"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

[knarfeng]

Folks who are too busy posting to read the answers others have given them make me grumpy.
Senex Morosus am I tonight.

 

[knarfeng]

I mean, "Beautiful weather we are having."

 

[pmew]

With the Pelican design the only way for the ink to get all over is if the cap unscrews and the barrel/nib falls away, at which point it is ink soaking everywhere. I have carried mine for ten years and had this happen once. I was not paying attention and did not make sure the cap was secure ( I now check every couple of hours if not actively using it). The older Waterman is more of an issue with the exposed filler, it is now a "desk pen". Steven

Is the Pelican design unique in this respect?

Not especially. When I was in 5th and 6th grade, my class was required by our teachers to use nothing but traditional fountain pens with ultra fine tips for all school work requiring an ink pen. (Esterbrook pen with a 9550 tip and peacock blue ink.) These required refilling from an ink bottle. I got my fill of fountain pens then. I matriculated to 7th grade, picked up a ball point pen, and have not looked back.

I am legal required to use permanent black ink in my profession (used to be pencil). Ball point pens have been the norm for many years now but they lack panache.

Well, any fool knows ball point pens aren't exactly trouble free. They have been known to leak from the tip and also along the barrel of the insert. They can make a real mess and have ruined more than a few nice shirts. Don't ask this ole fool how he knows - he just knows.

I have had many a bic crystal get smashed and explode ink whilst rolling about in the street. They are not exactly tough.

LOL... now I gonna have to derail that great topic about ball pens and fontain pens etc etc. I was out with Baby Max (after ten hours of work on my house) and whil I we were preparing him for going to bed I put him on my sunglasses...

... It´s Cool, Man !! Hehehe!

Awesome picture Papa Andi, I'm so excited about having my own... 15 weeks to go!

That was pretty much my experience in lie as well. Once I got a nice ball point like a Cross or Parker, I never went back. All the tea in China couldn't get me to fool with a fountain pen again, and I really like tea!

I can't survive a morning without a mug of tea. It's essential.

Folks who are too busy posting to read the answers others have given them make me grumpy.
Senex Morosus am I tonight.

Frank, you do realise that when you start speaking Latin, people start running and hiding under the bed!

 

[Will Power]

All this talk of fountain pens got me remembering: ink spots, stained fingers, ruined shirts, dried scratchy nibs, fountains of ink at the wrong time! Yes I've had a Pelikan, it eventually bled to death. Same with a Mont Blanc. Very beautiful objects but rather like some temperamental sports-car...So not really. But look, fountain-pens are new skool! Anybody remember ink-wells?? Imagine dipping your nib or quill in this geezer's head

As for Latin 'aut tace, aut loquere meliora silentio' can be apt:thumbup:

 

[Jack Black]

Anybody remember ink-wells??

We had ink wells when I was at junior school Will!

I haven't owned a fountain pen since someone stole my Mont Blanc Meisterstuk nearly 20 years ago. That was a nice pen, but I don't remember it writing any better than the the £10 Sheaffer my grandmother gave me for my 21st birthday.

 

[JB in SC]

Closest I came to an inkwell was for my ruling pen in mechanical drawing classes. A lefty has no chance with a fountain pen, left hand nibs included

 

[pmew]

I'm actually amazed at the responses. I thought that surely there would be traditional knife fans that love fountain pens for the pure joy of them. Much the same way that someone would choose a carbon steel jigged bone pocket knife with cut swedes, match-strike pulls and rat-tail bolsters over a boring box cutter.

It's the little things after all

 

[oldrifleman]

Not sure about other brands. I would think any of them that have a good screw-on cap and either an internal filler or a good screw filler would be OK. I have a couple of pens with a snap on cap that seem to just separate and leave splotches. I also have some beloved vintage pens that are lever fillers and they are an accident waiting to happen. :sorrow:.Steven

 

[Raymond1000]

In school I learned the standard Palmer style of penmanship. Not with a pen; with a school pencil the size of a horse’s leg. We did shift to pens in higher grades. Palmer didn’t take. My handwriting was so bad, even I couldn’t read it. As an adult I defaulted to “handwriting” that was block printing. It was ugly, but legible.

Decades later I taught myself a style of Italic. It was at least as fast to write. Just as legible. Not ugly at all. This was before I owned a computer. I was hopeless with a typewriter. A note to the boss, shopping lists, journal entries, were written by hand or not at all. Italic was better than my crude block print.

At the same time I got interested in fountain pens. I tried Waterman, Schafer, Parker, Pelikan. I never sprang for a Montblanc. I messed around with them for a few years.

I eventually returned to the ball point. Why? Fountain pens: Delicate. Leakey. Ink smeared on fresh writing. Not great with carbon paper. Expensive. (Delicate and messy and expensive, why was I doing this?)

The biggest reason was that I couldn’t find broad nibs that fit the nice pens. I didn’t want big wide nibs suitable for Old English script. I wanted a normal writing nib with vertical strokes twice as wide as horizontal strokes. Just right to show off my carefully learned fine Italian hand. I did try a calligraphy pen with that exchangeable nibs. It was okay for writing Gothic or Chancery Cursive. But just okay. It wasn’t a great pen, and ugly to boot. Writing produced by my nice fountain pens looked as though I’d used a ball point anyway.

In the end the game wasn’t worth the candle.

 

[dannyp]

I'm actually amazed at the responses. I thought that surely there would be traditional knife fans that love fountain pens for the pure joy of them. Much the same way that someone would choose a carbon steel jigged bone pocket knife with cut swedes, match-strike pulls and rat-tail bolsters over a boring box cutter.

