Good pen design is more than a matter of taste. In the interests of discovering what people thought would make a great pen, I interviewed three people who all have different approaches to fountain pens. Joyce Levy collects new pens and earlier European pens, (mostly Montblancs). Bill Durovchic of Rocket Manufacturing is a maker of pens. Peter Markman is a vintage pen collector.

Joyce Levy

John Mottishaw: What can you tell me about pen design?

Joyce Levy: There was a time in my collecting career when I had a lot of new pens mostly from the 70's and 80's that looked like cigarettes, long, skinny and plain. I decided that I did not like these and got rid of them.

I like rounded edges; I don't like pens that are too sharp and tinny. They seem to me like throwaway pens. There are some overlays made today that feel sharp in the hand. The ones that are just punched out don't feel well made when my fingers catch on edges. The overlays that I like have a little more depth to the design and have smooth rounded edges.

I bought the Harrods Montegrappa limited edition pen, in London at the Harrods store. When I brought it back to my hotel room to fill, it would not write. The design left out the vent hole in order to place the heraldic insignia of Harrods covering almost the whole nib. I brought the pen back, of course, and two more examples kept at the counter would not write. The salespersons had to go to the vault to find me one that wrote. It is not my best writer, because it skips a little. But I am happy with it because the silver barrel overlay is appealing, as is the relatively plain marbled green cap. The silver clip is also not too ornate. They assume most people are going to put a pen like this away as a collector's item, but I use all my pens.

I like to collect certain styles and brands that I have become accustomed to.

I don't use Parkers any more. They are hard to find with anything but stiff nibs. (Exceptions are the under-priced English Parkers.) Also, I had trouble with Big Red Duofolds that collected a lot of ink around the section. I like the idea of having a really old one from the 20's that I can use everyday, but it is hard to find one that doesn't leak, or isn't too fragile. Every time I get one, something stops me from using it.

I know some of the German pens well enough to tell where to look for cracks, flaws, and incorrect replacement parts. However, almost anything goes for Montblanc pens made during and just after the war, because they were put together with what was available from different decades.

On this same trip to England, I stopped at the Portobello Road antiques market. I bought a Montblanc 332 with a broad oblique nib. It is short and small enough to fit into a ladies' shirt pocket. I don't have as much trouble finding pens as I do finding ladies' shirts with pockets large enough for pens. Because I like to wear my pens, I often buy small pens to fit in the few small ladies' pockets that I can find. But in the end, what will keep a pen in my pocket or purse is the kind of nib it has and how it writes. If it is broad, smooth and flexible I will wear it and use it often. Otherwise it becomes a case decorator.

I particularly like the character of vintage pens, because they are so unique. A vintage pen may have a flaw like a crack somewhere, or it may have the name of a prior owner on the barrel. It just comes to you that way, and can remain so. I become attached to it because I know that it is the only one of its kind.

An example of this unique quality, together with ease of use and a great nib, is a Montblanc 136, circa late 40's, from Osman Sumer, the vintage Montblanc specialist. Often these pens are amalgams. This one has a pink gold clip, which is most likely contemporary to the pen, but may be a jeweler's addition. The pen is gorgeous, in great condition, with a broad nib. It is the absolute smoothest nib I have ever had, like writing in butter. The unique clip is extra long and designed to fit over a heavy cloth pocket without giving you the feeling that you are going to break it. You wonder about its history, because somebody may have replaced the clip with this lovely one after the first one broke. It was most likely somebody's well-loved postwar era pen. R

Bill Durovchic

John Mottishaw: You come to pen design as a maker of pens. What can you tell me about good pen design?

Bill Durovchic: I dig this ball-point out from under the seat of my car. It has been there for twelve years. It is covered with candy wrappers. I wipe it off and it works. I don't really use a fountain pen and so my answers will be different from anybody else that you interview.

JM: Good. I'm after diversity.

BD: What I learned in art school is how to look at a fountain pen and tell that this one is junk and this one is good. I got through school mostly by making jewelry. I'm using my dad's skills as a master machinist now. I've moved from the world of aesthetics only, and have joined the technical world where I have to know about harnesses and geometry and how things are made.

When people design stuff and come up with an ad campaign they realize that some people will like some things and some people won't. A lot of people are not willing to invest the time to determine what they like and what they don't like about a design. They like what they are told is a good design. They don't take the time to analyze what it is that they like and don't like.

The Skyline - that is a design that I don't like. I like the cap and I like the barrel, but I don't like the two together.

JM: But what about when the pen is put together?

BD: It's fine, but I don't like it because the two parts do not look good together. I don't like the fact that one end is bull nosed and the other end is streamlined. If the Eversharp company had done better in the fifties with sales, they would have redesigned this pen to make it work. I see it as a transitional model that never went anywhere. The Eversharp Doric is cool because the cap and barrel tie together. The ends terminate nicely. The faceting works on the end of the cap and on the end of barrel. When it is closed up, the cap and barrel form a smooth transition. The band on the cap is decorative, but it does not interfere with the design. I like the Omas faceted pen for the same reason because it is an evolved design.

