Worst Fountain Pen Mistake?

[amyx231]

how many lawyers here? seems a whole lot.

[alexander_k]

Taking so long to realize that it's all about matching ink to nib to paper.

[ADKaid]

Not filling my pen properly before I came to work this morning and having it run out. Bottle of ink at home. grrrr. **!"??!* ballpens!

 

I once dropped a bit of water in a cartridge that had run out. I put it back in the pen, shook it a tad, and I was able to write for the rest of the day with almost no difference in the color saturation. It was Noodler's bulletproof black.

 

On to my mistake:

 

My worst decision so far was attempting to smooth out my EF TWSBI nib on my own with "suspect" supplies.. I only made it worse, and now I'm just hoping someone will answer my post about it in the pen services forum.

 

EF nib...does it even have a surface to even out? id imagine its a needle point.

 

There seemed to be some tipping material on there. Who knows? I just ordered a new M nib unit and I guess I'll just NEVER TOUCH A NIB AGAIN.

[akiva]

dropping my grail pen an omas galileo on the day I received it. I started to look on the floor but being in a wheelchair I found it - under my back wheel. I am still in mourning!

[Jane-K]

Some years ago, I sent a Cross Solo as a graduation present. The recipient believed it was a letter opener. (Seriously, what letter opener is marketed with a cartridge of ink?!) Of course I immediately informed her that it was actually a pen.

[Flounder]

RInsing my gold Parker 45 nib & feed under a running tap. The nib vanished down the plug hole, and I had to take off the u bend to get it back - thank Beelzebub, the flow of water hadn't carried it away!

[amyx231]

good lessons to be learned. never step on a pen, never touch fire, never try reshaping/mending, and never wash near a drain. did i get it all?

oh right, and never give one to someone else if you arent sure they know what it is.

[amyx231]

my word! through away a FP!

[amyx231]

young and pretty..delish. lol. how young is young? we have profs the same age as some of our classmates, ouch.

[Shangas]

Worst fountain pen mistake must be when I was in highschool and I was filling up a fountain pen cartridge with ink from a syringe. I think I was about 14 at the time. The pen was a blue Sheaffer of some description. Simple pen but wrote very nicely. I was refilling the ink-cartridge with a syringe and after the cartridge was full, I absent-mindedly pressed down on the syringe-piston.

 

I forgot that there was still a small amount of ink left in the piston-chamber, which thereafter ended up on the blinds of my bedroom window. I seem to recall that the ink was Parker Quink Blue-Black.

Edited February 24, 2011 by Shangas

[amyx231]

Worst fountain pen mistake must be when I was in highschool and I was filling up a fountain pen cartridge with ink from a syringe. I think I was about 14 at the time. The pen was a blue Sheaffer of some description. Simple pen but wrote very nicely. I was refilling the ink-cartridge with a syringe and after the cartridge was full, I absent-mindedly pressed down on the syringe-piston.

 

I forgot that there was still a small amount of ink left in the piston-chamber, which thereafter ended up on the blinds of my bedroom window. I seem to recall that the ink was Parker Quink Blue-Black.

 

how full is full anyway? like, how much air should be left? im gonna try that...soon. not the splattering. the filling.

[Shangas]

There was very little ink left in the syringe. Only a couple of drops, but believe me, that's plenty to leave a...um...lasting impression!!

 

As for refilling cartridges with a syringe, you should fill them up to a few milimeters from the top. Then you can just stick them back inro your pen and use them again.

[amyx231]

awesome! well, not ur blinds, the other bit

[alvarez57]

Not being born 100 years earlier...

 

You'd have ink all over your fingers and shirt.

[alvarez57]

dropping my grail pen an omas galileo on the day I received it. I started to look on the floor but being in a wheelchair I found it - under my back wheel. I am still in mourning!

 

So sorry to hear that!

[SlipyNaricis2112]

The fact that I even bought a cheap Sheaffer calligraphy pen. Wrote fine for about 5 minutes. Then it inexplicably clogged, and I tried to passively unclog it for months. Finally, one day I made a concerted effort to unclog the thing, and after maybe 2 hours of nonstop pen surgery, I succumbed to rage. I've never done this, and with any luck, never will again, but I gripped it firmly and pushed it as hard as I could against my desk, bending the tines to hell and back. I can't tell you how good it felt to murder that thing.

Edited February 25, 2011 by SlipyNaricis2112

[uojfe]

Seeing if I could 'flex' the nib in my Pilot 78G. No but I can bend it. A relativity cheap but extraordinarily stupid mistake.

[rhosygell]

1. Dropping a Waterman 52 ripple nose first onto a tiled floor knocking one of the tips off the nib, however it didn't bend ! Nor, fortunately did it crack the pen.

 

2. Reinserting the section into a Swan 1046 Leverless at what must have been a very slight angle and cracking the otherwise pristine barrel across the cap threads. Not best pleased.

 

3. Buying a MB144 user grade - what utter junk - the tacky placcy was full of cracks, it rarely worked and demonstrated that the pens are very pedestrian at best.

[Namo]

Selling my Lamy Persona to raise funds for a Delta Dolce Vita OS. I still like the DV very much, but it didn't turn to be the pen I hoped it would be...

[rwilsonedn]

Much earlier in my pen problem, buying a new MB 146. Huge amount of money (though not nearly so much as now) for an undistinguished pen that spontaneously cracked, and that the factory failed to repair after several attempts at my expense. Expensive lesson.

ron