Bexley Any Good?

[jrnabors]

I like to buy American when I can, but I had a Bexley that I purchased off eBay, and it was very scratchy. I sent it back to the factory and it came back scratchy. Not smooth like my much cheaper Lamy Safari and Safari AL-Stars. I was just wondering if that was typical of Bexley or if I just got a bad one.

[scribblescrabble]

I like to buy American when I can, but I had a Bexley that I purchased off eBay, and it was very scratchy. I sent it back to the factory and it came back scratchy. Not smooth like my much cheaper Lamy Safari and Safari AL-Stars. I was just wondering if that was typical of Bexley or if I just got a bad one.

 

Bexley is a great pen. I have the Corona in Summer Sunset (a Duofold Big Red lookalike). It's a piston filler and it is my go-to pen in so many ways.

 

The issue you're having with scratchiness, though, is a separate issue.

 

According to some estimates, around 85% of all nibs in new pens are scratchy or in need of work. This is one reason that most nibmeisters who sell new pens adjust their pens before they send them out to the buyer.

 

I am studying nib-meistering. I have gone to several pen stores with my loupe and the nibs on the brand-new, never-inked, never-written-with, virgin pens are, mostly, awful! Pelikans, actually, have been pretty bad. (This is stated NOT to defame Pelikan. I love their pens, I want their pens. This is stated, rather, to say that one of the oldest, most respected fountain pen companies produces pens where the nibs need LOTS of work.)

 

My suggestion is this: Buy new pens from reputable sources who will tune and smooth the nibs for you. Or, contact Pendleton Brown (pb2, here on FPN) who is a nibmeister of some renown, send your pen(s) to him, and have him do the smoothing work for you.

 

Of course, you could always learn tuning and smoothing and do this on your own.

 

The point is this: No pen is likely to be perfect out of the box and will need some tuning. Don't base your over-all impression of a brand based on one scratchy nib or (or someone who likely replaced a nib and didn't tune or smooth it).

 

If you are only slightly more daring, you can contact me and I'll work on smoothing your Bexley for you.

 

ScribbleScrabble

[Freddy]

Fascinating.... .*Anyway..Welcome Aboard! Enjoy your time here..

 

I have a boat load of Bexley pens and all write very well..

 

Fred

This one is in the history books.~ Joe Tuna ~

 

Edited...*........................................................................ ..

Edited September 8, 2012 by Freddy

[JefferyS]

My only Bexley not from Richard Binder ... bad. Nine Bexleys from Richard Binder ... perfect. He fixed my bad one.

[Postscript]

Yes, all 6 of mine are excellent.

 

Post Script

[Aslan]

Have had several Bexley pens over the years, only 4 at the moment. All have been excellent pens. I will have more in the future.

[MKeith]

I own three Bexleys and their quality is excellent. If the seller on ebay is an authorized Bexley dealer you have a lifetime warranty once you send in the warranty card. Either way, I would contact Howard Levy at Bexley directly and express your concerns. Howard is a top flight guy and my experience is that he will do everything he can to make it right for you. There are limitations though on purchasing so called "second-hand" pens as to what any company can do, but there are several great nibmeisters on this board that can make your nib as smooth as you want.

Edited September 8, 2012 by MKeith

[meblamy]

No problems with any of my three. Great writers, in stainless steel, and not scratchy at all.

 

They were all from Richard Binder...

 

If you're seeing a problem, I would suggest contacting Bexley. My personal take is they REALLY want to get/keep their niche as an American manufacturer. If there are systemic problems, I believe they'd want to know...

[Sazerac]

As has been stated many out-of-the box nibs have some kind of issue. I've found Bexley nibs (I must have a dozen or so) well above average. Only one needed to see a nib mister; the rest are fantastic. Unless their quality has deteriorated, you got a rare dud.

[terminal]

One more here who had the same experience with Bexley. Scratchy scratchy out of the box. Sent to nibmeister -- came back... *mostly* fixed. I still wouldn't call it a favorite pen though. If it were me I'd do a search on other US Made pens -- there have been plenty of threads here about it.

[KrazyIvan]

My one and only Bexley is super smooth but I ground the B nib to a stub. I have a replacement B nib in stock/never inked condition and just from using it on paper with no ink, I can feel it is going to be smooth.

[Hex]

I only have one Bexley and it's butter smooth.

My wife and I were sitting at the table tonight messing around with menus. She had picked up a junker pen that I happened to have laying there, wrote with it for a bit before asking me if I had anything smoother.

Music to my ears since she pretty much hates my hobby.

Well, I gave her the Bexley and she couldn't get over how smooth it was besides being drop dead gorgeous.

I might have a convert.

[irish_monk]

I've had several. Bad flow on every one regardless of where I purchased it. For the money there are better values out there.

[toomanypelikans]

I have five Bexley Americanas, all write perfectly, but all were bought from a retailer that checks and adjusts nibs before sale or I bought 2nd hand from a person who bought new from a retailer that checks and adjusts nibs before sale.

 

Is there a common theme there?

[avlisyar]

I currently own ten (10) Bexleys purchased from various

sources, ranging from Richard Binder, Howard Levy and the

late Dennis Bowden. Every one wrote well out the box. I do

find that newer Bexley nibs are better than the old Schmidt

nibs. I love these pens!

[Glenn-SC]

One more here who had the same experience with Bexley. Scratchy scratchy out of the box. Sent to nibmeister -- came back... *mostly* fixed.

I agree.

I used to be a Bexley collector and had quite a few.

I had a Prometheus that broke my heart it was so perfect except that it wrote so poorly (horrible ink flow).

A couple of trips back to Bexley didn't help.

It and almost all my other Bexley's have been sold; I've kept two Simplicities, one received as a gift the other the FPN special pen. They work for some reason.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Glenn-SC

[dannyboy]

I have a dozen Bexley pens and all have been tuned and customized by Richard Binder. Not a bad writer in the whole lot. For my two cents a great company with quality pens.

[John Cullen]

I've purchased a dozen over the years. The ones I bought from Richard Binder were all great. The ones I bought from other sellers who did not adjust nibs were usually good, but I had a few that were really scratchy.

 

Be aware than unless Bexley has changed their policy they will charge a hefty fee to change out a nib if the nib has been inked, even if all you did was ink it for five minutes to realize you needed a fine rather than a medium.

 

In general, I found the nibs to be a bit heavy on the flow, like Pelikan and many other modern pens. So a fine Bexley nib is likely to be full and a bit wet, if my few are/were normal.

 

The Americana is one of my favorite pens, and when you have a Bexley in perfect order they are very very nice, IMO.

[ddustinn]

I have a BX802 bought secondhand with a nice smooth, wet broad steelnib. It's one of the best nibs I've ever used.

[Sasha Royale]

I like my BEXLEY pens. I have a fine-nib Corona, a medium-nib submariner, and

a broad-nib Intrepid. The nibs are good and the ink feed is excellent. The

large bodies offer comfortable writing with the relazed fountain pen grip.

When I hold a Bexley fountain pen like one holds a ballpoint pen, it is scratchy.

 

Also, a smooth nib feels scatchy on rough paper. Do you have some top quality

writing paper ?