I imagine very few people reading this actually ever had to do so, at least as depicted. I, however, have. Because I’m exactly that type of asshole deliberately anachronistic nerd.

All throughout my school career, I used a Sheaffer Targa from the late 1970’s. I still have it. Here it is.

Mine was not the fanciest entry in the Targa series – by far – but even in its basic stainless steel trim it’s a head turner thanks to its very striking and distinctive nib design.

I can hear the screeching from the pen collectors from here. Yes, I committed sacrilege by grinding my antique pen’s point into an oblique nib but, yes, I also have an unmolested original nib in its as-manufactured configuration. Still in its factory packaging, sealed, unused!

I like a good oblique nib, helped moreso because using this pen for all my assignments absolutely annoyed the shit out of most of my teachers. (And if an oblique is not available, I will make do with a plain italic nib instead.)

Because of that, to this very day, my basic handwriting looks like this. It looks absolutely ridiculous if you put a ball point or pencil in my hand, but let me have one of my fountain pens and I can crank out these serifed italics as fast as most people can scribble a regular printed hand. Now there’s a less-than-marketable skill.

I await with interest what all the armchair graphologists will now tell me what’s wrong with me.