[HN Gopher] The cheap pen that changed writing forever
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The cheap pen that changed writing forever
Author : pseudolus
Score : 71 points
Date : 2020-10-31 10:56 UTC (1 days ago)
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(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| yiyus wrote:
| If you liked the pictures in the article, you may like Juan
| Francisco Casas, who makes hyper-realist drawings with bic pens:
|
| https://www.google.com/search?q=juan+francisco+casas&tbm=isc...
| Tehdasi wrote:
| "Fountain pens were messy and needed regular refilling"
|
| So the solution is to not make the refilling better and less
| messy, it was to invent landfill. Not only from having to replace
| the pen when it ran out of ink, but from high failure rate of the
| aforesaid pens.
| enriquto wrote:
| The wording of this article is very strange. All references to
| fountain pens happen in the past tense, as if they did not exist
| anymore. Millions of people still use fountain pens every day.
| The author lives in a bubble of ballpoint users or what?
| ta8645 wrote:
| Don't most of us live in a bubble of ballpoint users? It is the
| most pervasive pen by a pretty wide margin.
| enriquto wrote:
| I don't think so. I have lived, studied, and taught in three
| different European countries and everywhere, a sizeable
| proportion of students used fountain pens (a large majority
| in the case of France). For my part, I use mostly rollers and
| fountain pens, and I hate the high pressure needed to use
| ballpoints.
|
| EDIT: In any case, even if most people use only ballpoint
| pens, it seems very hard to live without ever crossing a
| fountain pen user (as seems to be the case for the author of
| this article).
| umanwizard wrote:
| This definitely varies by country.
|
| In the US, fountain pen use is common among people who have
| a particular interest in pens (e.g. collecting them), and
| almost zero among everyone else. I'd say they're roughly
| comparable to mechanical keyboards in this respect.
|
| No one at any level of school is required to use fountain
| pens; typically, students use a mix of graphite pencils,
| ballpoint pens, and rollerballs.
|
| I would expect a large fraction of Americans, maybe even
| the majority, to be surprised to learn that fountain pens
| are still in common use anywhere in the world.
| GrumpyYoungMan wrote:
| I reside in the US and have met only one person over the
| past 25 years who used a fountain pen.
| plorkyeran wrote:
| I don't think I've ever seen someone use a fountain pen in
| person. In school most people used pencils almost
| exclusively, and the exceptions used ballpoint or gel pens.
| watwut wrote:
| I most definitely do. Fountain pens are used by first graders
| and second graders. Everyone else is using ball point pen.
|
| People even draw with them.
| NewOrderNow wrote:
| /r/fountainpens/ would like a word
| rwmj wrote:
| A few years ago I went round the house and threw out every
| ballpoint / biro (replacing them with Uni-ball UM-153S which are
| much more pleasant to use). There had to have been at least a
| hundred of them. So many were free from conferences or charities.
| Cancan82 wrote:
| I recently switched to a fountain pen - way easier to write with
| and way less tension. Neil Gaiman suggested it and so I gave it a
| shot. Never going back - my handwriting is better (but I write
| cursive) and it is easier to write longer without strain.
|
| That said - super cool story.
| NewOrderNow wrote:
| Same, once I used one, there is no no going back.
|
| You can certainly go deep with ink and pens and whatnot, but
| you can buy a Lamy for cheap on Amazon and just stick with
| cartridges and still get a far superior result.
|
| If anyone feel like their writing is sloppy and avoid writing
| because of it, try a fountain pen.
| karlding wrote:
| For what it's worth, the consensus on /r/fountainpens and
| other fountain pen enthusiast sites is that you risk
| receiving counterfeit Lamy Safari pens when purchasing from
| Amazon. These fakes often have poor quality nibs and ruin
| people's first experience with fountain pens. The
| recommendation is to purchase a pen through a reputable
| dealer so you know that you are getting the real thing.
|
| There's a post here on Imgur [0] regarding an individual's
| experience after receiving a fake on Amazon if you want to
| compare the fake and original.
