It’s not uncommon to hear people say their handwriting has gone to pot because of computers, who needs to use a pen anymore? Write a letter? Email is faster and I don’t have to look all over for a stamp. But according to a Wall Street Journal article, your choice of pen can also hurt your script (via Letter Writers Alliance).
This is the first time I have heard pens blamed, but the argument makes a good point. Rollerballs are apparently the worst choice of pen if you are trying to write neatly. The ink flows too fast. I can agree to this. I don’t like rollerballs, my handwriting gets pretty scrawly with them. However, if you are taking notes and need to write fast, well, they are ideal. The trouble comes when you try to read those notes later. There are few things more embarrassing than being unable to read your own writing.
Ballpoints are bad for your writing too, says the article. They require too much pressure to get the ink to flow. That’s the truth! My hand gets tired fast when using a ballpoint. I always thought it was me, but now I can blame the pen!
Why I loved this article was because the conclusion is that the best kind of pen to write with is a fountain pen. Thank you Wall Street Journal for validating my fountain pen obsession! Now I don’t feel bad about owning eight fountain pens and always lusting after more. Now, could you do something to ease my guilt about how many bottles of fountain pen ink I seem to require?
The article makes some fountain pen suggestions for those who have never used one before. They are good suggestions. Lamy makes an excellent pen, though instead of starting with a Studio or an Al-Star, Safari is a good choice. They are lightweight, come in a variety of nib sizes and lots of fun colors. They have a sporty look and are durable. They are also inexpensive for a good pen.
If you want a pen that has a flexible nib for more line variation and don’t want to spend a wad of cash, I can heartily recommend the American made Noodler’s Ahab. Yes that Ahab. The pen clip is even designed to look kind of like a whale. These are really lightweight pens that won’t tire your hand. You can write for hours! And if you are really geeky, you can take the entire pen apart and clean every single of piece of it. The first time I did that I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to put it all back together again, but really, there aren’t that many parts to a pen. I don’t know why I find it so much fun to take my pen apart and reassemble it, but it is.
However, does a fountain pen make my handwriting nicer? I don’t know. I can still manage a good illegible scrawl with one. I can say though, that it does enhance the experience of writing. A beautiful pen, my choice of ink color, and some nice paper, what a pleasure!
Ooohh…you have taken me back to a whole realm of equipment and concerns that I haven’t thought about for over 20 years, back before the Ahab and before chatty videos by charming guys, but not so long ago that I have forgotten the joys of good pens and beautiful calligraphy. I think I’ll start this year’s Christmas wish list right now. Thank you!!
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Greatchen, there are a surprising number of people who still enjoy good pens, it is quite heartening really. Have fun making the Christmas list. I hope Santa is good to you 🙂
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Oh, I dearly love fountain pens. I have a Mont Blanc which I bought long, long ago and now it’s worth so much money I never take it out of the house for fear of losing it. Here’s my only problem with fountain pens: the paper today is such crap that the ink bleeds through it. I don’t like blurry lines, I don’t like not using the back of a page…now I sound like I’m a big complainer when I’m just unhappy with the poor quality of things, and often miss the ability to write clearly with such a lovely instrument as a fountain pen.
Incidentally, I once read my class the Brian Selznick novel where the character writes with a fountain pen (silently searching my memory for the title to no avail, but the one after Hugo Cabret), and all my children asked for fountain pens for Christmas. Isn’t that so neat?!
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Bellezza, I didn’t know you were a fountain pen user! Hooray! Aren’t Mont Blancs nice pens? My husband got me a Mozart for my birthday a couple years ago. So smooth and elegant, I love it! But, like you, I don’t take it out of the house, it’s too expensive to lose. It is hard to find good paper, but all is not lost. Clairefontaine is pretty decent, Crown Mill makes a lovely laid cotton paper, but my favorite for letters is G. Lalo, a French papermaker. As for notebooks, I’ve heard the Leuchttrum 1917 is the best for fountain pens. I have one but haven’t used it yet because I’m in the middle of a notebook, but I look forward to trying it out.
