When a tool becomes a hobby

What do watches, safety razors, and fountain pens have in common?

These are tools designed to fulfill a certain task. Shaving, time-keeping, handwriting. They also tend to do it pretty well.

Compared to cartridge razors, “smart” watches and disposable ballpoint pens, these tools are often “made to last.”

It comes to question, then, the necessity of some of us humans—myself included—to keep many things that last, when a single one of them would suffice for a lifetime.

There are of course many types of people out there, and it can vary, depending on the tool in question.

On watches

I usually think of watches as not just as a tool, but as an accessory, which I can acquire in plenty of shapes and forms, that’s one of the main features they have going for me, beyond just keeping track of time. They are like a ring or a piece of clothing, and I can wear a different model depending on the occasion.

Or at least, I like to have the option—I’m simple (lazy) when it comes to this more often than not.

Nine out of ten times, I will be wearing my Casio AE-1200s, because they’re super cool and they tend to fit with my style—or so I like to think.

The rest of my collection remains on my display box waiting for their time to shine. Some of them do more than others, some just for an event or so, but if I’m frank, the Casio Royale stays on my wrist almost anywhere.

And safety razors?

With that realization in mind, when I left cartridge-based razors behind in favor the classic safety razor, I got the one that did the job, and I stopped caring about getting anything fancier. I don’t need to have one for X or Y situation, it always just does the same thing, I guess.

I hadn’t thought about it until now, but maybe there’s also that sense of “showing off” that I like (I hate how self-centered that sounds, but I must admit it). Since watches are a display piece and a bit of a statement—“I wear Casio watches because they’re long lasting and budget-friendly”—where as most people don’t actually care that much about which razor you use, and most people don’t display the hygiene products they use in public, that I know of.

Or maybe I’m not into that culture as much, maybe they make for an interesting conversation starter? Do you safety razor people have friends to talk about what brands or shaving methods you use? I know of more general “men’s style” kinda stuff but even there it seems niche.

So, yeah, I only have one safety razor and I love how much money I’ve saved on cartridges, and I enjoy and care about the process a bit more—even if I still don’t get any fancy brush, bowl or soaps.

But Fountain Pens!

So, now, Fountain Pens—and actually pens in general—enter the stage!

I’ve not been much of a handwriter in years. At least not of any sort of fully formed paragraphs. Those days are long gone since University. I took down notes and such of course, but it wasn’t until the handwritten blogpost last month that I sat down to write some thoughts.

I’ve not been the kind of guy to journal or write at all in analog form. Many of my early blogposts were about Markdown, Pandoc, and digital notes for school, and even complaining about still writing homework by hand.

And now we are here.

To think I would actually be interested on picking up a pen again. How far have I fallen?

And I still want to go deeper into it.

I got my Platinum Preppy, and when it works it has been amazing! I’ve had issues with its ink flow, but I genuinely think it’s all because I didn’t clean it up before using it, and some of the paper I’ve tried it on isn’t that good.

I’ve written a few pages already these past few days.

And the kicker is that after asking around for some recommendations with friends. I ended up ordering a Pilot Metropolitan now. With a 12-pack of cartridges included.

But I could also buy ink bottles, and nice paper notebooks, or more fountain pens.

I can feel the danger coming up, this is something that, like watches, I can carry with me, people around me will know I’m writing with a fountain pen, and well, I’ll admit I will feel a bit smug about it—until I proceed to run out of ink mid-sentence.

That itch for buying more, seeing how different they are, collecting different models at different price points. Getting pretty ink colors and the like. It could be risky!

However, I think, the Metropolitan will be good enough for me. I can’t see any reason I’d end up getting something better for the sake of it. And yet, I can’t shake the feeling. I’ve been warned by many, I have been doomed by some, but we’ll see.

Sometimes, a tool is only the entryway for a rabbit hole that you can never escape.

Finishing notes

And, it’s obviously extremely important to point this out: most people who collect this stuff—including me, I like to think—just do it because they like the act of collecting stuff.

I have been pretty fatalist here, assuming I or most others do this “just to pretend”, “just to feel superior”, “just to be different”. But seriously, it’s not really that deep most of the time.

People just like things, I guess, I’m sorry if I’ve sounded a little mean before. Some of the thoughts cross my mind but I don’t think it’s that bad, right?

I know that, even if it doesn’t make sense to me to buy X or Y thing, there’s people who get a lot out of it. So if I’m being a bit critical about something, fear not.

I’m just a guy who has purchased 30+ physical Switch games for no reason other than “I’ll play them some day” and “the cover art is cool”, and have only completed like three of them, I am nobody to judge.

So yeah, if I end up enjoying fountain pens, I’ll buy more. I don’t want to be a snob about it, and I will still use ballpoint pens when I’m lazy and because most of my existing paper will not be great with fountain pen ink. Or maybe I’ll get half a dozen Midori or Rhodia notebooks and write a novel on them, or maybe I’ll write 5 posts about this, trick all of you into becoming fountain pen fanatics, and promptly stop and go back to gaming on my Miyoo Mini Plus.