What Was Your Biggest Disappointment With An Expensive Pen

[them700project]

My disappointment came differently. I started collecting all of the Safaris starting 5 years ago or so and I had 85% then it seemed to be getting out of hand. They started producing things for different countries etc. I started to feel like i was wasting my money(which I was) and that i should focus on fewer and nicer pens.

 

after that my Lamy 2000 writes only OK. It is noisy and maybe a bit too wet.

[TheRealMikeDr]

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.

 

My Van Gogh suffered from the same issue. A little tuning with some micromesh and she writes like a champ now!

[Precise]

I have often recommended flattening the contact point of the nib tip for the smoothness benefits. But recently I realized that getting more tip area in contact with the paper improves flow. As we all know, flow is the result of capillary action. Greater contact area improves that.

 

Alan

[Aurora60]

I was excited to get a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze .

When it came in the mail it was too heavy to write with comfortably .

[FOUR X FOUR]

The turning mechanism on my Visconti carbon graphite and my LD3s won’t line the nib up straight. Easy fixes by sending them in, but it’s still annoying

[MuddyWaters]

Most of my disappointments have been with ergonomics. I love the way my Lamy 2000 writes but I do not use it regularly as I do not find it to be the most comfortable pen due to its weight and shape. Otherwise, I love the pen: colour, feel, nice look, pretty good nib.

[senzen]

My disappointments only happened because of my lack of experience: bad paper, boring inks. I had a couple of decent pens but it took me a while to appreciate them, particularly once I tried lesser if still decent pens.

[eharriett]

Visconti just does not seem to get nibs right.

 

I love my Hall of Music. First time I had it, it was a rough starter.

 

I brought it with me and saw Visconti at DC show last year and showed it to them. One of their smartass salespeople said it was because I had a pen with a steel nib. That person's boss took it and offered to replace it at no charge. So they did. Replaced nib starts off well every time, but is very constricted ink flow. I can work with this, but I expected more from Visconti.

[AlohaLani787]

I was excited to get a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze .

When it came in the mail it was too heavy to write with comfortably .

 

Thankfully I only made that mistake once with an fairly expensive pen. I learned that I don't like lightweight pens; therefore I knowingly pay more to buy them in person where I can hold and test them.

[4lex]

My biggest disappointment is pretty much any pen over £300. I think it has to do with the expectations. I love My Diplomat Esteem despite the grip section getting scratched due to the design flaw. But same was true of Waterman Edson and I couldn’t bare it. I guess I kinda can overlook such flaws in £40 pen but not £800 pen.

[TheDutchGuy]

Most of my disappointments have to do with how a pen fits into my hand and how long it takes before my hand gets tired. A lot of pens with metal sections are a struggle for me because I just can't get a grip on them. I've sold them off (with the exception of my Visconti van Gogh). One pen that I had high hopes for but just could not enjoy was my Pilot Custom 823 F. Obviously a well-made pen, but I could not come to terms with the feel of the nib. There were days when I liked it, but there were more days when I didn't. I sold it.

 

I've not had disappointments with the build quality of pens; it's mostly been a matter of me and the pen being compatible.

Edited November 11, 2018 by TheDutchGuy

[Inksomnia]

I got nice Sailor demonstrator for myself as graduation present. When it arrived, it had missallingment tines, other tine was twisted. It was Japanese ef, gold nib. So I didn't mess around with and send it back. I was so dissapointed to sent pen back, especially because I just loved the color, size and everyhing about the pen. And then... I needed to wait month to get it back. It went all the way back to sailor and came back. Now it writes like dream. But vendor was super, they customer care was awesome and they kept me uptodate where pen was going (it was from Iguana sell).

[Dolganoff]

Lamy 2000 that wrote poorly: dry and scratchy.

After lots of careful tuning and smoothing it's finally writing perfectly well, with good flow and very little feedback.

[NinthSphere]

Since my original post, I suppose the biggest disappointment with expensive pens is that it's come to be a surprise when I don't have to fix the alignment on a new acquisition.

[pajaro]

I actually had to buy ink for it.

[praxim]

Me too. It was outrageous.

[BaronWulfraed]

One pen with feed problems. I wish I had the nerve to try pulling the nib/feed to check for clogs -- but a $630 pen is not the place to start learning.

 

a) ink tends to seep up the outside of the metal threaded insert of the section and thence to just where my fingers grip it -- I've been putting a thin coat of clear nail polish around the base to act as a seal.

 

b ) the feed runs dry (after 3 or 4 sudoku puzzles) requiring me to operate the converter to push ink to the feed (I need to run an experiment -- the last time I cleaned it in the ultrasonic, and did not apply nail polish it went for quite a few puzzles; then I noticed thin bead of ink on my thumb and wiped the insert dry and sealed it again)

 

Platinum Urushi model, if anyone has advice.

Edited November 13, 2018 by BaronWulfraed

[BaronWulfraed]

One pen with feed problems. I wish I had the nerve to try pulling the nib/feed to check for clogs -- but a $630 pen is not the place to start learning.

 

 

Just a follow-up -- with no cure...

 

After running the converter dry, I took a risk and managed to pull the nib/feed. No apparent clogs, though I did run the components in the ultrasonic with Dawn/ammonia mix, then ran a brass shim (from an old R. Binder nib smoothing kit) down the feed channels (seems to have two -- one full length of feed, the second offset to one side and half the length from nipple to mid-section). Seemed clean. Reassembled and tried again.

 

No change -- well, the ultrasonic loosened the clear nail polish, so after a few Sudoku pages I found ink on my finger. Again, creeping up around the OUTSIDE of the metal threaded part of the section. This appears to indicate that ink IS flowing into the top end of the section, but is not making it past the mid-point to the nib-end.

 

My next approach, after the converter empties, will be to clean and try with a Platinum ink cartridge (to see if the problem is ink specific; this pen has never been given anything other than Farhneys/PrivateReserve Copper Burst). It doesn't seem to be converter "vapor lock", the ink easily moves to the nipple end when the pen is held in "use" position. After than -- surgery: a sharp blade through the main feed channel to see if I can widen it.

[pajaro]

I would sell it and buy another. As you prepare to make the second purchase, I would consider that and whether something else would be more fun.

[Rob G]

I had two Plat 3776s, purchased together, one with the Music nib and one UEF. The Music was a gusher, and the UEF was as dry as the Sahara.

Edited November 17, 2018 by Rob G