Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze 1.3Mm Stub

[thott]

Hello,

 

everybody has some specific experiences with pens. Good and bad ones :-)

 

The best is always, if you has the possibility, to try and check it in a shop by yourself

 

Writing start:

Sometimes not the nib is the reason for this problem. Specially stub, oblique or italic nib

needs a right writing position. Otherwise you will get problems. Certainly, it could be also

a real nib imperfection.

 

Parts fitting accuracy:

Never read about this. The cap do not fit good to the barrel?

 

Piston (power filler?):

Sometimes it is mentioned, that people are not satisfied with the ink volume of the

power filler.

An important point is, that you have to hold the pen some seconds in the ink after

pushing down the rod. Do not take it immediately out. Give him the time to fill up.

And this way works here perfect.

 

It´s true, you can find messages about nib problems and other imperfections of the HS.

But is it more compared to other pens/manufacturers?

On the other hand, Visconti mentioned always their superior quality assurance.

With this statement we should expect a "good" pen...:-)

 

 

Greetings

Thomas

 

[Piro_Flipper]

Hello,

 

All what I saw up to now, no HS Bronze was like the other. The surface has differences, the pattern was different,

the bronze fittings and the clip appearance was different (lighter, darker, more shiny).

 

When we bought it at Akkerman in Den Haag, we had the choice to select our HS Bronze out of 4 pens. I mean

to say, that every pen seems to has it´s own individual appearance.

 

I think it is hard to show it by photo. The differences are not so huge that you willl clearly see it in pictures. But they

are present!

 

At the Blog of MissElderberry http://thesebeautifulpens.blogspot.de/ I found the following saying:

 

"I've heard that Arabian carpet weavers purposefully put some mistakes into their work because they believe

no human is able - and allowed - to claim perfection."

 

It is these differences of the HS which makes, in my opinion, this pen so beautiful and interesting.

 

Btw. our HS nibs are flawless

 

Greetings

Thomas

You are right about the bronze surfaces, even on my own pen the clip, the bands on the cap and the centre band all vary in shininess, very interesting. The saying does seem to go with this pen too.

 

I was also doing some writing with it. Man, mine is just about the perfect pen. It's really wet and just smooth and wonderful. It's not a hard starter at all. This is with Iro shin-ryoku on rhodia

 

http://www.suramar.org/fpn/HS_tst-3.jpg

Love your handwriting!

For the most part the pens look quite similar but there are some differences in the "missing" dots on the clips: they do not appear to be in the same spots for each pen. Thank you for posting these photos!

 

1.jpg

Hello...

 

and here some detail pictures from me to compare. It´s the best quality I could reach :-)

 

1.jpg

4.jpg

5.jpg

3.jpg

2.jpg

s.jpg

 

Greetings

Thomas

 

PS: Ink of the writing sample is PR Electric DC Blue

 

Thanks Thomas, and I was just about to ask what ink you were using too!

[C40]

Hello. I'm thinking about buying a Homo Sapiens and have a question about the filling system:

 

When screwed all the way closed, does the piston seal off the ink chamber/barrel and the section/feed area?

 

Some (many?) vacuum fillers are setup such that the piston, when screwed all the way in, seals off the barrel from the feed/section area. After writing for some time the ink in the section and feed can be used up and then it is necessary to unscrew the piston knob and retract the piston a little bit so ink can flow in from the barrel. This can also be nice for people who fly often (as I do) because it seals off the main ink reservoir and makes ink leaks due to pressure differences less likely.

[C40]

oh.. I think I found the answer in another review:

 

"I like the fact that you don't have to loosen up the blind cap for proper ink flow, as is the case with some other vac pens. "

[Piro_Flipper]

Indeed, you do not have to take any action to keep the pen writing smoothly from full to empty. The only time it'll become drier is right before you use op the ink.

 

I'm still loving this pen by the way, I feel very fortunate to be able to use it every day.

[C40]

Thanks for the confirmation.... Really thinking seriously about buying one of these. It will be by far my most expensive pen

[Horseknitter]

I own over 50 pens but I loved the looks of HS bronze when it first came out. I talked myself out of it because of some seepage problems with ink coming through the body. Visconti fixed that problem. I continued to eye the pen thinking it's a beauty but I don't need another pen. I learned it was (or is) Visconti's best seller so I told myself you don't want a pen just like everyone else has - be distinctive!

