Thread: Any Fountain Pen Users?

Well been practicing, and today is my dad's 82nd birthday. So I made him a card.
The dip pens are a challenge for a lefty, but I got it with no smears

My newest one, a Mont Blanc Junior 622 with a M to B Nib, fresh and unused from the early seventies, a low Budget Mont Blanc but it writes absolutly perfect!
Smooth and Wet, i like it. The actual MB Converter works perfect too, the only thing a think about is to use a ink that has a more shiny blue than the Pelikan
Ink i use normaly.

Originally Posted by ZipZop

Aloha!

.......[snip]

I have heard that they are no longer teaching cursive script in school. Just printing. With the computer, script handwriting is now extinct in our classrooms and within a few generations, it will be extinct in our society. A lost art form.

-Zip

I am replying to this here in the pen thread. As to not totally derail the "What do you have in the Mail" thread.

Zip it is true many states have chosen not to teach cursive in school anymore. To me this is just so very wrong. But then again, things seem to be moving toward texting instead of writing. Some schools even teach texting as a class.
It is an art form, no question there. But it has been proven to also stimulate many areas of the brain when you write in cursive. Not only are you having to think about the letter formation, but hand control and yes, the creative areas as well.
I will try to find the article on it, I read it a couple months ago.

So even if your writing is not the best, taking time to write daily, will help keep your brain working in many ways. I journal every morning, just mostly short entries, but I write in cursive. So even if that's the only thing I write that day I have helped my brain, and probably lightened the load by getting it on paper.

Here was one article - there were a number of them out there that state the same points:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...ke-you-smarter

And another:

Ten Reasons People Still Need Cursive

My 7 year old daughter was told not to write her name in cursive on her papers. It is a shame that cursive is not taught. I do not have a writing heavy job but still fill my pen (currently 1 of 2 Edison Colliers) at least once a week.
If school will not teach my children to write, I will. There are plenty of cursive writing resources available.

Thanks!

In section 2 of the second article, it says that good handwriting activates more areas of the brain. The article I read, and am still trying to find, stated that on an MRI, when writing in cursive the brain lights up like a big city. But when typing the same thing, the brain is dark as a cave.

So with that being said, I think there is much more to writing than we commoners realize. The sad thing is, that the people in the education system are commoners as well. We need to go back at least a couple generations and revamp our educational system.

I have 2 young sons, 3 yrs old and 9 months old, they will probably be homeschooled. I think they need to have a quality start to their education. Possibly a private school, but the one thing I will be sure of, is they learn cursive.
Maybe my interest in Penmanship, and fine writing will help them to be interested.

Someday this will be true...

Originally Posted by Dieseld

I am replying to this here in the pen thread. As to not totally derail the "What do you have in the Mail" thread.

Zip it is true many states have chosen not to teach cursive in school anymore. To me this is just so very wrong. But then again, things seem to be moving toward texting instead of writing. Some schools even teach texting as a class.
It is an art form, no question there. But it has been proven to also stimulate many areas of the brain when you write in cursive. Not only are you having to think about the letter formation, but hand control and yes, the creative areas as well.
I will try to find the article on it, I read it a couple months ago.

So even if your writing is not the best, taking time to write daily, will help keep your brain working in many ways. I journal every morning, just mostly short entries, but I write in cursive. So even if that's the only thing I write that day I have helped my brain, and probably lightened the load by getting it on paper.

Aloha!

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this.

I remember well the day we started learning cursive in grade school. I hated it at first, and complained constantly to the teacher that it was too hard and that I just wanted to print everything. I also remember she did not force me to learn cursive all at once. I remember one test, the class was asked to complete the etire test in cursive, and I struggled until I switched to printing half way through. She allowed this knowing that over time, like most things learned, I'd stop rebelling against learning cursive. And, obviously, over time I did learn it. We had to. By the time I got into high school it was second nature. I don't know about you gentlemen, but I certainly wrote hundreds of "love letters" to girlfriends when I was in High School and College. None of the girls compained. They could read it and probably thought, "Well, he's a guy. His cursive is supposed to be a bit crude." I also remember many of their letters being so beautifully written with cursive that looked fantastic.

During adulthood, I never seemed to use cursive. All notes and inter-office memos were printed or typed, and when computers bloomed in business, then that really pulled the plug on cursive. Then one day I decided get a fountain pen and go back to cursive and hand write thank you notes, personal letters and similar - for that "personal" touch in business. And I remember very clearly NOT REMEMBERING HOW TO WRITE A CAPITAL G IN CURSIVE! That scared me. It was like I was loosing part of my basic education when I could not remember how to write that capital G in cursive.

I am most definitely right brain dominant, so I'm fairly creative. But for some reason my cursive handwriting has always been average at best. Even when I try and make it neat. Oh, you'd be able to read it no problem. You'll just think it was written by a much younger person that has not yet mastered neatness in cursive writing. I've seen cursive that shocks me it's so beautiful. Mine is not the greatest.

I like the idea of journaling, and it does not surprise me that writing in cursive is good brain exercise. I think I'll try journaling and honestly work on my cursive style and neatness. Most things can be improved if you truly put some initiative into it. Perhaps all these years, I just lacked initiative with improving my cursive talent, and it may go all the way back to me being a rebel in grade school and rejecting the fact that I had to learn cursive.

-Zip

Well, getting a bit more comfortable with the dip pen, this was all done with a fine nib.
I know mom will appreciate this. She used to encourage me in all my art work. A few of my drawings and paintings hang in her house.
I am thankful to all in this thread who helped inspire me to get into using a fountain pen, which led me back to wanting to draw again. But in ink this time

Aloha!

Thanks to Dieseld, today was my first day of "Journaling". I have broken out the fountain pens (I have a Waterman, a Parker and a Shaefer) only to discover that even though I have full ink cartridges, they do not fit any of these pens. ??? Makes me wonder what they DO fit and why I bought them.
So now I have some correct cartridges coming from Amazon.
Thus, my first "Journal" was with a ball point, a Montblanc that I have not used in a very long time. I even found a gold Cross pen I got for my college graduation from my parents with my name engraved on it. The Cross looks so skinny compared to all of my other pens, but if I recall it is real gold, I think 10k.

Honestly, this was my first time writing a page in cursive in such a long time, it was a bit of a struggle, but I truly enjoyed it. Tomorrow, I'll journal more. SWMBO Journals every day and has since college. She's betting me I will only stick with it for a week or so, but I'd take that bet. It was fun. And I actually remembered all of the cursive including capital letters. Oh, and I have three blank journals, nicely leather bound. I bought these over the years for SWMBO, but she thought they looked too "Manly" so gave them back to me. So I'm set for quite a while with journals. I just need the fountain pen ink.

It was good brain exercise, as Dieseld suggested.

-Zip