Finally sorted through my pen collection
Since as long as I can remember I have had a bit of a thing about pens. This is probably related to the fact that I have always loved writing with a pen. In these notes I am using the term 'pen' to generically refer to the set of all pens (i.e., biros, gel ink pens, fountain pens, etc.).
Some of the pens in my collection go back to when I first started working.
Well tonight, with assistance from my son's fiancé, I went through my collection and I/we ditched those pens I was not particularly attached to or where the mechanism no longer worked; or they were munted (didn't work properly) in some other way.
The following picture shows the pens I/we ditched.
Going through my pens and culling them down a bit is a job I have been thinking of getting around to for about three or four years. It's quite a big job because the basic plan is to get rid of a many as I "don't really want". This means I often need to have a ten minute test write and think about individual pens. Many of these pens came from presentations, symposiums, and other events I have attended through my working life. They have names like Digital, Toshiba, NEC, Microsoft, Fujitsu, Gartner, CSC, and IBM on them. They are like little mementos of my working life.
Helpful onlookers offer useful advice such as: "You haven't used it for 10 years and probably forgot you even had it, so just chuck it out. You're never going to use it" and "If you like it and want to keep it then keep it. It doesn't take up any room".
My current favourite brand of pen is Cross—using an actual Cross refill. There are at least two after-market (i.e., imitation) Cross refills available, but the authentic Cross refill is far superior.
Before Cross, going back about 20 years, I was a Parker man and I think I probably owned at least one of every Parker pen model under about $80. For some of the models I liked I have two or three of them.
In between I have tried Lamy (I have four different Lamy model pens), Sheaffer, Waterman, and Zebra, as well as many and numerous 'disposable' pens that I picked up as the fancy took me.
I haven't counted them, but after sorting through my collection I probably have about 100 pens remaining.
Barry.