What pen was your biggest disapointment ?

[Pen Nut]

By far way and above the worrst pen I have ever owned was the Yard O Led Viceroy Grand Victorian.

 

It looked wonderful and that was about it, oh and it had a nice box.

 

Within in the first 8 months I had 3 new nib units replaced, all free of charge under warranty, each of the nibs had a bloody awful habit of tearing all but the heavier types of paper, the cap needed a two handed pull to remove it which usually resulted in a blob of ink flying somewhere. The action of taking the cap off was resulting in quite deep scratching occuring to the end of the pen.. . . Otherwise it was fine and the Victorian style of finish did look great.. . . Its all a learning curve though

[FrankB]

I have to join those who expresed surprize that pens they use and love are percived by others as bad experiences. Not all pens are perfect.

 

My own selections for bad pen expeiences: Wearever, the worst vintage pen I have experienced. Mine leaked all over the place. Rotring 600, I don't like the feel of metal sections and this one was all metal, on top of weighing in like a small elephant. Levenger True Writer - my first one (the original green pen) was pretty nice, but subsequent pens were awful. The QC is pathetic.

 

I am sorry to hear that Pelikan has gotten such negative reviews. I expressed this disappointment in another thread here as well. Something must really have changed in Pelikan manufacturing.

[zxc]

Namiki Vanishing Point. Got all 3 nib units and hated it. Still sits firmly in my drawer.

[marklavar]

By far way and above the worrst pen I have ever owned was the Yard O Led Viceroy Grand Victorian.

 

It looked wonderful and that was about it, oh and it had a nice box.

 

Within in the first 8 months I had 3 new nib units replaced, all free of charge under warranty, each of the nibs had a bloody awful habit of tearing all but the heavier types of paper, the cap needed a two handed pull to remove it which usually resulted in a blob of ink flying somewhere. The action of taking the cap off was resulting in quite deep scratching occuring to the end of the pen.. . . Otherwise it was fine and the Victorian style of finish did look great.. . . Its all a learning curve though

Interesting. I have this pen and I can confirm that the cap has to be pulled with force, but over time this loosens up. I find the nib smooth - one of the smoothest I own, and the pen does look like a 'million dollars'. I guess it all depends on your writing style.

[marklavar]

another disappointed Parker/Sonnet fan:

My Sonnet (stainless steel nib F) only works from time to time - and only at it's own will - and all my old Vectors are now skipping or leaking so even though I like the look and feel, none of my Parkers writes readable these days. So maybe it's time to move on.. to other pens

 

kind regards

Henrik

The only good modern Parker is the Duofold - forget all the others.

[goodguy]

I am a bit surprised to see few people that put the VP in there pick.

I thought I am the only one that didnt hit it with his VP.

 

If only Pilot would take it to get a bit tweeked this could be a truly amazing pen.

[Robert Hughes]

I bought a Parker Sonnet with 14K gold nib, and love it. It's smooth from the get go, always writes, has classic style, it's my best new pen. My best old pen is one of the "51's".

[Rufus]

Well here goes, the inevitable is about to happen: MB 149. Just too big and ostentatious, bordering on crass. What's worse though is that this pen leaked from every conceivable place an FP could leak from and spent more time with the MB repair people than it did with me. MB never got it right, but one day it rolled off the kitchen counter and broke so badly that MB told me to write it off (pun intended); what a blessed relief. SWMBO has an MB 146, which has a raft of problems all its own. I have a Parker Duofold Centennial, which was vying with the MBs to occupy a place in my FP hall of shame, but it has more than redeemed itself. Out of the box it was difficult to get started and once started it skipped and the flow went from dry to wet to dry ad nauseam. In one last desperate attempt to save the day I sent it to Richard Binder and behold, a total transformation. It now sits at the top of my FP pecking-order although now it is being fiercely challenged by the "new kid", a Bexley Americana purchased from Richard last month.

[zenshrink]

No one's going to believe this. My Nakaya tamenuri cigar and piccolo. First had to be sent back because nib was not set correctly on feed for all of the sign offs that they include. The piccolo I asked for wet and smooth and it was dry and scratchy. I just gave up and didn't send it back for the $75 that UPS international charges for my free repair.

