Famous Five Stationery

[Aussie Sue]

Nigel, I had a parker fountain pen I loved too.

cheers
Sue

[Carlotta King]

So did I! It was green.
I used to love stationery as a child, I always wanted new pens and pencils etc at the start of a new school term, and my dad always used to take me shopping to WHSmiths and buy me nice pens.
He always wrote with a fountain pen and would buy himself really good quality pens, so I think he was glad that I shared his interest in stationery, haha, and that's why he liked buying nice pens for me too!

I used to have pen pals when I was a little girl, one was a lad my age from this country, one was a girl in Australia, and I'm pretty sure there was another one too but I can't remember!
I used to love getting letters. We used to send little presents too, keyrings, stickers, stationery, things like that, and it was really nice to get some sort of little gift in the envelope as well as a letter!

[Moonraker]

I have always been fascinated with pens - especially fountain pens. I was in charge of the stationery department of our local WHS decades ago. I introduced Sheaffer Pens to the department, much to the annoyance of the Parker rep, who felt his firm's products had the right to be offered exclusively. I became very friendly with the Sheaffer rep, and one Christmas we had their famous Thousand-guinea pen on display. It was identical to the 18c gold Imperial but for a diamond in the clip instead of the usual white dot. We didn't sell one, but sold a large amount of the diamond-less pens.

I won a Sheaffer Imperial VIII as a prize for the highest increase in sales for the south of England, which I still use today.

[Aussie Sue]

Nigel, with your interest in fountain pens you would enjoy on the items in my EB collection.

I have The "TRUEPOINT" fountain pen by Kessler's of London in its original box - which was a prize in a Sunny Stories competition and the accompanying slip which says:-

Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories, with love from Enid Blyton. Prize in Competition "Catching the Bus"
Note your name will appear in the list of winners in No.525 published on 25th January, 1951.

It has been used and really well looked after.

How exciting for a child to receive this, I would have been over the moon if it had been me.

cheers
Sue

[Poppy]

I have a blue parker pen, but I really don't like it! It's almost brand new, but it already seems as if the ink is running out which really annoys me!

[Lucky Star]

I never liked fountain pens at all. Possibly because I never had a good one, only cheap ones which seemed to leak inordinately. Give me a biro any day. My cheapo tastes coming to the fore again.

[John Pickup]

I love fountain pens but because I am a cack-handed left-hander they are of no use to me at all as I smudge anything I write as soon as it hits the page. My mother used to despair at the cuffs of my school shirts as they were always covered in blue ink. We weren't allowed to use biros back then.

[Moonraker]

Most interesting, Sue. I haven't heard of Truepoint fountain pens. Would you believe there is a pen forum?! There is also a little on the company here.

John: you need to get a grip.

[Rob Houghton]

It seems odd to me that there's a forum for people who like pens which means people who like pens have to put their pens down to chat about pens using a keyboard and not a pen!

[Dick Kirrin]

I have a dreadful hand, so more's the pity.
Writing with a fountain pen does improve matters as I concentrate more, and besides I like a nice writing tool.

My personal preference is German, currently a Pelikan M405 which I just got about a week ago, and a vintage 1950s/60s M400 in the classical green-black pinstripe design with a kF nib.

For ink, I like the blue-black tones, especially Parker's Quink, which sadly is out of production, so I switched to Pelikan, to their 'Edelstein' series.

I will use a biro, though. However I try to go for a fountain pen whenever I can. Not too many biros date back from the 50s and still have their original nib or ballpoint.

Cheers

Dick Kirrin

(Who has to use the keyboard for posting on the EB forum)
@Nigel: There are even Youtube reviews of fountain pens...

[pete9012S]

No doubt as a fan of Agatha Christie,Nigel is familiar with the Agatha Christie Montblanc.
He may even posses one,although as it's a hefty pen with hefty price tag he may not yet have added one to his collection.

Montblanc Agatha Christie
http://thefountainpens.com/montblanc-agatha-christie/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


MONTBLANC LIMITED EDITION AGATHA CHRISTIE FOUNTAIN PEN STYLO Feather in BOX
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MONTBLANC-LIM ... 4aebc89a0b" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Moonraker]

I am very familiar with Mont Blanc pens, although do not own one. I started off with a Conway Stewart when at school, after that I had a succession of Platignum pens and I seem to remember the odd Osmiroid. After my Parker, my manufacturer of choice was Sheaffer. I now have a disposable fountain pen and also one with an italic nib, which makes your handwriting very attractive.

Great to see you posting again, Dick - although I am a bit non-plussed why you say Quink is no longer produced. I still buy it! Maybe it isn't available in Germany.

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/parke ... k/33956626" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[sixret]

I am left-handed. I don't know about other left-handed folks but I have a very tough time when writing using ink pen! It smears all my writing and I end up with very dirty hand! So I avoid using ink pen like a plague! Sorry if I have a very negative view on ink pen. Give me ball pen anytime.

[sixret]

Is it just me who will smear the writing when using ink pen? One more thing, I have sweaty palms. Ink pen doesn't make my life easier!

[Rob Houghton]

Apparently John Pickup has a similar problem, as he says so further up the page!