Why Are Cross Pens So Underrated?

[pajaro]

I think I bought a 10K Century in 1980. In 1981 the place I bought it from moved. I hadn't seen Cross fountain pens before. The Century is a decent fountain pen, but a Parker 51 is a lot better, and Sheaffer Imperials are also better. Cross typically made pens that looked like jewelry, and often were made from precious metals.

 

If you think less of Cross pens because they are often gift items, consider that I bought many never inked Parker 51s from yard sales, because they had been gifts that were not used by ballpoint users. Do you then think less of the 51 because it was often a gift item, as were Sheaffers and others? Or is there some other special reason for the prejudice?

 

I believe that the Cross Solo, with a typical Cross appearance but Japanese guts, is one of the best writing pens I have ever used. Certainly better than the skippy Montblanc 146 I have.

 

Cross's using the C/C filling system is simply following the evolution of an industry standard that is cheap to make and easy for the user to service.

 

So, is our disregard for Cross pens based on their engineering, or because they are glitzy, expensive and have the distasteful heritage of ballpoint jewelry? Not all of their fountain pens are poor performers. Maybe they should have had Pilot make them all. FP lovers love Pilot, a sublime maker of ballpoints.

[brunico]

To me, they sit in the same niche as brands like Diplomat. All I've ever seen are the sort of slimline metal and lacquered pens that were a hallmark of the eighties. Nothing about them piques my interest. They just melt into the background of a few department stores, easily passed over, unlike the inexpensive and brightly-coloured Safaris in the rotating racks or the expensive and sometimes stunning Viscontis and Montegrappas in the most prominent display cases. No italics, so I have no curiosity to research them further, and I guess I write them off as yet another pen that only comes in F, M or B, but with nothing like a lava barrel or a bit of filigree work that would keep the name in mind.

 

I have no reason to disparage them - they may be great pens, great value, whatever, and I may have a totally erroneous grasp of the pens they actually produce - but, along with Diplomat, Parker, Sheaffer and a few others, Cross is simply one of those brands that do everything they can to escape my attention.

[Renfield]

I got a Cross Century ii, and think it is a really nice pen. Super smooth out of the box, Cant fault it.

 

On The back of that I got an Adventura, I was more disappointed with it as I thought it was metal, and turned out to be rather cheap feeling plastic. Nib was still smooth, just didn't feel as nice as the Cross Century ii

[Tom Aquinas]

My Townsend is as good as any top shelf pen.

[ac12]

My old original Century is a nice writer.

I have M nib, and it is a NICE and wet writer.

 

I think like any pen, it depends on the individual pen you get and how it behaves.

[akustyk]

I had a really bad experience with the Townsend. I bought it new, but it came in bad shape, with squeaky, dirty threads and a 18k nib out of alignment. I sent it to Cross US, who questioned the authenticity of my purchase (despite alleged lifetime warranty!) and sent me the pen back with a new barrel, but the same bad nib. It was not a good writer, being scratchy, overly broad for a medium, with start-up issues. It also felt rather cheaply made. The worst part of this was that Cross kept sending me tons of unsolicited email and snail mail with advertising materials. Not cool.

[tonybelding]

Cross is an old American company, but I think they made mostly mechanical pencils back in the "good old days", and only a few rare (and now quite valuable) fountain pens.

 

When I think of Cross, what really comes to mind is those horribly shoddy and tacky ballpoint-and-pencil gift sets that were sold in drug stores in the 1970s. They had no redeeming qualities, but that was my only exposure to Cross in my years before I got into fountain pens.

 

And now? What I mostly know about Cross pens today is: uninspired styling, they don't accept standard cartridges and converters, they don't come with a converter, and they're made in China. Based on that, I don't see any reason to be interested in them.

[OcalaFlGuy]

In my opinion, Cross pens are middle-of-the-road, without personality or soul.

 

You are obviously not looking at the right Crossi.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[OcalaFlGuy]

Oops. Dup.

