Making the transition from Rollerball to fountain is hard!

Today I received a shipment which contained my pens, along with a bunch of other stuff. One thing I have noticed thus far however, from the writing I have done today, is that it is actually hard not to bear down on the pen like you would a ball point or a roller ball! I mean you actually have to think about not forcing down on it...

The only other thing I had a question on, for best results, does the side with the metal slit go up or down? I blame it on them teaching us to use ball points nowadays...

LOL!

The metal slit goes "up".

My Lamy AL2000 can't be comfortably held any other way... it's a semi-triangular grip, rounded on the bottom part that rests on the middle finger.

Lol, I figured as much.

Yea these pens don't have an up arrow or a shape! Round knows no preference...

I take it you grew up in an educational system that knew nothing other than ball points and chances are, did not teach penmanship. I would suggest you find someone who uses a fountain pen and practices good penmanship to give you a few lessons and helpful hints. It's never to late to learn.

Gunney, Brian Goulet has made a fantastic video on the basics of fountain pens. You may know most of the things he covers in it, but you'll very likely learn something.

I had not thought about it since I started in high school with a fountian pen (roller ball yet to be intorduced!), but I believe it would be more difficult to make the transition if I had started w/ RB.

If you ask me (I don't use anything else than fountain pens, except when drafting with a pencil), it's similar to the Cartridge-blades to DE transition. Fountains are much more sensitive, so you have to make no pressure at all, and keep your grip constant.