Conklin Duragraph Forest Green - Beautiful Pen, Terrible Writer (Out Of The Box)

[BillPorter]

Can the collar be unscrewed? or is it glued in?

Edited June 14, 2019 by BillPorter

[BillPorter]

Can the collar be unscrewed? or is it glued in?

 

The nib/feed are friction fit into the section of the pen. If you buy one from Amazon and it is defective in some way, it's not hard to do a return. Another option would be to buy one from Hisnibs.com where, from what they say on the Website, they test the nib on every pen before it is shipped out to the buyer.

[SoulSamurai]

Thank you also for trying other nibs

can the collar be unscrewed? or is it glued in?

The nib unit in my Duragraphs can easily be unscrewed. However the only other #6 nib unit I have is a Jowo, and it does not fit. Perhaps a Bock would fit, I do not know.

[sansenri]

 

The nib/feed are friction fit into the section of the pen. If you buy one from Amazon and it is defective in some way, it's not hard to do a return. Another option would be to buy one from Hisnibs.com where, from what they say on the Website, they test the nib on every pen before it is shipped out to the buyer.

 

thanks but since I've had other bad experiences with Conklin nibs I would really like to find the solution for swapping the nib successfully, and then buying the pen...

[sansenri]

The nib unit in my Duragraphs can easily be unscrewed. However the only other #6 nib unit I have is a Jowo, and it does not fit. Perhaps a Bock would fit, I do not know.

Thanks, do you mean that you tried to screw in a Jowo group (nib/feed/collar) and the threading is different?

 

BillPorter says the nib feed are friction fit, it might be that he pulled them out, and the collar remained inside the section.

 

The useful test would be pull out the nib and feed, then swap the nib with a Jowo, or Bock, nib (just the nib) i.e. replace the Jowo nib inside the original collar together with the original feed. If it fits it's done!

[BillPorter]

Thanks, do you mean that you tried to screw in a Jowo group (nib/feed/collar) and the threading is different?

 

BillPorter says the nib feed are friction fit, it might be that he pulled them out, and the collar remained inside the section.

 

The useful test would be pull out the nib and feed, then swap the nib with a Jowo, or Bock, nib (just the nib) i.e. replace the Jowo nib inside the original collar together with the original feed. If it fits it's done!

 

I'm wondering if they have changed the way the Duragraph is made. I just watched a video made in 2015 showing a Duragraph with a nib unit that could be unscrewed just as Soul Samurai mentions. But I am confident that there was no collar hold the nib/feed in the Duragraph I bought from Amazon. Not that it's a big deal either way.

[SoulSamurai]

 

I'm wondering if they have changed the way the Duragraph is made. I just watched a video made in 2015 showing a Duragraph with a nib unit that could be unscrewed just as Soul Samurai mentions. But I am confident that there was no collar hold the nib/feed in the Duragraph I bought from Amazon. Not that it's a big deal either way.

Interesting, could you post photos of the section on your Duragraph?

[BillPorter]

Interesting, could you post photos of the section on your Duragraph?

It has already been returned to Amazon. I looked at some videos showing the Duragraph and every one of them showed the pen having an unscrewable nib unit with the nib/feed in a collar. I have no idea why mine was not like that. You'll just have to trust me when I say that there was simply a nib and feed within the section of the pen. Maybe they are starting to use a cheaper method of constructing the pen?

[BaronWulfraed]

It has already been returned to Amazon. I looked at some videos showing the Duragraph and every one of them showed the pen having an unscrewable nib unit with the nib/feed in a collar. I have no idea why mine was not like that. You'll just have to trust me when I say that there was simply a nib and feed within the section of the pen. Maybe they are starting to use a cheaper method of constructing the pen?

 

Well, I just looked at my recently purchased Duraflex LE (I don't know if that was a special model or just a name change for a Duragraph with OmniFlex nib).

 

It was a bit tight at first, but I was able to unscrew the nib/feed -- stopping at 1/8" as the pen was still inked and I didn't want to gum up the insides too much.

 

Then found it didn't want to screw back in! Thinking it might be binding on the converter lip I took the barrel off and attempted to pull out the converter -- which wasn't budging on a straight pull. Twisting it showed it was still coupled to the nib/feed unit, so I tried unscrewing it. That seated the nib/feed -- and when the converter came out I found the inside of the ferule was threaded, and the outside plastic of the converter had threads cut into it (and some scarring where it seems my backing out the nib/feed turned the converter deeper than the original threaded portion).

 

I gave the nib/feed a firm turn to seat it completely, then held it while turning the converter back into the section.

 

Just checked -- the Sleeve Filler (no converter) also has a screwed in unit (again, I only backed it out about 1/8 inch).

 

Both Conklins were purchased in the last week of May (delivered May 30) and are still on their first load of ink (I've got six pens in regular [for me, that means doing Sudoku puzzles ] use).

[WJM]

Small update to the review. I owned this pen for about a year now.

