Why I Love Fountain Pens
For those who prefer their hobbies deep, technical, and tangible.
When I was in the web development space, I heard something that made me very sad, over and over again:
Oh I don’t have hobbies. My work is my hobby.
And look, it’s great to love what you do for work. My entire career has been an incredible attempt to get paid for things I like doing, and I’ve had more success than most.
But being that one dimensional is sad.
There are a lot of benefits to having hobbies. They work a different part of your brain. They help you relax and NOT think about work. They give you restorative time...which makes you better at your job.
And they give you a different perspective.
If you only do one type of thing, it becomes very easy to think only one way...and that’s bad.
I Have Lots of Hobbies
That’s why I have lots of hobbies. Honestly, maybe too many.
From playing the drums to smoking cigars to baseball, I sometimes struggle with what to do when I have some free time.
One of those hobbies is collecting and using fountain pens.
I’ve always had a great interest in writing implements and stationery. My first “fancy” pen was a teal blue Caran d’Ache. It was tiny and perfect. I carried it everywhere...until I lost it.
I was always on a quest for the perfect notebook...though in the late 90s and early 2000s my options were limited. Franklin Covey had a store at my local outlet mall, which I enjoyed shopping in1.
I didn’t get into fountain pens properly until I was in my late 20s, and I was HOOKED. Aside from being some of the finest writing implements you can get, they have a characteristic common among virtually all of my hobbies.
There’s a Lot to Know
One day I took my friend Emily to the cigar shop with me. We were running errands and were going right by it. As we stared at the wall, she said, “Why are there so many? Aren’t they all basically the same?”
“NO,” I said a little too excitedly, before calming down and telling her about how the climate, soil, leaves, aging process, wrapping, and shape all affect how the cigar tastes.
There’s a craft in creating a great cigar, and while perfect precision isn’t required for a good smoke, the better it’s crafted, the better the experience.
The same goes for fountain pens. There are LOTS of factors that go into this particular writing implement:
What is the size of the nib?
What material is the nib made of?
How is the body crafted?
How do we feed ink into it?
Can you post the cap?
What are the size and weight of the pen?
All of these things factor into the writing experience. Use too fine of a nib and you won’t get the broad stroke you might want for writing — but it might be perfect for drawing.
Use a crappy metal and the writing experience won’t be smooth. Heck, if you use a soft metal like gold, I’ve heard that the nib changes ever so slightly based on how you write.
And we haven’t even gotten into the inks.
It Keeps Me Rooted in the Real World
There’s a quote towards the beginning of Fight Club:
I had it all. Even the glass dishes with tiny bubbles and imperfections, proof they were crafted by the honest, simple, hard-working indigenous peoples of... wherever.
Now…if you’re familiar with the movie, you know this is a knock on consumerism (or whatever). But nearly 30 years on from the movie, the idea of imperfections and craft has taken on a different meaning.
Fountain Pens are both hand-made and machine-made, but no matter what, they are going to have little differences — maybe even some imperfections.
Those differences manifest themselves in the writing implement…whenever you write with it, clean it, fill it with a new ink.
It’s proof that what I’m doing is tangible and affected by my surroundings…something I don’t really get in my work life.
I like that.
Though my high school planner the school gave us will always be the GOAT.