Cross Century 1

[atc729]

I'm new to fountain pens and I have a Cross Century ballpoint. Being the penny pincher I am, I sought out a matching fountain pen on eBay. I found one for $25 with free shipping. Sure sounded better than the $80 Cross wanted for a brand new one! After waiting a month (it was shipping from India), I finally received the pen. I waited a couple more weeks to purchase the converter as there were mixed answers as to whether the green converter would fit or if I would have to use the slim cartridges. After all of this waiting I FINALLY had it inked up and ready to go. This is my short and 1st review ever of this pen. (Please disregard any scribbling or unreadable words in my handwriting)

 

I inked it up with Noodler's Red Black, which has become one of my favorite inks out of the 5 that I have tried. I put the nib to the paper and signed my name, it was the smoothest experience I have had with fountain pens. But that isn't hard to beat when the pens you've used are Pilot Metropolitan (M), Platinum Preppy (F), and a Lamy AL-Star (EF). The medium nib on this pen just glided across the paper and left a nice wet line and offered some shading that my other pens didn't. Since I'm new to fountain pens, I was conscious of the pressure I was putting down for fear that I might break it!

 

The pen has a great classic look to it and I'm very pleased with this purchase and it was well worth all of the waiting. The only thing I would like different is the nib. I write small and the medium nib forces me to write a little larger, if I could replace it with a fine nib, I would. To others that may be looking around to see if the green converter fits these pens here's your answer: YES!

 

Thanks for checking this out and providing feedback!

Edited April 16, 2015 by atc729

[ac12]

Yes the Century is very nice pen, and indeed very smooth. But my Metro (M nib) was VERY smooth. In fact I could not believe how smooth the Metro was for an $18 pen.

 

You will find the Century F nib to be very fine. I normally use old US Parker F nibs, but I had to go up to a M nib on my Century, as the F felt just a little too fine.

 

The other thing is, the width of the ink line depends on several factors; pen, ink and paper. Any one could change the ink line from wide to narrow, or narrow to wide. Such as:

1 - A very wet ink could just flow out of the pen making a wider line than a less wet ink. I used one ink that did just that. It looked like I wrote with a Sharpie. Change ink to a dryer ink, and all was good again. I use Cross/Pelikan black ink in mine.

2 - Similarly paper can blot/wick the ink out, so your ink line is wide and looks like it was done with a Sharpie. Again changing to a different paper that did not blot/wick made the ink line look normal.

 

Using a fountain pen successfully is an exercise in testing various combinations to find those that work for you.

[mitto]

The diffrent versions of the pen and their prices in UK in 1987 :

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/192147-cross-century-fp-bp/