Nib Grinding Service From La Couronne Du Comte

[pchand2]

Have any one used nib grinding service from La Couronne du Comte? If yes, what is your experience.

I am planning to get a 23Kt Broad Visconti nib from them grounded to a stub. Their price is excellent with the 20% coupon. Total nib + grinding + shipping is coming to 192 Euro.

-Pradeesh

[Uncial]

Didn't even know they did that. I'd be interested to hear what they are like

[Angel91]

Where do you get that coupon, if I can ask?

[pchand2]

coupon is Happy2018. It is on their main page. It is only valid until tomorrow i think. It give you 20% site wide discount.

[pchand2]

Didn't even know they did that. I'd be interested to hear what they are like

I still can't decide if i should go for the service. I am trying to limit my expenses, so buying another nib is really not the thing i should do :-)

[Arcadian]

I still can't decide if i should go for the service. I am trying to limit my expenses, so buying another nib is really not the thing i should do :-)

 

So.... Did you do it? Curious minds want to know :-)

[inotrym]

coupon is Happy2018. It is on their main page. It is only valid until tomorrow i think. It give you 20% site wide discount.

 

How do you find out about coupons? I am subscribed to their mailing list, but didn't get any notification.

[pchand2]

 

So.... Did you do it? Curious minds want to know :-)

I did ordered a nib and grind on Jan 9th. It took them 3 weeks to get the nib and now it is sent for grind. I think it will be another 3 weeks before i will get it. :-(

[pchand2]

 

How do you find out about coupons? I am subscribed to their mailing list, but didn't get any notification.

I received via email. May be it is in your Spam folder?

[pchand2]

I want to provide an update on this. I placed order for a B visconti 23K large nib and grind at www.lacouronneducomte.nl on Jan 9th and the nib is not shipped out yet. Dennis always tells me it is almost done and it is been more than 2 months. This is the worst service i received from any reputable seller. Beware of ordering a nib grind from them.

[dms525]

Sorry about the delay in getting your pen. I have ordered a number of pens from them. Shipping has been very prompt, except for two incidences, both of which involved special orders. The delays were not the fault of LaCduC.

 

I have had two nibs that I bought from them custom ground. Both were ground by John Sorowka in England, and both are wonderful writers. In one case, the pen was in stock. The custom grinding delayed shipping to me by 2 weeks. I thought that was quite reasonable. The other pen was a special order. I don't believe the custom grind added more than a couple weeks to what was a 9 month delay altogether. But that was a Nakaya Decapod that was literally made to order.

 

In your case, the delay seems to be with the nib grinding. AFAIK, they send out all their custom nib work. So, the delay may be beyond their control. However, I have found they communicate very well. I suggest asking them for an explanation of the delay.

 

Good luck!

 

David

[Aysedasi]

I confess I won't have any more dealings with this company. I placed an order for some ink on 18th July 2018. I was told it was out of stock but would be in within a month. I decided to wait. Every month until December I reminded the company and was told it hadn't arrived. I eventually gave up and placed an alternative order for inks that were shown as available on their website. Lo and behold, some of those were out of stock as well, but I was told they expected to have them in a week. That was over a fortnight ago and I've been told today (after having to enquire again about my order) that some of the inks never arrived and they've taken them off their website. So, SIX MONTHS later, I still have no order from this company. I've told them to forget it and give me a refund. How suppliers expect to retain business when they consistently offer items for sale that they don't have in stock is completely beyond me. I'm pretty patient but my goodwill towards them has now totally evaporated. I'll stick with the 100% reliable The Writing Desk from now on.....

Edited January 30, 2019 by Aysedasi

[mulrich]

That really stinks. Ive placed a few orders through them and experienced a couple problems with items in-stock on the website not actually being in-stock but in general theyve delivered as expected. I think LoC and some other shops that are primarily brick and mortar dont always do a great job with online inventories.

[KaB]

... I think LoC and some other shops that are primarily brick and mortar ...

