Cross Aventura

[jhazelwood]

I purchased one of these at Staples this week and it is a great pen. It does not wirte as smooth as a Waterman Phileas but I find the feel of the nib on the paper is more to my liking. At any rate does anyone knwo which converter would work for this pen? I currently use Black Quink in all my pens except the cross which is still using the blue-black cart that it came with. Any help would be appreciated in this matter.

[petra]

If you go to the Cross site, you'll probably find it listed &/or a picture. That's how I discovered that I mistakenly received the wrong converter for my Townsend. Or you can call, they were very nice despite all my goofy questions. You can also buy a converter from their site... I'm surprised your pen didn't come with a convertor, although I don't really know anything about the Avenura. Are you sure it's not buried in the box somewhere?

 

Petra

[jhazelwood]

The box is empty, the lining is glued in and there is no where to hide a converter. Too bad, but I will eventually buy one.

[Apollo]

JHazelwood, how's that Aventura working out for you? The last comments I read about the Cross Aventura were that they feel flimsy and somewhat cheap. How has yours held up?

[nothingsacred]

I've just got one of these Aventura pens for everyday jotting and doodling.

I really like it. It's got a really nice flow, no flooding but lush regardless, nice balance, and I think it's well built - I can't fault the cap action on mine and the lightness is great for keeping it in a breast pocket

It didn't come with an adapter - it's obviously a cheap introduction to Cross pens, which again suits me as I tend to lose pens quite easily.

I would also like to know which adapter fits it. I suspect that neither does.

So I'll be re-filling cartridges where possible because I have a large amount of cheap similar size cartridges that don't fit - I was using Rotring pens but they wore out rather too easily.

This is the best pen I've had - easily better than Parker ones for a similar price.

 

Anyway it'll get quite a rigorous testing regime in my hands so we'll see how it copes.

 

[tpaul]

I just bought one of these Cross Aventuras as well, it's my second pen after the Phileas I bought. I actually like the feel of it better than the Phileas and it seems to write more smoothly. I agree with one of the other correspondents that it has a good balance and light weight is good for my shirt pocket. From an aesthetic viewpoint, I find the nib a little more elegant looking than the Phileas.

 

Note that you cannot find this pen on www.cross.com, but you can find it on www.crosspen.com. Go figure.

 

Very good everyday pen but I wish it came with an adapter.

 

 

[Cross Contamination]

I bought an Aventura today, and it came with one Cross cartridge pre-installed.

 

But here's what I found: When I took the pen apart, the ink cartridge was not attached to the front section of the pen, but it was in the barrel. It appeared to do a better job at staying in the barrel than on the front section! I knew that the cartridge wasn't just being stored inside the pen, because the plastic ball seal had already been broken, and the ink was flowing. I took that as a sign that the cartridge didn't fit well.

 

So then I tried fitting an orange converter (the one with the screw threads), but I noticed that the front section was too wide for it, and that there was no point in using the screw-on converter. So I switched to using the older green converter (without threads).

 

Neither the converter or cartridge fit well in my Aventura. This didn't come to a surprise to me, since the opening for both the converter and the cartridge are the same, and the pre-installed cartridge didn't fit well to begin with.

 

So my final answer for you is: It doesn't really matter which Cross converter you use... it fits like the cartridges, which doesn't fit well! The pen itself is great, though.

 

If anyone has a different experience, or a fix, to share, I'd love to hear it!

[Peter from Sherwood Park]

I just purchased an Aventura from our local Staples and a screw-in converter from Stylus Pens in Edmonton (Canada). My experience was quite good -- the pen worked well with the supplied cartridge and the pen/converter combination worked flawlessly as well.

 

Perhaps you can prevail upon your local Staples to give you a replacement, as it would seem a single flaw in the pen is much more likely than two independent, but similar, flaws in the cartridge and converter.

 

Good luck.

[nothingsacred]

Well I'm still getting along fine with mine. I tried refilling my cartridge with ink from a cheaper cartridge brand, but after 2 such refills I was getting frustrated with the lack of flow to the nib. I could squeeze ink through it and flick ink from the nib but it wouldn't flow properly and I kept getting dry lines, particularly downstrokes, which is a showstopper for me.

 

I left it soaking in warm water, replacing the water every hour, for 4 hours. I then blew through it and shook the water out of it, and put a new Cross cartridge in.

Lovely- good as new again.

I stuck to Cross for a while, and then tried refilling one with cheap ink again, and the flow problem returned quickly - before the end of the cartridge I was getting annoyed.

 

So there we are. If you go to the effort of syringing ink refills into a cartridge, you might as well not bother if you're using cheap ink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

So far as the Cross converters go, I have to give a shout out to Pendemonium here.

