what's up with the carene fountain pen?

[greencobra]

jeez, guys...you all have the proverbial love/hate thing going on with the carene, huh? no middle ground, i have this craving for one, a fine nibbed, shimmering amber sea. i think that's what the official name is. something about that inlaid nib that draws me to it. but when i start reading posts and reviews, not just here, but from general web searches, i'm getting cold feet and not sealing the deal. the pen don't write well, nib leaks, the finial needs adjusting cause it doesn't line up with the nib, and so on and so on....  then you get the folks who are satisfied, love 'em, writes better than expected, etc... but you never see any middle ground posts. like "after a repair good to go", "it just needs a little tweak to come around". it seems "after it returns from adjusting, it's being sold" and post like that. i may exaggerate a bit but you know what i'm getting at. i'm being scared away.

 

i found a beautiful carene shimmering sea ball pen at the library a year or two ago. turned it in but got a call 6 months later when no one claimed it. i went to get it an brought it home. beautiful ball pen, has a little heft to it, that i like. so i've been thinking i wanted the fountain pen mate to it, but i dunno now, guys. i even had a nice waterman box that has 2 places in it for a set presentation stuck away in a drawer just waiting for it's moment. waddaya think, should i hunt one down?

[I-am-not-really-here]

The Carène is (or was the last I knew) still in production so, if there is a Waterman dealer nearby, Appelboom(?) it would be best to "try before you buy." Otherwise there is the fountain pen aficionado group http://www.bostonpenpeople.org you could ask if a member has one to check out.  Looks like you just missed the Greater Pen Show though.

 

I've not used any of mine in some years now but do fondly recall that a Fine running Papier Plume's Forget-Me-Not-Blue was a perfect match on Maruman Mnemosyne.  

[georgeb]

I like mine.  It works well if I follow the directions on filling it.  If I am cavalier in the filling process it will get messy.  If it does get messy I go back to step one by cleaning all of the ink out of the nib and pen and let it dry.  It takes quite awhile for the ink in the nib to come out when the nib is put into a small container of water.  I have used Waterman cartridges in mine, they work well.

 

So, I recommend the Carene.

[amk]

I don't know what nib you usually use but I have a Waterman Carene stub nib and it writes like a dream. Lovely stylish pen, but does need TLC occasionally as the nibs have been known to leak. 

[senzen]

Those same negative reports kept me from getting one for a long time; not to minimize them but I now have three, all reliable and a joy to use; if you just return four drops of ink and draw back the remaining air they are more reliable than most, in that ink doesn't change colour as fast. They do chew up regular converters and are not an easy second hand purchase given many people's insistence on putting pressure on or looking for flex from an inlaid nib.

 

Of course finding that magic four drop number took a lot of trial and error, hair pulling from many users, many right here on FPN, so I am very grateful for their contributions. Given that I already have way too many pens it's a shame I won't be experiencing the Carène with a stub nib.

[Carrau]

I have three, and all were excellent writers out of the box.  I read about the leaking issues before I bought my first.  Somewhere in that reading, a writer commented that the leaking seemed to be connected to residual ink after filling from a bottle, and the writer avoided problems by filling the convertor  directly rather than through the nib.  I have followed that lead, and haven’t had any of mine leak.  They are slender pens, and very elegant in my view.

[georgeb]

On 10/15/2023 at 2:57 PM, georgeb said:

I like mine.  It works well if I follow the directions on filling it.  If I am cavalier in the filling process it will get messy.  If it does get messy I go back to step one by cleaning all of the ink out of the nib and pen and let it dry.  It takes quite awhile for the ink in the nib to come out when the nib is put into a small container of water.  I have used Waterman cartridges in mine, they work well.

 

So, I recommend the Carene.

My Carene is leaking again.  I think it is leaking into the cap and the ink is flowing on the outside of the pen from the cap.  When exposing the nib to write with the pen there is ink on the outside of the barrel and nib area and gets on my fingers.

 

Oh well.  My ardor is waning.

[Baka1969]

I have two Carene pens. One in black and the other is amber. Aesthetically they are beautiful. I do think there are some QC issues that should have been addressed long ago. The alignment issues seems to be the most common. This doesn't really effect the writing. It does trigger all the OCD alerts though. 

 

Both of my pens are the medium nibs. They seem to write on the broader side. To me, though, it writes like a nail. In my opinion it's neither soft nor bouncy. Which was somewhat of a disappointment to me. Also, my amber one leaks like a sieve. That makes for an unpleasant experience. 

 

To me this is one of the higher end lines within the Waterman brand. For the price point and placement within the Waterman range, it's a letdown for me. 

[georgeb]

16 hours ago, georgeb said:

My Carene is leaking again.  I think it is leaking into the cap and the ink is flowing on the outside of the pen from the cap.  When exposing the nib to write with the pen there is ink on the outside of the barrel and nib area and gets on my fingers.

 

Oh well.  My ardor is waning.

This time it was caused by an ill-fitting converter.  The opening was a little bit bigger than the standard Waterman converter.  I was using an unbranded converter as a test.

[Andreas Weber]

No problems between 2 pens with 3 nib units (F, M and stub). The finial is meant to be user-adjustable, as the threads between barrel and nib unit might not tighten right at the perfect alignment.

[DutchGuy]

I was gifted a set of a deep metallic blue Carene fountain pen and matching ballpoint pen years ago. The gift rekindled an affection for fountain pens in dormant genes, and I now have three Carenes: the original blue one (of which to date I am still not sure what the colour is called, as it is more blue than the violet, more metallic than the actual blue colours but certainly not as grey as the charcoal, while in direct light it does have an purple-ish sheen) a black one and a shimmering sea green and gold version on the way.

 

It may be blasphemous to the true “reservoir only” fans, but using waterman cartridges i have had no trouble with leakages. I did find initially that when writing a lot, I would get careless and let my grip slip down and I would get ink stains from the nib (bad manners). I’ve since adjusted my hold and the inkt stays on the paper. I have the fine nib on both my users. By all means, dot the i and cross the t - there’s enough demand for good second hand ones. If you don’t like it, sell it on and make someone else happy. 

 

Edit: Forgot to say, I believe shimmering sea is the green version with the dotted effect, amber shimmer being the amber colour version with the same effect.

Edited December 2, 2023 by DutchGuy
Forgot to say