When I was at school we HAD to use a dip pen. Ballpoint pens had been invented, but they were banned from school and I never had one. Later years in school my parents bought me a Conway Stewart fountain pen. By 1963 at college I graduated up to a Parker 57, which I used for years. Yes, I do use a ballpoint pen nowadays, but it is only used for quick notes..... and as a result I now have two different styles of handwriting. Scribble with the ballpoint, and for best I always use a fountain pen.
Using a fountain pen I slow down and write much more neatly. Whenever a greetings card needs to be written my wife brings me my fountain pen. I consider that there is something special about a fountain pen. A letter is much more personal, and the recipient can sense that too. Nowadays I have several fountain pens and they get rotated. (But on a whim, really).
Yesterday I made myself a brand new one. Brazilian rosewood.... the holy grail of woods :-)
Rod
