The fountain pen comeback

Regular readers may recall that in January I bought a good-condition used fountain online online for £125 from Vintage Fountain Pens of Hornsea in East Yorkshire. It was a teal-coloured Parker 51 of 1955 vintage (so almost as old as me!), with a 'lustraloy' (stainless-steel) cap. It had been serviced and was ready to go. All I had to do was fill it up with black Parker Quink ink (still readily available in 2019!) and get writing. I had faith that I would enjoy using it, so within a couple of days of its arrival I had made a brown-leather case for it. And I gave it a name: Water Dragon.

Now, ten months on, how has it worked out?

I'm glad to report that Water Dragon immediately replaced all my ballpoint and rollerball pens: I have used my fountain pen for everything, except where the paper or card that I was writing on wasn't suitable for the water-based Quink ink. Some shiny or absorbent paper wasn't. Most ordinary paper is.

This wasn't just keenness to write with a fancy pen. It was actually more pleasurable, even for the most casual note. Maybe there was something of the ritual about it - especially the weekly fill-up from the ink bottle - but it made the effort of writing something to look forward to. That feeling has never diminished.

I'd always been a fountain pen fan, and had regretted their passing in everyday usage. The arrival of computers and keyboards at work during the 1990s, the later habit of making notes on small organisers with a stylus, and then the ability to make notes on phone and tablet screens with one's fingers, all conspired to threaten the very existence of pens in general apart from cheap disposable ballpoints, which would do for any occasion when tapping something on a screen wasn't appropriate, such as having to sign a paper form or a birthday card.

But then in more recent times a number of people have got bored and frustrated with sterile, digital ways of doing things, and throw-away consumables, and yearn for durable things that are 'real' and involve some physicality. It hasn't been a mass-movement, but there does seem to be at least some reaction against too much hands-off, gesture-only tech. Part of the appeal of (for instance) an expensive smartwatch is, surely, that you strap it to your wrist and can feel it there, and that it has buttons to press. It's a physical object. It also resembles the high-status complicated tick-tock wristwatches of yesteryear - but with extraordinary extra capability. So watches like that are reappearing on people's wrists.

There are undoubtedly people around who like the idea of returning to certain retro, pre-digital possessions - the things that seem old-fashioned now, but did useful things in their day; and still can. Things that get the job done just the same. In my own case, this led to buying that fountain pen.

All very well, you might say, if you want to turn the clock back. But as you say yourself, opportunities to use any kind of pen are now so limited that isn't owning a special one almost pointless? Well, I do see why that might be said; but then there can be many more occasions for using a proper pen than you might think. I made a list, based on what I find myself doing daily, or at least regularly:

# Casual, non-permanent notes of all kinds - possibly several times a day.
# Post-it notes to remind me of something immediate, or very special, or as a bookmark.
# My twice-weekly Shopping List, gradually built up over three or four days.
# Recording gas and electricity readings once a week.
# Recording my weight and body measurements once a fortnight.
# Working out the bills for the next month once a month.
# Acquisition notes inside newly-bought books and maps.
# Entries in Visitor Books in country churches and elsewhere.
# Completing answer-sheets at evening quizzes (the only occasion when I might flourish Water Dragon in company).
# Signatures on typed and printed letters, and on forms.
# Greetings and signatures on birthday cards.

That's a decently long list. I tend to be forgetful, so I make notes all the time, and always have a notepad within reach - and my fountain pen! If I'm watching TV for any length of time - or more likely listening to the radio - it's unusual for me not to make a note of something of interest.

One thing I haven't yet done, is write a letter with my pen. I'd definitely want to compose a handwritten letter for anyone who had suffered a dire calamity, calling for a very special and comforting message. Or indeed for any message that needed a very personal touch. I thought I might be doing that more than once during the last ten months, but there has never in fact been the need. But the occasion is bound to come sooner or later.

One point often made in favour of fountain pens is that they are good for your handwriting. Hmm. I wouldn't necessarily agree. If you have awful handwriting, I don't think that using a 'better' pen will improve it much. You need to do something about how you form your letters! Also, if your handwriting contains non-standard features, a fountain pen won't make them easier to read. As proof of this, here is my Shopping List for today, written casually and incrementally with Water Dragon, but still peppered with the quirks of my own hand:

It's only a casually-written list, and not an exercise in careful calligraphy - hence the scribbled look. The black ink on white paper does perhaps make it high-contrast, and therefore easy on the eyes. But I don't think my handwriting is entirely clear and unambiguous. That admitted, I do assert that, as a shopping list, it must be one of the nicer specimens that will be used in Waitrose today.

Time to get going - I'm getting hungry, and very much fancy having sushi for my lunch!