My Dad was an electrical engineer. He always worked with blue felt tip pens; they would often be scattered throughout the house. This video made me remember him fondly.

I saw the amount of pens you have in the first few seconds and instantly subscribed. Finally found someone like me! 😂😊

those air vents in the cap (AFAIK) are mandatory for felt tip lens, that children would use, to prevent choking, in case the cap gets inhaled. i know felt tips here (in germany) have been like this since the early 90s. with the exception of more expensive/professional ones - those you wouldnt give to a young child anyways.

i was digging in my child hood pencil box just before watching this vid. found all my late 90's flair felt tip pens. all of them are sill working even now. great vid

I have some dark Flair pens from the 70s when McDonalds introduced with the purchase of a Big Breakfast. There is "Breakfast with a Flair" printed in white on the barrel.

A tip, if a felt tip pen such as the TDK cd marker pen (traditional felt ink pad type) dries out, open the top and drip 5 or 6 drops of bio-ethanol in the top of the long felt ink pad and re-cap. It will bring it back to life and last a long time (as long as a new one!) without ink fading.

having morning coffee. Fran talking about pens for 20 minutes? yes please

@LazyStory

3 жыл бұрын

You do know, you can speed up the video, right?

@fallyn2920

3 жыл бұрын

I wasn't being sarcastic. I love easy going KZread videos with my slow morning coffee, and I think Fran is just one of the loveliest people making such content. I love how excited she can be about stuff like this. Wholesome and interesting.

This episode felt special. Special felt?

Interesting video. I prefer 'fountain pens' with metal nibs.... I'm also confiscating my hubby's Flair markers for experimenting! tfs

I know I'm probably the millionth person to say this but: The pen caps allow air through as a safety measure in choking.

My Father worked for Toni, a sponsor of Miss America. Toni, at the time, was owned by Gillette, which also owned PaperMate. I have a refillable Flair with "Miss America - Toni" in white-filled engraving on the black barrel.

If Pilot stops making the Precise V5 rolling ball, very fine, I don't know what I would do.

I had a good feeling about this...just something I...felt! ;)

Remember "Bic Banana Ink Crayons" from the 70's? Crazy commercials with I think it was Charles Nelson Reilly!

happy world stationery day, fran!

I think I've had all of those felt tips with the exception of the Cross. And for whatever reason, this was the most oddly satisfying video to watch while drinking my morning coffee.

Last 6 albums all written with Paper🤍Mate Flair M Black 🖤 Thx Fran :) 🪐

paper mate flair is my pen of choice for my calendar

In Grad school when I was the Head TA for Ops. Man. my boss, the department chair exclusively used “Pentel Sign Pens” 2mm Nib Fibre Tip, in Black and Red. We always had to special requisition the damn things because they weren’t in the university supply catalog. One time a lady from downstairs, brought him a box of the Paper Mate Flairs; I guess for him to try because they were available from the standard supplier. As soon as she left he as me if I wanted them then. After I said “no” he nodded approvingly and brushed the box off his desk in to trash as if it were a turd.

John Travolta as Vincent Vega. A magic marker ... a felt pen an effin' black magic marker !

Looks like you've got "the write stuff!" :D

you are my favorite shade of flair, Fran :)

@mikemike7001

3 жыл бұрын

Yes, Fran does indeed have plenty of flair - and Flairs as well.

Oh pens, crayons anything to draw or write with makes me happy! :)

My favourites are Artline 210 and Staedtler Lumocolor.

I love these pens, too. I took all my college notes with these. No one else I knew was doing that in the early 2000's

I was around 6-7 when BIC heavily promoted the BIC Banana, and I was definitely swayed by that campaign. I only ever encountered Flair felt tip pens in an office context, which meant red, green, black & blue. I was certainly too young to fuss over line style -- I wanted colors! Consequently, Flair was always the broccoli of felt tips. These days I love broccoli -- perhaps I'll have a look at Flair's latest. (I see they offer lots of colors, now!)

I always thought the vent in the cap was so that children didn’t suffocate when they swallowed the caps, I never thought it had anything to do with shipping

For the moment i thought that it was fresh video from one old and dead long ago pen-tapping channel =) As for me - slim and hard mechanical pencils are my weapon of choice for writing and drawing. Permanent markers of different sizes are the best for corrections of bad PCB thermal transfer. And last time I ever scetched schematic on paper was like 5 years ago. DipTrace on windows tablet is my favourite pen since university years =)

oh wow! I've used sharpies on CDs and DVDs for decades... I've never experienced any trouble with it... I guess it's not much of a problem anymore, you don't get so many discs these days. Oh yeah, thanks for letting the inner pen-nerd out to play :) Some of my favorite videos!

