fountain pens

The first Friday in November is celebrated as Fountain Pen Day. It is a day to celebrate, embrace, promote, and share the use of fountain pens.

This year I’m going international. The two pens I have currently inked are from China and Pakistan respectively.

The former is a Kaco Edge made in Shanghai. It is a smooth writer, feels good in the hand, and remind me of a Lamy 2000. The only downside is that the clip is so tight that it is hard to fit in your shirt pocket. It is available on Amazon for $17.50 and does come with a converter.

The latter is a Dollar i717 demonstrator (clear) pen made in Pakistan. I picked up a dozen of them for about $15 on EBay. It is a piston filler that starts right away. Fountain pens often are hard to get the ink flowing if they’ve sat for a day or two. I have given away a number of these pens to fellow fountain pen geeks. You can read a review of it here.

The first Friday in November has been Fountain Pen Day since 2012. It was started as a day to “embrace, promote, and share the use of fountain pens.”

I have been using fountain pens off and on since elementary school where we had to use Sheaffer cartridge pens for penmanship. They came in a pack with five “washable blue” ink cartridges.

Now I have a wide assortment of fountain pens in my desk, around the house, and elsewhere. Some are cheap Chinese knock-offs, some are older American-made Esterbrooks, some are various German-made Lamy Safari pens, and the list goes on. I even have a couple of old Parker Duofolds in the traditional orangish red with black end caps from the 1920s. I hope to have those restored sometime.

I plan to celebrate Fountain Pen Day by deciding on which two or three fountain pens to take to this weekend’s MAG-20 class to be held in Charlotte. From what everyone who has taken either the MAG-40 or the MAG-20 classroom portion has told me, you will be writing as fast as you can.

If you are thinking of trying out a fountain pen, now is a good day to do it as many vendors are offering specials in honor of Fountain Pen Day. You can find a list of them here. I can personally vouch for Jet Pens and Goulet Pen Company as I’ve dealt with them in the past.

The first Friday in November is officially Fountain Pen Day.

It is a day to celebrate ink-stained fingers, old-school technology, and leaky pens. In other words, it is a day to celebrate those curios and relics of writing instruments which some of us still hold dear.

Recognizing that this is a gun blog, let me put it into a firearm perspective. The difference between a fountain pen and a ballpoint or roller ball is like the difference between a Browning Hi-Power and a Glock 17. Both shoot 9mm, both have double stack magazines, both have been carried by military units, and both will get the job done. While the Glock 17 is a well-engineered, highly reliable, efficient handgun, it is still a blocky mixture of utilitarian steel and plastic just like a Bic ballpoint. By contrast, the Browning Hi-Power is a old-school sensuous blend of blued steel and walnut that comes in a variety of configurations. It was handed down to us from Heaven by John Moses Browning and delivered to us on Earth by Dieudonné Saive.

Just like the Glock and the Browning Hi-Power, the ballpoint and the fountain pen both have their place but my heart will always belong to the Hi-Power and the fountain pen.

Many of the sponsors of Fountain Pen Day are having sales and giveaways. You can find more on them here.

Next year I promise to have up photos of my fountain pens. Just like anyone who holds a Curios and Relics FFL will tell you, I have a few.