 

Edited September 14, 2013 by OcalaFlGuy

[OcalaFlGuy]

I had a really bad experience with the Townsend. I bought it new, but it came in bad shape, with squeaky, dirty threads and a 18k nib out of alignment. I sent it to Cross US, who questioned the authenticity of my purchase (despite alleged lifetime warranty!) and sent me the pen back with a new barrel, but the same bad nib. It was not a good writer, being scratchy, overly broad for a medium, with start-up issues. It also felt rather cheaply made. The worst part of this was that Cross kept sending me tons of unsolicited email and snail mail with advertising materials. Not cool.

 

I know for a Fact it is NOT the policy of Cross USA to require ANY ownership paperwork whatsoever.

 

They've done 14k gold nib replacements for me on pens I TOLD THEM I got on Ebay. At most there is a $10 service charge and you can usually talk your way out of that if you talk straight to the service area.

 

I've never gotten a single piece of mail from Cross. I DO get "spam" from them maybe 6 times a year because I am on their list. Most often those are for close-out sales and near give away prices.

 

Name me another company that you can call into their service area and speak to The Person who will "work on" your pen.

 

I won't say it didn't happen to you but what you describe hasn't been the norm for at least the past 5-6 years.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[sharonspens]

I'm sure I have given a Cross BP or two as graduation gifts over the years. They seem to have pens made for engraving.

 

I swore off them, however, not based on quality of the pen, but on offensiveness of one of their ad campaigns. The print ads for the Verve, running in PenWorld, were so overtly sexual, and so blatantly male-focused, that I was quickly turned off. I commented to another woman about it, a pen shop co-owner; she felt the same way I did. IIRC, a woman actually wrote a letter to PenWorld about her negative reaction to the ads; she was rebuffed by the female editor, who was adamant that there was nothing untoward or male-focused in these ads.

 

I should note that I don't subscribe to PenWorld anymore, either, but not for the same reason.

 

Sharon in Indiana

[pajaro]

The ubiquitous Cross ballpoints and pencils made in the USA have a very nice mechanism totally undeserving of many of the previous dismissive remarks. There is a quality feel in the mechanism, and I am using ones from the 1960s and 1970s. The century Pens I still have, that were not filched by the sneaky, still write as well as ever, which is acceptable but not great.

 

I think many people are adverse to Cross because the pens were once a status symbol. That is not true now. You might relent. Of course many people hate Montblanc because it was an office icon, persons of my acquaintance known to carry in their shirt pockets never-inked 149s. More commonly the person would have a black 164 ballpoint, the red ones being totally beyond their ken. Yes, I was tempted to toss my little 144 and 164 bordeaux pair in the 90s. I actually started using Cross 14K pens then, because I like to swim a bit against the current. I didn't like the Air Force any better at the time.

 

Generally, if it isn't a Parker 51 or Sonnet, or if isn't a Sheaffer Imperial or Dolphin Touchdown, and if it isn't a Cross Century or Solo, and if it isn't an Estie or a Montblanc 144, 163 or 164, I probably have no interest in it. Unfortunately I have some of those disdained pens.

[Nashten]

I like Cross Pens, actually.

 

My Sauvage ballpoint has left a very lasting impression on me. Out of all my pens, that one has gotten the most compliments. It is just beautiful. Writes well too, for a ballpoint. Though my hands get moist when writing to the metal/laquer is detrimental.

 

I'm going to get the FP version of it and get a Pendleton stub on it one day.

[tonybelding]

I think many people are adverse to Cross because the pens were once a status symbol.

 

When was this????

[Jerome Tarshis]

Pajaro is somewhat younger than I am, and he can answer for himself, as can such FPN members as Welch. The original Century MP in gold-filled finish began as a status symbol in 1946. Cross MPs and later BPs in the more expensive finishes were status symbols through at least the early 1980s. The first version of the Century FP, in gold-filled finish, at least, was a status symbol of the middle 1980s and for some years after that. The Townsend and the Signature and the other upmarket model were all created with the intention that they would be perceived as status symbols, but the Cross train may have left the station by the time they were introduced. Really good pens, though.

 

By 1990, I should say, perhaps a bit earlier, Montblanc was coming on strong. But in the heyday of German pens Montblanc made a full line of pens, as Pelikan still does, and although it was thought to be a good pen, I should think many a German lawyer or banker had a higher opinion of Soenneckens. I ask myself what would have happened if Dunhill had bought Soennecken instead of Montblanc and MB had become yet another failed German pen company.

