Most Durable Fountain Pen?

[Dillo]

All pens are prone to break or, at least, to be damaged. Excluding nibs, of course, my vote goes to Visconti Homo Sapiens. The barrel is made of a thick Lava resin, shock proof and scratch proof. And the trim (Bronze Age), when oxidized, becomes more beautiful, in my opinion.

 

Lamy 2000 is another tough pen. It's made of the resistant polycarbonate.

 

Parker 51 is made of acrylic that's resistant too, but, teoretically, polycarbonate is even more resistant.

 

Edited: Many people say MB pens (mainly, Meisterstück series) are fragile. However, my experience says the opposite. I've been let the 146 and 149 caps drop dozen times, because the caps on these pens don't post in a safe way, and, nevertheless, any crack was produced! The Precious Resin is pretty tough in my experience.

 

Hi,

 

I have also seen a few MB 149 and 146 fall before. (Different people dropping different pens) I haven't seen them break yet. I've seen precious resin split before, but that was with one of the earlier models made with the material. My guess is that there was an either an earlier formulation or a batch of the material that had issues, and the resin was later reformulated. Personally, I'd like to do some durability testing, but I don't know if I could drop a pen like that without a few tears.

 

Anyway, one of the weak points of a pen is between the cap and the barrel. The portion of the grip section that screws into the barrel is often a casualty when the pen is dropped.

 

In my experience, pens made out of PMMA tend to be quite durable.

 

Pens made from acrylic that is marbled and looks like celluloid, if they are the type that looks like chunks of material, tend to shatter when dropped. Solid color acrylics as well as acrylics with continuous swirls and patterns tend not to have this issue.

 

Cotton resin seems to be fairly resilient. I've seen many pens from that material.

 

Most celluloid seems to be fairly durable as long as it was cured correctly.

 

The Pilot Capless would not be the first thing I would think about if we are talking about durability. I can see one breaking glue bonds when dropping the pen and having parts come loose as a result. This is said by one with a few Capless that are used very heavily.

 

Hard rubber does crack with enough force. It seems less resilient than certain plastics at the same thickness.

 

These are just thoughts of mine. I'm not sure how correct they are, so take them with a grain of salt.

 

Dillom

[stuartk]

I have a Cartier Diabolo rollerball pen in stainless steel with palladium trim. It's almost all metal, machined out of solid stainless, and the threads the cap screws on to are quite robust. It's sturdy enough that you could use it as a kubotan. They made a fountain pen that had an identical outside casing.

 

The small jewel on top of the cap may be somewhat fragile, but other than that I'd say this is as tough as anything out there.

[myn]

I don't know I somehow think the Edison Collier might survive the Bic test. The nib on that pen is larger than an arrow head and harder then nails and oh, by the way it writes pretty darned nice too. :ltcapd:

[Saintpaulia]

Sorry but the cheapest Parker 45 Flighter I could find on eBay was about $50.

[rochester21]

As a general rule, when i want something durable, it has to be made out of metal and it has to be easy to disassemble/clean. From my limited experiences, i have learned that parker pens are generally fearsome beasts in terms of reliability.

I can vouch for parker vector SS, parker 45 flighter, parker 75 and 51(with aerometric filler). These models are like the japanesse cars of fountain pens. Of course, there are better built pens out there- the waterman carene is the best built fountain pen i came across so far(better than the parker pens i mentioned), but it`s not as dependable.

 

So for me, durability in what fountain pens are concerned doesn`t necessarily imply a fountain pen made entirely out of titanium, because pens are not meant to resist fire or heavy bombardment, but they do have to write without clogging, skipping or having to be cleaned after each use or change of ink.

Edited September 11, 2012 by rochester21

[rochester21]

Sorry but the cheapest Parker 45 Flighter I could find on eBay was about $50.

 

I bought a new old stock 45 flighter for only 45 usd, and there are used ones that can be had for half that price- just keep your eyes on ebay auctions for a few days. And 50 dollars for a pen that lasts almost a lifetime of use isn`t that much anyway.

Edited September 11, 2012 by rochester21

[Oranges and Apples]

I cannot imagine a plastic being more durable than a non-precious metal pen.

 

Pens such as the Pilot Vanishing Point and certain Rotring would endure more abuse than their the plastic counter parts such as the Lamy 2000.

[minimax447]

"because pens are not meant to resist fire or heavy bombardment"

Heavens, some of you really mollycoddle your pens

Jinhao 159 will take a thump that would destroy a Volvo but it takes two to fill it and three to lift it.

Edited September 11, 2012 by minimax447

[dst207]

Perhaps a Rotring 600?

[ajcoleman]

Your original post asked about the Frontier. I have not experienced it personally, but several have reported that cap liner wears out, causing the cap to not click on as it should, and rendering the pen basically useless. I don't think when it comes to durability, the Frontier is in the same league as the 51.

 

There are lots of pens however that should last beyond your lifetime under normal use. For example, the Levenger Truewriter has a heavy resin body that is plenty rugged enough for a lifetime of normal use. I haven't dropped it from a skyscraper, but it has hit the floor plenty of times without issue. The lid screws on, so there is no click mechanism or cap liner to wear out. It has no moving parts other than an inexpensive standard converter which is easily replaced. The nib, the part of the pen most prone to damage, is also easily replaceable. There is nothing to corrode, no sac to wear out or grow brittle, etc. As far as I know, it isn't even biodegradable. There is no reason I can think of that I couldn't pass it on to my great-grandchildren. Of course, all of this could be said about many fountain pens. Edison, Bexley, Laban, and others all make pens with this same basic construction.