 

First thing, the Bock replacement nib. In my original review I wrote about having occasional problem with hard starts. These problems got more and more annoying with time and as I looked into to it, I noticed the Bock nib doesn't fit the Conklin housing half as good as I thought. Back then I somehow didn't notice it (seriously I don't understand how I missed it), but with the Bock nib installed in the Conklin's housing there is a visible, quite big gap between the nib and the feed. I tried another Bock nib and it was even worse. Apparently Bock #6 nibs have a different shape?

 

I tried a few spare Chinese nibs I had at hand. Jinhao and Moonman nibs make for a very flimsy fit in the Conklin and wobble. Penbbs nib was only a little better, plus Penbbs nib is I think shorter than other size 6 nib. The top of the feed stood out on the sides of the nib just under the tipping which looked kind of silly.

 

Recently I tried again with the original Conklin stub nib, and after some alignment done and some polishing it's... tolerable. To a point.

 

There's no missalingment of the tines anymore, but depending on the paper the nib still goes from smooth enough to scratchy. Even in its smoother phases the scratchiness on the horizontal left-to-right strokes gets out once a while. On some papers it's just constantly scratchy. It's also dry - starts out wet enough, but quickly reduces to the dry-ish side. I added some diluted dish soap to the ink to get a better flow and lubrication, and while it helped a little, it didn't solve the problem.

 

While being in use over day the pen doesn't usually make any starting problems, but still dries out over a night.

 

Som, my Durgagraph with its stock nib is now usable, but still not very pleasant to use.

 

 

Edited December 19, 2019 by WJM

[tim77]

with the Bock nib installed in the Conklin's housing there is a visible, quite big gap between the nib and the feed

 

That sounds familiar. Have you tried replacing the Conklin feed with the Bock feed? A Bock 250 nib + feed fit pretty well into the nib housing in my Conklin Yellowstone.

 

Conklin's nibs are made of cardboard. To be avoided.

[WJM]

I tried. The Bock feed is bigger than the plastic Chinese feed that Conklin uses. After I put the feed in the housing there's no place for the nib. I once managed to shove both in the housing but the fit was so tight I was afraid something would crack after some time, either the feed or the housing (I'm not sure what the housing is made of).

Edited December 19, 2019 by WJM

[RockFL]

I requested and received a limited edition Endless Summer Duragraph as a Christmas gift in 2019. Beautiful materials and the rose gold omniflex is really cool to look at. It has never written well.... two or three sentences and I'd have to shake ink to the nib... so I have kept it in storage until recently. I watched a YouTube video on improving inkflow to a dry nib and decided to disassemble the nib unit to check the feed. Guess what... there is absolutely no ink channel on top of the feed at all. There are moulding lines where an ink channel should be but there is no way for ink to flow.  This may explain why so many owners of this pen have problems with inconsistent ink flow. Disappointing. 

[Carguy]

54 minutes ago, RockFL said:

I requested and received a limited edition Endless Summer Duragraph as a Christmas gift in 2019. Beautiful materials and the rose gold omniflex is really cool to look at. It has never written well.... two or three sentences and I'd have to shake ink to the nib... so I have kept it in storage until recently. I watched a YouTube video on improving inkflow to a dry nib and decided to disassemble the nib unit to check the feed. Guess what... there is absolutely no ink channel on top of the feed at all. There are moulding lines where an ink channel should be but there is no way for ink to flow.  This may explain why so many owners of this pen have problems with inconsistent ink flow. Disappointing. 

I love the Endless Summer color and thought about buying it from an eBay seller, but I’ve had such poor luck with 2/other Conklin that I just can’t bring myself to do it. Sounds like I’d probably be disappointed again with this one 

[Paganini]

The feed in a regular Duragraph is the same generic Chinese #6 feed from, e.g., Jinhao 159. I bet the Endless Summer version uses the same one. You should be able to swap yours out with a working one for minimal cost. 

[WJM]

Another update - about half a year ago I bought a spare Conklin nib unit with a medium nib, from the newer stock manufactured by Jowo. Or at least, that's what the description on the store's website said.

 

Anyway, this nib is a huge improvement. There's an occasional hard start after the pen was left uncapped for a moment. Apart from that, it's very smooth and works well. 

[Uncial]

Glad you eventually got it writing.

I'm rather fond of the modern Conklin. Some of them are pretty awful and they went through a bit of a rough patch around the early noughties (and I think they were bought over a little later and produced some fairly rotten models for a while too) with somewhat clunky pens, but for the money they look nice and have a decent finish. The nibs aren't exciting, but they are good pens. The earlier 'modern' iterations were the better ones I think and the Mark Twain's are nice enough.

[lovemy51]

came late to the party, but, someone gifted me this pen a while back and it's been sitting in a drawer... till' now. i'm pleasantly surprised as how well this pen performs. i dunno what type of nib this is, but it is great! still not fond of Conklin... not yet, anyways

 

PS. i do not like their flex nibs🥴

[Hanoi]

very nice review and historical background to the brand.