This morning, after weeks of cleaning and re-cleaning, I think my pen finally forgave me.<\/p>\n
Mom may have known she was raising a little geek when in 1959 she asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and I told her I wanted a fountain pen. \u00a0 I was six, and I’d seen a teacher using one and was fascinated by it. \u00a0 I got my fountain pen, a Sheaffer sized for a child’s hand, and I’ve been writing with them ever since.<\/p>\n
Fountain pens are archaic, fussy, finicky things. \u00a0 But the graphic artist in me (I still draw and sketch with the “traditional” tools of pencil, pen and paper) loves their tactile feel. \u00a0 And they have one supreme advantage over all other handwriting implements: they will, over time, break in to your particular way of holding a pen…customizing themselves to your own unique handwriting. \u00a0 The disadvantage though is you cannot then ever loan yours to someone else, particularly if you write with a light touch and they with a heavy one, because the moment they us your pen it will never be right in your hand again. \u00a0 Ever. \u00a0 Ask me how I know.<\/p>\n
They have other disadvantages, mostly being that they’re high maintenance things. \u00a0 You are always cleaning and refilling them…a process that becomes a ritual after a while. \u00a0 And they tend to form a fondness for a particular brand of ink, so should that brand become unavailable, or changes its formulation, your pen will complain bitterly in its own way (skip… skip… skip…) for weeks if not months, until you hit on a substitute it finds acceptable. \u00a0 Some weeks ago, having run out of my pen’s preferred brand (Parker, black) and not finding any at the usual places, I let a pen store salesman talk me into a substitute. \u00a0 I won’t name it here, each individual fountain pen is unique enough that what doesn’t work in one can work very well in another regardless of make. \u00a0 The pen that shipped from the factory right beside mine might adore that brand of ink for all I know. \u00a0 But it took me weeks of cleaning and re-cleaning my pen to get it to forgive me. \u00a0 Yes, yes…I promise to feed you the Exact<\/em> ink you want dear…<\/p>\n
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