[georges zaslavsky]

I was never into Cros stheir style don't do it for me and they aren't made in USA anymore another reason why I don't look at them

[pajaro]

Soenneckens? Germans? I was mentioning the USA, and the perceptions of follow-the-leader types here have nothing to do with the perceptions of middle class German lawyers or bankers, and so I answer that the ideas of those who know nothing whatever about the merits of fountain pens or ballpoints, and who bear them around as mere status adornments would certainly care nothing at all about the thinking of those who might plan to write with a fountain pen. Cross made hay in the 1960s to the 1980s. Then the smart set discovered that Montblancs were more costly and began to adorn themselves with Montblanc in the 1980s and 1990s, deserting the more affordable Cross like rats deserting a sinking ship. There was always the odd man out who would seek to distance himself from the rich rabble pinning their hopes of being thought of as being the heart of the in-crowd on MB 149, by having their employer purchase for them Pelikan Toledos, which they would ruin through ignorance and have the corporate minions send back to Fahrneys for the too-complicated installation of a new nib (honest). The would-be fashion setters' efforts simply made them ridiculous to the rabble they had previously convinced of the monkey-see-monkey-do merits of a Montblanc 149 in every pocket.

 

These fashion waves had not so much to do with the merits of the pens as with the percieved benefit of being seen with the pens in pocket. Whether German bankers thought Soennecken to be a better pen or not would not enter into the thoughts of these Americans. Like some others, I thought our bosses knew something about pens which we didn't. The uninked status symbols disabused me of this notion.

 

Cross was merely the innocent victim of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses, the status symbol chosen and then forsaken for something newer in the gullible mind. My point is that there was a certain backlash against the status symbols by those who are averse to monkey-see-monkey-do that sets some against the Cross and MB, and is the cause of some of the under-appreciation of Cross (and my complete aversion to Pelikan Toledo) This has absolutely nothing to do with the merits of Cross, Montblanc or Toledo as pens for writing or their estimation by the cognoscienti here, or in Germany, as pens for writing.

 

Cross is a fine pen. Some are better than others, and some of their least expensive offerings of the past are wonderful pens, still circulating in the ebay marketplace. If the status symbol cachet has set you against the Cross pen, reconsider. If you are looking for an excellent and inexpensive pen, consider the Solo, cropping up often on ebay at various prices. It has the Cross style and someone else's technology. No, you cannot use everyone's converter in it, but you can use this one:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330833379525?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_170wt_679.

 

I have used this one in Solos, Centurys and in Sheaffer school pens.

 

I like some of the Cross pens, and I enjoy bidding for them on ebay, win or lose.

[rff000]

I had an interesting experience with Cross many years ago. Somewhere in the early 1980's (I think), I bought a chrome Cross Century on a clearance sale at a J.C. Penney store. It was in the jewelry counter and had an original price around $50, but was being sold for $13, which I couldn't resist. A few years after that, I hadn't realized that the pen slipped out of my pocket into the path of my car, as I was getting ready to take it out of the garage onto the driveway. To make a long story short, the pen got crushed and I thought it was a goner. But, I sent it to Cross and they replaced everything (except the barrel with a tiny dent still in it) and even honored my request to switch the fine F nib to an extra fine XF.

 

http://i43.tinypic.com/2rz9owg.jpg

Edited September 14, 2013 by rff000

[Mike_Dowling]

Cross sells a lot of junk in the big box stores like Staples and Office Depot. Some of their pens may be great but when you see a flood of shiny junk selling for way too much in Staples you tend to associate the brand with only that, whether it's right or wrong.

Edited September 14, 2013 by Mike_Dowling

[kauloltran]

1. I don't like the styling of their pens.

2. They lost their values due to their ubiqutous presence in big box and office stores. I wouldn't feel special owning a Cross fountain pen if my neighbor can go out and buy the same pen at Wallmart.

- I agree to the point made by Mike. I generally associate Cross with office supplies.

Edited September 14, 2013 by kauloltran