I have one from my college days somewhere. It needs a cartridge.

I have a few in my desk some still in the gift box.

I still have one; used to have the matching pencil. Don't use it though.

These were very popular at one time though never with me. I have large hands and they were much too thin to hold and use comfortably. .

I remember those. I think my DH got a pen and pencil set for his Masters graduation.

I still have some; they looked nice, but were too skinny to use comfortably.

There must be 50 of the Cross pens around our house, unused and probably dried out. My wife's clients gifted her with many every year. She doesn't use them. She prefers the Gelly Roll pen.

Still have it, still use it. Mine was silver and has my name engraved on it. High school graduation.

I received the gold pen for my college graduation. I loved that pen, and was sad when I lost it a few years later.

I have the ladies gold set with the roses in the gift box--it was a gift from my parents eons ago. I also have another pen that belonged to a family friend; his wife gave it to me when he passed away in the early 1970s. My favorite pens are the ones I get from our local bank...they are so smooth!

I have some cross pens still. I got a Mont Blanc as a gift one year and I love that pen.

Still Love mine! Even with my arthritic hands....it feels perfect.

I don't like slim, metal pens. My fingers slide down them because of the metal, and they're too slim to be comfortable.

I have to have a bigger more ergonomic style of pen now to be able to get a grip around it. I can no longer close my fist so the slim pens fall right out of my hands.

Before the school I worked for got computers, I had to hand post all my payroll to ledgers. I had them buy me Cross pens, the thin ones, my hands are small. Retired for several years now, but still have three Cross pens that I've gotten as gifts over the years.

They got to be viewed as the bee's knees gift. Advertized widely in glossy magazines. Hugely over-rated. They didn't write worth a hoot. It was like writing cursive with a rusty nail. About as comfortable too. They were the "store bought fruitcake" of gifts.

However, clearly some people liked them and used them. The one you posted an image of looks attractive. You and your friends must have fond memories of them. The pen used to fit easily into a checkbook. Maybe I just had dud cartridges?

I got one as a gift. It was okay, but after it ran out of ink, I never bothered to refill it,

"They got to be viewed as the bee's knees gift"

I agree with the rest of what you said but not this. I think Cross's products (pens and mechanical pencils) wound up being a caricature of itself, ubiquitous for no apparent reason, and gift of same were often viewed by some with a head scratch. Like, couldn't you come up with a better idea?

Wish mine was 14K gold, but it still looks good and I carry it in my purse in a small leather holder I ordered online from Italy. Great pen!

The owner of our stationery/business supply store would laugh at the USAs love of the Mont Blanc. She married a man who grew up in Germany, and Mont Blanc pens were what school kids used. Nothing fancy.

Maybe because they came to be marketed as one of the early-on "luxury goods" and were priced accordingly.

I had a Mont Blanc fountain pen that I bought in Hong Kong in the 90s (at the time when such things were sometimes half as expensive there as anywhere else) and it still cost several hundred dollars. Many years of happy use later, I mistakenly left it on my desk one evening when I left the office and in the morning it was gone. I haven't replaced it but I did enjoy using it.

i just purchased yet another Cross refill last week at Office Max.

"They didn't write worth a hoot. It was like writing cursive with a rusty nail. .... Maybe I just had dud cartridges?"

Yeah, I'd guess you weren't using genuine Cross refills. I love my Cross ladies pens/pencils for two main reasons -- they don't have a clip -- the clip makes the pen/pencil very uncomfortable for me to hold; and the pens write so smoothly. But I only use genuine Cross refills.

The mail came. I now have another Pilot Metropolitan to give my daughter, and a Conklin for me -- it's beautiful.

So sorry you lost your Mont Blanc, EF. Would you ever consider buying another brand of fountain pen?

Yes, cacoco, I might be interested. I always enjoyed using fountain pens and even did so as a kid in school in the 60s just for the novelty. They were cheap and plastic, with a see-through barrel of different colors. I don't remember the brand, do you remember seeing those? I've always had lousy penmanship but using a fountain pen at least gave my scratchings a distinctive look.

Since retiring I've gone from having multiple daily uses for a pen to sign things, take notes in meetings, etc. to now perhaps not even having multiple weekly uses for one.

Can you recommend something moderately priced that my fat hands and fingers would be happy to use?

My recent one was the Pilot Metropolitan Pop. I like it a lot. I got it at Goulet Pens has a wonderful website -- gouletpens.com I've order a couple from them, and they were fast. They even include a lollipop. The pens are $15.

I do remember the clear pens, but not the name. When I was in school, we all used Schaeffer.

Do you enjoy doing research? There are a lot of useful reviews on YouTube. It's fun for me -- I always enjoy learning about new things.

My handwriting is almost legible when I use a fountain pen. I'm mostly going to use it for journals, and pretty much everything else. But I'm not going to take them out of the house.

My Conklin arrived today and I'm in love. You can see it here. That's the most I would spend for a pen. Some cost thousands. It's fun to look at the really beautiful ones.

https://www.gouletpens.com/conklin-duragraph-fountain-pen-amber-fine/p/CK71341

I carry a silver Cross pen everywhere. It has great sentimental value to me.

I carry a Cross pen everywhere too. Mine has huge sentimental value to it as well as how great it works - so smooth, no clumping - just great. I worked for a friend who owned an Apple Computer store from '84 to '98. I got a lot of great Apple paraphernalia over the years, but my favorite is my Apple Cross pen. A few of us got them, one of them being a high school kid that worked in the service department. I remember the day I asked him about his pen and he said he had thrown it away after it ran out of ink!!!! He had no idea it was refillable and was very upset with himself! Anyway, I have had mine probably 30 years by now. I love it.

I still have the one that someone gave to me way back when and I've changed the ink several times. It's still going strong.