I was just checking out reviews for the Lamy fountain pen and was surprised to read that fountain pens were highly encouraged, even at the onset of elementary school education.
Perhaps members from Deutschland could share their thoughts and experiences of the use of fountain pens?
Cheers!
They are pretty good... in Germany there was always the battle in the classroom which fountain pens are better Geha, Pelikan or Lamy. I always preferred Lamy in school, but later I switched to the Lamy ballpoint pens for convenience reasons.
Never used one of these famous Lamy pens many members of EDCF use today.
To be honest these fountain pens are mass produced like very other product (except luxury models or limited editions).
I stopped using fountain pens when I left elementary school, switched to rollerballs (equipped with ink cartridges) and finally switched to ball point pens a few years ago.
I never looked back to fountain pens or rollerballs, ink is a mess plus you need to clean the tip from time to time.
I will buy me a nice Rotring ballpoint pen with some nice blue Parker refill soon.
YMMV
Thanks for sharing…
Are the fountain pens claimed to provide a better writing experience, even with the mess they can make?
I got several of them and yes, they are good. I´ve used one with black ink for scribbles and drawings and my art teacher was very impressed by this idea (more comfortable than the usual ink pens for drawing).
It is supposed to train for a better handwriting, but judging from my own ... I think their effect is over-advertised. I do recommend their ballpoint pens for grown ups, unless you are into calligraphy which can look pretty nice. (more a think for the girls I suppose... at least in the west) I like the very basic LAMY safari line for a ballpoint, the grip "grooves" are very ergonomic.
You can use a fountain pen as much for drawing as you can use an ink pen intended for engineering plans for writing, actually.
Don’t let self-proclaimed professionals tell you what can NOT be used; when it comes to art, everything may be used.
The Cro-Magnon had neither 40k-12k years ago, and yet their cave paintings remain world-famous to this very day! Go figure…
Oh, Lamy is good, by the way; I did my Matura/ A-levels/ Abitur/ high school diploma tests using one. Wish I had kept it, though. First day in Uni I was using a clutch pencil for mostly everything. The Lamy is long gone, but I still have six clutch pencils from my time at the university.
I have/had 2, one red and one blue. The red broke in the middle, the window is the weak point.
Then I bought a blue with a bigger tip, this bigger tip makes my handwriting more readable as I am writing bigger.
The refills are much more expensive so i refilled them with a pelikan bottle and a syringe with needle, with one pelikan bottle you can write for years.
I also have a smaller pen brushed stainless steel pen and biro as set in a gay leather case, which my parents gifted me to my Apretur. Never used them…
Both my pens with B tip if I remember right…but you have to try some different in a Schreibwarengeschäft to find the best.
After 10th class I switched to uniball eye which I carry every day till today, these are excellent one way fade proof rollerball pens. I wear it together with my 3 in one lamy biro(my second two first died in excensive use). So I have a blue uniball, a black biro, a pencil with eraser and a orange biro called marker.
Just 2 pens in my trousers, tidy and i cant forget a pen and are always prepared.
And this move was always fun in school:
My experience here in the UK was that fountain pens (actually cartridge for slightly less mess) were mandatory at my primary (up to age 11-12) school for some classes, but not required in any form for secondary education. It certainly promotes a good writing technique but also caused nightmares for left handed friends of mine.
The now-ubiquitous ballpoint (or Rollerball) pen was strictly verboten in the Belgian school system, as fountain pens were considered to be the less-messy alternative. Right.
Errors were erased using the special effaceur pen, an acid-bearing contraption that literally dissolved the ink off of the paper. Once used, you couldn't simply write over the same spot, and needed a not-quite-the-same-shade-of-blue marker to make the correction. This usually made the error all that more apparent.
Some teachers would allow for the use of Tipex (White-Out) solution, but its nearly impermeable hyper-white surface didn't let the ink absorb, leading to further smears and stains.
Regarding the actual pens - Lamy was a popular choice, but Parker seemed to have a better nib choice for my style of writing. I don't miss the leak-prone ink cartridges that seemed to plague all of the student-level offerings.
You know what would have been a far better solution to this entire mess? A pencil.
my pens have never leaked.
If you have nice handwriting it might look even nicer with a fountain pen. If you just want to jot down information, use a ballpoint or roller ball.
My Lamy fountain pen’s nib was alway way too wide for me. But again, if you have nice handwriting it might be just right for you.
I use crayons!
BTW, many schools in the US no longer teach cursive writing.
I carry parker jotter ballpoint pen. It has an option of jel ink cartridge.
I have also scrikss fountain pen on my table. It is a pleasure to write, but not practical as everyday use.
:party: 
In belgium in elementary school we could use a ballpoint pen, in high school we needed to use fountain pen, but i refused to as it was too messy…
My teacher taught us to use fountain pens in the 70s for writing in cursive style. Later in the 80s we were introduced to italic pens which were beautiful but more for artistic flair.
Wow!
You have a really nice and smooth handwriting. The lines look almost like mirrors, very consistent and clean.
If anybody can read my handwriting, they win a prize! I can’t… :~
