Initial Disappointment - New Pen

[Rindy_Ruth]

 

I think it should be on the way back to Goulet already.

 

Pajaro - I think my flow problem was user error. I think JakobS nailed it when they said "As far as the OP's writing experience goes, perhaps filling the convertor through the nib will better prime the pen, as it will fully fill the feed better than dipping I would imagine, and thus reduce any reduction in flow..."

 

Since I played with the plunger of the converter, it has been writing well. I just needed to fill it through the nib the first time, and not syringe-fill the converter and dip it. I think I was trying to keep it "clean" but I did the mechanics of the pen a disservice. I am still deciding whether I can live with the posted/unposted length issue and the slippery grip section, but as of now it is writing beautifully.

 

Rindy_Ruth

[Mech-for-i]

Let's be honest ... I think most of us had similar experience of somewhat the kind and mine happen to be quite expensive .. remember the day I got my firt Montblanc 149 .. Oh the fabled one .. well it turn out it just does not quite write as good as its little brothers I've already had ... and the material is not exactly better. To say its bad is not the right description but accounting for the price I had to pay for it and the writing experience returned I think its not exactly what I've been expecting. In the end I grown to, well, like it but not love it ... yes its a quality pen and its a Montblanc, its the fabled 149 ... sure but it just do not excite me at all as much as others. But yeah it turn out nice and good and as a business / work use its great which is what its really tailored for anyway.

 

Lesson learn and the motto is just be open and give some time and effort .. first impression, a times, can be deceiving.

Edited August 10, 2018 by Mech-for-i

[Rindy_Ruth]

Ahhh I'm sorry you have had a bad experience. I've debated on getting an aero for quite sometime.

 

I experienced this with my favorite pen (go figure), my Yard O Led Viceroy Grand Victorian. When I first saw it, I thought what a beautiful pen. Then I realized that it isn't perfect. The engravings don't look quite the same on the cap vs the barrel. And the pattern very faintly changes. And the nib was a little bit scratchy.

 

And then I realized -- duh, of course it isn't absolutely perfect. That's what makes it so beautiful, someone made it by hand and it shows. It remains my favorite pen. The nib is buttery smooth now with a little bit of nib work.

 

Kodiac136 - I just looked up your Yard O Led beauty -- WOWEE! That is one stunning pen. You are lucky to have such a piece of hand-crafted artwork. I'm glad it is your favorite pen. Do you have a picture you could share with us? I'd love to see it in action.

 

Rindy_Ruth

[Rindy_Ruth]

Good to hear your experience on the Aero. I was also thinking about getting one. I don't know if I would have the same issue with the section. Many people find the Lamy Studio too slippery and for me I am ok with it but would prefer a different section shape and material.

 

On the ink starvation. Is ink getting held up in the converter? Using the pen wash should have helped the converter flow better, but some inks like sticking in place more then others. For ink that likes to stick advancing the converter piston to drive the air out will fix it for a few pages. Also know that after washing out a pen and then not filling though the nib it can cause the pen to write lighter and not flow as well for about a day. At least it has often happened to me.

 

Back to your other question. Twice I have gotten Franklin-Christoph pens with S.I.G. nibs and was heartbroken to find the nibs cut paper when I tried to write with them. Good thing was F-C had no problem exchanging the nibs for ones I loved that was stubs and cursive italic. I loved the pens after that. They have great customer service.

Driften - See my response to Pajaro. I think you are both right, and my flow problem was user error.

 

Thank you for your response. I enjoy your thoughtful and positive posts whenever I come across them. I am really coming to enjoy the FPN online community. Very welcoming for a relative new-bee like myself. Although not a true new-bee, as I have been into fountain pens off and on since the '90's and have a Namiki Vanishing Point of that era to prove it. In fact I have a clear memory of spilling ink on the skirt of a new suit that I bought for my <second> big job at around that time. Yes, this was back when women and men wore suits to the office. And no, ball point pens had been invented, I just chose to write with FPs. Ha!

 

Rindy_Ruth

[Driften]

Rindy_Ruth, Welcome to the group. I had a cheep Shaffer fountain pen as a kid, but never used it much. I did not really get into them until 2008. I have found piston filling pens seem to have less issues then converters and had sold off or given away most of my C/C pens but then I just bought four C/C pens in a row.

 

Good Luck!

