Writing Longhand and the love of pens

[El Presidente]

I am an unabashed lover of the art of writing. 

I can hold a Monte Especial in the hand for 15 minutes before lighting. I look at it, roll it around the different fingers in the hand. They are a work of art delivering a sublime tactile pleasure before the thought of lighting it even arrives. 

The same tactile euphoria for me is achieved when holding a great pen.  

Pen and paper. No electronics to disturb you.....just pen and paper, peace and quiet. Nothing is more conducive to the quality creation or transfer of ideas. 

So this week while at home recuperating I sat down write a letter to an auntie for her 90th birthday.  

I use pen and paper weekly for planning purposes and use a mix of block and longhand. However, this is the first time in maybe a decade that I have written a long letter longhand. 

¡Ay, caramba! 

I struggled big time.  What I thought would take me an hour took me three. Writing longhand extensively felt as natural as walking backwards. 

It dawned on me that I am losing a skill I have always prided myself on.  Am I the only one?  Will fantastic pens become the sole domain of poseurs?

I made a commitment to write longhand at work from this point on....just to keep my hand in ...so to say. 

Let me know if you are in the same predicament or have managed to retain this skill. 

...and if you are a lover of Pens....post up your favourites..owned or aspire to own 

 

[Isaac]

I love fountain pens, and have more than a few.  It is something that brings a bit of joy to my daily routine.  

[PigFish]

... maybe you can explain how it is mightier than the sword! Everyone I have tested the theory on has left in an ambulance. -Piggy

[watches_whiskies_cigars]

I really like the way an Omas fountain pen writes

[gweilgi]

I learned to write with a fountain pen, and never lost the love for them.  

But yes, the demands of modern life with all its tap-tapping away on keyboards and smartphones has left my skills withered.  At university, I wrote out a 15,000 word thesis in longhand using only my trusty Pelikan Souverän -- and then most of my doctoral thesis with a Montblanc Meisterstück -- but these days I struggle to write a couple of pages in anything resembling a legible script.  

When I consider that some schools now make the the art of writing optional, I can't help but think that the end of civilisation is nigh...

[Drguano]

I had to read the title twice. The first time I saw an extra 'i' in the last word which seriously changes the theme of the thread...

[PatrickEwing]

I always carry an extra fine tipped pen in my pocket. None of this ball point or gel amateur hour. Embarassingly, I will even take it out to sign a receipt. I only own one fountain pen though. So far. My wife thinks I'm a weirdo. My coworkers think I'm a weirdo. They're not wrong. But I think they're all low class and couldn't see the finer things in life if it punched them in the lip. 

[SirVantes]

I've no penmanship to speak of, as a result of all those past exams that required you to write as fast as you can for hours, while being just about legible.  Hasn't stopped me from persisting with fountain pens to this day though.   

@Isaac, like @planetary, I would love to see some of your collection.  Any more Montblanc Writers?

My old cigar case doubles as a pen case.

[ReelMan]

While I am no longer using fountain pens (I now use rollers exclusively), I was a pen fanatic.  I use my journal daily, and would no more not write daily than I would end a sentence with a preposition.

[Fuzz]

My favourite pen. Can't remember where I got it from....

[Isaac]

Ill try to get a picture up of my pens.  Im currently using my MB Hemingway this week while at work filled with MB Midnight Blue.  

[PigFish]

15 hours ago, gweilgi said:

I learned to write with a fountain pen, and never lost the love for them.  

But yes, the demands of modern life with all its tap-tapping away on keyboards and smartphones has left my skills withered.  At university, I wrote out a 15,000 word thesis in longhand using only my trusty Pelikan Souverän -- and then most of my doctoral thesis with a Montblanc Meisterstück -- but these days I struggle to write a couple of pages in anything resembling a legible script.  

When I consider that some schools now make the the art of writing optional, I can't help but think that the end of civilisation is nigh...

That is quite a feat. With all the dexterity I have in my hands, unfortunately my penmanship lacks terribly. I try to avoid writing by hand... It is my own fault of course, but being left handed I went through the early days of schooling where people who did not understand hand and eye dominance tried to force everyone into a right-handed helix. It finally took my father going to the school and telling them that as another left-hander to leave me be and allow me to write with whichever hand suited me. I switched off for a few years.

I still see lefties write with the paper twisted as though they are right-handed. I often ask, don't you smear your work writing like that? After they complain about it, I twist their paper and say, you have been doing it wrong all these years, now this is the right way... -LOL

As a side note to you pen lovers, pen making is quite popular. I am surprised that no one has brought it up. I have seen some beautiful handmade pens. Not that any of you need another hobby...

