Shaeffer pens and biros

Another lover of fountain pens here. I have Parker from workdays and was given a gift of a Cross ballpoint! that I exchanged for a fountain pen though had to pay extra. They need to be in regular use to work well and sadly there are fewer opportunities nowadays and especially so with demise of letter writing.

I love fountain pens and always use one to write letters and Christmas cards. I still have my Parker from school days, but also have a collection of Waterman pens. I bought one last week from Ebay for a bargain price (just over £10) and it writes beautifully. I bought some lovely bottles of different coloured writing inks when a branch of Menzies was closing about 10 years ago. At the moment I am using Violet!!

I have a Sheafer pen that was bought for my 21st. I haven't tried it in years.
I used a Conway Stewarts at school and always managed to spring the nib my father worked at Steel Works and always said he was going to get me a special nib cast.
I always had bad luck with ink pens especially those with a rubber inertube and a lever. I can remember being very embarrassed at the last year in Junior school, they gave awards for the best musicians or sportsmen and my teacher declared me Miss Quink as I was always covered in it.

I had a Conway Stewart at school. My husband gave me a Cross pen a few years ago. Fenwicks seem to be the only place to get the refills. I love writing letters and my granddaughter has said she keeps them safe. I don’t think my grandson ever opened them so I don’t write to him any more(. I have tidied his room in the past and seen them unopened on the desk .)

I have a Shaeffer fountain pen and pencil set; actually it was given to DH but never used by him. I do like it, but find you have to hold it at an exact angle for the ink to run properly. I keep it at my desk and use it to sign cards, etc.

For ease of use in my handbag, I like a retractable ball-point. Funny, just in December I went to the local stationery store and asked for a 'nice' pen for myself, and there were no selections other than typical office/school pens. I have a Uni-ball jetstream blue ink. It writes nicely and does the trick, just doesn't look very elegant.

I loved the gorgeous fountain pens when I was a shorthand/typist in the 1960's, I found that they were much better than using pencils when taking dictation.

I had quite a few of them but mine were refillable by ink bottles and not cartridges. They were very classy, I have no idea where they went though.

There are so many things I wish I had kept from the late 50's and mid 60's, shoes, gorgeous dresses etc.

Funnily enough I bought a large bunch of Daffies and Tulips yesterday and they are sitting in my cut glass vase on my coffee table next to our wedding photograph.

My late husband loved the start of the spring flowers and I now always buy them and he also gets the first rose of summer which I put in a cut glass rose vase next to his photo.

I love to see cut flowers around the house, many homes have now artificial flowers, they do look beautiful but I have reverted back to buying plants and lovely plant pots and they sit in my window bottom, better for the atmosphere in the home and keeps condensation at bay in the cold weather.

My half-cousin bought me a Conway Stewart fountain pen when I passed the 11+ long since lost.
The National Blood Transfusion Service gives (gave) Cross ball point pens in return for donations - not sure if it was 25 or 50, but DH and I both got one.

Conway Stewart produce the pens for the Coronation. Charles 111 signed with one ( not the one that leaked on him!) and they produced a beautiful Commemorative Coronation Edition as well as ones to celebrate previous royal events eg the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. My late husband had several; sadly he died just a few days before the Coronation and did not see the Coronation pen he had ordered.

I had a Schaefer ball point for my 21st, someone pinched it from my desk, I was heartbroken. I have searched on line in recent years but never found one the same.

My adult brother had a Shaeffer White Dot fountain pen in the late fifties. It was beautiful to write with. I “borrowed” it and took it to school in place of my bog standard Platignum. I got into the most awful trouble🫣. Many years later, DH gave me a stainless steel Parker 45 fountain pen and ball point set. I used it for many years. I recently had the fountain pen refurbished and the barrel engraved with my GS’s initials, and gave it to him on his sixteenth birthday. He was very pleased to have it.

I have a Cartier biro pen but the ink has run out. The replacement is so expensive.

I found a Shaefer pen on the grass near a bus stop when I was 12. The nib was perfect for my style of writing and I used it until in my turn, I lost it at the age of 15. I truly missed it although I found a pen that suited. One of those with ink but no way of refilling them. Then typewriters took over before a word processor then a word processor within a computer programme and that’s where I am now.

Amazon do them.