I attended a school where calligraphy was still a major aspect and we were taught to use fountain pens. You know how in the Harry Potter series there’s all that very real-feeling ‘tradition’ about how a wand chooses its master? That feels real because J. K. Rowling drew inspiration from the tradition of schoolchildren choosing ‘their’ pen and it sticking with them for evermore.

I’m 39 now and use them almost exclusively, and I have a collection of over fifty (predominantly metal-bodied, because I like the heft, but I have three or four Lamy pens too, including two transparent ones loaded with fluo ink which I call “the lightsabers”).

I still write letters by hand and send them by post. I sit down and erupt fifty handwritten page documents detailing my plans or thoughts before typing them up for editing. There’s something almost zen-like and cathartic about writing in cursive with a good pen, weighty, well-balanced pen.

Anyway, if you’re really interested in upper-crust writing, I strongly recommend the Graf von Faber-Castell “Tamitio” calligraphy set (see http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/331163-first-l... for a review). If you have good cursive skills and know how to glide over the page rather than dig in and apply force, it’s heaven to write with.