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Gday everyone, Long time lurker first time poster I'd like to jump straight into it and go ahead and say that I've been having problems (or should i say A problem) with my Noodlers Bulletproof black. It's an absolutely wonderful ink in pretty much every way, except one. My 'Online German: Event' Pen doesn't seem to agree with the Noodlers ink. (I have a Noodlers Flex pen inked up in Noodlers black which works perfectly fine) I've inked it up through a converter and for about, I would say the first page and a half of writing, it writes fine. It flows well with no skipping etc. However once that 1-2 page thresh-hold has been passed the problems occur: The flow becomes weaker and the nib starts to dry outMinor skipping occurs (some shaking and tapping remedies this)Flow becomes near non-existent Every second stroke skips (No amount of shaking or tapping or wetting the nib remedies this)​I've went back and talked to the boutique owner and he says that he's not surprised that an American ink, especially the 'Bulletproof' line, works poorly with a European pen. At first I thought that maybe there was a problem with the nib/feed. However after purchasing some J-Herbin and Mont-Blanc inks I'm starting to think he may be right. MY PEN WRITES PERFECTLY!! It's a very wet writer and has never skipped or been prone to dry or anything of the sort. I decided to brave the Noodlers in my Online German again, but alas, the same exact problem. I've recently read a post somewhere that the Noodlers 'Bulletproof' line is not a very well lubricated ink and is prone to flowing problems. Anyway tell me what you guys think of my situation and if you've had any similar problems with any of the Noodlers inks. ​

Ever since I came back to the fountain pen world, I've been attached to the Lamy brand to the point of collecting more than 22 examples of Safaris and Al-Stars. Unfortunately, my experience with the Al-Stars has been very disappointing recently and so has been the poor quality of their customer service. The first issue I had was with a Bluegreen Al-star that had been inked for the first time with Emeraud de Chivor. While trying to swap the nib, the entire feeder came out causing a big mess over my work, a jammed feeder (while trying to push it back in a hurry, remember the pen was leaking) and a damaged nib. I promptly send pictures to Lamy Germany to tell them about this, they in turn, send my request to the local Lamy distributor which contacted me to sell me replacement parts. The way I see it, I didn't do anything odd or wrong with the pen so it was their responsibility to fix this under warranty (the pen was not even a year old) and yet, I discovered to my dismay that locally Lamy offers only 3 months of warranty! I was using tape to swap said nib, something I've done quite frequently with all my Lamy pens in our 3 year story. Never before with a feeder coming along with them. I thought I might have gotten a lemon, so I kept purchasing their pens. Then the other day, I noticed that my fingers where full of ink while using my Pearl Al-star (again, first inking). Turns out, the pen leaks all of the converter's ink into the cap even when the pen is left unused and in an upright position on my pen holder. I have cleaned the pen, reassembled everything back and used another ink to see if something changed, but no, still leaks ink like hell. Both the converter and the pen are brand new, so normal wear and tear need not apply. But what really made me steer away from Lamy, was Kaweco's outstanding customer support that dealt with me directly and until a happy outcome was reached. Customer support elsewhere might be better, but a Global brand is supposed to give the same brand experience everywhere, not only in selected areas, let alone same warranty terms.