-Piggy

[jat]

I've had similar thoughts over the years, must be a symptom of getting older, the desire to retain a skill (that of scratching your mark on paper) or developing a skill (being able to write beautifully and elegantly, which I never have). You buy a pen, buy a few pens, write something for awhile and then they all go in the draw. Congrats to those that make this little change part of their normal routine.

I kept a journal while on a trip to Cube last year and writing every day (while having a rum & cigar) became something I would not miss. My penmanship improved out of site to start with. Little details of the trip that would have fallen through the memory sieve over time were retained. And there is something pleasing that happens in the mind when you have to think in advance about putting ink to paper and cannot so easily press backspace or select and delete.

[gweilgi]

8 hours ago, PigFish said:

That is quite a feat. With all the dexterity I have in my hands, unfortunately my penmanship lacks terribly. I try to avoid writing by hand... It is my own fault of course, but being left handed I went through the early days of schooling where people who did not understand hand and eye dominance tried to force everyone into a right-handed helix. It finally took my father going to the school and telling them that as another left-hander to leave me be and allow me to write with whichever hand suited me. I switched off for a few years.

I still see lefties write with the paper twisted as though they are right-handed. I often ask, don't you smear your work writing like that? After they complain about it, I twist their paper and say, you have been doing it wrong all these years, now this is the right way... -LOL

As a side note to you pen lovers, pen making is quite popular. I am surprised that no one has brought it up. I have seen some beautiful handmade pens. Not that any of you need another hobby...

-Piggy

There seem to be two main problems for lefties when using fountain pens.  

Firstly, because we write from left to right, they have to push the nib across the paper rather than pulling it as a right-handed person would.  This creates problems with ink flow, and the smooth movement of the nib across the paper.  

The other problem is that in attempting to avoid the hand smearing through the ink, lefties -- in my observation, anyhow -- tend to adopt an uncomfortable position of the hand.  This leads to the pen being pushed onto the paper too hard as well as cramping in the hand.

So maybe the solution is for southpaws to start writing like Leonardo da Vinci: left-handed but writing in mirror script from right to left.  Can't be that hard...

 

[polarbear]

As I'm a lefty I've always had a love hate relationship with hand writing documents
It always seems I smudge whatever I've writing if I use anything other than a cheap bic, so I've never had much experience with high end pens

That being said, I fear that hand writing anything other than a short post it note will go the way of the Dodo in the generations to come as verbal note taking apps and digital assistants become more and more refined

A good friend of mines 15yo daughter can type faster than most secretaries but her handwriting makes chicken scratches look like calligraphy, so it seems schools aren't putting as much emphasis on handwriting skills as they used to, I guess

[Isaac]

Just a few of my MB pens. 

[Guest ripper]

Beautiful selection of Montblanc pens. Thanks for posting Isaac.

I am retired 13 years but have a side gig selling pens and swag to businesses. Sold 1.2 million pens last year but they are ballpoint & gel pens & markers. In our company, my title is King of Pens.

[planetary]

3 hours ago, ripper said:

Beautiful selection of Montblanc pens. Thanks for posting Isaac.

I am retired 13 years but have a side gig selling pens and swag to businesses. Sold 1.2 million pens last year but they are ballpoint & gel pens & markers. In our company, my title is King of Pens.

Sailor fan, it seems!

Yes, @Isaac, remarkable collection!

[luv2fly]

My wife has been using disposable fountain pens for years (in her job).  I like them but nothing compares to a real fountain pen.  I love the way they write but the written (pen) word is going away as far as I can tell.  Email, text, etc....

i still sign all documents and written correspondence with my Mont Blanc FP. Unfortunately it is MIA at this moment.  It is here somewhere but I fear the cleaning crew placed it in somewhere I have not looked. 

[Williamos]

I've always had a love-hate relationship with handwriting. At primary school I remember teachers barking orthodox pen grip into me which felt so unnatural in the hand and correspondingly my handwriting was "chook's foot" as my father called it. Then at secondary school I could hold the pen comfortably for me - imagine a crab holding an icy pole stick - and my handwriting flourished. Like one's signature, handwriting is idiosyncratic and very personal. Receiving a handwritten letter was always very special.

I still write freehand a lot to get thoughts out of my head before transferring to a word processor. I use Scrivener, an incredible piece of software. My handwriting certainly has deteriorated. I look at this as an inevitable consequence of technological change. It's hard to lament too much when, say, I have 300 pages of notes in Scrivener and I do a "search for word" and instantaneously there they all are. That would have taken hours scouring through a notebook.

Having said that, I remember fondly my father's signature, that beautiful, confident flourish. Every time he wrote a check he'd say "Wood comes from trees, paper comes from wood, but money doesn't grow on trees, though I wish that it would."


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[Jeremy Festa]

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