Fountain Pen vs Rollerball

mattyb240

mattyb240

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Once again I seek the advice of the wise TSR group.

I'm looking at getting a Lammy Safari but I'm not sure on a rollerball or fountain pen.

I haven't used a fountain pen in 10 years and when I did (school) it smudged like a bugger. I am left handed with scruffy writing.

Primary purpose would be for quick note taking at work and occasional letter as it's something I would like to do. Any thoughts as to which may be better?
 
I am right handed, but understand that being left handed can cause difficulties when using fountain pens as the writing hand drags across the barely dry ink. Having said that, there are inks that dry much faster than others, and also pen/nib combinations that are less 'wet' and therefore would be more suitable. A FP with fine nib will lay down less ink than the same pen with a medium or broad nib (assuming you can live with a fine line).

Lamy Safaris are quite affordable and would be a good place to start. They are available with different size nibs that can easily be changed later on if you wanted to. The beauty of fountain pens is the almost endless variety of ink colours that are available, as well as the fact that they improve your handwriting. You can always pick up an inexpensive rollerball too for those times that you need to take quick notes, but for writing letters and general correspondence you can't beat a fountain pen.
 
Flip a coin.

Heads = fountain pen
Tails = roller ball

Just before the coin falls you'll wish it to land on one side or the other - that's your answer.

For the record, I'd go with roller ball, for all the usual 'too much faff' reasons.
 
Agree on the Lamy. The idea of just switching nibs appealed to me. Have the safari and 3 nibs. Easier to change than I thought.
 
Thought I might tag on the back of this one as it's almost the same question I wish to ask. First of all I'm a lefty and seriously heavy handed. For example I can just about use 0.7 lead pencils, prefer 0.9 but generally end up using a 2.0 drafting pencil. When it comes to ink it's a similar story with 1.0 nib size gel roller balls being the only pens I feel comfortable with and which makes my appalling handwriting almost legible. I recently found an old nameless cheap looking fountain pen which I cleaned and tried using again but it's a horrible scratchy little thing. In any case it's piqued my interest in a fling at firstly a decent roller ball and secondly a fountain pen. My question is, do Lamy (which seems to be one of the most recommended makes around and I can actually buy in a shop here in Australia) do 1.0 nib size roller ball refills? It's not abundantly clear from their website that they do. Also, if I were to get a fountain pen would it be best getting a medium/large nib size?
 
After the fantastic advice here to get a Lamy, I completely ignored you all and got one of these from Cult Pens. clicky

CP-mini-fp-main.jpg


'Tis a lovely little thing and fits nicely inside the Midori style note pad I got from Sean.

Ive noticed that my writing style has completely changed from school, where I used to sit hunched over the paper my cramped left hand dragging across the page. Now I sit much more upright with the whole arm used to form the letters, my tricep feeling most of the strain when I practice and no smudging.
 
Peejay said:
Thought I might tag on the back of this one as it's almost the same question I wish to ask. First of all I'm a lefty and seriously heavy handed. For example I can just about use 0.7 lead pencils, prefer 0.9 but generally end up using a 2.0 drafting pencil. When it comes to ink it's a similar story with 1.0 nib size gel roller balls being the only pens I feel comfortable with and which makes my appalling handwriting almost legible. I recently found an old nameless cheap looking fountain pen which I cleaned and tried using again but it's a horrible scratchy little thing. In any case it's piqued my interest in a fling at firstly a decent roller ball and secondly a fountain pen. My question is, do Lamy (which seems to be one of the most recommended makes around and I can actually buy in a shop here in Australia) do 1.0 nib size roller ball refills? It's not abundantly clear from their website that they do. Also, if I were to get a fountain pen would it be best getting a medium/large nib size?
Click to expand...

If you've any idea of using an FP, you ought to train yourself not to be so heavy-handed first, as, if you're really gouging the tip of a rollerball into the paper, you're possibly pressing sufficiently firmly to spring an FP nib. Try to rest your writing arm on the table or desk you're using, holding the pen with a more gentle grip and simply making angled strokes and loops on a sheet of paper, concentrating on keeping your grip on the pen as light as possible, and making the strokes using your arm rather than your fingers.

http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html
 
Interesting thoughts chaps, thanks for the input. As much as I would love to treat myself to both a roller and FP I would have a hard time sneaking it passed her. I think I'm going down the FP route. Does anyone have any discount codes for Cult pens at all?
 
chrisbell said:
If you've any idea of using an FP, you ought to train yourself not to be so heavy-handed first, as, if you're really gouging the tip of a rollerball into the paper, you're possibly pressing sufficiently firmly to spring an FP nib. Try to rest your writing arm on the table or desk you're using, holding the pen with a more gentle grip and simply making angled strokes and loops on a sheet of paper, concentrating on keeping your grip on the pen as light as possible, and making the strokes using your arm rather than your fingers.

http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for that chrisbell. Am starting to do that already. An FP appears pretty unforgiving of shitty writing technique or at least requires you to give a bit more respect to the pen. Managed to get the little scratchy FP going. Gave it a bit of left handed orientation using some wet and dry sandpaper. It's still a bit blotchy but I can live with that until I find a another one to compare it to.

I've decided to first off try a disposable FP (Pilot Vpen) to see if I can really get on with these things.
 
Great idea about using the disposable. I find then very useful.
One thing that I found the hardest switch from a BIC type ballpoint to a FP is to remember to pick it up and take it with me when I'm through using it.
If you choose to use the disposable FP and leave it, it wouldn't be a disaster.

ps... Roller ball pens. Once when i had money and was into conspicuous consumption I bought a Montblanc rollerball. I found the Montblanc refills 'dry'. That was before eBay so I'm not sure the ones I had available were the freshest.
 
Johnus said:
ps... Roller ball pens. Once when i had money and was into conspicuous consumption I bought a Montblanc rollerball. I found the Montblanc refills 'dry'. That was before eBay so I'm not sure the ones I had available were the freshest.
Click to expand...

Haven't made my mind up regarding a Rollerball. Might just stick with the Uni Ball Impact. Don't particularly want to spend money on a Lamy and discover that the nib's a bit small. Haven't found anywhere to try it out here in Western Australia.
 
mattyb240 said:
Interesting thoughts chaps, thanks for the input. As much as I would love to treat myself to both a roller and FP I would have a hard time sneaking it passed her. I think I'm going down the FP route. Does anyone have any discount codes for Cult pens at all?
Click to expand...

Once you get the FP, the matching roller is easy if you need to float that particular boat ;)
 
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