|
| [0] https://imgur.com/gallery/RC0hU
| [deleted]
| sxt wrote:
| Anybody else here who uses Fineliners? I've only stuck to
| fineliners ever since the first time I've used it, the upgrade in
| comfort and penmanship was extraordinary. Yes fountain pens are
| great and I've used them most of my life, as most ballpoints
| weren't suitable for my left hand writing style. But fineliners
| are way less cumbersome
| grimgrin wrote:
| not entirely related, but my buddy is sitting on ballpoint.com
|
| he isn't a squatter but it'd be nice if he could flip it no
| doubt. maybe in 1945 ;)
| kaonwarb wrote:
| One side effect not discussed here: how the shift to ballpoint
| pens increased hand strain [0]. Writing with a fountain pen is
| relatively effortless - not to deny it has several other
| drawbacks. I imagine this is part of why, as an elementary school
| student in France, I was required to write with only fountain
| pens.
|
| [0]
| https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/ballp...
| criddell wrote:
| What's the difference between the kind of strain you get from
| pressing harder with a ball point pen and the kind of strain
| you get from lifting weights in a gym? I guess what I'm really
| asking is if your body will adapt to the increased hand strain?
| Is it a short-term problem?
| virtue3 wrote:
| you lift weights along muscle systems designed to handle
| load.
|
| Your wrist/elbows etc are relatively weak. See tennis elbow,
| etc.
|
| The other issue is that you end up writing 4-6hrs a day in
| school 5days a week, wheras the gym is something like, maybe
| 20 minutes per muscle group? depending. And that doesn't tend
| to be more than 3-4x a week.
|
| I used to weightlift with a much lighter ex. The one thing I
| noticed was that even tho I could lift substantially more,
| our recovery rate was basically the same. So I'd end up with
| a lot more nagging injuries over time if I didn't properly
| take care of myself.
| egypturnash wrote:
| It also doesn't help that _nobody teaches you proper form_
| for holding a pencil. You start a sport, you 're gonna be
| made aware that there are ways to do the sport that
| immediately hurt, and that there are ways to do it that
| won't hurt immediately but will fuck you up for sure in the
| long run, or even the medium run.
|
| There are ways to hold a pen or pencil that will fuck you
| up in the long run for sure, and most people hold one in
| these ways. I didn't learn proper form until I was in my
| twenties, via lore passed on from master animators I was
| working under. I've since seen the same knowledge in places
| like "old penmanship manuals" but it sure was not a thing I
| was taught as a kid learning to write.
|
| Fountain pens, you kinda _have_ to learn decent form to
| use. A Bic? You can write with _any_ kind of grip, even one
| that looks like you tied your fingers in a knot around it.
| plorkyeran wrote:
| Yeah, rest days are _incredibly_ important. If you wrote
| until your hands are tired and then did not write again
| until you were fully recovered, perhaps you could do
| something akin to weight training for writing. That isn 't
| what anyone actually does, though.
| woofie11 wrote:
| Intense, short loads, with long recovery breaks in between
| build muscles and strengthen tendons. That's lifting weights
| at the gym.
|
| Writing and typing is continuous, repetitive strain with no
| recovery. That's the killer.
| bluedino wrote:
| I always use roller/gel pens, but I have never tried a fountain
| pen.
|
| I cannot use a cheap stick ballpoint pen. My writing looks bad,
| my hand cramps up, I don't know why that is.
| [deleted]
| WalterBright wrote:
| The gel pens are my favorite, but I did enjoy using fountain
| pens in grade school - I just liked the way the result
| looked.
| ginko wrote:
| How anyone can enjoy writing with fountain pens is
| completely beyond me. They were the bane of my childhood.
| pjc50 wrote:
| They're especially annoying for left-handed users.
| yoz-y wrote:
| In my school we had to use a fountain pen up until fourth
| grade (lefties had an exception). The day I could finally
| ditch the fountain pen was a happy one indeed.
