Have Frustrating Experiences Made You Want To Quit Fountain Pens?

[Mesu]

Used to be frustrated with uneven tines, scratchy nibs till i started tapping into FPN's knowledge base and started learning how to tweak the pens to my satisfaction.

 

 

Quite baffling how much bad the nib is for a sheaffer. I have no idea where to get mesh/emery-boards in India.

 

A nail buffing board will serve the purpose. They have various grain, right from coarse to very fine. Hope this helps.

[Edwaroth]

Uh, no.

[Anirban4u]

Used to be frustrated with uneven tines, scratchy nibs till i started tapping into FPN's knowledge base and started learning how to tweak the pens to my satisfaction.

 

 

 

A nail buffing board will serve the purpose. They have various grain, right from coarse to very fine. Hope this helps.

Another hunt then.. Maybe my GF can help me out

[Kquill]

Well, I had that same issue at first, then I learnt to grind/re-grind/smooth nibs, and now a "faulty" nib is just another chance for me to get better at it

 

My Montegrappa Parola came with a very fat misaligned nib, and now it's a smooth EF writer Pick up a loupe, some micro-mesh and sand paper, I'll guarantee that most of these problems will fade away.

[TSherbs]

I can't imagine spending more than, say, $100 US on a pen that I have not seen write before I bought it. I have thus far not spent more than $65 on a pen, and only on a Parsons Essential that has fantastic reviews and the nibs and feeds are individually checked before sent out (Mr. Ford also has great customer service and nib exchange policies). Otherwise, my feeling is that buyer beware, and the ONLY pen that I have seen write beautifully well on a video is SBRE Brown's Visconti Opera Elements that he is so proud of, and I just don't think that they ALL arrive writing that well. TWSBIs (and other more expensive factory produced pens and nibs) receive inconsistent reviews here at FPN.

 

I agree with the poster above: my next most enjoyable and reliable writing experience comes from my Nemosine Singularity(s). But I am no big collector, by any means.

[Abner C. Kemp]

I think I've been lucky in that my first real fountain pen was a Lamy Safari that worked properly. Sure, it's not the smoothest writing experience in the world but the pen has good flow and a decent nib. So, I was given that immediate gratification of knowing a properly tuned fountain pen will work for me and the experience of writing with a decent pen was so much better than writing with a ballpoint or rollerball I can't see myself turning back.

 

That being said, I've had a few rough experiences with pens. Most recently, I purchased a Pilot Custom 92 which I was really excited about. The pen ran dry as a bone and I ended up selling it at a loss to someone who wanted to tune the nib and get a good price. Was I a bit disappointed? Absolutely. But, I realize that fountain pens are fairly complicated tools. Short story, I ended up purchasing a Lamy 2000 and I'm thrilled with it. Yes, I lost an extra $50 in the process and I don't have my perfect blue demonstrator but I have a pen I really enjoy and it is what it is. Lets be honest, none of us are buying fountain pens to save money or be utilitarian. We use them because we genuinely enjoy the way they look and feel and similar to a fine wine there is always a bit of a learning curve/trial and error process.

 

I have learned to buy my pens through retailers who either test the pens of accept returns if the pen does not write properly. The prices are higher from such retailers but the product quality is much better.

[Runnin_Ute]

I have been very fortunate and not a dog in the bunch. The closest was the Jinhao 159 where the nib had been stubbed. Drove me nuts for a while. I think I have it figured out so it doesn't catch all the time. It was stubbed by the person who gifted it to me. Bigger than ideal for me though.

[Koyote]

You have 18 pens, and at least five or six of them are nicer (and more expensive) than almost all of mine...And you call that a "humble collection"?

 

Sorry, I didn't read much beyond that part.

[UDog]

Roughly a 40% failure rate? Sounds about right today. Quality control has been transferred to the buyer.

[penmanila]

i've taught myself to tweak my nibs--both vintage and modern--using very fine sandpaper, mylar, and a nail buffer. i actually look forward to getting pens with nibs i'm not happy with, because it gives me a chance to practice my skills. i have a couple of nibs that had been smoothened by richard binder himself, so i've used those as a standard for flow and smoothness, and once i get my nibs working just as well as richard's nibs, then i'm happy.

