If I were to share with you that I fix computer problems for a living, you would probably assume that I carry a pretty fancy cell phone, have a super fast computer, the latest video game system and am overall pretty geeky when it comes to technology. Well, you'd be right about the geeky part. I love to play with the latest tools and gadgets. Get me the latest widget gizmo and I'll be learning how it works.
What would really surprise you is that despite a penchant for the latest and greatest. There are some things which I'm so old school, I'm right there with the dinosaurs. My personal cell phone doesn't even have a camera and if you can manage to get me to answer it, you've been very lucky indeed. Even my morning shave is about as old fashioned as possible. I strop and shave with a straight razor. No electronics involved.
What I really enjoy though is picking up my fountain pen. I look forward every day to writing in my journal in no small part to this marvelous device.
My first experience with fountain pens was a calligraphy course in Elementary school. At that time I had a Shaeffer pen with a medium nib. I loved the effort and time it took to get the letters just right. However, life moved on and I put the pen aside, lost to the ages now I suppose (or my folks threw it away when I moved out).
I didn't think more of pens until about 3 years ago. I read and article talking about how handwriting was becoming worse due in no small part to computers and keyboarding becoming prevalent in modern life. At that point I decided I wasn't about to let that happen to me or my family. I set a goal to improve my cursive writing.
I started the road with a gel pen. I thought they were the greatest thing ever. The ink seemed so smooth. The pens were available in really cool colors. Then I discovered that they suffered from the occasional air bubble. Going dry in the middle of the page was frustrating.
Next step, the space pen. Contrary to popular belief, this wonder wasn't financed by NASA for Fischer. Fischer just came up with a very cool writing system that happens to work great in space and everyplace else you can think of. Downside there, thick ink. Think of trying to write with rubber cement. That's what it felt like. I loved the reliability though and kept it for quite some time.
Next I discovered the joy of a good rollerball. The ones I'm talking about are made by Staedtler. I could only find them in a few shops, but they came in a pack of four. The ink is liquid inside and flowed really smoothly onto the page. I thought WOW, I've found the last pen I'll ever buy. I was committed until my daughter's report card came in.
Her teacher indicated that she was doing well in all areas except handwriting. So I formulated a plan. Remembering my days of calligraphy (and Charlie Brown) I decided to get her a fountain pen. The liquid ink combined with a pen that needed to be held just right might help her to slow down.
It worked. It worked really well. When I tried the pen out, I was amazed. It felt so wonderful to use. It also made writing something special. I needed my own.
I started looking around and found that the prices for good fountain pens are all over the board. Some of them running into the thousands of dollars. I also discovered that inks were a hot topic in the fountain pen world. It was at this time I learned about Noodler's.
Noodler's is a small US based ink manufacturer. The owner was a fountain pen collector seeking to recreate some of the inks of the past. What he accomplished was so much more, coming up with inks that bonded with the cellulose in the paper, making them become part of the page. PH neutral and permanent. They were fantastic and just the thing I wanted.
I found Swisher Pens online and saw that they sold the inks in an eyedropper bottle with a simple fountain pen. It wasn't anything fancy, but for less than $20, it would certainly outlast the pens I had come to love.
I remember the first day I started writing with the pen. It was even better than I imagined writing could be. The flow and feel of the pen on the page, the slight feel of the nib, it was perfect. I was in pen heaven. Little did I know, I was being spoiled.
Fast forward to three days ago. I go shopping after work and when I return home, I can't seem to find my pen anywhere. I look high and low, even making several trips out to my car to see if it came off in there. That night, I was forced to do my journal entry with my former favorite pen. Remember how I described the feel of the Space Pen, now, my trusted rollerball felt the same way to me. I wondered how it could be possible, it was a very smooth writer.
That was the day I discovered that once you use a good fountain pen (even a $4 Platinum Preppy) with an even better ink, you will never want to go back. The sense of loss I felt was incredible. I needed my pen back in a way that is very hard to describe to those not familiar with losing anything of great value. I went back to Swisher and ordered 3 more.
The next day, I was back at work and walked into one of the rooms and there sitting on a table was my pen. Somehow, I had managed to wander about the whole day not realizing it wasn't attached to my shirt. It was incredible. I posted my delight to Twitter and Facebook. It made my day to have an old friend back in my hand.
Yes, things move on. I think oftentimes for the better. Every once in a while though, there are things that shouldn't be left behind. The fountain pen is still a very beautiful and reliable tool. It doesn't belong in the category of buggy whips in an automobile era. The written word is still the longest most enduring method of communication we have today. Even these words, typed on a laptop and uploaded to the world wide web will probably be long forgotten before the pen and paper cease to provide value to the world.
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