/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.3048839]

To my knowledgable fountainpen friends out there. I found this old pen up for sale.

I can't really say much about it since there is no brand on both pictures or sales description. But apparently it is a mixture of silver and bakelite (plastic you make lp records out of). It's supposedly from the turn of the 19th/20th century.

Its currently going for 10 dollars. The owner doesn't know if its functional he cannot even guarantee that it is a fountain pen, it might be the "dip-in-ink" kind.

Buy or No Buy?

Also: How is your writing going? I'm slowly progressing forward. Just finished my first ink cartridge.

[Anonymous No.3049704]

>>3048839
bump for handwriting / pen thread

I can write you a letter if you want it /lit/. ¨
What should it entail?

[Anonymous No.3049720]

Here a poem I wrote. It took me five minutes.

[Anonymous No.3049734]

>>3048839
But
Why do you want it?

[Anonymous No.3049739]

>>3049734
Because I want it. It looks ugly in a good way. I want to grow old with it.

[Anonymous No.3049747]

It's only ten quid. Worst that can happen is you buy a couple less drinks next time you go out and balance it out.

>implying /lit/ goes out

[Anonymous No.3049748]

>>3049747

I used the word "out" twice in that sentence, and now it's bothering me ...

[Anonymous No.3049754]

LPs are made not from Bakelite but (yes) vinyl.

Also, Bakelite was invented in 1907, so you can probably push that circa back by at least a couple of decades.

Also also, the seller can't even work out if it has a reservoir? really?

[Anonymous No.3049760]

>>3048839
I'm looking at the picture OP and I think that one pen is a dip-pen holder, but the other one (with the metallic overlay - probably silver) might just be an actual fountain pen, but that's not certain.

The loose nibs in the case all look like dip nibs, whilst the one actually in the pen looks more like the conventional fountain pen nib. (so, I assume the dip nibs slot into the holder thing that doesn't have a silver overlay)

Honestly, if this were to be your "first" fountain pen (if indeed they turned out to be so), I wouldn't recommend getting it.

If you know your way around a nib/feed and know how to get it cleaned up and going (or, at least, know who to send it to wherever in the world you are and have the funds for such servicing) then by all means, pick it up if it interests you, and if you can get it for cheap.

But, if you're a beginner, there are better, and perhaps more suitable, options out there that require less speculation and effort. (and would be less fragile too; there's a reason why bakelite was superseded by superior pen materials, if indeed it's bakelite - might be ebonite, which, I suppose, is almost as brittle now with the passing of so many years - never drop a vintage pen made from either, as it will shatter something horrid)

Are there any written markings on it?

Can you ask the seller?

The one with the silver overlay - does the nib that's stuck in it have any inscription? (it might be a gold nib)

Ask for more pics of the one with the overlay if you are really interested; if it has a feed (a black thing under the nib) then it's definitely a fountain pen.

Removable dip nibs were steel as they were meant to be disposable; the gold dip nibs were usually stuck to their holder, that was typically ornate: ivory/gold/silver etc., most people used steel dip nibs in that era as gold ones were only for the aristocracy and very wealthy.

[Anonymous No.3049765]

>>3049760
>Removable dip nibs were steel as they were meant to be disposable; the gold dip nibs were usually stuck to their holder, that was typically ornate: ivory/gold/silver etc., most people used steel dip nibs in that era as gold ones were only for the aristocracy and very wealthy.

The seller doesn't know one thing. It is object inherited.

[Anonymous No.3049781]

>>3049765
>The seller doesn't know one thing. It is object inherited
Then, if you are able, try to get some more photos of the one that might be a fountain pen.

Though it often benefits me, I don't like the idea of people selling off such inherited objects; there's so much of the user in such a thing as a pen (or a watch, or a pipe for that matter).

Pens were the primary tool of communication in those days despite telegrams - people wrote everything all the time.

When I write with my vintage pens, I try to imagine just what those pens have written: What ideas have flowed from the writer's mind, down his arm, through that pen, and into the corporeal and undeniable existence of the written word?

I've got a pre-war German pen flying its way to me at this moment - I will wonder: what sort of person used it?

I wish I could find my grand father's (or great grand father's for that matter) fountain pens. I would never sell them. Ever. Nor trade them for all the fancy shiny new Montblanc crap in the world.

Still, if some rootless idiot wants to trade his history I'll gladly buy it if it interests me.

[Anonymous No.3049783]

>>3049781
>Still, if some rootless idiot wants to trade his history I'll gladly buy it if it interests me.
Addendum:
Some rootless idiot with a head full of twitter.

Yeck.

[Anonymous No.3049786]

I agree.

Culture didn't vanish, we are killing it.

[Anonymous No.3049788]

>>3049754
This, sounds a bit shady, at least for your first fountain pen.
>>3049748
The joy of finding another person who shares the same arbitrary rules they adhere to..!

[Anonymous No.3050005]

>>3048839
Did ya buy it?

[Anonymous No.3050013]

>dropped my pen
>nib bent 90 degree angle
>took a pliers and bent it back most of the way
>writes smooth as fuck now
>mfw

[Anonymous No.3050086]

>>3050013
Well done!
What pen did you drop?

I've got one that bent when it rolled off a table.
Happened nearly a year ago now when I was out and put the pen down to answer the phone. Still haven't gotten it fixed too chicken to try and fix it myself and risk fucking it up

[Anonymous No.3051358]

bump for curiosity

[Anonymous No.3052182]

>>3049720
That's nice and legible. What ink and what pen?

[Anonymous No.3052214]

>>3050086
Just one of the Parker Frontiers with the gold plated nib.
I wouldn't try it with an expensive pen.
I just wrapped a needlenosed pliers in masking tape and bent it back. It's still not back all the way but it writes better than it did when it was straight.
I was afraid the nib would snap and take my eye out, but it didn't.

On another note I got one of the Chinese ripoffs of the Parker 51 today (or maybe it's a ripoff of the ripoff, I can't tell)

[Anonymous No.3053218]

>>3052214
>On another note I got one of the Chinese ripoffs of the Parker 51 today (or maybe it's a ripoff of the ripoff, I can't tell)
A Hero?

Yeah, pretty funny that there are "fake" hero's out there.

I'd like to get a real 51 one day, but since I'm not so fond of the look (and since they're still pretty plentiful), I've not yet bothered.

Still plenty of more interesting things out there for me.

[Anonymous No.3054560]

>>3049781
>I've got a pre-war German pen flying its way to me at this moment - I will wonder: what sort of person used it?
Well, it arrived.

Did you get the pen set, OP?

[Anonymous No.3054569]

>>3054560
With some of its ancestors/successors.

Still made in Hannover, still awesome.

[Anonymous No.3054572]

>>3054569
>ancestors/successors.
sorry, the word I was looking for was "descendants".
Urgh.

Time for dreamtime, Mr. B.