A history of pens
5 February 2020 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI don't think I ever mentioned the tragi-farce before Christmas when I thought I'd finally managed to lose my trusty Parker 25 pen by taking it with me to the butcher's to buy my Christmas joint and finding that I no longer had it the next time I tried to write. (Having lost the manuscript would have been utter tragedy; having lost the pen was merely sad.)
Later on I got out the replacement (with the old lid from the previous pen, since I'd swapped them -- but sadly the 'new' lid had soon become sloppy as well, presumbly due to getting dropped), put in an emergency ink cartridge since the filler had gone with the old pen, took up my umbrella again since it was threatening rain, and sallied out with my manuscript once more. It did rain. And when I put up my umbrella, there was an unexpected tinkling noise on the pavement, and lo and behold, out fell my missing pen! It had somehow or other dropped down into the folds of my half-furled umbrella and become firmly lodged there, probably when I was fiddling with my door-key.
However, since I had already broached the new cartridge, I've been using the replacement pen ever since. As previously observed, they do hold very much more ink than a fountain pen filler does. This one has written 7*500+4*525 (my fourth notebook proves to be very close-ruled) words before running out, which also gives an idea of how much I've written since December 21st... The nib has pretty well worn in to my hand now.
One of the reasons I wasn't absolutely devastated at the prospect of having lost the pen that had served me since my schooldays was that I'd managed to drop it nib-downwards on the pavement a couple of months earlier (another mishap that humiliated me too much to mention), and despite many previous lucky escapes this time I finally did damage the nib. I did sort of bend it back into place, but it's been fairly scratchy ever since (it may eventually establish a new working equilibrium, but the end is definitely a bit crooked), so I had it in the back of my mind that I might need to switch to the reserve nib unit anyway at some stage. But in fact the 'new' nib wasn't all that fluent either, not (presumably) because it had been previously damaged but simply because it was someone else's pen — like wearing second-hand shoes that have been trodden into the shape of someone else's feet.
It seems to have improved now, but I still planned to switch back to the old pen, having successfully retrieved it. But when the cartridge finally ran out on the new one and I unscrewed the barrel of the old one to check if it needed refilling, I discovered that the actual filler had snapped in half -- presumably as a result of falling from out of my umbrella at head-height, even though the cap was on the pen and the steel barrel and plastic nib unit were apparently unaffected. So I shall have to attempt to order another screw converter over the Internet again. In the mean time, I've fitted another cartridge to the 'new' pen — luckily I had a whole packet of emergency spares.
It would probably make more sense to shift the 'good' filler unit over from the Sonnet, since I barely use that any more — I'm frightened of letting it roll off the work surface onto the new kitchen floor tiles (I've already broken several items of glassware that way; not nearly so forgiving as lino!) and as a matter of policy I never take it out for a walk with me in case I might lose or drop it. And since almost all my writing on this story for the last year or more has been done on walks, I get very little use out of the expensive pen. But I'm reluctant to deprive the expensive pen of the filler that properly belongs to it...
Later on I got out the replacement (with the old lid from the previous pen, since I'd swapped them -- but sadly the 'new' lid had soon become sloppy as well, presumbly due to getting dropped), put in an emergency ink cartridge since the filler had gone with the old pen, took up my umbrella again since it was threatening rain, and sallied out with my manuscript once more. It did rain. And when I put up my umbrella, there was an unexpected tinkling noise on the pavement, and lo and behold, out fell my missing pen! It had somehow or other dropped down into the folds of my half-furled umbrella and become firmly lodged there, probably when I was fiddling with my door-key.
However, since I had already broached the new cartridge, I've been using the replacement pen ever since. As previously observed, they do hold very much more ink than a fountain pen filler does. This one has written 7*500+4*525 (my fourth notebook proves to be very close-ruled) words before running out, which also gives an idea of how much I've written since December 21st... The nib has pretty well worn in to my hand now.
One of the reasons I wasn't absolutely devastated at the prospect of having lost the pen that had served me since my schooldays was that I'd managed to drop it nib-downwards on the pavement a couple of months earlier (another mishap that humiliated me too much to mention), and despite many previous lucky escapes this time I finally did damage the nib. I did sort of bend it back into place, but it's been fairly scratchy ever since (it may eventually establish a new working equilibrium, but the end is definitely a bit crooked), so I had it in the back of my mind that I might need to switch to the reserve nib unit anyway at some stage. But in fact the 'new' nib wasn't all that fluent either, not (presumably) because it had been previously damaged but simply because it was someone else's pen — like wearing second-hand shoes that have been trodden into the shape of someone else's feet.
It seems to have improved now, but I still planned to switch back to the old pen, having successfully retrieved it. But when the cartridge finally ran out on the new one and I unscrewed the barrel of the old one to check if it needed refilling, I discovered that the actual filler had snapped in half -- presumably as a result of falling from out of my umbrella at head-height, even though the cap was on the pen and the steel barrel and plastic nib unit were apparently unaffected. So I shall have to attempt to order another screw converter over the Internet again. In the mean time, I've fitted another cartridge to the 'new' pen — luckily I had a whole packet of emergency spares.
It would probably make more sense to shift the 'good' filler unit over from the Sonnet, since I barely use that any more — I'm frightened of letting it roll off the work surface onto the new kitchen floor tiles (I've already broken several items of glassware that way; not nearly so forgiving as lino!) and as a matter of policy I never take it out for a walk with me in case I might lose or drop it. And since almost all my writing on this story for the last year or more has been done on walks, I get very little use out of the expensive pen. But I'm reluctant to deprive the expensive pen of the filler that properly belongs to it...