The Parker 51 always gets great reviews about being a great design. The reason is that this was a major shift in thinking. Parker went to an injection molded barrel, and a stamped, deep drawn metal cap. The 51 did not have a screw cap, but an excellent spring mechanism that would hold the cap on to a ring on the barrel. Why does it work? It works because it shows the thoroughness of the thinking that went into that process, and that they solved each problem before they released the pen. They decided what they wanted, a streamlined modernist fountain pen design. Gold was used only for its utilitarian purpose in the nib. (The gold material was used by default, because it is anti-corrosive.) The 51 was successful because the group of people who designed it were listened to. The fact that it sold so well made everyone who did not design the pen envious. I am sure Eversharp designers said, 'Why didn't we design that pen?'

JM: So why not just use ball-point pens? They are so practical.

BD: They are for me but, for instance, I know that a lot of lawyers like to use fountain pens because they still write their notes by hand. A fountain pen can result in less stress. If a person presses hard while writing, they will wreck the pen. In a way, it forces them to be relaxed while writing. When we are using a ball-point, we will have a tendency to squeeze hard while we are pressing hard. So we end up flexing our arm and before you know it we are clenching our teeth. It puts a whole pattern of stress on the body. If you only use the weight of the pen to get the ink out on the paper, your hand won't be tense. You won't end up clenching your teeth. You won't end up flexing your forearm. In both cases, the pen is dictating behavior to the user. R

Bill Durovchic's web address is: www.pacifier.com/~bracket

Peter Markman

John Mottishaw: First off, I wanted to ask you if you do a lot of writing with a fountain pen?

Peter Markman: Yes, I do. But to be perfectly frank, I use ball-points a fair amount too. But I do an enormous amount of typing on the computer, sending emails all the time. To do a quick review of contracts, I just red line things on the computer. And then I jot things down all the time with ball-points. Because I want to move from one thing to another very rapidly, I leave things all over the place. But when I really sit down and write or have any concern about what the handwriting is going to look like, I use a fountain pen. I find that a fountain pen slows me down. And I find that part of the dichotomy of where we are now is the culture. Everything nowadays is rush, rush, rush, so during a typical work day experience, it takes an extra few seconds to uncap a fountain pen and sit down and get in position and write. It delivers much more beautiful writing. It is the first thing you will find the time to do when you are writing letters.

I would not be surprised if there is a high correlation between lowered blood pressure and writing with a fountain pen as opposed to a computer or a ball point.

A fountain pen is one of the only really true luxuries that you have in your life. And that has not changed at all. Notwithstanding the fact that there are all sorts of ways to write now, the appeal of the fountain pen is still very potent. It has not disappeared because there is nothing to substitute for that enormous sense of satisfaction in using them, the pure pleasure. There is no doubt that there is no other instrument that matches that. They are more satisfying, more luxurious and more fulfilling.

JM: What comes to mind when you think of a great fountain pen?

PM: Every once in a while, when you thought about it, you would be delighted by how well it works. This pen is a really usable everyday type of item that you would carry in your pocket and have with you. It is a writing instrument that you would value and would travel with everyday. It is one that you would never hesitate to use. It would perform flawlessly. From that perspective, the finest fountain pen ever designed, in my opinion is a Parker 51. It is a pen I have carried in my pocket for many years. The Parker 51 stands out for a number of reasons. It's an absolutely dependable pen, even under adverse conditions. It lays down a line without hesitation. It performs when you want it to. It has wonderful control and a wonderful smooth line. Obviously it has some severe limitations with regard to nib flexibility. It will only lay down that one thin line. You give up a whole lot of possibilities and options for a really effortlessly useful and wonderful pen.

JM: Is your 51 an Aerometric or a Vacumatic?

PM: I definitely prefer the Vacumatic filler. And going back to the slip cap design was a great idea, particularly since they perfected it to such a degree with the clutch in the cap. It seals in the way it engages the clutch ring in the pen itself. When I pick one up that has been unused for months it writes instantly. It has a vast ink supply. It also has a wonderful sense of comfort in your hand. It has just enough tapering. The cap is perfectly mated to the pen so that the pen is perfectly balanced both when the cap is on and also when it is posted. It fits in your pocket nicely. I happen to really like the hooded point, but it's a pen that probably would not be designed in the year 2000.

JM: Why do you think that is?

PM: Because, I think it is too subtle. The distinctive, fairly flashy point is very attractive to a lot of designers and to buyers. To hide the nib entirely was radical then. It is still radical today. Maybe because a lot of the other pens that used the hooded nib did not work very well, designers do not want to take a chance on that kind of design today. I'm thinking of the sixty-four dollar pen, the Eversharp Fifth Avenue pen. They did not work at all well. They were a reaction to the 51. The problem with the Fifth Avenue pen is that they didn't get the design right on the workings of the nib. It's not like the 51, which had a combination of a huge radial feed inside the collector. The 51 delivers a vast amount of ink at the touch of the point. The Parker 51 however, is a throwback in a lot of ways.