|
| Nowadays I use gel pens, best of both worlds. I
| definitely agree that ballpoint pens are hard on the
| wrists.
| throwaway201101 wrote:
| This is strange to me. When I was in school (1970s/80s in
| the USA) we used pencils almost exclusively. Rarely, the
| final draft of an essay might be required in ink (pen
| type immaterial), or typed, but not below grade 6-ish.
|
| I do like the feel of writing with a fountain pen but
| never used one until I was an adult. I still prefer
| pencil for note-taking and rough draft writing.
| stordoff wrote:
| I had to use a (cartridge) fountain pen at school (90s,
| UK primary school), and they were awful - the nibs were
| scratchy, and prone to breaking if you pressed even
| slightly too hard, and they leaked fairly often. A decent
| fountain pen is a completely different experience.
|
| I've mostly switched over to Staedtler Triplus fineliners
| for general writing - they're much easier on my
| hands/wrists[1], but retain the convenience of
| ballpoints.
|
| [1] I have a joint disorder, and writing more than a
| couple of lines with most ballpoints will make my fingers
| and/or wrists hurt. I can write for 20-30 minutes with
| the fineliners before they trigger the same issue.
| hinkley wrote:
| I find the uniball gel pen substantially easier to write
| with, so conversely I find all other ball point pens harder
| to write with. I know in college there were certain pens that
| hurt to use all day and I quickly got rid of those.
|
| Most of my favorite pens at the moment are uniball, or take
| the same refill size and I've converted them. Somewhere I
| have a collapsing fountain pen but I had to be careful of the
| type of paper and I let it dry up at some point, got it
| working again, and forgot about it because I found another
| collapsing pen I could shoehorn the uniball gel into (by
| swapping the spring)
| chrisseaton wrote:
| Right - ballpoint pens are horrible to write with and your
| writing will look terrible, but they are useful in an austere
| environment like a plane or outdoors, especially when they're
| the pressurised variant.
| redvenom wrote:
| I also write for long periods of time, and use a mechanical
| pencil with softer lead (2B). It doesn't replace a pen when you
| need a pen, but if you just want to avoid hand strain, this is
| another option.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| While in most cases, it is a drawback, it is an advantage when
| you are making carbon copies.
|
| There are forms that require you to use a ballpoint pen for
| that reason.
| m463 wrote:
| My favorite pen is the pentel energel 0.7mm.
|
| It will write smooth dark lines just the right thicknes without
| blobbing or cutting out, and is the most effortless pen to
| write with.
|
| But yes, it does write at a higher angle than a fountain pen. I
| had a fountain pen years and years ago, and it was something
| you had to want to use. I can't help but think of it like vinyl
| records, straight razors and film cameras.
| godelmachine wrote:
| >> _pentel energel 0.7mm._
|
| Thanks for mentioning this
|
| I am currently on the lookout for new pen to make my standard
| usage pen.
|
| My prime requirement is that it should be 1.0mm, or at a
| minimal 0.7mm, since I love the thickness. Secondary
| requirement is that it should be smooth.
|
| I bought Baoke gel from Amazon and while I loved it a lot,
| was greatly disappointed to find it was of Chinese make.
|
| Am now searching for something that's of non-Chinese origin.
| So far, I have zeroed in on Uni-ball impact 1.0mm gel pen,
| and am shortlisting their 0.7mm gel pens as well. I would
| also give uni-ball 1.0mm and 0.7mm ballpoint pens a try as
| well in case I feel gel pens get used up faster, since always
| carrying a backup refill can be an inconvenience.Also, TCO
| with gel pens is always more than ballpoint pens.
|
| Have you any suggestions in mind?
|
| Please proffer
| 1996 wrote:
| > greatly disappointed to find it was of Chinese make.
|
| May I ask why, as it is not among your requirements?
|
| > Am now searching for something that's of non-Chinese
| origin
|
| Any specific reasons?
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