[Glenn-SC]

Bexley Prometheus - I really wanted this pen to be THE PEN. But, it was hard starting and skipped badly. It would write very wet on the down stroke and go dry on the up stroke. I sent it to Bexley and it came back writing the same way. I sent it to my repair specialist and it came back writing better but still not well. So it just sat in the display case. I finally sold it off and was happy to do so.

Edited December 5, 2007 by Glenn-SC

[J English Smith]

I love my VP and my Sonnets, too. No problems whatsoever. Different strokes, right?

 

Minor, minor disappointments this year...

 

My Parker 61 broke my heart a bit when the grey barrel cracked earlier this year. I'm being oh so careful with the $35 NOS replacement. The 61 barrels are an annoying design flaw. But this is my Uncle's pen, so I like keeping it going.

 

I wish my Esties didn't like to unscrew themselves. I like these pens, and I'd carry them more, but I can't risk another accident...so I have to remember to take them in a pen case...

 

I have a new 51 vac that needs some nib work still...next year...

 

And, I wish the section on the L2K was a little easier to grip, it does slant a lot, I am grateful for the infamous "ears," they do actually make it easier to hold higher on the section.

 

Not too bad. Compared to the rest of my life, my pens are smooth sailing!

[reginaldgolding]

I suspect that just as different pens fit different styles, there are a great many "individual" pens of a 'make/model' that just don't have the magic built in. Be it the ink or the filling process or the nib grind or the glitch in manufacturing, or some other weird anomaly with the pen itself; OR some weirdness of the USE of the instrument against the wielder, there's just some little thing that doesn't jive. Sometimes, it's perference. I may HATE the Parker 51 I've got shipping to me right now, just because it may not fit how I want to write. But then again, it could be that the model itself has some fundamental flaw. But further again, it could be some component of THAT pen itself that sucks... and I may decide that all 'Parker 51 "Specials"' sucks (yeah, the one I'm waiting for is the "Special" aero, not the older vintage).

 

Still though, I love to hear which pen didn't jam with which owner. Oddly fascinating.

 

I have to toss in: The Rotring Core, and I'm sorry for jumping on the Rotring bandwagon here. In my case, though, it was a second-thought gift. I was talking about pens one day, and someone within earshot said "hey, I have a fountain pen that my ex-boyfriend gave me and I never want to see it again, do you want it?" Well, of course I want a free fountain pen, what are you nuts? It was the Rotring Core. It's a pen with alot of "modern" flair, but this particular one was prone, and I mean APT to leak. Seems the inside of the cap was designed to suck ink droplets from the nib if you had it capped for more than 1/2hour.

 

 

 

[irfan]

Ah, well, here's a trivial one that won't offend anyone: I had a great experience with a Chinese pen, an SZ.Leqi, that was just a brilliant EF writer and stylish to boot. I was convinced that this brand was the great undiscovered treasure of the east, so I bought another one. The second one was just terrible, couldn't write its way out of a paper bag, lousy nib, everything. But at least my disappointing experience only set me back twenty bucks ...

[rollerboy]

A Faber-Castell Ambition in medium nib. A start-up problem from hell. If you stopped writing for any longer than the lift from the end of one word to the beginning of the next, it would shut down and be a pain to get writing again. The "carriage return" from the end of one line to the next was too long for this pen.

 

Being a glass half-empty kind of guy I'd like to point out that while this topic is interesting, one's biggest disappointment may very well lie in the future

[AJP]

Mine was my Platinum #3776 and it's a disappointed with a "however" added.

 

I had seen the pen on the Nakaya web page and read how Mr. Umeda had designed it to be a writer's pen. I had wanted one for some time and when I finally got one it was a major love it - hate it scenario. I was extremely disappointed in the materials.. it feels like very very cheap plastic and it has a slip on cap. I had received ball point give aways at trade shows that seemed to be made from better materials. I was at the point where I was wondering if I had purchased a fake. However, I filled it and wrote with it and the nib was awesome (yes the love part)! If not for that I would have dumped it right away.

