Pen for 18th birthday

My eldest is going to be 18 in about 6 weeks time and my mum would like to get him a silver pen. I have not a clue about such things as but told her I know just where to ask!

No idea budget but would assume 1-200  but can ask her later when i see her.

Pen? Do kids still use those?

wouldn’t money be a better present?

HebTroCo have their propelling pencils on offer just now. Obviously not a pen. But silvery in color.

not sure a silver pen is going to come in that price range. SO bought a Montegrappa ‘Juliet’ 20+ years ago and if I remember correctly it was a bit more even then.

The Pen Shop might give some inspiration.

For silver, Yard-o-led are excellent. They do both pens and pencils, but it’ll be £300 for one.
I got one last year, they gave me a tour around their workshop, calling it a factory is a bit grand when there are only 4 people there!
Would an 18yo really appreciate a good pen? I’m not sure I would have done at that age.

https://www.yard-o-led.com/

I think it’s a bad idea, but if insisting I’d get a Waterman.

Not for any good reason, just as that’s the brand of overpriced bling my family chose

£80 Titanium Bolt Action Pen

Sounds to me like a great way of spending three figures on an object which will spend its life sitting in a drawer.  “Ooh, I really want a £200 pen” said no teenager ever since quills fell out of favour.

If I had £200 to spend on a pen for a teenager I’d spend £20 on a Fisher Space Pen and the other £180 on a pony trekking experience or a skydive or some such.  Yesterday’s family heirlooms are tomorrow’s too much crap.  Memories last forever, illnesses permitting.

Kinda as above. Unless he’s a prolific writer I’d just get something utilitarian.

My weapon of choice is a Parker Jotter with Fisher ink cartridge.

Personally I’d want a lifetime supply of bics. There’s never one when you need one

The most treasured wiring instrument I have is a <£20 Uni Kuru Toga pencil MrsRNP bought me.

As an engineer I appreciate it’s unique self sharpening action. 18year olds may not do…….

As above, unless he’s seriously into writing, calligraphy or whatever, an expensive pen is gonna be a very disappointing gift for an 18yo, silver or not.

18 year old me would be gutted you wasted your 200 quid on a pen.

38 year old me less so.

The 20 years in between I’m guaranteed to have lost it without having used it much.

I got a nice  (looking – not posh -rolex or owt) titanium watch from my grand parents for my 18th and while I wear a fenix 99% of the time. It still makes me smile when I break it out for a wedding or a job interview and it’s fairly unique in design (some might say that dates it) so has had some interest over the years

Maybe a better option than a pen – albeit it most folk use their phone these days for time – they still have their place.

A single bic biro and the rest on C&H.

I got a Montblanc Meisterstuck from my mum when I was 21. I haven’t used it a great deal but it is a treasured possession, especially now she’s dead.

Pens and cufflinks are still great coming-of-age presents I think.

Ballpoint Pens

Silver pens £200 !

Doing my uni exams I spent 21st birthday month from my uncle and aunt on a fisher space pen.

I’ve still got it, I don’t use it much for fear of loosing it. Which is daft. I think I’ll get using it this week.

Yesterday’s family heirlooms are tomorrow’s too much crap.

Yup. I’m not one for sentimental material/physical baggage.

I appreciate a nice pencil, preferably H2 or H3, for work. Rarely used a pen and when I do a Bic does the job just fine.

I received some cufflinks from folks friends when I was 16. Fancy things with my initials engraved. Worn them maybe twice… Double cuffed shirts and formal dress are not my thing.

A watch is a better idea, imo.

Big Idea Ti pen – shiny, you can order a lovely anodised timascus clip with it too, will take pretty much any refill in the universe as far as I can tell.

Thanks for the replies, pretty much as I thought they would be but thanks for some of the links. He’s a clumsy sod so my thoughts are more that he’ll loose it unless it’s kept elsewhere until he’s older which kind of defeats the point.

You can still get those 4 colour bics.

He’s entering a world where pens are all but obsolete, i can’t even remember the last time i used a pen, at work it’s all in onenote for taking notes, office for most other stuff, tablets for commenting on stuff and signatures have been digital for a long time now, think birthday cards are about the only time i use a pen, and that’s with a bic.

It is weird how things that are pretty much foundation inventions die off in the modern world, never even thought about how little we use pens, or paper these days.