Are you thinking of Selznick’s WonderStruck? It is really awesome that it has prompted your kids to ask for fountain pens for Christmas! What fun!
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Yes, Wonderstruck! Duh! The parents were a bit perplexed, but nonetheless delighted,to buy their children inexpensive pens for Christmas.
Thanks for suggesting the paper, none of which I knew about. But then again, I couldn’t remember the title of a book to which I’d referred!
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I can’t remember if you are in the US or not, but even if you aren’t, take a look at Goulet Pens sometime. They are an online, family-owned fountain pen store and they have pen reviews and videos and they review paper as well.
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I have trouble with handwriting in general, and with fountain pens in particular but I do have a favorite kind of ballpoint–a retractable fine point, with black ink–it’s the only kind of pen that helps me make my handwriting legible anymore.
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Jeanne, interesting that fountain pens give you more trouble. It sounds like you have discovered a pen that works for you and that’s really the most important thing.
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I’m a fountain pen addict, too. I used them in high school and I’ve used them off and on all my life. I had put them aside for several years until your posts about fountain pens reminded me how much I like them.
I agree about the lack of quality paper. Even my Moleskin journal bleeds, depending on which pen I use. I’ve been using a fine tip Sharpie and have developed the habit of rolling the pen while I write to prevent flat spots in the felt. I have to try to break myself of that habit because it just doesn’t work with a fountain pen.
My main problem with illegible writing is that I just write too fast – and then I can’t read my own writing half the time! Maybe I should have been a doctor!
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Joan, I know, I thought of you when I read the article! Have you gotten any more bottles of ink lately? I’ve been getting itchy for a new color but tell myself I have to wait until Christmas. Paper is hard to find but not impossible. I’ve heard Leuchttrum 1917 notebooks are great for fountain pens. I bought one earlier this year from Goulet Pens but haven’t used it yet because I’ve not gotten to the end of my current notebook.
My illegible writing problem is the same as yours. All is fine until I start to get going and write too fast and then it all goes bad. When I write a letter is tends to have a wave patterns of neat to messy and then neat again when I realize what has happened but then it gets messy again pretty quick.
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I’m laughing imagining that your letters must look a bit like the ocean, with all that wave action!
No new ink since this spring. But we’ll be back in Boston in November and one of my first forays will be down the street to Bromfield Pen. They have notebooks and paper, as well as most of the inks you’ve mentioned, so I’ll look for the Leuchttrum 1917 notebook.
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Heh, Joan, they aren’t quite so elegant as the ocean waves 🙂
Ooh, I can’t wait to see what you get when you go to Boston! At the moment I am very tempted by Noodler’s Rome Burning, it changes color as it dries. And I will have to get writing in my current notebook so I can try out my Leuchttrum to see if it is as good as reported.
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This doesn’t surprise me Stefanie. I had heard a long time ago – before rollerballs but after ballpoints that the pen does have an impact, that, in other words, you are more likely to write better with fountain pen than ballpoint. I used to use fountain pens all the time – right through university – and my writing was really very neat. Then, I started work and they supplied ballpoints. That’s when the rot set in – I really do think it’s had a huge impact on the quality of my writing as I find it very hard now to write neatly. I look back at my old lecture notes now and I fell like crying! My sense is it’s to do with the resistance. I think ballpoints, like rollerballs, run too smoothly/quickly for the hand. I’ve not been aware of the ballpoint requiring more pressure. I hardly ever use my fountain pens now but I do have a Lamy and some old Parkers which were our standbys, plus some cartridge style Shaeffers. I think I have a Cross too. I love my little Lamy. But, I’ve never had a Mont Blanc.
But, I’m hand writing less and less. Just cards now really – and shopping lists – because I’m now using my iPad for most note taking too.
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WG, I didn’t discover fountain pens until I was an adult which is too bad because I love writing in non-standard colors and ballpoints provided a limited range. But at least now I can make up for it! Strangely, it was after university that my handwriting started to go downhill probably because I didn’t have to write nearly as much as I used to. Oh, Parker! I have a Parker Sonnet, it was my first good fountain pen and I love it even though I don’t use it as much as I used to. My Mont Blanc is so incredibly smooth and elegant. I’m afraid my handwriting can’t do it justice. I handwrite less and less too which makes me sad because I don’t get to use my pens as much as I’d like.