 

i have over 200 pens collected over 30 years, and i've yet to send a nib out for repair or replacement. do try the self-repair route; it can be very satisfying on its own, and you'd never have to fret over a bad factory nib again.

 

on this note, i must say that i have quite a few modern pens that wrote wonderfully right out of the box: conway stewarts (churchill, marlborough) and onoto (magna classic), among others. some nibs--like those on my M1000 and MB oscar wilde--actually came with OK nibs, but i chose to modify them more to my liking.

Edited January 31, 2014 by penmanila

[BrandonA]

The only frustration I get from fountain pens is the lack of money to buy all the pens I covert.

[FLZapped]

I suppose some of these issues is why these pens aren't mainstream. They take some attention. Today, people don't want to put their time into pens. Writing by hand anymore is just an occasional necessity. We are not those folks, though

 

I've had to adjust a couple pens because of today's thicker inks. I had a new Parker 100 that had a bad nib and Parker replaced it, no hassles and it has been superb ever since. I've had pens that needed new diaphragms and the eyedropper pens that Noodlers supply crumble after a while. I have a Snorkel that is just a PIA to maintain.

 

I've also had some gems. My old Duofolds are amazing writers. I won a modern Duofold that is an amazing writer. All my Parker 45s have been great, actually, I have a medium that has about the smoothest nib I've ever used. All my P51s, and 61s are also great pens as is my Falcon 50. I guess I fall in that 40% range that someone mentioned. *shrug*

 

-Bruce

Edited January 31, 2014 by FLZapped

[georges zaslavsky]

deltas, viscontis, auroras, new tibaldis, sailors, modern parkers and post 2003 made watermans

[proton007]

I've had a few issues here and there, but nothing too significant. Most of my pens have worked fine.

 

It helps to buy them from reputed sellers, especially when it comes to vintage pens, because age does more damage than actual usage.

 

 

However, the OP's majority pens seem to have 'ink flow issues'. The pens all being from different brands, I just think there's an expectation mismatch, or the inks being used are at fault.

 

It's easy to blame others, but a FP leaves a lot of the choices to the user. Cleaning, flushing, using the pen properly, inks, general handling....quite a few things to take care of.

 

If one sees a pattern in the issues one is facing, it's better to carefully analyze one's own choices first.

[haldane3]

Yes.

[VivienR]

In my childhood, when I learned writing, with all of those bad fountain pens, they are always flooded and my hand and penholder was always blue, mad me hate those pens... But two decades later... I'm in love... My only problem now is that my wish list is growing faster, than the reducing rate...

[sotto2]

The first broad nib/feed that I got for a TWSBI pen I have made me so irritated with unreliable ink flow I finally attacked it with a razor blade and a kitchen paring knife. It made me feel better, and it actually writes just fine now.

 

Oh, and edited to add that the second broad nib/feed that I bought worked just fine from the get go. Go figure.

Edited July 5, 2014 by sotto2

[Xand3]

The first broad nib/feed that I got for a TWSBI pen I have made me so irritated with unreliable ink flow I finally attacked it with a razor blade and a kitchen paring knife. It made me feel better, and it actually writes just fine now.

 

Oh, and edited to add that the second broad nib/feed that I bought worked just fine from the get go. Go figure.

 

Same situation for me with the same pen, except I attacked it with sandpaper of varying coarseness. Writes perfectly now, but good lord it had such a nasty case of babys bottom out of the box.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Many of my pens are vintage, but I don't think that's the point of this thread. Of the modern ones, the problems I had didn't do anything to put me off fountain pens in general, just made me a bit more cautious. There are a couple of brands that I would probably never buy again, but just because I didn't do well with brands X and Y doesn't mean I wouldn't look at brand Z. There's a brand which I've found likely to need a little nib tweaking out of the box, even on the high end pens, and that certainly could be considered unacceptable, but I learned to deal with the rather minor problem myself. Granted, I shouldn't *need* to tinker with a new pen to make it work acceptably, but it doesn't bother me as much as it might. I've only gotten one modern pen that was actually defective, and the seller fixed the problem for me. Most of the modern fountain pens I've bought have been at least adequate, some have been first rate. At this point I pretty much intend never to buy another modern fountain pen again, and to be very hesitant about more vintage purchases, but that doesn't mean that I've quit. It's just that I've got mine now.