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The cheap pen that changed writing forever

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Re: The cheap pen that changed writing forever

#121

Post by phone8675309 »

BeetleB wrote: post #84
karlding wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, the consensus on /r/fountainpens and other fountain pen enthusiast sites is that you risk receiving counterfeit Lamy Safari pens when purchasing from Amazon. These fakes often have poor quality nibs and ruin people's first experience with fountain pens. The recommendation is to purchase a pen through a reputable dealer so you know that you are getting the real thing. There's a post here on Imgur…

Goulet Pens ( https://www.gouletpens.com/ ) is a good place to buy FP items.

Goulet Pens were fantastic for my fiancee.

She has lupus, so holding and writing with a ballpoint pen is agony for her and her hands on bad joint days. She can usually do okay with a gel ball roller, but one day I let her try my fountain pen and it was the least painful writing experience in her life.

She emailed the Goulet Pen company for suggestions on good pens for lupus/arthritis and got a detailed response with suggestions. They were fantastic and helped her place an order for a less expensive pen that fit her hand better to test the waters for future orders.

Their YouTube pen videos are good too.

Re: The cheap pen that changed writing forever

#122

Post by godelmachine »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #120
godelmachine wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> pentel energel 0.7mm. Thanks for mentioning this I am currently on the lookout for new pen to make my standard usage pen. My prime requirement is that it should be 1.0mm, or at a minimal 0.7mm, since I love the thickness. Secondary requirement is that it should be smooth. I bought Baoke gel from Amazon and while I loved it a lot, was greatly disappointed to find it was of Chinese make. Am now searching for somethi…

> I bought Baoke gel from Amazon and while I loved it a lot, was greatly disappointed to find it was of Chinese make. ...was the name not a giveaway? That's like complaining that Huawei devices are made in China.

No, the name was certainly not a giveaway, at least to me. Looking at the pictures on the catalog [0] I thought it was Japanese.

Later on when the product arrived, I wished to check if I could order refills in bulk from their website. Upon visiting their website, realization dawned upon me that it’s Chinese.

And in my perspective, it’s unfair to compare Baoke to Huawei. The latter is in the news since months now, and has become synonymous with nefarious snooping activities of the Chinese, in stark contrast to the former which is a pen maker.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Baoke-Rollerball-1-0mm-Medium-PC1848/...

Re: The cheap pen that changed writing forever

#123

Post by sellyme »

enriquto wrote: post #16

The wording of this article is very strange. All references to fountain pens happen in the past tense, as if they did not exist anymore. Millions of people still use fountain pens every day. The author lives in a bubble of ballpoint users or what?

I live in Australia, and I'm pretty certain I've never even seen a fountain pen. I would have definitely put them in the same "only used as movie props" bucket as quills were it not for your comment.

Re: The cheap pen that changed writing forever

#124

Post by thaumasiotes »

klodolph wrote: post #59
asib wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't you describe cardio as continuous, repetitive strain with no recovery? I would've assumed writing is more of an endurance type of strain, but perhaps the strain due to writing occurs at an intensity that is analogous to lifting weights.

The type of muscles in your heart are quite different from the types of muscle in your hands. The muscles you use to move around are called skeletal muscles. One of the ways they get stronger is through a process where you exercise and use them, and this causes damage to the muscles (microtears), and the body responds to these microtears by rebuilding the muscles stronger. This is why you need a recovery period when…

> The type of muscles in your heart are quite different from the types of muscle in your hands.

> The muscles you use to move around are called skeletal muscles.

To be more explicit, you have three types of muscle cells: skeletal muscle, smooth muscle, and cardiac muscle. Guess what that last type is used for.

The heart's workload is unlike anything else, and it is made of special-purpose materials dedicated solely to its unique role.

Re: The cheap pen that changed writing forever

#125

Post by thaumasiotes »

godelmachine wrote: post #122
thaumasiotes wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I bought Baoke gel from Amazon and while I loved it a lot, was greatly disappointed to find it was of Chinese make. ...was the name not a giveaway? That's like complaining that Huawei devices are made in China.

No, the name was certainly not a giveaway, at least to me. Looking at the pictures on the catalog [0] I thought it was Japanese. Later on when the product arrived, I wished to check if I could order refills in bulk from their website. Upon visiting their website, realization dawned upon me that it’s Chinese. And in my perspective, it’s unfair to compare Baoke to Huawei. The latter is in the news since months now, and…

> it’s unfair to compare Baoke to Huawei. The latter is in the news since months now, and has become synonymous with nefarious snooping activities of the Chinese

Sure, Huawei has been in the news for months. But Baoke is still a company whose name is in Chinese. We're not talking "Tencent" here.

