The Art of Fountain Pens

  Fountain pens aren’t ordinary writing instruments.  They are works of art!  Just like timepieces, fountain pens are meticulously crafted by skilled artists and engineers to come up with well designed, yet fully functional, fountain pens.  That is why collectors often keep and pass them on to the next generation as personal heirlooms.

Fountain pens resemble the imprint of old quill and ink.  [You can learn the complete history of the fountain pen when you click on Wikipedia.]  The difference, however, lies at the ink flow.  Today’’s fountain pens are consistent while quill and ink has a thick print when newly dipped and pale when ink is running dry.  Yet for writers and history buffs, fountain pens are the nearest and most practical replica of the old writing instrument.

Writing is always smooth when using a fountain pen.  A reservoir for the ink is controlled by a nib at the tip of the pen.  Flow is controlled by capillary action with the help of gravity.  Unlike a ballpoint pen, the fountain pen has no breaks when scribbled unless its ink is almost depleted.  Also, a fountain pen’’s ink complements most writing papers because it is water-based in contrast to other pens that use chemical-based inks.  A fountain pen only includes dye and surfactant as part of ingredients.

All expensive fountain pens are refillable.  There are, of course, the disposable types which are of lesser quality and value.  However, a disposable fountain pen will not make your writing look as good as a real fountain pen can.  A real fountain pen will do justice to your penmanship.

However, only a few people really do use this fine pen for writing.  They believe that its value may diminish.  However, those in the academe believe otherwise.  The more you use your fountain pen, the more it becomes an important object because it becomes a part of you; it forms part of your personal academic studies and professorial duties.

In fact, as a form of tradition professors from Ivy League schools use fountain pens to bestow honor to people, especially to a colleague.  For instance, in the movie, “A Beautiful Mind,” it has been shown that professors from the university honored John Nash by offering their expensive fountain pens as gifts upon his table.

Each fountain pen is unique, not merely in design but in the quality of ink and ink flow.   Handwriting experts call it the pen’’s ‘fingerprint.’  This unique quality of a fountain pen symbolizes the individuality of the person who is using it and the original and work of art that a writer can wield with such a fine object.  Indeed, all over the world, writers recognize the beauty behind a fountain pen, the symbolism behind the object and fine writing which the object brings.

Lovers and connoisseurs of fountain pens created websites to congregate and talk on everything about pens, most especially about fountain pens.  Pen balance, ink flow and ergonomics are just some of the terms you can expect to find in these forums.   These people just love fountain pens so much that they are even studying and anatomically classifying each fountain pen.

Pelikan 1.7mm Cursive Italic Stub nib writing sample