Ugly Fountain Pens

[pickwickink]

  On 4/4/2016 at 4:16 PM, Bluey said:

The Lamy Safari

get out

[inkstainedruth]

  On 4/15/2016 at 2:42 AM, pickwickink said:

get out

 

For the most part, I'd have to agree with Bluey. Safaris are, for the most part, a little too modern/contemporary/industrial looking for me. I'm willing to make an exception for the Dark Lilac when it comes out because the color is awesome (and the black nib and clip blend in a little better than silver tone ones would have been).

They're just not "Godawful" ugly the way some of the pens in this thread have been.... And yes -- that does, IMO, include that jewel encrusted Visconti someone posted a picture of.....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[pickwickink]

  On 4/15/2016 at 3:05 AM, inkstainedruth said:

For the most part, I'd have to agree with Bluey. Safaris are, for the most part, a little too modern/contemporary/industrial looking for me. I'm willing to make an exception for the Dark Lilac when it comes out because the color is awesome (and the black nib and clip blend in a little better than silver tone ones would have been).

They're just not "Godawful" ugly the way some of the pens in this thread have been.... And yes -- that does, IMO, include that jewel encrusted Visconti someone posted a picture of.....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Booooo!

[ScienceChick]

I'll agree with Ruth and Bluey - the Safari ranks as darn fugly to me, too. Not #1 but near the top.

[brunico]

  On 4/15/2016 at 3:05 AM, inkstainedruth said:

Safaris are, for the most part, a little too modern/contemporary/industrial looking for me.

 

That doesn't make them ugly, though, just pens you don't like.

 

I think that the Safari has clean and interesting lines and that the whole design hangs together. When I first saw the Safari, it was a breath of fresh air after searching for months for a pen that didn't look tacky - tacky being where someone thinks gold or lots of ornament can make up for a lack of style.

 

The Montblanc Starwalker is one hell of an ugly pen, with a stupid bulbous cap that has no connection with the rest of the pen. The whole conception could have been dreamed up by the people who design throwaway My Little Pony toys for McDonalds happy meals, and some of the patterns just look like bad 1980s suits.

 

The Starwalker is a modern-looking pen, and I generally prefer that, but it tries unsuccessfully to ape style and has no style of its own. It can't hold a candle to the Montblanc green striated 146. I'm not generally a fan of older pens, or gold, or Montblanc, but this is a pen that is as beautiful as the Starwalker is ugly. Its pattern is elegant, the gold and the green are perfectly harmonious, and there is a sense of proportion throughout. The whole thing is beautifully organic, and nothing in its design is too out-of-place or look-at-me. It is a pen with lots of detail to appreciate, but it is not fussy. The Starwalker, a simpler shape, is ridiculously fussy: it lacks the subtlety and coherence that distinguish, in different ways, the Safari and the green striated 146.

[cobalt]

Ugliness in pens increases with price. In fact, there is a significant discontinuity in the attractiveness/price ratio with very expensive pens having very high scores for ugliness. The attractivenes to price ratio follows a Kuznets curve with very cheap pens being quite nasty, then shifting to less expensive but well designed pens through to a clustering and plateau in the mid-price (depending on whether vintage, or modern), then a discontinuous leap to high cost and very ugly. Margin of error is =/- 5 pens.

[Goudy]

  On 4/15/2016 at 4:39 AM, ScienceChick said:

I'll agree with Ruth and Bluey - the Safari ranks as darn fugly to me, too. Not #1 but near the top.

 

I'd say it's a perfect design for a school/office pen. The steel and plastic look fits right in among the paper clips and brighly coloured ring binders, while the low aesthetic appeal ensures it's unlikely to be stolen.

[brunico]

  On 4/15/2016 at 11:18 AM, Goudy said:

The steel and plastic look fits right in among the paper clips and brighly coloured ring binders

 

Ouch! And there it was, right by my Eames chair and Arco lamp...

 

[Skyppere]

It seems to me that the guiding principle here is that the more ornate the pen is, the uglier it is. I actually find the plain one's ugly. The Sheaffer Touchdown, and yes the much adored Parker 51. People call that simplicity classic. I call it boring... See? There really IS no accounting for taste!

[JuInd]

Any Apocalypse fountain pen and Visconti forbidden city.

[Barkingpig]

  On 4/15/2016 at 6:06 PM, Skyppere said:

It seems to me that the guiding principle here is that the more ornate the pen is, the uglier it is. I actually find the plain one's ugly. The Sheaffer Touchdown, and yes the much adored Parker 51. People call that simplicity classic. I call it boring... See? There really IS no accounting for taste!

I only find BLACK pens boring. I accept the simplicity of design "thing;" I just don't WANT them. My first "nice" pen purchase was the Delta Dolce Vita ORO.......because it was BIG & ORANGE "all over!" And just let loose my desire for the PERFECT orange ink to gush out of it's stub nib. My second Delta was an Indigenous People pen, the Adivasi which has FOUR different colored acrylic bands alternating the barrel & cap.