 

Then I happened on a deal in the FPN classifieds and impulsively bought my bronze HS with a fine nib. Had I been able to write with one or even hold one earlier I would have purchased it on the spot. It is a very wet F and therefore writes wider than most F nibs. If I had my true desire I would like to have about a .7 CI but don't misunderstand my pleasure as it is. This pen by virtue of the way it writes and the way it feels in my hand quickly became one of my favorite 3 fountain pens. I may buy another with the nib I desire but I will always have at least 1 bronze HS inked up and ready to write.

 

I cannot do more than tell you: I don't think you will be sorry if you can afford to buy the pen. I wish I had done it years ago.

[Writer01]

for the question someone asked me in may(....sorry i always forgive to come back on the topics i've already readed once) He got probs of not immediate wrting and parts that don't fit togethers perfectly and pens are not reliable for the pistons,he really don't like them i'm sure he has got a big trouble one day with them. He nearly forbidden me to buy a HS Mazzi edition,saying it was not good,that it was more pens to look at than to write with,and he adviced me to choose something else...someone has ever seen a seller say "no don't buy this it's (bleep)"?? And i know him since a long time and he is a very fair man so...well i don't know but i trust him even if i'll surely get some visconti's some day cause i love how they look...

I think you need to go to a different dealer. I have been using my Homo Sapiens now for at least four years, and it is a delight. The nib has never given me a problem from day one, and it is smooth and soft on the paper. I adore the moderate flexibility when I have time, but mostly I love the balance, the weight, the serious amount of ink it holds, and the ease and sheer pleasure of writing with it. For me, the cap itself is wonderful. I love the quick 1/5 turn to remove the cap when I'm in a hurry. And I'm surprised by the comments about the clip. I think the look of the clip is magnificent, and it's so easy to put the pen in a pocket and pull the clip out as it goes in. It's much better than unsprung, tight clips such as my Conway Stewarts and a Pelikan M805 I tried recently. However, all these things do tend to be subjective, don't they!

[Motorrader]

Excellent Review.

[jimrie]

Your photography is simply superb. Makes me want this pen even more!

[MrSwissCheese]

Indeed. Wonderful photos and wonderful writing. Sadly my experience with the Visconti 23k stub nibs is less than stellar. I have had mine for a little over two months now, and it does nothing but hard start and skip. Only when I use it in an almost perpendicular fashion, it wants to write. So it is currently with a pen shop here in Zürich. The owner claims he can fix it, so fingers crossed.

[Honeybadgers]

This is my third visconti, the first an F divina metro, the second a F homo sapiens, and the third an EF H.S.

 

They all wrote absolutely unacceptably out of the box.

 

I also really hate the feel of the brass ring on the piston knob, it feels like it could just fall off.

 

It's hard to grease.

 

The pen feels great in the hand, I adore the cap system, and the nib (when tuned) is superb. But this is a $400 pen. not a $700 one. And it's almost guaranteed to disappoint in some major way as it arrives from the factory, which is unacceptable.

 

I'd written off my EF until I accidentally ruined it when I pulled the nib and somehow banged it on a table, curling it upwards. Some very careful work with watchmaker's tools and wood blocks and it wound up writing.... perfectly. It's now a flawless writer. But good lord was it bad when it came from the factory. I'm not going to be buying visconti for a good long while. Which is a shame, since the divina metro was probably the most gorgeous pen I've ever laid eyes on, that celluloid was even better than the vacumatic's and the sterling silver inlay... mmm... But it caught ink in between the section and the celluloid in a way that couldn't be cleaned... so it was literally unusable.

Edited October 24, 2017 by Honeybadgers

[MrSwissCheese]

To be honest, I have a HS with an F nib and an Opera Crystal with a Chromium Stub, and both are absolutely glorious writers. The Opera Crystal especially is just fantatsic. Wet, juicy inkflow. I only have to touch the paper and I get an immediate and constant inkflow. And the Stub is almost like a cursive, untipped Italic, which gives fantastic character to my very avarage cursive handwriting.

[Moonfruit]

Well, I'll be able to add to this discussion in a week or so, and give an update on Visconti qc. I just ordered a bronze with a stub nib.