[JakobS]

 

Pajaro - I think my flow problem was user error. I think JakobS nailed it when they said "As far as the OP's writing experience goes, perhaps filling the convertor through the nib will better prime the pen, as it will fully fill the feed better than dipping I would imagine, and thus reduce any reduction in flow..."

 

Since I played with the plunger of the converter, it has been writing well. I just needed to fill it through the nib the first time, and not syringe-fill the converter and dip it. I think I was trying to keep it "clean" but I did the mechanics of the pen a disservice. I am still deciding whether I can live with the posted/unposted length issue and the slippery grip section, but as of now it is writing beautifully.

 

Rindy_Ruth

 

 

Glad I could be of help, and that the pen is writing as hoped!

[sub_bluesy]

The lamy studio for me. I really want to like that pen but the section just doesn't work right. The combination of the taper and slick section makes it very difficult to keep a handle on for me. I have an imperial blue model along with a racing green limited. I'm tempted to grit blast the section but I'm not sure if it's plated or just raw stainless steel. Suppose I could analyze it at work to be sure.

[wasteland]

A Parker Duofold Centennial that I had in the early 90s that I bought at a substantial closeout discount but was still a significant investment. I loved the look of that pen and the feel and the weight but it had a medium nib whose feed could not keep up with the nib for more than a page or so, after which it wrote dryly and was no pleasure to use. In my straitened circumstances at the time, it was for a while my only fountain pen, so I stuck with it. Much much later, after I had been reading this forum and learned about nib grinding, I sent it out to be ground to a fine. That greatly improved matters. The feed didn't have any trouble keeping up with a fine.

[ErrantSmudge]

I have a Levenger Seas pen (Sheaffer Connaisseur) which I bought in the late '90s but has never worked properly. The pen has an ink starvation issue and simply stops writing after about a page or so. It's been through two pen repair people (one very well-known), and it still performs the same.

 

The pen is a M nib and an extremely wet writer, so maybe it's an issue with the feed not keeping up. Maybe I could do like wasteland did and get a flow adjustment or grind the nib down to a Fine. But at this point I've tired of throwing money at it, and have basically given it up for dead.

Edited August 11, 2018 by ErrantSmudge

[Erik Dalton]

Mine was a Waterman Edson. Never was fun to write with. Then it started getting rare so I bought several..lol.. still don’t write with them.

[Tasmith]

TWSBI 580. Bought the TWSBI Eco which I really do like so I bought the 580 a few months later. Have never warmed up to it (some pens I really did care for at first but end up liking later) and don't care for how the 580 fits my hand and how it writes.

 

Pilot Vanishing Point. Love the idea of clicking it to use but found it too heavy and thick for my hand. Replaced it with the Pilot Decimo and really like the Decimo as it's thinner and lighter.

[MHBru]

Only once and it was a result of a terribly scratchy nib. I bought a Pelikan M205 online and the retailer obviously never even looked at it before shipping. I love Pelikans in general and have more of them than any other. Ill be honest... I fault the retailer not the pen and dont do business with them anymore. The pen writes fine after substantial work and is still in my regular rotation

[TheDutchGuy]

I've been initially disappointed with a lot of the pens I've bought. I've learned a lot from that (see this topic for a recap of my learning curve - it might come in handy). Fountain pens are complicated, their performance depends on minute variations in many different factors. There is a break-in period; don't tinker too much with a pen during that period. Ink choice is crucial for a pen's performance and will make a big difference.

 

About the Aero: great pens, very high quality, built for constant hard use. I had one and loved how it performed, but ergonomically it wasn't right for my hand. That's something you just cannot change. I've got the same issue with my Visconti van Gogh: it's a great pen, but the metal section is too narrow for me and too slippery. I keep it because my son uses it a lot and because it looks great, but I rarely use it myself.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Rindy_Ruth, perhaps a wipe down of the section with some 8-12,000 micromesh might roughen up that section just enough.

[Bexinthecity247]

Has anyone else experienced a similar let-down when a pen you were waiting for does not live up to your fantasies about it?

 

Rindy_Ruth

 

Perhaps not an outright disappointment - but there have been pens I've bought where I've been less than enamoured with. My MB 149 skips a lot and I really need to get it looked at but I keep forgetting and when I think about it, I get really disheartened it because the 149 was the fountain pen I've coveted since I was like 10. I may buy another in time.