 

I do have a couple of MB 146's & they are lovely writers but I like to keep them in a pen case while not in use; nothing exciting to look at!

 

Thankfully I NEVER claimed to have "good" taste; just taste that pleases me.

[inkstainedruth]

  On 4/15/2016 at 6:06 PM, Skyppere said:

It seems to me that the guiding principle here is that the more ornate the pen is, the uglier it is. I actually find the plain one's ugly. The Sheaffer Touchdown, and yes the much adored Parker 51. People call that simplicity classic. I call it boring... See? There really IS no accounting for taste!

 

That's okay -- you can send any unwanted 51s my direction -- I'll be more than happy to fall on the grenade, as it were, to protect you from them....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Skyppere]

  On 4/15/2016 at 6:41 AM, brunico said:

 

That doesn't make them ugly, though, just pens you don't like.

 

I think that the Safari has clean and interesting lines and that the whole design hangs together. When I first saw the Safari, it was a breath of fresh air after searching for months for a pen that didn't look tacky - tacky being where someone thinks gold or lots of ornament can make up for a lack of style.

 

The Montblanc Starwalker is one hell of an ugly pen, with a stupid bulbous cap that has no connection with the rest of the pen. The whole conception could have been dreamed up by the people who design throwaway My Little Pony toys for McDonalds happy meals, and some of the patterns just look like bad 1980s suits.

 

The Starwalker is a modern-looking pen, and I generally prefer that, but it tries unsuccessfully to ape style and has no style of its own. It can't hold a candle to the Montblanc green striated 146. I'm not generally a fan of older pens, or gold, or Montblanc, but this is a pen that is as beautiful as the Starwalker is ugly. Its pattern is elegant, the gold and the green are perfectly harmonious, and there is a sense of proportion throughout. The whole thing is beautifully organic, and nothing in its design is too out-of-place or look-at-me. It is a pen with lots of detail to appreciate, but it is not fussy. The Starwalker, a simpler shape, is ridiculously fussy: it lacks the subtlety and coherence that distinguish, in different ways, the Safari and the green striated 146.

 

 

The author did say "TO ME."

[Skyppere]

  On 4/16/2016 at 2:37 AM, inkstainedruth said:

 

That's okay -- you can send any unwanted 51s my direction -- I'll be more than happy to fall on the grenade, as it were, to protect you from them....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Fair enough. I'll trade you for the pen above that started this thread!

[Skyppere]

  On 4/15/2016 at 11:14 PM, Barkingpig said:

I only find BLACK pens boring. I accept the simplicity of design "thing;" I just don't WANT them. My first "nice" pen purchase was the Delta Dolce Vita ORO.......because it was BIG & ORANGE "all over!" And just let loose my desire for the PERFECT orange ink to gush out of it's stub nib. My second Delta was an Indigenous People pen, the Adivasi which has FOUR different colored acrylic bands alternating the barrel & cap.

 

I do have a couple of MB 146's & they are lovely writers but I like to keep them in a pen case while not in use; nothing exciting to look at!

 

Thankfully I NEVER claimed to have "good" taste; just taste that pleases me.

 

 

What was your perfect orange ink? Mine is Edelstein Mandarin Orange... I have that pen too and LOVE it! The Dolce Vita Oro...

[Barkingpig]

  On 4/16/2016 at 4:20 PM, Skyppere said:

 

 

What was your perfect orange ink? Mine is Edelstein Mandarin Orange... I have that pen too and LOVE it! The Dolce Vita Oro...

I was "almost convinced" it was Mont Blanc's Ink of Joy until I got hold of a bottle of Omas Orange & now I am pretty happy to have two oranges that are pure orange & not leaning to reds....or browns. I also like Bung Box's Lake of Hamana Orange, Mb's Gandhi, CaD Saffron, the Edelstein orange & probably a few dozen more.......BUT this Omas orange has become my 1st choice. And to think it was available all along in cartridges, perhaps they just decided to bottle up their remaining ink when the imminent end seemed "at hand?" I just cleaned the Delta after a fill of Chesterfield's "Fire Opal" which is reputed to be Diamine's "Orange," which strangely had escaped my notice (which was also "not bad!")

[brunico]

  On 4/16/2016 at 4:15 PM, Skyppere said:

The author did say "TO ME."

 

I'm fully aware of that. You misread.

[stringsandpedals]

Just gonna throw these in here

 

http://i1.wp.com/static.flickr.com/99/280831103_ee765448fd.jpg?resize=500%2C126

http://i2.wp.com/static.flickr.com/110/280831111_ddc585d3c5.jpg?resize=496%2C500

[flipper_gv]

Montblanc Starwalker. The nib, the section and the cap is just not to my taste.

The cap in particular just feels too big for the rest of the pen.

[inkstainedruth]

  On 4/16/2016 at 4:16 PM, Skyppere said:

 

Fair enough. I'll trade you for the pen above that started this thread!

 

Hah! As if.

If I had the money to buy a Visconti, I would have bought one of the Van Gogh pens instead.... Although the one starting this thread isn't ugly, just a bit on the garish side.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth