..anyone still use them ?
One of the schools I went to insisted that we *had* to use them.
Being a bit of a gadget freak, I quite liked them and had Platignums, Stypens Schaeffers etc when I was at school.
I have re-discovered my Parker 45 and even managed to find a bottle of Parker "Quink" and I'm quite enjoying this personal revival :-)
Yes, they were (are) a bit messy, but that's part of the challenge afaic.
I remember lots of kids in my class ending up a bit inky by the end of the day.
We used to have an expression: "what's yours, cartrige or *squidge?"
(*refillable)
Yep, if I need to write a card or note to someone I use my dad's old Parker, and I still have a couple of cartridges left of his oddly mauve-tinted ink.
At school believe it or not I had to write with a fountain pen with a caligraphy nib. This was age six to about ten when I left that school and attended a school where they wrote with pencils - it was very odd.
Quink is part of my childhood too, and I always used cartridge pens myself but I still got my hands on lever filling pens from time to time, with hilarious consequences.
I always use fountain pens..although cartridge rather than ink fillable...Good catholic education ?? I at one time was the official scribe to the queen and also government in Scotland and had to write all royal appointments/commissions onto large velums with the ribbons and Great Seal of Scotland attached...if you have ever been to Holyrood Palace you may have seen one or two of them in cases..!! My childhood experiences of learning to write with ink pens certainly helped me in later life !
Even having a ball-point pen in your possession was regarded as a serious offence at the school I attended. (However we were all expected to carry pen knives!).
I still use a fountain pen occasionally, and I quite like doing so. (OK, it's not strictly a fountain pen, because it takes ink cartridges, but it's still got a nib).
My mum taught myself and my sisters to write even before we started school,and like so many people of her age she wrote with a wonderful style which she passed on to us, one of my most treasured posessions is a Schaeffer Fountain Pen (squidgy) and Propelling Pencil set I won in a hand writing competion,one my greatest regrets is that since I suffered a stroke in 2000,I can barely hold a pen and my writing now looks as if a spider with inky feet has walked across the paper
bit late coming in on this - i still have the parker 61 (squidgy) i was given for passing the 11+. it was second hand then (the clip on the top was broken) but it still works and I still use it every day. glad to do so as after so many years it feels wrong to use anything else..
I really like Fountain Pens and hate Ball-Point Pens as they can make Handwriting sloppy. Most of the time these days I use the Pilot Hi-Tecpoint fine Tip liquid Ink Pens.
I still have one fountain(cartridge) pen but I can't remember the last time I used it. My handwriting is no better than adequate. It was virtually destroyed at Uni and never really recovered. I like nice writing and wish I could do it but I type most stuff now anyway. I never found a pen that I was truly comfortable with which probably didn't help things.
For anything other than everyday scribble .... doing all these quizzes or writing the shopping list ... I use a proper fountain pen. I have a small collection each with a different colour ink - INK, not cartridge - and it is just the best present anyone could give me.
None of them are very expensive ones but I love them and think I may even be a little bit addicted to the smell of the ink.
I love fountain pens, there is a shop near me that sells loads of different types and styles, it has been there years, it seems to do a good trade, always has people in there, so maybe there are more fans out there than we imagine :-)
I always use a fountain pen. have you tried the disposable Pilot V pen? it writes so smoothly, never blots, splodges or packs in before the ink runs out.