Then again, if you were able to recognize whether a word was or wasn't Chinese, it's possible you'd feel differently about the moral taint of interacting with Chinese people.

Re: The cheap pen that changed writing forever

#126

Post by animal531 »

app4soft wrote: post #98

Bic Cristal [0] was really painful for my fingers (due to "hexagonal body") & avoid to use it since 2010. In last 10 years my fav ballpoint pen is Schneider K15 .[1,2] FTR, Schneider ballpoint pens multiply times got "Red Dot Design Award" (2006, 2010, 2013, 2019)[3] ... until this year; this year Leuchtturm1917 Drehgriffel Nr.1 ballpoint pen got "Red Dot Design Award'2020".[4] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bic_C…

I had a pretty large callus on my index finger from the way I gripped the pen during school and university.

After that I almost never wrote again, and now 20+ years later it's pretty much receded (I can only barely feel it).

Re: The cheap pen that changed writing forever

#127

Post by Maha-pudma »

ajarmst wrote: post #89
Maha-pudma wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always use a pencil over a pen when ever I can. I write a lot outdoors and pens don't work in the rain. And there's also the story of pens and pencils in space I like.

Sadly, that very entertaining story is certainly apocryphal. Pencils have their own problems. A device that sheds conductive graphite into a weightless environment full of electronics is not necessarily an obvious choice, nor is something made out of dry wood and graphite that needs to be regularly shaved into fine strips for a high-oxygen environment.

Yeah you're absolutely correct its pretty much fake but I still like the story, just like I like the toothpaste factory story. Essentially keep it simple stupid, don't over engineer, and do your research.

Re: The cheap pen that changed writing forever

#128

Post by zentropia »

kaonwarb wrote: post #2

One side effect not discussed here: how the shift to ballpoint pens increased hand strain [0]. Writing with a fountain pen is relatively effortless - not to deny it has several other drawbacks. I imagine this is part of why, as an elementary school student in France, I was required to write with only fountain pens. [0] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/ballp...

As a left handed for me was awful.

Re: The cheap pen that changed writing forever

#129

Post by godelmachine »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #125
godelmachine wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the name was certainly not a giveaway, at least to me. Looking at the pictures on the catalog [0] I thought it was Japanese. Later on when the product arrived, I wished to check if I could order refills in bulk from their website. Upon visiting their website, realization dawned upon me that it’s Chinese. And in my perspective, it’s unfair to compare Baoke to Huawei. The latter is in the news since months now, and…

> it’s unfair to compare Baoke to Huawei. The latter is in the news since months now, and has become synonymous with nefarious snooping activities of the Chinese Sure, Huawei has been in the news for months. But Baoke is still a company whose name is in Chinese . We're not talking "Tencent" here. Then again, if you were able to recognize whether a word was or wasn't Chinese, it's possible you'd feel differently about…

>>But Baoke is still a company whose name is in Chinese.

Does not mean every non-Chinese person should recognize it's a Chinese word. What's your point?

>>if you were able to recognize whether a word was or wasn't Chinese, it's possible you'd feel differently about the moral taint of interacting with Chinese people.

Considering the misery they have caused to the world and Uyghurs, I would still feel all the same.

Re: The cheap pen that changed writing forever

#130

Post by app4soft »

animal531 wrote: post #126
app4soft wrote: post #98

Bic Cristal [0] was really painful for my fingers (due to "hexagonal body") & avoid to use it since 2010. In last 10 years my fav ballpoint pen is Schneider K15 .[1,2] FTR, Schneider ballpoint pens multiply times got "Red Dot Design Award" (2006, 2010, 2013, 2019)[3] ... until this year; this year Leuchtturm1917 Drehgriffel Nr.1 ballpoint pen got "Red Dot Design Award'2020".[4] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bic_C…

I had a pretty large callus on my index finger from the way I gripped the pen during school and university. After that I almost never wrote again, and now 20+ years later it's pretty much receded (I can only barely feel it).

Yeah, I has same non-sweet memories: when I was in school (there are was not good pens on the market yet) many of us put a small piece of rubber tube on a pen as "DIY softener" to relieve pressure on the fingers.

Later when I sew new pens with rubber tube putted by default on the market it keep me smile a little.

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