Stationery Quiz
Fountain Pen
The more you use something, the more you make it your own — and you leave your own words behind in writing.
A fountain pen's nib has a thin slit down the middle. Ink flows down that slit to the paper, so you don't need to press: just resting the nib on the page is enough to draw a line. When the ink runs out, you refill it and keep using the same pen for years.
It's said that with use, a fountain pen's nib wears in to suit its owner's way of writing — so much so that some say you shouldn't lend yours out. You use your tools and your words until they fit your hand, and what you've written, you leave as it is.
Choosing an ink color, rinsing the nib, finding the angle that writes best for you — a fountain pen is a tool its owner makes their own through care. That's why the writing it produces shows so much of its owner. But when a situation calls for something anyone can use the same way, your personal habits can come through a little too strongly.
Strengths
- You can put your feelings down in words that are truly your own
- You can keep faith with what you've once written or said for a long time
- You can use your belongings until they fit your hand, and keep using them for years
Where you may stumble
- When you share tools with others, the difference in how they feel bothers you
- Since you've settled into your own way of doing things, places with set procedures can feel confining
- It's hard to bring yourself to revise something once you've written it
Sounds familiar, Fountain Pen?
- With a borrowed pen, writing just doesn't feel quite right
- You're the only one who knows the quirks of your well-worn tools
- At the end of a handwritten card, you always add the date too
Where you shine
When you're writing a letter in your own words that will be kept for years, or finishing something with tools you've used for ages, the Fountain Pen's character seeps through.
Tips for “Fountain Pen”
- Explain your own way of doing things to others, even in a sentence
- For words you want to say with care, write them out beforehand
- Now and then, borrow someone else's tools and try a different feel
Matches
See every match in the Stationery Quiz compatibility chart →
Pencil — Draft it again and again with the Pencil, then make the final copy with the Fountain Pen. Because the Pencil, which can erase and rewrite, works out the ideas first, the Fountain Pen can focus on the one version that will last.
Glue — With Glue, too, how it turns out depends on the user's touch — spreading it with a finger, adjusting how much to use. You're both tools that get worked in by your user's hands, so you understand each other's particular ways without laughing at them.
Sticky Note — The Fountain Pen wants what it writes to last. The Sticky Note gets peeled off and thrown away once it's done its job, so you treat a sheet of paper in completely different ways: to the Fountain Pen, the Sticky Note lets go too soon, and to the Sticky Note, the Fountain Pen holds on to one page too long.
Close neighbors
These differ from this one on just 1 of the 3 axes. If one of your axes was near the middle, you may have their side too.
Which one are you? 18 everyday situations, about 3 minutes.
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