 

My other disappointment was a cheap old Sheaffer I bought which was scratchy as hell and I ended up tossing it in a drawer. I haven't touched Sheaffer since (though not because of that entirely - I just haven't seen one that takes my fancy).

 

I bought a Lamy JOY to start calligraphy but I HATE it. I don't even know where it is but it was a hard starter and terrible skipper. Though I love my Lamy safari pens (of which I have 3).

[Rindy_Ruth]

I've been initially disappointed with a lot of the pens I've bought. I've learned a lot from that (see this topic for a recap of my learning curve - it might come in handy). Fountain pens are complicated, their performance depends on minute variations in many different factors. There is a break-in period; don't tinker too much with a pen during that period. Ink choice is crucial for a pen's performance and will make a big difference.

 

About the Aero: great pens, very high quality, built for constant hard use. I had one and loved how it performed, but ergonomically it wasn't right for my hand. That's something you just cannot change. I've got the same issue with my Visconti van Gogh: it's a great pen, but the metal section is too narrow for me and too slippery. I keep it because my son uses it a lot and because it looks great, but I rarely use it myself.

Thanks, TheDutchGuy. I do want to tinker during the break-in period and have to stop myself from doing that. In the case of the Aero, like you, I'm just not crazy about the ergonomics of the pen. I am continuing to write with it in an effort to learn to love it, but I'm just not as crazy about it as I thought I would be. Hence, my disappointment and my post.

 

Rindy_Ruth

[SoulSamurai]

My other disappointment was a cheap old Sheaffer I bought which was scratchy as hell and I ended up tossing it in a drawer. I haven't touched Sheaffer since (though not because of that entirely - I just haven't seen one that takes my fancy).

My Sheaffers are my favourite pens. I love the inlaid nib pens, I have a VFM that has a great nib and is very comfortable for short notes (the narrow grip and step can get annoying during extended writing), and I just picked up a 300 that just feels better in my hand than any other pen I own (though the nib needed a tiny bit of smoothing and the pen dries out annoying quickly).

 

Any pen can be scratchy if the nib tines are misaligned. Sadly realigning tines seems to be kind of a required skill for fountain pen use (at least for using nice pens rather than disposable ones that you simply replace if the nib gets it's tines knocked out of alignment). And even if a nib is scratchy even when it's tines are aligned, it can often be smoothed with a bit of micromesh. So don't write off you Sheaffer just yet.

[Bexinthecity247]

My Sheaffers are my favourite pens. I love the inlaid nib pens, I have a VFM that has a great nib and is very comfortable for short notes (the narrow grip and step can get annoying during extended writing), and I just picked up a 300 that just feels better in my hand than any other pen I own (though the nib needed a tiny bit of smoothing and the pen dries out annoying quickly).

 

Any pen can be scratchy if the nib tines are misaligned. Sadly realigning tines seems to be kind of a required skill for fountain pen use (at least for using nice pens rather than disposable ones that you simply replace if the nib gets it's tines knocked out of alignment). And even if a nib is scratchy even when it's tines are aligned, it can often be smoothed with a bit of micromesh. So don't write off you Sheaffer just yet.

Yeah it was a pen I got on eBay because I was desperate to own a Sheaffer (back in my early collecting days) and I haven't actively avoided them, I would still like to add one to my collection. I had an old Calligraphy set they made, a long time ago which I've since lost. These I used for every day writing and loved. I replaced it with a more modern Sheaffer Calligraphy set and they weren't very good.

 

But if you have any particular recommendations for Sheaffer, I'll of course be more than happy to hear.

Edited August 13, 2018 by Bexinthecity247

[SoulSamurai]

But if you have any particular recommendations for Sheaffer, I'll of course be more than happy to hear.

I think the Sheaffer 444 is the best all-round purchase. It's affordable, can use standard international cartridges or Sheaffer's cartridges or converters, has their beautiful inlaid nib and minimal step which makes it suitable for a variety of grip styles, and a stainless steel body which I find has better balance than the plastic body on the 440 (I love my 440 but something about the balance and/or extremely light weight makes my handwriting worse than with most of my other pens - I still enjoy using it though).

[JayKay3000]

From my experience the price of a pen does not reflect how good it is. I mean, you don't always get a better pen the more you spend.

 

My most expensive pens are less than $100 and I don't daily them as I have cheaper pens than write just as good if not better. Even my old frontiers were silky smooth and lasted 20 years.