I love your pen and pencil videos! I love hearing people and especially you talk about pens and pencils! Pens and Pencils!!! Pencils and Pens! With lots of pens and Pencils I like to look at them! and they're so nice to Hold! the Pens and Pencils! yeah!

I have always loved writing with Sharpies, but never thought of them as Fountain Pens until now. cool.

At $40 per pen, that must be an interesting amount of money allocated to the office supplies category in the budget lol.

You got a way better buzz from the older felt tips. That was the main reason for taking the Art Class option at school. The solvents were amazing :)

@alextirrellRI

3 жыл бұрын

Do you mean the particularly stinky ones? I remember those chunky felt tipped ones in a metal tube -- you'd pull off the cap and the whole room could smell it. I don't think I ever deliberately gave them long sniffs but I remember that smell well.

I see you changed the title from Orgy to Ode, gotta make the KZread overlord happy!

@FranLab

3 жыл бұрын

Ad banned if I used that word in the title. Sad - it was perfect!!!!!

If it's a fountain pen then you should be able to open the reservoir and put in some other colour of ink. (after washing the "nib" of course)

The cap has holes in the end for in case kids swallow it, it still allows them to breathe

"the pen is mightier than the sword"..probably not regular swords but maybe those little swords they put in cocktails

Heck yeah! Fran video on my favorite type of pen!

And now I'm browsing ebay for old felt tip pens lol

i love your pencil and pen videos!!! iconic !!!

Had a client that required all correspondence and contracts to be signed in blue. I still use a blue ink pen or flair after being retired. Color copiers and printers now make it hard to determine what is an original signature.

I loved my red Razer Points for coding back when I actually wrote code on paper. Every time I accidentally dropped one, which was often, it landed on its point and became useless. I suspected they were designed to land that way to sell more pens. I bought them by the dozen. Now I scribble down notes with a red Flair. The one I have right in front of me has a ribbed barrel with a thinner "shouldered" end. The cap has an unvented plus-shaped end that is part of a sort of inner cap that fits tightly over the point. The cap snaps on satisfyingly at both ends. I don't think I'd like the newest version. Even though I now write and draw almost everything on a computer, I can't stand using an inferior pen when I use one and must have a good selection available. Sadly, however, if I went through my pen bin today, many of them would have dried out.

To this day I regularly buy Sharpie brand CD/DVD marker pens... so they are still made by them!

For many years those paper mate flair were the only pens I used, but now I can't find them for sale here anymore. They were the only ones I could use comfortably. Now I only write with fountain pens, they are the only ones I can write with all day and not feel pain in my wrist and my hand. I never thought about the similarities about the flair and the fountain pens.

Seeing that Cross is the official pen of a government. Only seeing black and blue ink isn't surprising as those are officially accepted ink colours for paper work.

👍thanks

The reason the new flair cap is flow-through is in case a child inhales the cap. I believe it's the law in Europe.

I am putting forth the argument that the cross "pen" isn't a pen, but a pen holder and the pen is the actual cartridge. I say this as that cartridge can be put in anything it will fit in and aside from shape of the holder, it will perform the same. You could drill a hole in a block of wood and use that to hold the cartridge.

@tbelding

3 жыл бұрын

That's much like the old safety razors. Technically, the razor is the blade itself. The part that everyone calls a razor is just a handle.

I worked on domestic gas balanced flue development and in the wind tunnel the only think that worked well was a fountain pen with real ink that I could start writing without fail when recording Angle, Speed, CO, CO2 and temperatures. If the gas analyser saw a large drop in CO2 then "run away" after turning everything off since the analyser was being saturated with Carbon monoxide. Obviously the safety standard of 1984 would not be OK here in the WEST today. It was a lonely job working in a locked room on your own with the safety feature was an open window. Each test run was over 200 lines of results.

