How to Write with a Fountain Pen

As someone who has always been a fan of writing with a fountain pen instead of the more pedestrian ball point pen, I have noticed that there is a basic lack of familiarity in the general public with the art of writing with the more elegant fountain pen. I was frustrated by this lack of general awareness most recently when I allowed a student of mine to borrow my Waterman Phileas fountain pen to sign a petition to add my philosophy course. While I had let others borrow my pens before, I was unprepared for this student's basic lack of finesse with a fine writing instrument. He removed the pen's cap and immediately pushed the bib straight down onto the paper, hard, as though he were writing with a ballpoint pen. Unfortunately the fountain pen's nib suffered irreparable damage and was fairly severely bent.

It got me thinking that what one could really use is a straightforward guide to writing with a fine writing instrument such as a fountain pen. The single most important factor is overcoming the urge to treat the fountain pen as though it were a ballpoint pen. Rather than pushing the pen straight down onto the paper, it is important to hold the pen at a rather sharp angle relative to the plane of the paper. Rather than pressing hard, one simply glides the pen over the paper allowing the thin fountain pen ink to flow freely from the ink reservoir, through the nib, and onto the paper.

Unlike a ballpoint pen, a fountain pen's nib is designed to allow the ink to flow liberally from the pen. Thus fountain pen ink is quite watery from the perspective of the ballpoint pen user. It can certainly take a period of adjustment to learn how to write with a fountain pen, but the result is a more elegant and smooth writing stroke that does not tire one's hand as quickly as writing with a ballpoint pen. For anyone who does a fair amount of handwriting, the benefit of learning to write with a fountain pen is clear. Less downward pressure means less strain on the hand, wrist and arm. I have personally found that I can write for hours on end with a fountain pen without a single arm cramp to testify of my profuse writing.