 

They have both the screw in and fricton fit ones in stock for $4 each. Now, Cross also had them

for the same price except they wanted $8 to ship 3 converters (and you know how small of

a package that had to be!) Pendemonium only wanted $2 to ship all 3 of them to Florida.

I can't remember the last time I got anything shipped to me for $2. I'll be honest, I usually

get my ink from James at Peartree because Pendemonium doesn't have a sampler deal and

is often out of stock on some inks unlike Peartree, but in this converter instance, Pendemonium really

came through.

 

Soooo, I'd probably call Cross to get the official statement of which converter the Aventura

IS SUPPOSED to use, then I get it from Pendemonium.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

[OcalaFlGuy]

So far as the Cross converters go, I have to give a shout out to Pendemonium here.

 

They have both the screw in and fricton fit ones in stock for $4 each. Now, Cross also had them

for the same price except they wanted $8 to ship 3 converters (and you know how small of

a package that had to be!) Pendemonium only wanted $2 to ship all 3 of them to Florida.

I can't remember the last time I got anything shipped to me for $2. I'll be honest, I usually

get my ink from James at Peartree because Pendemonium doesn't have a sampler deal and

is often out of stock on some inks unlike Peartree, but in this converter instance, Pendemonium really

came through.

 

Soooo, I'd probably call Cross to get the official statement of which converter the Aventura

IS SUPPOSED to use, then I get it from Pendemonium.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

[jhazelwood]

I don't really use this pen too much anymore, I caught the vintage bug and never looked back. However I do use this with Baystate Blue because the all metal/chrome section will not stain, I left it inked for about a month and it wrote as soon as I put it to paper. I will flush it next time, as far as ceap, kinda sorta. The plastic is a bit scratch prone, but that nib more than makes up for it. I don't mind carrying around as a beater since I managed to mangle mine a bit lol

[fountainpen92]

I'm fairly new to FPs, I recently bought the Cross Aventura. It writes well, though very thick. Is the nib on it a M? I'm still learning.

[ohenry78]

This was my first FP as well.

 

Regarding the cartridge being in the barrel, all of them come like that (or at least that's been my experience and that of a few others I've read). I suppose that's so that the ink doesn't flow or clot in the nib during storage. Once I pushed it into place, there were no issues with leakage or loose fitting.

 

Overall, this pen was good enough to make me want to buy more from Cross (I just ordered a Century II). It writes well, and makes my signature look nice. It feels a bit cheap sometimes, but it will be a great beater pen

[Twyla]

I have an Aventura, and have not had any luck with the converter: it's just a little bit too long. So I have to force the barrel down onto it, and when I take the barrel back off, the fit is tight enough that it twists the converter, squeezing out any remaining ink. (Fortunately, I had the cap over the nib at the time...)

 

So I guess I'm sticking to refilling cartridges with it, which, while it doesn't offend me, probably means the pen isn't going to see as much use as it otherise would have.

 

As far as writing, I'd say the nib is quite comparable to a Waterman Phileas. I have both in medium, and they put down similar lines. The Waterman came with and works with a converter, though, so that's a big bonus to them. It's fortunate that cartridges are so easy to fill, or I don't know if this pen would ever be seeing the light of day again.

 

I suspect I'll look into higher end Cross pens someday, since the pen is a solid writer. It might be a while, though, because the price leap is a big one.

[Russ]

Check the barrel for the presence of a spring at the closed end. I had one in a Cross pen, and it likewise twisted converters when the barrel was unscrewed. Removed the spring, solved the problem.

[Twyla]

Good thought!

 

Upon inspection, though, nothing in there. It looks like the big problem is the way the end tapers, it just catches the end of the converter. I wonder if the converter could be modified without destroying it. It would only need to lose a little more than 1/8 of an inch.

[smegal]

Good thought!

 

Upon inspection, though, nothing in there. It looks like the big problem is the way the end tapers, it just catches the end of the converter. I wonder if the converter could be modified without destroying it. It would only need to lose a little more than 1/8 of an inch.

 

I am having this problem and will follow this thread.

[smegal]

I currently refill my ink cartridges with CROSS ink and a syringe.

[empyrean]

My Cross Aventura writes very well with Quink. I tested several inks, including Cross I also have a Cross Townsend that came with a converter. Although several sites mentioned the Townsend converter doesn't fit any other Cross pen, I found that it (Product Number 8751) does, if you take out the spring in the barrel of the Aventura.

 

You can't choose the nib size of the Aventura, if you buy it from Staples. At least I didnt see a nib size on the box. But if you get a very very large magnifying glass you can see M on the nib. But as I said, the ink makes a lot of difference in the Aventura.