I think the new cap with passthrough venting is for safety, because of the choking hazard to small children posed by pen caps. A similar thing happened with regular Bic round stick pens (they added vents to the caps). In time, it was proven that the amount of venting provided by these caps would be nowhere near sufficient to allow proper breathing if it were to become lodged in a child's throat. A number of these "safety" designs are therefore going away in favor of something closer to their original versions. The vents were a knee-jerk reaction to public outcry... You know how that goes.

interesting!! 👍

I like a fine point for everyday writing and the Staedtler Triplus Fineliners are pretty nice. Porous point, lots of colors, and Target carries them (availability is key when your last pen runs out ;) )

I wish someone had told me sharpies and optical media don't mix 20 years ago when optical media was becoming a thing. I had no end fail on me and never could work out why. I just put it down to scratching or the plastics degrading. I find this out now optical media isn't really a thing any more. I can't remeber the last time I touched a CD or DVD

3:20 Those are completely different lines. As much as I like the Flairs, I prefer the sharper, more angular look of the first spiral.

Remember "Flair Fi Fo Fum"?

Kept finding pens & pencils cases when schools done and copying paper funny thing i use a pencil 24/7 and write on the copying paper taking notes .

First -- I don't know why I love pens so much, but I join you here! I typically use roller ball (gel?) pens but have definitely used some of these over the years. I love a pen that produces a strong black line without concern if lack of pressure is going to make it look bad. Second -- I seem to have been fairly lucky with Sharpie's on burned optical media. I've maybe only encountered one or two where the Sharpie has very obviously damaged the metal layers, and they weren't discs I burned myself. I imagine different formulations or protective layers would vary from media to media. I do remember media specific pens/markers though, and also some surfaces were not easy to adhere to.

3:00 Ooh, another TWSBI connaisseur!

I too have a drawer full of exotic pens, slowly drying out, as they watch me use a P209 daily. Only pen I use these days is a blue double ended Sharpie.

Try the Staedtler Pigment Liner line of felt tip pens. They’re really, really nice. (And they even come in colors. Yes, lightfast color pigment inks!) The Staedtler Triplus fineliner felt tip pens are also really, really nice.

Grazie From 🇮🇹

Staedtler still makes special CD/DVD versions of the Lumocolor pens.

There’s a few reasons for the holes in the cap however the biggest is to prevent a small vacuum from being formed when you remove the cap causing ink to be sucked out and making a mess if you do it too often or too quickly. However the holes are blocked when fully on so it won’t equalise pressure but this prevents it from slowly drying out. This is also one reason why screw caps are often used on older pens or modern calligraphy pens with large wide nibs where it’s easier to suck the ink out. I love the Staedtler pens to, good for marking most surfaces but far from universal HOWEVER I have since started using UNI POSCA water based paint pens and they do a spectacular job marking everything I’ve needed to mark (including black objects!) however they can be a bit harder to control and are about twice the price.

Im a sharpie person these days and never had the issue on cdr/dvdr and i burned 1000s of discs but im also picky on my media as i need good quality dyes

I wonder if Mont Blanc had something to do with them abandoning the white star

Do Paper Mate ❤️ still have the spring loaded tip? They could pump the ink even when writing upside down, I remember having one in the 70’s or early 80’s, just wondered if they still do that.

I think Cross means felt-tip refill as a sign pen, not a calligraphy or art pen, that is why limited colours and tip sizes.

I don't own one. But, have you seen the Yookers pens? They are felt tip but refillable with fountain pen ink.

I have used flair's for about twenty years since my fingers succumbed to the effects of a programming career. It's about the only way my signature is legible, since there is less friction/drag on the movements.

Bic used to make a felt tip that my Mom loved in the late 80s. I remember when she couldn't find them any more and she had to switch to flairs. She swore that the felt on the bics lasted longer. I don't think that's true but you know, Mom's.

i thought the holes where for when people swallowed the cap so they would not choke and die.

I have to confess: I dislike felt-tip pens. They dry out easily, and even when they're still working, it's easy to outstrip their ability to deliver ink. But the worst part of all is that awful sound/feel of felt scraping across paper. Sets my teeth on edge

I felt your interest and learned a tip or two in this video of pens. You should try Caran D'ache pens. They are sublime and were the only ones my class was 'allowed' to use in school.