 

I'm pretty sure the've past that point some time ago. You get to see Dennis and Rik less and less in the shop.The days when you were serviced by one (who then shouted a question at the other who was busy in the cellar wrapping up pens for online orders) are long gone.

I was there last week and only got to see Rik (I guess it was) run by, not even saying hello. I guess their turnover is online (with a little B&M topping). Maybe their logistics are still on the B&M model.

[Greenpenman111]

didnt know they provided nib grinding services.

[mulrich]

didnt know they provided nib grinding services.

 

They don't advertise it, maybe because they aren't the ones who actually do the work (see note above about John Sorowka). Basically they just send the pen to a nibmeister on your behalf. When you purchase a pen from them, there's a comment box where you can ask about nib grinding or I suppose you could email them before buying the pen if you want information about options and prices.

 

I requested a special grind on a pen I ordered a couple weeks ago and expect it will take another couple weeks to deliver. I'm not sure if the pen ships directly from the nibmeister in England or if it's returned to the shop in Tilburg before shipping.

[A Smug Dill]

I am rather tempted by the fantastic price (after applying a discount code and excluding VAT) at which La Couronne du Comte is offering the Pelikan M800 Stone Garden. However, since I don't trust I'll like Pelikan's gold Fine or even Extra Fine nibs as shaped and tuned at the factory, I asked Dennis about the nib grinding service, which I don't see 'advertised' on the LCdC web site. He said the service is still offered at cost, and pens will be sent to John Sorowka in the UK to be reground at the customer's request.

 

For what I wanted done to a Fine nib, he said John usually charges €50–€75 for the work. Ouch. I suppose the alternative is to pay Pelikan's 'EF tax' at effectively half that amount, and hope for the best.

 

In the end, I decided Pelikan doesn't deserve my money because of my reservations about its nibs. I'm quite happy with the gold Extra Fine nibs on all the Aurora pens I bought from LCdC right out of the box, so what I don't spend on a M800 Stone Garden can just go towards an Optima O'Sole Mio or Nero Perla.

 

Speaking of Aurora pens I bought from LCdC, three of them arrived separately in the post all within the span of six days! One of them a Talentum Full Black with factory Stub nib was ordered back in November, but apparently the factory had issues with fulfilling orders for ruthenium-plated 'Special' nibs. Dennis was very apologetic about that, and at one point offered to send me the pen was a more readily available ruthenium-plated Medium nib to tide me over, and then send me the Stub nib when the factory is able to supply one, at LCdC's expense for the extra nib and its international shipping to Australia, which I can only assume would cost him to the tune of €150 or more! I don't think it'd be reasonable of me to take such advantage of Dennis' generosity, though. Anyhow, after much agitating with his distributor, Dennis managed to get Aurora to somehow send him a unit of the pen as I've originally ordered, but it still took another nine or ten days for it to arrive at LCdC, and another two weeks or so by PostNL's parcel service to Australia.

 

Dennis graciously included a couple of gifts with it to thank me for my patience:

 

The gesture is much appreciated, Dennis. I'm adding some samples vials of the ink to our pass-around box for saulyleeplans send on to other Aussies who may want to try it courtesy of LCdC.

Edited March 1, 2019 by A Smug Dill

[TheDutchGuy]

^---I love how that stub writes, ASD. Of course your writing skills help a lot, but still.

[A Smug Dill]

TheDutchGuy, thank you very much for that. Does the Stub nib on my Talentum look like it writes much different from the Stub nib on your Leonardo Furore?

[TheDutchGuy]

^---Difficult to answer without having your Aurora side by side with the Leonardo stub, but wider stubs always give me trouble to write nearly on every line. This includes the Leonardo and the Kaweco 1.5 stubs. I need to keep an empty line between two lines of text to do these stubs justice. Your writing sample clearly shows that neat writing on every line isn't a problem at all with your Aurora. I can only achieve that with smaller stubs, such as my TWSBI 1.1 stubs.