Moments of Permanence - ... in which I have serious rage about WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE.

From: sami Date: August 11th, 2011 12:29 am (UTC) (Link)

It's very true, cheap ballpoint pens are rubbish. And I believe for the first few years of their availability they were basically all rubbish. Me, I'm fond of gel-ink roller pens, which have all the advantages of ballpoint without the tendency to get clogged or feel all scratchy.

Although realistically, my favourite writing implement is a mechanical pencil. Pencils *never* leak or smear, and they have just enough friction to write neatly. (Which may be your distinction with fountain vs. other.) And mechanical pencils don't need to be sharpened. (Wooden pencils are better for drawing, though.)

If fountain pens work for you and they're what you're used to, that's totally, totally reasonable and understandable and I will not mock it, but will mock those who oppose you. What I cannot abide without mocking it really hard is if you've never used a fountain pen before in your life and you get one to pair with your Moleskine because it's "more stylish".

And you have a point about paper as well, but I mostly consider pen-comfort more important, probably because I've only ever used fountain pens and the like on high-quality paper. Crappy ballpoint pens will be horrible regardless of the paper quality, and nice pens will work regardless, as a rule.

I hate those bad-ballpoint ink smears. I think they were the initial reason I switched back to habitual pencil.

(Reply) (Parent)