[playpen]

This one is so easy......the clear winner in my collection, beyond the shadow of a doubt is the Stipula 22 titanium nibbed beauty. From the first second I attempted to write with it, it skipped and has done so ever since. I tried to decide whether to add it to my collection of plastic darts and use it for a good game of darts or perhaps place it in a busy Manhattan intersection and laugh as the light changed and ten milion taxi cabs drove over it.

After showing it to Richard Binder at Elaine's party several months ago, I decided to allow him to work his magic on it. He assured me that he could cure this little beauty. I await the final outcome.

 

Whatever it is that finally happens with the pen, I shall NEVER buy from Stipula again because I did not care for their attitude or advice. They told me not to press down too hard on the nib even though the nib is a flex nib and was made to be pressed. They also attempted to repair the pen and could not. Wonderful customer service...NOT.

[jimg]

Modern Aurora 88 with factory italic nib. It skips and skips.

[ArPharazon]

Well, I'm no expert and I don't have that many to compare, but my biggest disappointment is actually my Pelikan M600.

 

For years -- when I knew absolutely nothing about fountain pens other than seeing them occasionally in stores -- my very image of a classy, expensive pen was that beautiful black, gold, and green-striped beauty with the bird on it. Not an MB (never heard of them), but a Pelikan. I just thought they oozed class and European charm.

 

When I started coming here and reading about them, my expectations only got higher.

 

I finally broke down and bought the most expensive one I could budget, an M600. While I still love the looks, to me it has an awful flaw . . . it somehow manages to put a nasty ink stain on my ring finger knuckle (this is where the pen rests when I write) every time I write with it. I've tightened the nib, been extra careful wiping it down after filling, paid attention to where I was gripping the pen, etc. But still, inky fingers every time. This is the only one of nine fountain pens (of which the Peli is the most expensive and probably the highest regarded, short of my 51) that does this. The allure and mystique of a FP really disappears when all you or anyone else can see is a big stain on your hand whenever you write.

 

Aside from this, the pen writes 'OK', though nothing really to crow about. Honestly no better than several steel-nibbed mid-priced pens I have by Taccia and Libelle.

Edited December 5, 2007 by ArPharazon

[kadymae]

Silver Pelikan Future M nib.

 

After switching from Noodlers to Pelikan's ink cartridges and removing the xxxxxf bit of cat hair that had wound itself around the tip and between the tines, the performance improved a lot. But it's never been what I've hoped for -- Pelikano Jr. smoothness but with a narrower nib.

 

I like it enough to keep using it -- at work, and heck, I even dropped it nib down twice last week and it didn't get any worse! -- but it's never been as smooth a writer as my Lamys, the Pelikano Jrs, my Haolilai 801, or even 2 Pilot Varsities that I use.

 

It's good for jotting short notes, and the nib on it is finer than the M Nib on my Lamys, but it will never be the pen I reach for to write several pages of prose. (Despite the fact that I find it more comfortable to hold than the Lamys for extended periods.)

 

And after my Lamy Blue-Black ink bottle and syringe kit get here from Pear Tree, yes, it's going to be filled with iron-gall ink. It will shorten the useful life of it, to be sure, and make it possibly a less smooth writer, but I need something to jot waterproof notes on my desk calendar and to-do lists, and Lamy Blue-Black and Diamine Registrars are the only non-Noodlers fountain pen friendly waterproof inks I can find.

 

Will I get another Future? I'll probably give it another try at a later date, since I do find this comfortable to hold.

 

On the upside, I don't have to sacrifice a "good" pen to iron-gall ink.

Edited December 5, 2007 by kadymae

[vanyieck]

I'm not sure it's my biggest disappointment but one of the more memorable one was my Visconti Van Gogh. The unusual cap attachment was a constant concern. Not long after I bought it the cap came loose as I took it out of my pocket it came loose and fell, badly bending the nib. No matter how tight I tightened it there no way of securing it to the barrel.