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Old 4 June 2013, 10:36 AM   #1
BMess
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First Fountain Pen

I just bought my first pen today from Fahrney's in DC. It's a Parker Sonnett black lacquer with gold plating details. It writes well and works nicely as an intro pen. I will be buying another, higher end, pen later this summer at the DC pen show in Tyson's.

Fahrney's is a beautiful store with a tremendous selection of pens and inks. I didn't know too much walking in so I asked my sales person for some recommendations. I gave her my criteria and, unfortunately, she was absolutely know help what so ever. I told her I liked the Parker (that I ended up buying) and can she recommend anything similar. After 40-45 minutes of her saying "uhm and well" and making excuses about why she doesn't know anything I finally told her that she can stop looking (since she had no clue). This was quite disappointing because most people have nothing but great things to say about this store. I then asked her to out the ink cartridge in for me. She did and told me to write with it. The ink was a pale grey and she said that she accidentally got water in the nib and ink and after some time the color will go back to the correct color. This was even more disappointing. I finally left that store terribly annoyed.

Turns out my long time friend is very close with the owner of the store so I'm going to speak to him about this terrible experience.

Here is the obligatory picture:

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Old 6 June 2013, 03:38 AM   #2
Lion
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I'm glad to see you are venturing into and enjoying the world of Fountain pens as they are a totally different writing experience over Ballpoint pens, Rollerball pens and the rest. The nib on Fountain pens seem to just glide over the paper as you write with them without applying any pressure. As a suggestion for your next Fountain pen, purchase one with a convertor or one with a piston fill(there are other types as well) so you can use bottled inks. This way you can use a variety of different colors from different manufacturers when ever you feel like a change in color. I carry two fountain pens everyday and one is filled with MontBlanc Bordeaux and the other is filled with MontBlanc Oyster gray.

I also like my Fountain pens to have gold nibs and there are many different size nibs which produce different line effects. You can also look into vintage Fountain pens from the 1920's and 1930's as many of them came with flexible gold nibs. There are so many excellent companies producing Fountain pens these days that you can really have fun checking out which ones you like.....

As for your buying experience, I understand it did not go too smoothly but the saleslady may have been new and inexperienced and maybe too embarrassed to share this with you. Give her and the store a break...go back when you are ready and I'm sure your next experience will go smoothly!!!

Take it easy.....Leo
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THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND BOYS IS THE PRICE OF THE TOYS!!!
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Old 11 June 2013, 11:08 AM   #3
SUBversive
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Congrats. Sorry to see the lame sales experience. Using bottled ink gives you the organic feel of writing I feel like a founding father when I load a pen and get it all over my hands. I like noodlers ink some shade of blue for me.
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Old 11 June 2013, 08:19 PM   #4
Lion
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SUBversive View Post
Congrats. Sorry to see the lame sales experience. Using bottled ink gives you the organic feel of writing I feel like a founding father when I load a pen and get it all over my hands. I like noodlers ink some shade of blue for me.
Yikes...all over your hands!!!
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SS GMT-II 16710 PEPSI(Z-serial#)
THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND BOYS IS THE PRICE OF THE TOYS!!!
MontBlanc Meisterstuck Doue Silver Barley
MontBlanc Meisterstuck Solitaire Doue Signum
Proud Card Carrying Member of the Curmudgeons.....Yikes!!!
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Old 11 June 2013, 09:07 PM   #5
68camaro
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Fahrney's has a great reputation and salesperson was new and certainly not trained very well. I would not let this experience dampen your joy or enthusiasm over FP's or your new Parker.

Enjoy your pen, I am down in Richmond & have triedto get to DC pen show but public hors in past have been on weekend which for me is all day trek, kinda hard with kids activities and all.

If you do get to DC Pen show, please post observations and some pictures of neat stuff.
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Old 10 December 2013, 12:18 PM   #6
kieselguhr
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I have the same pen. Not much to compare it to but my father's Parker 51. Black lacquer and gold trim make for a classy finish. The writing experience is good too. No complaints here. I use the sonnet exclusively for work. I have a jotter tucked away in the wallet and using that when I am out and about sure leaves a wanting feeling.
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Old 24 December 2013, 02:39 AM   #7
GolfGuyJD
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I too am in your same boat. I chose an inexpensive LAMY Safari and a Retro 1951 Tornado as my first pens. I didn't particularly care for the LAMY at first, however the paper you write on is almost as important as the pen itself. I recently purchased the Retro 1951 Tornado and I love it. I am a law student, so my hand no longer gets fatigued after making the switch from roller pens to fountain. On the paper note, Rhodia paper is a good place to start when testing out pens. While it is expensive, it is well worth the money if you tend to write a lot.
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