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Yes, I love non-standard colours too. Particularly green and purple. I do that more with ballpoints but have in the past done it with fountain pens.
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Oh, I love green ink too. I have a couple bottles of purple but I’ve not fallen in love with either of them. I am still in search of “my” purple.
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I have no doubt that a fountain pen can make the most of some people’s handwriting, but mine comes out dreadfully in it! I actually work better with a rollerball, perhaps because I tend to write very quickly and I need a very fine, precise point if my writing is to remain legible. I blame too many years of notetaking for the state my handwriting is in! I think fountain pens are very beautiful and would love to have a good reason for owning and using one – alas! not for me.
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litlove, there are fountain pens with very fine nibs so if you want an excuse for one, there you go 🙂 Interestingly, my writing began going downhill after I finished university and didn’t spend my days taking notes.
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I’m another one who really can’t write neatly with a fountain pen although I always wish that i could. I have one particular type of biro and another type of roller ball that work for me and I alternate between the two depending on how I’m feeling on the day. If the makers ever stopped manufacturing them I would be devastated.
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Alex, we all find a favorite pen in one way or another, don’t we? One that suits us. I hope they never stop making your pen, but maybe you should start stocking up just in case! 😉
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You know…I am not impressed by the Wall Street article at all!!! I mean when I was in school – an Irish Roman Catholic Convent (How Gothic does one get???) and we had to graduate from pencils to pens, it was in grade 4, the Sisters, insisted that we use fountain pen or our painfully cultivated cursive script would be ruined. in fact they would never accept any written work that was done with any other pen except fountain pens!! This was a mandate until grade 12…the whole of high school my classmates and I wrote with fountain pens that too standard blue ink!!!!! No wonder I am obsessed about stationary!!! This kind of thing impacts one’s psychology!!! But seriously, I think my Nuns and Wall Street make a very good point – i had a wonderful script until Grad school when too much studying and too little time forced me to transition from fountain to ballpoints and that has been the death of my hand writing. Both my dad and mum use/used fountain pens all their life; in fact my father still does so and they have/had most wonderful script ever!!
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cirtnecce, wow, that’s hard core! Have you ever found yourself wanting to go back to fountain pens? I bet you have a gorgeous script! And you know, there is a wide world of ink colors these days far beyond the standard blue and black. So you can make the Sisters proud but also be a rebel 😉
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Sigh!! Unfortunately Stefanie I decided to go to Grad school and spend a number of years there…as a result my handwriting is atrocious…laptops were around when I began grad school but I looked down on them as real learning comes from scribbling on reams and reams of paper kind of dumb theory!!!! As a result, I have lost my cursive script!! I do love pens and inks and yes I agree…thank god for ink colors…have your tried violet? Its among my most prized possesions!! 🙂
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Too bad about your script. I’ve not tried violet. I have a bright purple and a dark, dusky purple but not violet. Will have to look out for one 🙂
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Just having nice writing instruments is a treat, isn’t it? I like the look of those Ahab pens–alas a little out of my budget range right now, but maybe I will put one on my wishlist. I never thought about the vairieties of pens and what they might do to your writing. Now when my letters get especially messy you will know I was using a bad pen! 🙂
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Danielle, oh it is! Why bother writing if you can’t enjoy the experience? I really like my Ahab, it can write fine or broad depending on how much pressure you apply to the flexible nib. I’ve been trying to figure out an excuse for getting another one to use at work but I don’t write enough to warrant it. LOL, yes, know that my postcards are not the neatest because I have to use a ballpoint due to the often glossy paper. How’s that for a good excuse? 🙂
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My handwriting was never very legible but degenerated when I had to learn a form of shorthand. Now I write in this form of scribble which mixes symbols with words that even I have a hard job deciphering. I do love my fountain pen though haven’t noticed if I write better with it – I do write more slowly though so maybe that helps
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BookerTalk, interesting how you found shorthand interferes with the quality of your handwriting! Yes, I suspect writing slower is the key for all of us to improve out script but it is so hard to slow down, isn’t it?
