibs are cheap. Availability is not a problem.
I've also used parker and schaeffer cartridge pens. Instead of buying new cartridges everytime, get a syringe and a nice ink bottle to refill the cartridges.
Rolling balls are nice but nearly everybody just uses and disposes them. It is actually possible to take the nib contraption out and refill its ink. Pilot makes rolling ball ink but its not sold in the states. Each of its 15 ml bottle is good for 8-10 refills.
Uniball's are decent too but not really suited for cursive writing.
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Bush is on fire and its not good for my lungs.
Mont Blanc is easily one of the most recognized names in fountain and rollerball pens today. However, my local independent pen merchant had only negative things to say about them when I dropped the name, and with a little more experience and research, I have to agree with his position: they're overrated.
For the money, Mont Blanc pens tend to be ridiculously fragile, and repair costs range from $35 to $400+ (USD). Sometimes leakage is a result of improper pen storage and/or maintenance, but with Mont Blancs the problem seems to be suspiciously epidemic.
Don't take my word for it, but don't blindly trust the name either. If you have access to a fine pen shop, spend some time learning about the subject, then do the comparitive research. Imho, if you really want a pen that will last a lifetime, Mont Blanc is not the one.
Perhaps the best all-around fountain pen is the Namiki Vanishing Point. For a street price of around $100, you get a nice pen. It has a gold nib, takes both a cartridge or a convertor (for bottled ink), and is a good size (not too large, not to small). It has a very sharp look. I personally perfer the pre-2000 models, but I hear the current ones are pretty good.
Oh! I forgot to tell you the best part. In its own right, the VP is a great pen--perhaps the best to be had for that price point. It earned this on the basis I described above. The really cool thing is, it is retractable--the only retractable foutain pen in current production! So, no cap to have to manipulate. Since I get a lot of golf shirts, it is particularly nice.
A runner up for a fount is a vintage Parker 51. The areometric ones (produced from 1948-1970ish) are generally regarded as the best fountain pen ever. They can typically be had for under $100.
Mont Blanc used to make very good pens. However, as they became hyped as "the best" (a dubious claim to begin with), the quality went down, support became worse, and only the rep had remained. They are said among collectors to have a very brittle plastic (I know from first hand reports), and the service is iffy.
If you need a ballpoint, might I suggest the rotring 600 tri? Two ball points and a
If ever you stuck the thing into a wall socket, I'd make you hold on to it.
If you get funny ideas about sticking me with some wimpy little pentel, just forget it.
Tell me some storries about graphite in disk drives. If you mess with MY drives, I'll crack you over the head with my Model M keyboard.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Gee, if only there was some kind of searchable, massive collection of computers that were all hooked together somehow, and contained this kind of information. If businesses were a part of it, it would be even better.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.