The Point About Pens

Brown's, Farhney's and Lanier are the BIG NIBS of fountain pen sellers. They sell many products to people who love writing or just like to own a nice fountain pen - and they sell some really expensive pens to collectors. Once, Farhney's offered a diamond/platinum pen for $250K. Only 5 were available. They also sell safes and collectors' boxes. One of the things that I POINT out to my students is that no matter the cost of the penholder and no matter how fancy the nib, most nibs are pointed with iridium, so that it will not wear out. A $5 nib has iridium, so does the $1,000 version. I rarely use a fountain pen, but do have some Lamys and a couple of Pelikans. I do prefer the piston fillers to the bladders. The Lamy uses a stainless steel broad and blip point. The Pelikan has 6 broad nibs and a couple of blips. I do have some Rotrings, a lot of ancient Osmiroids (65 & 75) [the newer incarnations are trash]. A few people have given me some old celluloid fountain pens from the 20's and 30's, pretty, but still iridium-tipped. I guess that writing instruments will always be in favor, out, be discovered and lost and found. To try and know everything would be POINTless.
By the way, I do have the Pentalic/Victoria and Albert Museum Poster, The Story Of Handwriting.
Fahrney's does have a guide for selecting the appropriate pen size for your hand. Big hand, big pen; smaller hand, smaller pen.
That's why using a Cross, made me cross till I bought the larger model of their mechanical pencil.
My students do get a chance to write with a variety of pens, reeds, instruments made from oddities and quills and reeds.
In a future post we'll look at holding your writing instrument correctly. Give your hand, shoulders, neck and body a break so that you can write on. Tim (c)
http://www.timjohnsonphoto.com/