@tookitogo

3 жыл бұрын

Well, I for one am very torn on them. I love Caran d’Ache’s barrel design (on the classic non-disposable metal bodied line, the hexagonal shafts). But their ballpoint refills are very mediocre. They are reliable, but they’re not that smooth, having much more drag than I like. I much, much prefer the Paper Mate Ink Joy ballpoints, which are smoother (little drag, super smooth, light touch, just a joy to use) than any other ballpoint I’ve ever tried at any price. (Caran d’Ache refills are expensive!) I say this as someone living in Switzerland, where Caran d’Ache is the undisputed king of writing and art supplies (it being the company’s home country). My current favorite pens (I’ve just gone back to school so I’m writing a lot) are the Staedtler Pigment Liner felt tip fineliners. That and mechanical pencils with 0.5mm 3B (super soft) leads. Those leads break when you look at them wrong, but damn they’re smooth...

I wonder if the lack of an airtight top on the flair is to limit their lifespan. You should do an experiment making one airtight and on not and see how they fare. Cheers Fran

@tookitogo

3 жыл бұрын

No, the pen tip is fully sealed by the inner cap. The vent is to prevent choking if a cap is accidentally inhaled by a child.

We need to talk about your flair.

Side tangent: Has anybody looked into buy an old Frantone guitar pedal and noticed how high the sell for (not surprising, but daang).

try some fude pens, have flexible brush shaped porous tips.

You missed the official pen of BigCliveDotCom the PILOT : LIQUID INK V SIGN PEN ;)

Great vid, anyone remember elmarko?

Welp, time to go to staples and buy felt tipped pens!

Oddly, I've written on CDs for years, some of them going back over a dozen years. I had fully expected that they would be dead after a few years. Nope, not a dud yet. If it burned successfully, it's still good. Do I have a magic touch? Doubtful, as I break everything else.

Was it Schaeffer that at one time sold a "disposable fountain pen" with a shaped fiber tip?

Great video Fran. I'd love to see some more pens on your channel.

Hi Fran. Amazing......I learned something new about felt tip pens. Your content is so eclectic. Wonderful!

😁

Executive felt tip pen: "...and it delivers a very good line" - proceeds to make a signature with a WOEFULLY undersaturated line, like from a half-dry cheap & nasty plastic felt tip pen.

What's the other word being used? Horse tip?

@tookitogo

3 жыл бұрын

She’s saying “porous tip”.

@squeakonline

3 жыл бұрын

@@tookitogo aha. Thank you. That does make more sense 😊

@tookitogo

3 жыл бұрын

@@squeakonline :) Neigh!!! :p

That's a darn awesome collection, Fran. I'm glad I'm not the only one with a writing utensil fetish! If ya ask me, few things are as relaxing as breaking out the compass and stencils for some manual drafting, then inking it once it's all perfect. I dunno about you, but I probably spend more time drawing and planning projects than actually building them!

Hi Fran, another reason for them putting air vents on the caps of most pens these days is that if a child (or anyone for that matter) were to swallow the lid and it were to get trapped in the windpipe it would allow air to get past and hence prevent possible death. Pen manufacturers were lobbied by a lady over here in the UK whose young son choked to death on a pen top that got lodged in his throat. Really enjoying your great videos.

I hate to disagree, but you're wrong. Felt tips are NOT fountain pens. A fountain pen uses an ink reservoir of some sort (cartridge, sac, or eyedropper filled barrel), a collector feed, and a nib, normally made of metal. A couple use a fiber wick in addition to, or to replace, the collector feed (the disposable Pilot Varsity, for example). A felt tip is a reservoir (in the case of a few of the fountain pen manufacturer who made replaceable tip 'felt tip' ends), and a wick that _is_ the tip. Not a nib. Just a hard wick tip. The bulk of felt tips use a sponge for holding the ink, and it just comes out by standard capillary action through the wick. By YOUR definition, any cloth tipped marker would be a fountain pen, including dry erase and highlighters. I can understand how you want to believe that your beloved felt tips connect to the venerable fountain pen, but they're a totally separated construction and theory. You can't use the fiber reservoir on a fountain pen, because there's not a fast enough flow.

Interesting video, personally I’ve always hated this style of pen.

You've got a flair for this this

I love different pens and office gear, but sadly Finland is an utter barbarian country considering our writing culture...it's almost impossible to find & buy nice pens :( Well yes, some obscure art shops with better range exist but they are hard to find and VERY EXPENSIVE. Regular bookshops and department stores have just the most basic "super fine" pens and fat markers you would only choose when labeling cardboard boxes. UH!

I just can't stand the sound felt tip pens make on paper. :(

A video about pens with an intro using a PENCIL? scandalous.