Have a look at http://www.cultpens.co.uk they are who I use for all my pen needs

If I had to guess as to some brands that might be worth having a look at van Graff Faber Castell at the high end of Kaweco at the more utilitarian end. I have several Kaweco pens and I have completely replaced my montblanc pens

If he’s outdoorsy or likes tinkering an expensive leatherman is a wonderful gift  for life. Fits the ‘gift’ criteria too.

I got one for my 21st and was very well received.

Personally I’d want a lifetime supply of bics. There’s never one when you need one

Come here.  My partner is Teacher Surplus, she buys catering packs.  I can’t move for the bastard things.

I’d be less irritated if she had the loosest of grasps on things having homes but no, we have a stationary drawer and I can – well, could – lay my hand on something I last saw twenty years ago, but she’ll scatter shit to the four winds and then deny all knowledge.  Then buy another pack because she can’t find any.  I think it may have been someone on STW who coined the term “hidey tidy” and this is my life and it drives my aspie brain absolutely batshit. “Why don’t we have any pens?”  We’ve got about 200 of the sodding things and you’ve put them all in the fridge or the gas meter cabinet or the moon or somewhere equally logical.

I found a lip gloss in the cutlery drawer the other day.  WHY?  WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!  “I didn’t put that there” she says.  Well, I sure as **** didn’t go “knives, forks, spoons, lip gloss” now, did I?  The large user of such a thing as I am, and the man who alphabetises his ****ing spice rack.

About that patio, then.

A big box of colourful crayons? Then instead of a life of signing documents and filling in forms and having people judge him because his pen is only quite shiny he can draw pictures of rainbows and space unicorns and do leaf rubbings all over the mortgage documents and passport forms. Plus pens leak all over your shirt pocket. Crayons only do that if you put them in the toaster. I know these things

Lamy rollerball in clear plastic (looks silver).

A good compromise between a ballpoint (practical but crap) and a fountain pen (involves maintenance, but writes beautifully).

No way would anyone spend £200 on a teenagers pen.

Soooo many better ways to spend the remaining £180.

Apple stylus?

or even http://www.cultpens.com

He’s entering a world where pens are all but obsolete, i can’t even remember the last time i used a pen, at work it’s all in onenote for taking notes, office for most other stuff, tablets for commenting on stuff and signatures have been digital for a long time now, think birthday cards are about the only time i use a pen, and that’s with a bic.

It’s been proven that the best way to remember things is to actually write them down. Tapping text into some app or other doesn’t work the same way, and sadly Apple still won’t make it possible to write notes with the Pencil on an iPhone screen, only on a Pad, and that’s not practical. I have a couple of Rotring Trio technical pencils, one I bought nearly fifty years ago, the other I got off eBay as a just-in-case purchase, and I use those fairly regularly, because they have 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 leads, and I have different hardnesses of lead in each.

I’m sure work environments are mostly digital screen based, but in the real world of actual human interaction, the great majority of people actually write stuff down; batteries don’t go flat on a sheet of paper!

I have a couple of notepads with a Parker Vector fountain pen attached to each that I use a lot for note taking, and card writing – possibly the cheapest Parker pens, but the most reliable fountain pens I own, and they help me maintain a reasonable quality of handwriting, although the arthritis in my hands is making that more problematic. 😕 I can pick up a notebook and flick through and refer back to notes much more easily than trying to search back through loads of items on a variety of different apps, especially if the app isn’t working…

As above, I’d try and dissuade your mum, unless you know that your son would like such a pen, otherwise she’s basically wasting £200, which I’m sure your son wouldn’t want her to do.

A pen? A friggin pen? 😂
Sorry.

Can only echo the don’t do it replies. Been having a huge clear out recently and found all the monogrammed key rings, wallets etc my grandparents bought me at the milestone birthdays. All in their original boxes. They are now next the collection of Parker rollerballs which barely fit in a mug.
Tell them your mum would like to get them something to keep and ask what they’d actually like

Unlike some here, I still like in a world where the pen is king. Every box that leaves the pharmacy has to be initialled by the dispenser and checker and also still lots of paper forms. My weapon of choice is cheap Zebras (the pen not African equine). Always have a bulk pack in my work bag.

Power Kite?
My Mum got my bro a crystal vase for his 40th .
Never been out the box , he spends his time messing with superbikes , flower arrangements aren’t really his thing.
Casio Edifice . Some of the blue finish ones look like the should be a 4 figure watch , not a 150.
Gerber , leather man , snap on roll cab , welder , nano brewery, gaming chair, binos , walking boot, air miles , Krugerrand , sipp , ISA .
Not a pen though

I use a pen every day. Difficult to use nice shiny electronic kit in the manufacturing environment I work in. Some of us still have jobs where we get our hands dirty – although I do take the point about this perhaps becoming less common.

