Replacing the cartridge in the middle of the literature test

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I imagine very few people reading this actually ever had to do so, at least as depicted. I, however, have. Because I'm exactly that type of ~~asshole~~ deliberately anachronistic nerd.
All throughout my school career, I used a Sheaffer Targa from the late 1970's. I still have it. Here it is.

Mine was not the fanciest entry in the Targa series -- by far -- but even in its basic stainless steel trim it's a head turner thanks to its very striking and distinctive nib design.

I can hear the screeching from the pen collectors from here. Yes, I committed sacrilege by grinding my antique pen's point into an oblique nib but, yes, I also have an unmolested original nib in its as-manufactured configuration. Still in its factory packaging, sealed, unused!
I like a good oblique nib, helped moreso because using this pen for all my assignments absolutely annoyed the shit out of most of my teachers. (And if an oblique is not available, I will make do with a plain italic nib instead.)

Because of that, to this very day, my basic handwriting looks like this. It looks absolutely ridiculous if you put a ball point or pencil in my hand, but let me have one of my fountain pens and I can crank out these serifed italics as fast as most people can scribble a regular printed hand. Now there's a less-than-marketable skill.
I await with interest what all the armchair graphologists will now tell me what's wrong with me.
- This is a really great comment. It has everything. It's educational, it's funny, it's cynical, but also very optimistic with its unabashed display of niche nerddom. Gold star. Ya know what? 3 gold stars!!
- Ooh, nice pen! I love the inlaid nib on this model. I also am a fan of the Triumph type nib (I have a Sheaffer Signature with one).
  Here in the US we didn't use fountain pens in school. But there's a cult following.
  My current daily driver is a Parker 45 Flighter with an Octanium nib (stainless steel with fancy marketing me lol).
  I don't bother with cartridges; I use converters instead. Quink Black works pretty well in this one although I have too many other inks.
  
  Fountain pen lovers -- there are ~~dozens~~ two of us!
  
  OoooOOO.
  I don't have any vintage Parker fountain pens. I do have one of the re-release 51's which is a fine enough pen, and I have a Parker Latitude from 2007 that is so terrible the thing seems to have been memory holed entirely and has negative collector's value.
  Oh, and I have about 67 zillion Jotters, both vintage and modern.
  
  Here's my $40 pen and 50¢ handwriting!
- I imagine very few people reading this actually ever had to do so
  Pretty sure german students have done that last friday
- Meanwhile I eyedroppered a single preppy and didn’t really have to refill it through 3 years of highschool. I think I added like 2/3rds water once because I was low, but I was using oxblood so it was still dark dark red lmao
- I still have, and occasionally use a pen virtually identical to this. Mine is a Sheaffer "Slim pen" purchased 1988, so maybe thinner than yours. Some years ago, I sent it away for repair. It came back fixed free of charge!
  
  There is a slim version of the Targa, also. I don't have one, but I am given to understand that it takes weird cartridges that are now unobtanium. I've never seen one in person, only pictures online.
- Do you meet a lot of armchair graphologists when you share this hobby? Genuinely interested, I never even knew this was a hobby or interest outside of maybe calligraphy. Very interesting post and fantastic handwriting.

I'm an American, 40 years old. Not only have I never used a fountain pen, I don't think I've ever even seen one used in person. School was all #2 pencils, mechanical pencils, and then ballpoint pens, as I progressed through the years.
- I highly recommend changing that. Writing with a fountain pen is a very different experience. You can feel the texture on the paper and it makes my awful handwriting much better. If you want to try for cheap, PlatInum Preppy pens are cheap and decent. Different inks can also impact the feel.
  
  I've wanted to try them before, and even bought whatever people were saying was a good starter a few years ago. The issue is that I honestly never write anything in pen. I think the only time I do is when I'm addressing a letter or check, which never happens these days. So the pen just dried out with basically no use...
  
  A good fountain pen! The cheap ones feel like chalk against blackboard.
- If you're in colorado and want to change all that let me know lol
  
  There's a saying around here that goes "Women, horses and fountain pens are not to be lent."
  Think about the other two whatever you want, but the fountain pen part is true, imho.
- Also 40 and an American. Myself (and some others) had these in grade school. They kinda sucked and messes were made on more than one occasion. They were a cool thing to try. Far from the norm or some sort of requirement.
- Tell us you're lower class without telling us you're lower class.

Nobody in my k-12 had a fountain pen cartrige or otherwise. Now I'm all about them though, r/fountainpens is one if the only things I miss about reddit
- Well, it looks like there is a fountain pen community here: https://lemmy.world/c/fountainpens.
  It doesn't seem very active, though. Maybe we ought to do something about that.
  
  Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn't work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !fountainpens@lemmy.world
- I know there's a lot of hate on lemmy for it, but if you're missing r/fountainpens there's some thriving fountain pen communities on discord that have really helped me get over losing the sub in reddit's fall from ~~grace~~ usability
  penposium (Most active, also probably the most ~~misanthropic~~ casual)
  r/pens (Most users and a great resource for identifying obscure pens)
  pendemic (often do fun group buys and similar)
  Stationary Anonymous (General stationary, not just pens)
  There's also Fountain Pen Network if you prefer the oldschool forum feeling, though it's much less close-knit of a community than the discords (imo).
  
  Omg, handwritten chat in Discord. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
  This is amazing.

That particular fountain pen can't be refilled. It's a BIC All-In-One disposable fountain pen. Bears striking resemblance to a Pilot Varsity, but the cap is different.

What nobody is saying is that if you go into a test with a near-empty ink cartridge your hipsterism has outpaced your skill.
Refill that stuff going in or bring a second pen, you pleb.

Don't US students do everything in pencil? They probably never used one of those.
I had one that you could refill from a bottle... you had to wipe it a bit afterwards though.
- Either pencil or ballpoint/rollerball. Fountain pens are having a bit of a renaissance as luxury/hobby items, but outside of some Catholic schools, they’ve been irrelevant as American school supplies for 40 years.
- Fountain pens are not a normal sight in US schools. I was an adult before I realized that they were a thing that still exist, and are even used.

No. Am I too young to understand this meme?

I cut one in half once in the middle of a lesson when I was about 8.
Don't do this.
- I did not heed this advice when I was 7 either.

As a left-handed person, I despised having to use a fountain pen in school.
That said, a properly done tactical reload of one of those would be pretty cool
- You had to use a fountain pen in school?

I've been refilling the same cartridge with a syringe for years :-)

I filled from a bottle, even during exams. My professor teased me a bit, sometimes I had to refill twice because those bluebooks were thirsty. I used a Lamy Vista which is still my main pen 15 years later. My favorite ink was noodlers Zhivago. It's a green so dark it's almost black, but you can still barely tell it's green. Black enough to be accepted, but I was also warned by TAs it made it impossible to grade my papers anonymously.

37 comments