I recently picked up a Bexley Owner's Club LE with the stub nib.

I've noticed that the pen hesitates to write, say on the first downstroke of the letter H, after even a brief period of time when the pen has been made upright again, as though the ink is getting sucked back out of the nib when you don't have the advantage of gravity working for you.

I contacted Bexley about this, but they basically said that without the pen they can't help and don't have many suggestions.

Do some of you wise sages have any advice for me?

Thanks!

-- Jeff

No "wise sage" here, but what you describe could be caused by any of several things: tines too far apart, tines too close together, an amateur smoothing job that created a "baby bottom" shape, slit damage caused by a knife during an attempt to adjust flow, tines misaligned, the beat goes on.

If it's damage, Bexley will rightly decline to repair it free of charge. If it's a defective nib, they'll replace it free. Damage can be repaired by a nibmeister, but it ain't free. The Owner's Club is not a pen you should entrust to anyone whose skill or knowledge is the least bit in question, as Bexley did some funky things to make modern components work with a Vacumatic filler. FWIW, I'm a Bexley retailer, and I've had Owner's Clubs apart for nib work.

I would say:

1) not "unexpected" from a Bexley

and

2) they can fix it (and at the price of an Owner's Club LE the should).

Interesting. I find Bexley's nibs to be very good overall. I do adjust every nib I sell, including Bexleys, for flow and smoothness; but Bexley stubs are quite nice OOTB and seldom get more than a slight touch.

Hi Jeff,

I have a Tuck-Away with a stub nib, and it is great: consistent, reliable, no hesitation even if left uncapped for some time.

Sorry to hear yours is not that good. In fact, I bought this pen because it happened to be the most affordable Bexley with such nib, and it is great. More Bexleys with stub nibs will be added to the accumulation, whenever possible.

Alejandro

EVERYBODY on FPN knows my experience with Bexley Pens.

IMHO, poor ink flow in one direction or another is not unexpected in a Bexley FP.
And also IMHO, Bexley can make then write EXTREMELY well too.

I've got a stub on my Bexley Americana. At first it wrote unbelievably well, even if not used for a week. But after awhile, it gradually got harder & harder to start. I figured there could easily be some dried ink in the feed. So after flushing until the water came out clear, I put the section into my new ultrasonic cleaner. The amount of ink this got out was unbelievable. It took a few cycles before the water stayed clear. Now it writes great again.

BTW, I liked the stub nib so much I have one on my new Sheherazade. The funny thing is it feels a bit different, e.g. it's firmer; the Americana nib is quite soft & springy. But the Sheherazade still writes & feels great.

Dave

Actually, I've not heard this story, but don't repeat it just for my sake .

Thanks to all for the replies. I too like the nib very well when it is up and going. The breadth of the stub takes some getting used to for me though.

I'm leaning towards sending this to Bexley in order to have them take a look and see if there is anything going on with this pen.

Again, thanks to all for the input.

-- Jeff

I would definitely send it to Bexley. I have a number of Bexley pens, over half of which have stub nibs. I have had no problems with any of these nibs out of the box. They have all been reliable, even fun nibs to write with. Give Bexley a chance to make it right.

Glenn, I don't know your story either. I am sorry for your bad luck with Bexley nibs. I can't imagine.

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...ic=9879&hl=crow

This thread includes both my bad, good and bad experiences with Bexleys.

I thought I'd update everyone on my experience here.

I just got the pen back tonight from Bexley. After telling me via email that nothing was wrong, it turns out that in the written note they included, they realigned the nib and feed and replaced a breather something (the something is uninitelligible on the note, so someone hazzard a guess please ).

Bottom line is that they spent two days tweaking it and testing it. As one of my complaints was that it would not restart after pausing, they did a series of restart tests over a period of two days. Very nice.

So far, loaded up with Noodler's Black, all is well and I'm thrilled. I'll let everyone know should things change.

Thanks to all who advised me to send it back and have them take a look!

-- Jeff

Well, I would say that you are the exception when it come to Bad experiences with Bexley. Out of 19 Bexley Fountain Pens, I only had an Issue with one, my prized Prometheus. It went back to Bexley and it came back perfect. I would say that out of all my pens, Bexley is the least problematic. So to say that problems with Bexley is not unexpected is really stretching it. I have heard of only a handful of issues with the writing quality of Bexleys. Wheb I say writing quality, I mean, excessive scratchyness due to poor tipping and improper smoothing of the nib and feed starvation issues that lead to skipping.

In regards to bad experiences, Stipula was #1 on my list. 4 out of 4 Stipula pens that I bought were total duds. My thought were, "I will never buy another Stipula again, they are total (Potty Mouth)"!!! Many months later, I decided to buy a Novecento on a serious discount. I expected the worst, but when I inked it, I was blown away!!! I bought a few more and they were also fantastic writers. 15 Stipulas later, they are some of the most reliable writers in my collection.

OTOH I find Modern Conklin pens to have some serious QC issues. I would love to buy some of the pens, but out of all the pens that I bought that were Conklins, all were total duds that had feed starvation issues. I am sure there are plenty of wonderful writer out there, I just have yet to find them.

TNS

Lets see:

3 Bexleys
3 had ink flow problems where they almost or completely ran dry on the up or down stroke.
2 returned to Bexley.
2 returned from Bexley writing as "well" as when they left.
the 3rd pen returned for refund while the refund was an option because I didn't want to risk non-repair repairs again.

5 out of 5 being bad is pretty consistent.

So No, saying "problems with Bexley is not unexpected" is really not stretching it.

And YES I will close with the disclaimer that Mr Levy TOTALLY CORRECTED THE FLOW PROBLEMS WITH MY EQUIPOISE AND MY EBONITE when they were returned to his attention.