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I like fountain pens, but I always have a hard time finding one with a fine enough nib. I like my nibs truly truly fine, like .35mm, and that is trickier to find than you might expect! But I will have a go with the Safari one.
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Jenny, oh goodness, that is fine! I’ve heard Japanese made pens have really fine nibs and are really well made too which also tends to make them a bit more expensive. I believe Safari and all Lamy pens can be had in extra-fine though I am not sure on what the actual size specs are on that. Goulet Pens is an excellent online source for all things fountain pen and they have a fabulous customer service. I’m sure they could tell you how fin the Lamy EF is or even make another recommendation. I tend to like medium and broad nibs better.
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Pens are sometimes a challenge for me because I’m left-handed and I tend to position my hand in a way that it rubs over the ink, so I have to use something that dries quickly. I’ve only tried fountain pens a few times and had no luck–I’ve heard that certain pens work better for lefties than others. Rollerballs are the best choice I’ve found. I got in the habit of quick writing when I was a reporter, so the quick flow works well for me. There’s a particular Pilot pen that I like a lot. My handwriting is fine with it, as long as I’m paying attention. And if I’m writing for someone else to read I usually do slow down enough to make it look OK, even nice.
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Teresa, a the world makes things difficult for lefties sometimes. I have heard that some fountain pens are better for lefties too though I don’t know what they are off hand. There are some quicker drying inks available these days too that would likely make a difference. So many people seem to like rollerballs. Is it weird for me to say they scare me a little because they can write so fast? I also have trouble with them skipping sometimes because of the way I hold a pen.
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I LOVE the way fountain pens write. I even used to sketch with them in university days- also used dip steel nibs a lot- got quite a few looks- and it was awkward holding the ink bottle at same time when there was only standing room- but worth it for the expressive lines. Now I haven’t used a fountain pen in ages- mine are all in a box somewhere- I really must go dig that out of the closet!
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Jeane, yes, go dig out your pens! 🙂 In addition to my fountain pens I have two dipping pens. I don’t use them often, one is glass and one is wood with an antique nib. But I have a bottle of ink that has gold glitter in it so on special occasions I get out the dip pen and gold ink and have a little fun.
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I have a Mont Blanc and a Parker that looks like something from The Jetsons. Very streamlined and wonderfully comfy to hold. Love them both. I also have a Waterman, but seem to have misplaced it somewhere or perhaps I lost it (which makes me sad). The Parker stopped writing and I’ve taken it apart and soaked it. As soon as I can get decent ink (I use cartridges for the Mont Blanc) I’ll give it a try.
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Grad, Oh, I had a Waterman too but you know I don;t know if I still have it or not. It was so heavy I stopped using it when I got my Safari and my Parker. I assume it is in my pen box but I haven’t bothered to take notice of it in ages. I hope the soak gets your Parker working again!
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I’ve been thinking about trying a fountain pen, but felt overwhelmed about where to start. So now I’m off to read about your suggestions. 🙂
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Eva, good luck! I hope you find one you like and fall in love 🙂
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The fountain pen was my writing tool in my student days growing up in Hong Kong. I knew how to take it apart and wash it, pumping clear water through to wash out the ink. Royal Blue Pelikan ink was my favourite. Love your stationary posts! Now you have given me ideas for Christmas lists. 😉
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Arti, do you still use a fountain pen? I’ve got a bottle of Pelikan ink but I believe it is turquoise blue. It’s a good ink. Glad you like my stationary posts. Sounds like there might be some lucky people come Christmas 🙂
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Stefanie,
I’m sorry to say, i’d left my life behind when I came to Canada with my family as a teenager. I had not used a fountain pen since. But now after reading your post, I just might check out what’s there in the market now decades in the future. 😉
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I’m sure you will find they have changed but yet remained much the same. And You will discover there are a lot more ink choices, a color for every mood and occasion 🙂
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