When you think about the immediately preceding pens, they all have fully exposed nibs and screw caps like Parker Vacumatic, the Waterman's and the Sheaffer's. And here suddenly was a pen which had a slip cap, a fifty year old design, and a bottom and top feeder, another very old concept. It's not just that the 51 works by having the massive collector that delivers the ink up through the feed, but it delivers the ink around through the hood and over the top of the nib as well. It has massive amounts of ink delivered to the point. They accompanied it with an advertising theme about how the pen 'Writes Dry With Wet Ink.' The concept was that it uses light volatile ink that would dry instantly, Parker Quink. The Parker 51 and the ball-point bracketed the second world war. The Parker 51 was designed in the late 30s and was a hugely popular pen during the war. They couldn't make them fast enough. The GI's were clamoring for them. So tons of them survived, which explains why there are so many of them around.

When Parker decided to really sit down and design a pen that they hoped to sell, I believe they took a long time to draft up what the objectives were. Parker put such a high priority on an absolutely dependable pen that would deliver a beautifully consistent line every time with great finesse and great comfort. This had to be a pen you could really count on. Of course the Vacumatic filling system had already been in use in the Vacumatic pen. It is a brilliant filling system, which holds multiple times what the Plyglass system holds. It is an important consideration. A pen should hold a fair amount of ink.

That's why I don't like the modern pens that rely on the interchangeable cartridge type filler. These converters don't hold as much ink as a cartridge. How many buyers who really think about it are going to be satisfied with a pen that quickly runs dry? It just doesn't make sense, especially with the use of broader points today that demand so much more ink. Many pens manufactured today seem to be simply (and cheaply) constructed of a barrel in which a converter is inserted as an afterthought.

This was a pen designed to last. I've had some that look like people abused them for 50 years, every day. On some the gold fill is completely worn through. But functionally, the cap and barrel are completely sound. There is something wonderful about a thing that has had 30 or 40 years of use. One part of me, as a collector, wants to find these pens in mint condition, but another part of me likes to see the ones that are worn right out. You know, over time, a really successful design if the object is completely worn out.

JM: Is there a relationship in your mind between design and brand name?

PM: Historically, Waterman's is the number one brand. There is a subtlety and elegance to Waterman's pens, although they certainly made some sloppy pens from time to time. If the silver overlay pens, like the 452 (the sterling silver overlay, lever filled, screw cap pen) from the 1920's, were available today, I would buy one. It stands as the perfect pen of the early years. It is a little like the Parker 51, the apogee of the time.

JM: What is it about the 452?

PM: This Waterman's pen stands as the perfect pen of the early years. They figured out the length, breadth and balance; the interconnectedness of the various parts of the pen; the way the threads close the cap; the way the section fits into the cap, and the point fits into the section; the way the pen fills, and that certain feel of the overall pen.

They may not be the best nibs ever made, but there are an awful lot of Waterman's #2 nibs that are just about as good as they get. Parker made some good nibs too, but Waterman's really knew how to make great nibs. Whatever they did, the formulation of the gold, the thickness of the metal, the shape of the nib, the quality of the iridium, the way the thing is finished in every aspect. I have tons of them and have used them for years. And it is amazing, the high percentage of those nibs that are just sensational.

A Parker, you could drop point down on the floor and pick it up and continue to use it. With a Waterman's you could never do that. The Waterman's nib is very sensitive to abuse. But when they are well cared for they work wonderfully. Let us take the early #2 semi-flexible as the ultimate nib. That nib was available for 20 or 30 years. And you can do almost anything with it. It depends on how sensitive your touch is, but you can write human-hair thin consistently. This makes the most beautiful, crisp writing. Or, if you wish, by flexing it a little more, create the most brassy, bold, graphic type of writing. Or you can go from the thinnest to the thickest line in the turn of a letter. It is an extraordinary nib.

That same kind of nib was available on the #22, an early straight holder Waterman's of the 1890's. Except for the problem that the cap would not stay fixed on the barrel of these earliest pens and the obvious limitation of eyedropper filling, Waterman's had already created the quintessential fountain pen, that does everything that you want a fountain pen to do. And that was more than a hundred years ago.

JM: Having selected the Parker 51 and the Waterman's #22, you have plunked yourself down squarely in the center of the minimalist camp.

PM: To summarize my position, I would put two pens up there: The Parker 51, as a practical modern pen that has not been surpassed and the Waterman's 452. Both of these pens represent a wonderful collective process of many years of company design and aesthetics. The 452 is highly sophisticated with writing qualities which in many ways are better than a 51, albeit not as consistent and messier than a 51. But each of these pens represents the apogee of their respective companies. The Parker 51 lasted well into the ball-point era, the beginning of the end for fountain pens. The Waterman's 452 was still being sold into the 1940's, even though it first came out in the mid teens. Both of these pens are a testament to good pen design. Both of these pens remained functional and fashionable after their era had passed. R

In the process of speaking with these three people, I discovered that there is some consensus about what makes a good pen design, even though their approaches to fountain pens are very different. Both Bill and Peter thought the Parker 51 was a worthy pen. Joyce and Peter felt that the qualities of the nib were worth considerable attention. All three felt that the fountain pen enhanced the writing experience ó if not for themselves, at least for others. I completely agree.