Fountain pens

[Chrono]

Hello

I was wondering if anyone out here wrote with a fountain pen. I recently got a rotring multipen. Its black aluminum I think. Its like this one
http://www.rotring.de/www.rotring.com/index.html
but the whole clip lifts up to retract the point instead of just a little button. I just love this pen/pencil. Its about all I write with now.
Anyways I was looking at the fountain pens and I think they are really elegent. I was interested in the lava one here's a link to it

http://www.thewritersedge.com/rotring.600series.cfm

Several questions
Does anyone have one of these? How does it write?
Any problem with the ink? Does it smudge? I'm left handed so sometimes I have problems where my hand will make smears as writing.
Is that a cap on the end? I wasnt sure if it had a cap of not. I can't tell from the picture.
Which size tip would be the best for general writing M,F,XF & B?

If anyone else has a fountain pen that they really enjoy I'd like to know about it. I think thats all my questions for now. Thanks for the help.

Ryan

 

[MelancholyMutt]

generally lefties have a very big problem with fountain pens as the ink will take a few minutes to dry. The thicker the nib, the more ink is left on the paper, the more time you need. Unless you develop a method of writing that goes from right to left, you will find handwriting to be quite a chore (I've heard of people learning to write upside down, line per line, and then covering the previously written line, progressing from bottom to the top. Once written, the page is turned over and is undiscernable as to whether or not it was written upside down and from bottom to up.)

Another method is to suspend your hand completely off the page. Chinese character writing is done this way, and although fatigueing, may offer an alternative to writing upside down.

I bring these methods here because I've seen them done, but are not mentioned in the page linked below.

A quick google search presented this link below.
http://www.nibs.com/Left-hand%20writers.htm

Now, as I say that one could always learn to write with the right hand, let me qualify that by noting that I was born a lefty, but trained to be use my right hand for almost everything. I still exhibit attributes what would make any observer think that I'm a lefty, but they are often surprised when I use my right hand to perform daily tasks.

 

[SIFU1A]

i use fountain pens and have for yrs, a prof i liked in school used one (and carried about 3 in his pocket, he had one old german fountain pen w/a cig liter in the end!!! and it was about the std size, no bigger, pretty cool, pre WW2 he said) so i started using one - yes they smear, no biggie, gives it 'character' imho, and ya cant use them on anything to make a copy, other than that, they are just fine for eddc use. they do use a lot of ink though, at least the ones i have.

i have a mont blanc and a cross, both work great, have had to send the cross back 2 times for service though, but no charge, so not a prob to me.

its cool to use an old device like this to write imho, for some reason anyway to me.


greg