What Was Your Biggest Disappointment With An Expensive Pen

[Zoran Grbic]

It seems that the nib issues are a question of "luck" and that any brand seems to have their black sheep. However, I just do not seem to have luck with Montblanc's.

 

• The Meisterstück 146 medium was very dry and skipped once too much while writing.
  • I was able to, kind of, solve that problem with shims and by aligning it.
  • After 2 months of extensive use the piston has become difficult to move.
  • Asked for help at Montblanc and got a 2 to 3 months delay for a repair.
• Recently I bought a Starwalker... and of course the nib is a poor starter and skips every 10 or 11 words.
  • John confirmed this is a recurring issue with Starwalkers, which did not really surprise me.
  • At a 45% discount I was expecting something to be fishy.

 

My best experience is with all Omas pens. They just know how to make nibs: 360 Vintage, 360, Arte Italiana.

 

Second best for me are Waterman's; they just work and are my workhorses, then Delta's, the Dolcevita, the Fusion 1...

 

Montblanc 146 will probably end up somewhere in this list once John takes care of it.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Zoki

[ENewton]

I acquired this beautiful and expensive Japanese-made Platinum Kamakura urushi pen (see photo below) that comes with a nice and wet music nib. There are only 300 of this pen made and it is the same pen that was presented by the Japanese monarch to General/President Grant when he visited Japan. I was so proud and happy to be the owner of such a beautifully made pen. I write with it everyday, using Mont Blanc's limited edition Honore de Balzac ink.

 

To my great disappointment, the converter that come with the pen leaks from where the converter is connected to the pen. I purchased a brand new converter from Platinum in Japan and the new converter leaks as well, making my fingers inky every time I write with it. The quality of the converter from Platinum is so poor that I am ashamed they actually use it on such a beautifully made, expensive and rather rare urushi pen.

 

This is my biggest diappointment with a nice, beautiful, expensive Japanese-made urushi pen.

This is the last Japanese pen I will ever purchase.

 

Note to Platinum: Please make better quality converters that don't leak and please don;t make pens that use only Platinum converters.

 

 

 

I agree that the Platinum converters are a surprise. I have written with fountain pens consistently for twenty years, and I'd never had any converter fail until last year, when I acquired a Platinum pen. That pen is on its third converter in less than a year.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

This is several years back, now, and I have since topped out at a somewhat higher price, but my Edison Hudson was my most expensive pen when I bought it. There was nothing actually wrong with it, nothing that I could ask the maker or the seller to fix, but it was a completely unexceptional writer, no better than, say, my Taccia Overture, which cost some $80 less. The material was rather attractive in a subdued, subtle sort of way, but it also turned out to be a larger pen that I like. At least the experience taught me to think harder about what I'm looking for in a pen.

[sugna]

I had a serious case of baby's bottom on a Pelikan M805 Demonstrator LE Engraved that I purchased last summer in Sydney. Although initially disappointed, I was able to correct this using micromesh following nib smoothing guides/videos/blogs from Richard Binder, Pen Addict, and SBREBrown.

 

My experience rectifying the problem mitigated the initial disappointment and was a learning experience, both in teaching me to be extra aware of baby's bottom when testing out a pen (especially expensive ones, where baby's bottom is more common according to Mr. Binder's guide) and giving me a new trick in my pen-tweaking bag.

[flipper_gv]

The attached photo shows the gapped nib of a brand new Omas Arco Ogiva, purchased from a leading Omas retailer. It was unusable. But, as I've written previously on this forum, I like to fix things. I had to pull the nib to fix this. Perhaps a nibmeister would have fixed it quickly, but I spent over an hour on it. It is the most I've ever paid for a pen.

 

One retailer, who checks nibs before shipping, wrote that 85% of new pens need some nib work. That's about my experience. But I've had to send some new nibs back which were so defective that they couldn't be repaired.

 

Shame on this industry!

 

Alan

 

Omas gapped nib top.jpg

 

I'm confused, this looks perfectly fine to me. Just looks like a wet writer.

[Garageboy]

Was selling a buncha pens for a friend - was very dissappointed in visconti fit and finishing... Poor printing, poor engraving, wonky parts fit

[FOUR X FOUR]

My Visconti Pininfarina. It was such a pretty pen, and I had such high hopes for it since I paid so much. Imagine my sense of disappointment when I brought it home, inked it up, and it leaked like a sieve! It would empty a full converter in minutes, simply by holding it nib down. Ink would seep out of all the nooks and crannies of the pen. It took me over year of hemming and hawing before I sent it in to get it fixed.

 

I just got it back a couple weeks ago. The problem is fixed. The pen has a new converter, together with a new italic nib. I want to say it writes like a dream, but the pen is prone to hard starts since the nib is quite exposed even with the flappy trap door closed.

I have a cure for your problem. Get an earplug. One of the softer plugs is what you want. Get an exacto knife and shave the earplug to fit into the opening of the pen. This will keep it from drying out

[pajaro]

It seems that the nib issues are a question of "luck" and that any brand seems to have their black sheep. However, I just do not seem to have luck with Montblanc's.

 

• The Meisterstück 146 medium was very dry and skipped once too much while writing.
  • I was able to, kind of, solve that problem with shims and by aligning it.
  • After 2 months of extensive use the piston has become difficult to move.
  • Asked for help at Montblanc and got a 2 to 3 months delay for a repair.
• Recently I bought a Starwalker... and of course the nib is a poor starter and skips every 10 or 11 words.
  • John confirmed this is a recurring issue with Starwalkers, which did not really surprise me.
  • At a 45% discount I was expecting something to be fishy.

