Bexley 2006 Owners' Club FP - a user

[Idiopathos]

The Stylophiles Review is often cited when this pen is mentioned and it's a fair website, magazine-style review. I'd like to add one or two user's comments (particularly since the review says how "usable" this pen is).

 

http://www.stylophilesonline.com/images/02-06/02bex5.jpg

 

I bought it at least 3rd-hand, it may have been more, from an FPN member. It, the 'Amber'* version, arrived as well as, if not better than, described. A fair buy at $375 (including delivery to a hotel in another US state, from which a fellow British member of a watch website brought it to England to post to me). Anyway, the US seller was first class, taking a lot of care with the sale.

 

Slow to fill with the vintage 'Vacumatic' mechanism, the limited edition of 113 (in Amber) pen worried me a bit at first. Indeed, I wasn't sure the thing was filling at all. Pump, pump, pump, against little resistance, seemed to put little ink into the barrel. Finally, however, it seemed alright, if not full. The ink was Diamine Ultra Green.

 

Then the Stub nib went to paper and the result was ... well, not quite as good as my Visconti, but very good. Indeed, so good that I have just spent $150 buying another 'Bexley' (aka Bock) Stub nib for a Mercury I have. (If it's as good as the first, I may well buy another for another Mercury.)

 

The Bexley-Diamine Ultra Green combination is a very good one. A well saturated, unproblematic line, that was immediately usable and is becoming even more so. The double-glazed window helps, because it really is usable, too, as is the rolling-ball clip.

 

So, a good pen? Yep. Now, my daily user. I should admit, however, that I bought it only for its *'Havana Blue' Tibaldi celluloid. Lucky, lucky, I received much more than I bargained for.

Edited November 21, 2008 by MYU

[teaguejb]

Thanks for posting the review. Very nice pen. I'd love to try one of these. Both flavors are very appealing.

[FrankB]

Thank you for your review.

 

I also have an Amber version of the 2006 OC, and I have a stub nib. I think it is a wonderful writer. I also have problems with the filling mechanism. I was told by someone here at FPN that the nib unscrews, and that the pen can be filled by eyedropper through the section. That is how I fill mine. The pen will hold a lot of ink. I have yet to hear of a permanent fix to the filling problems, though.

[Rufus]

I have both the Amber/Brown and Blue versions of this pen and they are lovely. One is fitted with a fine nib and the other with a factory stub nib. Both are great nibs, but the stub provides an exceedingly pleasurable writing experience; I like the Bexley factory stub so much that I have two other Bexleys fitted with factory stubs.

[Idiopathos]

The pump on mine works, but it won't actually fill the pen. It puts ink in, but not a barrel full.

 

Anyway, I unscrewed the tight nib/feed/collar unit (with feeder tube that is glued to the back of the feed), soaked it all again in de-ionised water, sucked and blew water through it, eye-dropped the barrel full and re-installed the nib et cetera, making sure the nib is square on the feed and that the tines are even.

 

The outcome is an improvement of an already good writer.

 

I suspect this is as much the effect of the de-ionised water as anything else. Whatever, I don't care. The pen is even better.

 

[Idiopathos]

6 months down the road the the Bexley, with its excellent Stub nib, has become a frequently used favourite.

 

However, the Bexley's vintage filling mechanism is beginning to fail. I emailed Bexley, who replied quickly, offering to repair it (but not for free, of course).

 

I shall send it to a reputable pen repairer here in England.

 

Let me stress that I am still happy with the pen.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Idiopathos

[Idiopathos]

6 months down the road the the Bexley, with its excellent Stub nib, has become a frequently used favourite.

 

However, the Bexley's vintage filling mechanism is beginning to fail. I emailed Bexley, who replied quickly, offering to repair it (but not for free, of course).

 

I shall send it to a reputable pen repairer here in England.

 

Let me stress that I am still happy with the pen.

 

Well, the Bexley hasn't been sent for repair. It's lain empty on my desk at work. I've been too busy to do anything with it.

 

Thinking I ought to give it another try, I stuck its nib deep in a full bottle of Diamine Emerald, a colour I no longer like, gave it a few pumps and ... bingo, a full pen. Well, a full window, anyway.

 

So, could the 'repair' be to fill it from a deep bottle? :embarrassed_smile: (In this context, why are so many ink bottles so shallow?)

 

[MidnightBlue]

I know what you mean about the usability. I find myself going back to my Bexley often. Light, reliable and classy.

Thanks