How to use

Using a fountain pen may seem the most natural of things to those who are used to it, but for those who are approaching this writing instrument for the first time, some indications may be useful to make up for the lack of experience, and to avoid those errors that can lead to improper, uncomfortable and unsatisfactory use. For this reason, this page contains all the references to articles containing tips for the use of a fountain pen, divided into different aspects that this may have.

Writing tips

Various writing positions

Contrary to what happens with an ordinary ballpoint pen (or a roller) the fountain pen should not be used keeping the tip vertical to the surface of the sheet, to work indeed just that the bottom of the nib tip should slither on it. This allows the possibility to adopt the most different writing positions, being able to have a wide range of nib inclination angles respect to the sheet, and generally the vertical position is the least indicated.

The possibility of using different angles makes it possible to adopt a much more natural hand position, one of the most comfortable (recommended for beginners) is that in which you let the body of the pen rest in the groove between thumb and forefinger, using the middle as an additional support point for the section. In this way thumb and forefinger should be used only to support it and for possible small movements of the stroke, and not to keep it straight or to press.

A properly functioning fountain pen in fact does not require any pressure to write, the simple weight of the pen must be enough to start writing once the nib rests on the sheet. If your pen does not write without pressure, it means that something is wrong.

In this section we will address how to try to correct the most common handwriting defects, which are within the reach of an ordinary user, and do not require more complicated technical interventions that are instead covered in the "Repair Portal".

• Writing Defects

Recommendations for filling

Filling a pen with ink is one of the most common operations, and in the history of fountain pens there have been many filling systems that have distinguished epochs and brands. For this reason, for some pens this operation may not be immediately comprehensible.

In this first section are included the articles related to the indications on how to fill your pen with the most common filling systems, if you are interested in their history and operation, you can refer to the page mentioned, here we will consider only how to use them. A list of instructions for the main filling systems is as follows:

• How to use cartridge loading
• How to use a converter
• How use piston filling
• How use inverted syringe loading
• How use toggle loading
• How to use button loading

In addition to the canonical use of loading systems, some other articles always related to the loading of pens, but in a more "geek" perspective are as follows:

• How to refill cartridges
• Like close a cartridge