It's the little things after all

One of the main reasons I enjoy traditional knives is because they are something that I use on a daily basis. For me, the appeal is in the combined functionality and beauty. I only use a pen a couple of times a week now that most things have gone digital, and even then it's usually only to write my signature.

 

[jackknife]

I'm actually amazed at the responses. I thought that surely there would be traditional knife fans that love fountain pens for the pure joy of them. Much the same way that someone would choose a carbon steel jigged bone pocket knife with cut swedes, match-strike pulls and rat-tail bolsters over a boring box cutter.

It's the little things after all

Actually, it's just a matter of function. A pocket knife is a prime example of a highly functional tool, that needs very little maintenance, is ruggedly constructed, and can be carried a great deal with no thought until needed. The pocket knife is a great example of form following function.

On the other hand, a fountain pen is a finicky delicate thing, that may work when you need it, sometimes leaks, can go dry when you need it the most. As far as function goes, a fountain pen is to pens what a knapped flint blade is to a Case peanut or GEC number 15. And there are some old timey ball points out there like Cross and Parker that are now classic's in there own right.

When my knife goes dull, I don't want to sit there with a piece of antler and start the long process of flaking a new edge on my knife, and maybe it will crack or break while doing this. And as was said, these digital days, the pen is fast becoming a thing of the past along with gun flints. For traditional note taking, I've always used a pencil myself. A small golf pencil in the pocket lasts forever, never leaks, writes on anything including a brick, The writing doesn't run when wet, can be sharpened up in a minute with a pocket knife, and the graphite tip can be scraped for the powdered graphite that is one of the best dry lubricants on earth. Ulysses S. Grant, Sir Richard Burton the explorer, John Freemont, and Ernest Hemingway all swore by the pencil. All Hemingway's novels were written by pencil on a pad that a secretary typed up for him.

I rarely need a pen these days, and when I do have to sign something, they usually have a cheap ball point there at the restaurant or motel. But when I make a note for myself on the little credit card size pad I carry in my wallet, my golf pencil gets used. On the other hand, it seems like I need a pocket knife to cut something every day. Open mail, boxes, twine, cheese, split a cinnamon bun from Panerra with the better half.

I guess it's all a matter of need and priority.

 

[JB in SC]

Carl, I admit to preferring a pencil to a pen for notes, etc. Mine tend to be mechanical versions though

 

[meako]

We had ink wells when I was at junior school Will!

I haven't owned a fountain pen since someone stole my Mont Blanc Meisterstuk nearly 20 years ago. That was a nice pen, but I don't remember it writing any better than the the £10 Sheaffer my grandmother gave me for my 21st birthday.

It's not the pen that does the writing..
JB while I'm here I need to say how fnarkling good the quest knife is performing. 2 nights mess duty for diners club at work and tonights spag bol were a breeze. Little bit of a steeling after ,oil and away. A truly beautiful knife to work with. CHEERS .
I use a Lamy fountain pen. I'd really like to get a chisel tipped nib for that old school look. Yes I remember ink wells in the desks at school. When I was a kid at school in England in 69 they also had a bomb shelter left over from the war. I'm glad I never had to use either.
ah yes the thing about pencils is you can put a chisel tip on them if you you like.

 

[meako]

I have had many a bic crystal get smashed and explode ink whilst rolling about in the street. They are not exactly tough.

well at least you've solved the mystery of why we moved on to smartphones. the more things change the more they stay the same.
not having a go -just know what you mean.

 

[silenthunterstudios]

My buddies at work all have a Skilcraft pen in their shirt pocket . Old, young, doesn't matter.

I do have a Fisher space pen I bought at REI, with a write anywhere waterproof pad. I've seen some really nice old pens at flea markets, they wanted some crazy money for them.

 

[silenthunterstudios]

I believe his name is Goodpasture, Tom Goodpasture, I traded into one of his knives, gave it to a family friend. I later picked up one of his pens directly from him, wood turned case, great pen. I think I may have lost it. I just remembered I still had it after a couple years...

 

[GSO1962]

clip...

I have had many a bic crystal get smashed and explode ink whilst rolling about in the street. They are not exactly tough.

New guy to this sub-forum and just dipping my toe in the water...

I was curious... Was the pen rolling about in the street, or were you doing the rolling?

 

[Peregrin]

I have had many a bic crystal get smashed and explode ink whilst rolling about in the street. They are not exactly tough.

well at least you've solved the mystery of why we moved on to smartphones. the more things change the more they stay the same.
not having a go -just know what you mean.

New guy to this sub-forum and just dipping my toe in the water...

I was curious... Was the pen rolling about in the street, or were you doing the rolling?

From what we've seen and heard, I suspect it was meako that was doing the rolling!

 

[Peregrin]

I have had many a bic crystal get smashed and explode ink whilst rolling about in the street. They are not exactly tough.

well at least you've solved the mystery of why we moved on to smartphones. the more things change the more they stay the same.
not having a go -just know what you mean.

New guy to this sub-forum and just dipping my toe in the water...

I was curious... Was the pen rolling about in the street, or were you doing the rolling?

From what we've seen and heard, I suspect it was meako that was doing the rolling!

 

[pmew]

From what we've seen and heard, I suspect it was meako that was doing the rolling!

I suspect that is the case!

I have been rolling in the street myself often enough with a bic crystal in my pocket and have had it explode.

I write a lot in work. A lot. I write in all sorts of conditions too and I'm obliged to use permanent black ink in my notebook which is a legal document. Once upon a time we used pencil. I would imagine it changed because pencil was too easy to rub out and change before giving evidence in court. It has been black ink throughout the duration of my service.

I'm enjoying this discussion. Thanks for your input ladies and gentlemen.