About
Fountain pens (FPs) are powerful tools.
Yup, I agree! What do fountain pens do (beside the obvious)? They bridge the gap that exists between thoughts and recording or transferring those thoughts in a permanent way to a sheet of paper. Can’t other pens and pencils do the same? Yes, absolutely, and I am a firm advocate of everyone writing more, much more, each day throughout one’s lifetime. Fountain pens are highly versatile. FPs write with glide, something ballpoints and roller balls do not. FPs are refillable with the ink of your choice, different colors and stability, permanence. FPs can use multiple nib sizes and types. FPs come in many different girth’s and weights. Roller balls and ballpoints do not offer such versatility. FPs use liquid ink, whereas RBs and BPs use paste inks. Paste ink technology is the best it’s ever been in its history, make no mistake. For jotting, RBs and BPs are terrific. I use FPs for jotting, note taking and long session writing as in journaling. Tell us more please. Sure. No one I know would argue that computers are not amazing and so essential as to be part of our very being. In fact, I’m composing this on one right now! But, if we think about it a wee bit, we see that computers can actually draw us away from what we are thinking and insert an intermediate step between our brain and recording our thoughts. With handwriting, there is no intermediary between the source of ideas and a permanent record that can be edited, stored and read all at the blink of an eye without booting up, without typing or clicking a mouse and all done without electricity! The printed or written word is the best example I can think of to illustrate the concept of first-order retrieval. I like to use the analogy of RAM (random access memory). In our brains we have only so much RAM. Having to recall keystrokes for commands, mousing, clicking, keeping a mental image of where your stuff is located, etc. etc. all uses a portion of our RAM. Relegating all of your brain’s RAM (or as much as possible) to thinking and then writing down thoughts is one way to get more bang for the buck, so to speak. (I write this at my own peril as one of the better known FPers, Stephen Brown, is a card carrying neuroscientist and could probably pick apart the RAM analogy to bits). How did I get started making fountain pens? In 2016 my wife gifted me a wood lathe. That, along with my preference for fountain pens led to the formation of Bluestem Pen Co. Where did the name Bluestem Pens come from? It is named after the hardy little grass "Little Bluestem" (Schizachyrium scoparium) native to the United States and found all over the vast prairies of the Midwest. It is a reminder of the great years we spent in that part of our country. The Little Bluestem grass is hardy and tough as are Bluestem Pens. Bluestem pens - Made to Write Right. |
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