Anyway back to the OP – I use a Rotring 600 3 in 1 as a day to day pen/automatic pencil. You’ll pick one up for £30 ish and they’re a nice ‘thing’ to hold (unless he has tiny hands). Also not the end of the world if you lose it or someone nicks it… Use the rest of the cash for any of the suggestions above 😀

I love a nice pen. I even bought myself a Mont Blanc fountain pen when I was about 20, which I still have and use. However, clearly I am in a minority. Pens imho are generally too personal for someone else to choose. Why does your mother want to buy him a pen, unless she is a pen lover herself (with her own idea of what to buy).

As above, a nice pen, worth keeping, cherishing and importantly using, can easily be found for £30.

How about a rucksack or a tent with the remainder?

My gran used to buy me the commemorative £5 coins. Some now hold enough value to buy a round of ice creams.

Let her by a nice pen, but not an expensive one. Then get something else he’d use

Cheap pen and use the rest for a trip to Amsterdam to sample the delights 🤪

It is weird how things that are pretty much foundation inventions die off in the modern world

My ‘thing’ these days is escape rooms (why has there never been a thread on this?).  In escape rooms there is the concept of “outside knowledge,” a room should be self-contained and solvable within itself.  Like, you cannot assume that people know Roman Numerals or Morse Code because if they don’t they’re knackered, there’s no way of solving that puzzle.  If you have a problem using Roman Numerals you have to provide a crib sheet.

The amount of things that modern-day kids don’t know is staggering.  Some of it you’d expect, like they’ve never seen a rotary phone.  But the one that staggered me, teenagers mostly cannot read an analogue clock.  They’re taught it in infant school but then never have to touch it again.

My Dad bought me a Mont Blanc pen once. Strange gift I thought till I spotted it in the aeroplane last minute pressie magazines.

The amount of things that modern-day kids don’t know is staggering.  Some of it you’d expect, like they’ve never seen a rotary phone.  But the one that staggered me, teenagers mostly cannot read an analogue clock.  They’re taught it in infant school but then never have to touch it again.

Invigilating an exam last week – A level geography……one of the kids asked if there was digital clock in the room as he didn’t get on with the analogue one on the wall (you’re not allowed to wear a watch of any flavour to public exams any more, not that many of them have a watch).

To the OP….I don’t think he said there was a need to spend £200; just that suggestions up to £200 would be affordable. So a £50 is good too. It shouldn’t be about the value.

A gift with lasting sentiment is good I’d say, especially from a relative who, to be a little blunt, won’t be around forever. There’s not an existing family keepsake that could be passed on for his birthday? Is your dad on the scene still or were they not together?

It depends what sort of life he’s probably going to have, but most people get dressed up every now and then. A pair of really nice sterling silver cuff links might not do much for him right now, but it’ll be something he might wear on his wedding day by which point she might not be around, and appreciate long term on the odd occasion he wears them.

If it is going to be a pen – make is a pen you drag out every now and then to sign something maybe. And if you have a broad understanding of ‘silver’ to mean a colour rather than a metal and you say stainless steel is ‘silver’ coloured then maybe a Kaweco Steel Sport Fountain Pen. Modern chunky styling that might appeal to an 18 year old. They do an actual sterling silver job but that’s £1K or thereabouts. I really like the brass one.

He’s entering a world where pens are all but obsolete, i can’t even remember the last time i used a pen,

A couple of months ago I picked up my new motability car and had to sign 3 documents, I had totally forgot how to sign my name never mind how to hold a pen – I may as well have put an X on the page as every signature was different

A gift with lasting sentiment is good I’d say, especially from a relative who, to be a little blunt, won’t be around forever.

I understand the sentiment.  But really, this notion isn’t a gift for the benefit for the recipient but for the giver.

I’m 50-odd and the only things I’ve had which have lasting sentimental value were either broken (my grandad’s mug) or filched (a SAK).  The days of Christopher Walken’s pocket watch are long, long gone.

I may as well have put an X on the page as every signature was different

Who checks signatures any more anyway?  Back when I had a fuel card there was no place for a signature on the card but I still had to sign for purchases.  I I went from my own name to D. Duck to X and no-one either noticed or cared.