 

My best experience is with all Omas pens. They just know how to make nibs: 360 Vintage, 360, Arte Italiana.

 

Second best for me are Waterman's; they just work and are my workhorses, then Delta's, the Dolcevita, the Fusion 1...

 

Montblanc 146 will probably end up somewhere in this list once John takes care of it.

 

My experience was contrary. Parker 51, Montblanc, Pelikan, top of the mark.

 

Omas, Delta have been moved on. Modern Waterman is a pain for drying up. They were cheaper, but it's easier to ignore them.

[dspeers58]

pelikans, pelikans, pelikans...Bought the M205 line, a number of colors and the nibs skipped etc, baby bottom. Bought an m800 with Italic nib and it would not write until I did some adjusting, then I traded the nib for a fine. Just frustrated that a $100 and $500 msrp pens had consistent nib problems. I have a 140 or two which were worked on and they are very nice. I love the look of the pelikan pens, but got tired, after having to trade nibs over and over again when I got a new one.

[Legal Eagle]

For me it was probably either a Pelikan M600 that wrote way too wet for me. It was an extra-fine nib but wrote more like a western medium.

[Precise]

Sorry for such a late response. With all of my pens which lack a visible reservoir, I weigh the pen before and after filling.

 

Put it on the scale.

Turn on the scale power. It reads zero.

Now lift the pen off and it reads negative.

Fill pen. Return to scale and read how many grams (cc's) of ink it took.

 

Scales which resolve 0.1g can be had for less than $10.

 

Alan

 

Visconti Divina Maxi: the filling system is just ridiculous... I think they call it pull and turn, it is basically a converter fitted into the pen, you can turn only a small knob from the back and you never know if it has absorbed any ink.

[praxim]

I measure and record the weight of every new pen, dry. Then for those that have no ink window I can check remaining ink at any* time by subtracting dry from current weight.

 

* any time one has a precision scale nearby.

[Scylax]

Mostly my disappointments have been due to changing preferences on my part or not realising what would suit me, but:

 

Lamy 2000 - The medium nib is very broad and I find the pen itself too small and short.

Visconti Rembrandt - Nib not fine enough, don't like the ridge at the end of the section.

Visconti LE Wall Street - Now this one is an issue with me not it. It's the most gorgeous pen, writes well, but it's just so much shorter than suits me and that makes me sad!

TWSBI classics - 2 out of 3 leak like sieves. Daren't use them at all.

MB Antoine de St Expery - The nib sometimes skips. I have yet to experiment with different inks and papers but so far it just doesn't keep writing for me.

 

I'd say my other big disappointment was slightly different - I love my Conid Kingsizes but not the nib grinds. I asked for an xxxf grind on gold and titanium nibs. I was told this was ok at first, then got a message saying it might be difficult and someone would contact me. No one did and my pens arrived quickly. The pens I love but not the nibs! Neither are anywhere near as fine as I asked for and write very wet. The gold one is the better of the two but clicks as I write in a way that makes me scared I'll damage it. The titanium nib really bugs me. It's so rough and catchy. They're currently on the waiting list of a nibmeister to be dealt with and I just hope he can get them to what I originally wanted, because the pens themselves are genuine favourites with me and I want to use them a lot!

[Cdaig35]

My biggest disappointment was a used Pelikan M1000 from the back room of Fountain Pen Hospital. There was ink dried in the pen, and it was just a big headache getting it in working order again. Even though it was unfortunate, I would say that Fountain Pen Hospital was very accommodating with the whole situation. They were selling off a large collection of mint pens, and I happened to purchase the only one that the guy actually used. Anyways, I am sure we can all imagine that uh oh moment when you pull out your super expensive M1000, and it has solid ink in it haha.

[Honeybadgers]

every visconti. When I order my next one, it will be with the understanding that there's an 80% chance it won't write out of the box.

[TSherbs]

every visconti. When I order my next one, it will be with the understanding that there's an 80% chance it won't write out of the box.

You a masochist?

[TSherbs]

Biggest for me was my Lamy 2K. Just wouldn't suit my grip. All my fault, but I had to sell it off. The pen wrote great.

[MHBru]

Viconti van gogh that skips on periodic diwn strokes. Cleaning did not help and i discovered that it skips at specific angles. Looked w a 10x loupe and think i see baby bottom. Debating getting it serviced or trying some micromesh.

[Precise]

I've created a thread here that high-end pens are more trouble.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/329288-hi-end-pens-are-a-lot-of-trouble/

 

And I've tried and returned several brand-new Visconti "Power Fillers" which did not fill according to Visconti instructions. That has elevated Visconti to the dubious position of "Most Disappointing" brand.

 

Some users might not realize that their Power Fillers are hardly filling. I learned this by weighing these pens before and after filling.

 

Alan

Edited October 8, 2018 by Precise

[Precise]

 

I'm confused, this looks perfectly fine to me. Just looks like a wet writer.

 

Close inspection of the photo reveals a gap between the tines, at the tip. It was far too wet to use. My good writers, even those on the wet side, have tines which gently touch at the tip -- even if they have a gap above the tip.

 

Alan