That particular fountain pen can’t be refilled. It’s a BIC All-In-One disposable fountain pen. Bears striking resemblance to a Pilot Varsity, but the cap is different.
I filled from a bottle, even during exams. My professor teased me a bit, sometimes I had to refill twice because those bluebooks were thirsty. I used a Lamy Vista which is still my main pen 15 years later. My favorite ink was noodlers Zhivago. It’s a green so dark it’s almost black, but you can still barely tell it’s green. Black enough to be accepted, but I was also warned by TAs it made it impossible to grade my papers anonymously.
I’m an American, 40 years old. Not only have I never used a fountain pen, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen one used in person. School was all #2 pencils, mechanical pencils, and then ballpoint pens, as I progressed through the years.
Also 40 and an American. Myself (and some others) had these in grade school. They kinda sucked and messes were made on more than one occasion. They were a cool thing to try. Far from the norm or some sort of requirement.
I highly recommend changing that. Writing with a fountain pen is a very different experience. You can feel the texture on the paper and it makes my awful handwriting much better. If you want to try for cheap, PlatInum Preppy pens are cheap and decent. Different inks can also impact the feel.
I’ve wanted to try them before, and even bought whatever people were saying was a good starter a few years ago. The issue is that I honestly never write anything in pen. I think the only time I do is when I’m addressing a letter or check, which never happens these days. So the pen just dried out with basically no use…
I imagine very few people reading this actually ever had to do so, at least as depicted. I, however, have. Because I’m exactly that type of asshole deliberately anachronistic nerd.
All throughout my school career, I used a Sheaffer Targa from the late 1970’s. I still have it. Here it is.
Mine was not the fanciest entry in the Targa series – by far – but even in its basic stainless steel trim it’s a head turner thanks to its very striking and distinctive nib design.
I can hear the screeching from the pen collectors from here. Yes, I committed sacrilege by grinding my antique pen’s point into an oblique nib but, yes, I also have an unmolested original nib in its as-manufactured configuration. Still in its factory packaging, sealed, unused!
I like a good oblique nib, helped moreso because using this pen for all my assignments absolutely annoyed the shit out of most of my teachers. (And if an oblique is not available, I will make do with a plain italic nib instead.)
Because of that, to this very day, my basic handwriting looks like this. It looks absolutely ridiculous if you put a ball point or pencil in my hand, but let me have one of my fountain pens and I can crank out these serifed italics as fast as most people can scribble a regular printed hand. Now there’s a less-than-marketable skill.
I await with interest what all the armchair graphologists will now tell me what’s wrong with me.
Do you meet a lot of armchair graphologists when you share this hobby? Genuinely interested, I never even knew this was a hobby or interest outside of maybe calligraphy. Very interesting post and fantastic handwriting.
This is a really great comment. It has everything. It's educational, it's funny, it's cynical, but also very optimistic with its unabashed display of niche nerddom. Gold star. Ya know what? 3 gold stars!!
Meanwhile I eyedroppered a single preppy and didn’t really have to refill it through 3 years of highschool. I think I added like 2/3rds water once because I was low, but I was using oxblood so it was still dark dark red lmao
I still have, and occasionally use a pen virtually identical to this. Mine is a Sheaffer “Slim pen” purchased 1988, so maybe thinner than yours. Some years ago, I sent it away for repair. It came back fixed free of charge!
There is a slim version of the Targa, also. I don’t have one, but I am given to understand that it takes weird cartridges that are now unobtanium. I’ve never seen one in person, only pictures online.
I don’t have any vintage Parker fountain pens. I do have one of the re-release 51’s which is a fine enough pen, and I have a Parker Latitude from 2007 that is so terrible the thing seems to have been memory holed entirely and has negative collector’s value.
Oh, and I have about 67 zillion Jotters, both vintage and modern.
Nobody in my k-12 had a fountain pen cartrige or otherwise. Now I’m all about them though, r/fountainpens is one if the only things I miss about reddit
I know there’s a lot of hate on lemmy for it, but if you’re missing r/fountainpens there’s some thriving fountain pen communities on discord that have really helped me get over losing the sub in reddit’s fall from grace usability
penposium (Most active, also probably the most misanthropic casual)
r/pens (Most users and a great resource for identifying obscure pens)
Either pencil or ballpoint/rollerball. Fountain pens are having a bit of a renaissance as luxury/hobby items, but outside of some Catholic schools, they’ve been irrelevant as American school supplies for 40 years.
Add comment