Has anyone had any experience with a Waterman Hemisphere? I am intrigued by their good looks, but I haven't been able to find one in person to check out. It is hard to guage on a computer screen just how thin they are. Any insight would be appreciated.

I have a green Hermisphere, with a fine nib. It's a little slimmer than most of my general use pens (Legacy and Preludes), and I think a smidge longer. It's solid but not too heavy in my hand, and writes smoothly. I think it would make a good beginning fountain pen -- actually, a sturdy, elegant beginning to midrange fountain pen.

(Being the blithe idiot that I am, I managed to jam a non-Waterman cartridge into the body of it, in such a way that I cannot remove it. I may bring it to the Pen Show in September, and look wistfully at people until someone helps me unjam it.)

(And if you have friends who are Harry Potter fans, I will observe that the green and chrome one is Slytherin colors. I had to buy a second one for myself, because I got the first one just about the time of a friend's birthday, and it seemed like the perfect gift for her.)

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with me. I just finished the latest Harry Potter book, so your observation made me smile!

My very first FP was a Stainless Steel Hemisphere. My friends all nicknamed it the "Uberpen." I continue to use it pretty much constantly and really like it. It is on the thin side, but I prefer my pens that way.

kathy wc

I own a Waterman Hemisphere stainless steel chrome trim. It is a lovely pen! The quality is great, especially when you consider the price of this pen. I have mine equipped with a converter, and filled with Waterman Black. It starts immediately after you hit the paper, and writes smoothly. It is a heavy pen, but not too heavy; it has the feel of quality. I prefer the medium nib, because the fine is too fine for me. When you compare it to the Parker 45 the Hemisphere definitely is the better quality pen! Recommended!

The more I look at the Hemisphere and the Aurora Ipsilon, I am leaning towards the Aurora Ipsilon. However, a funny thing happened while on the Internet. My fiance saw me obsessing over pens again, and saw the metallic green Hemisphere. She can't stop talking about it.

Last week she was nagging me about buying pens. Today she is hinting that I should buy one for her. Has this happened to other people?

Nope... but I would cash on the opportunity if it ever happened with my wife A nice package would arrive home with a few pens, including the one she likes

Hi,

My sister was hinting me once and I got her a pen just like mine, but with a different colour.

Dillon

We have a trip to the pen store planned for Saturday. I decided to order a Cross ATX from Fountain Pen Hospital for me. She will pick one out on Saturday. Wish me luck!

Hi!!

I recently bought my Waterman Hemisphere in shimmering grey with a medium nib! I absolutely love it....smooth writer (compared to my Tombow Object) and a nice weighty feel. I've now dropped it twice in the space of 2 days and very lucky that no nib damage has occured. Next step is to be less clumsy!

I'm also thinking of buying this pen as my first fountain pen (since elementary school that is) but now I'm wondering what a converter is. Could someone please be so kind as to explain to me what they are? Thanks a lot!

Hi, the converter is basically a refillable ink cartridge. The advantage of using one is that you can use any of the various colour fountain pen ink available.

Regards.

Lucky dog. I've been trying to talk my wife into my (pen) fetish for some time. "C'mon sweetie, try it. You'll really like it."
She hasn't though, so I'm left to buy my pens all by myself. I don't know if she will ever understand why I must continue to buy more pens.

Jim

Okay, thanks a bunch!

Just bought a Waterman Hemisphere and I'm loving it!!! I'm using Waterman Black Ink and it writes great!

I have a blue Hemisphere fountain pen and a red roller ball. They have to be among the pens I own that I like the least. I found them to be clunky in their heft, and the nib was not very impressive. I don't think I've inked it for regular writing in years.

I love mine too. Had to send it back for repair (cap fit too loosely) and I miss it! You'll love the other Waterman ink colors too. I have green, blue, red, purple, and brown. All are nice inks. Haven't tried the black yet, but I will!

Yeah, and all those inks work fine? Previous to buying mine I read about how it wouldn't work well with Waterman-ink, so I was glad to see mine worked good with it. I'm thinking about getting red ink too, it is getting that time of year .

I personally have had no problem with Waterman ink. I was only able to use the Waterman Blue in the Hemisphere before it went in for repair. I've been using the other Waterman colors in my Cross and Diplomat pens with much pleasure and success!

My Hemisphere has been my only pen for 10 years, with Florida Blue. It's is very reliable. I dropped it last week and destroyed the nib. Waterman's rep in Canada sent me a brand new section, complete with nib and feed for $30, shipping included. It's writing again and will last me several more years I'm sure.

I did succumb to buying a second pen last month, and a third one this week. Uh oh
Wad.

I have two Hemispheres - one with fine nib and one with medium. Fine nib writes well on any paper, but medium not. On some types of paper it is skipping, often fails to start. I tried different inks and tried excanging feeds between medium and fine nib sections. The paper on which it doesn't write well isn't of the best quality, but other pens like Parker Sonnet, Jotter, 51 and Sheaffer Prelude with fine and medium nibs wrote without skipping and failing to start.

I find the Hemisphere I've got an OK pen. Not great, but no objectionable aspects. Of course, I compare it with an early '40s Sheaffer Autograph and a '45 Vacumatic, so it's likely to come of second best. For the money, a pretty good pen.

I've had a medium nib matte black Hemisphere with gold details for years. It looks great, is comfortable although a bit small and it is rather heavy for it's size (doesn't bother me). I find it to be a great writer; good flow, no skips, smooth. My only gripe is: leakage... I've used Waterman's own cartridges, their black ink from bottle and lately Noodler's Ottoman Azure (lovely ink!). No matter what I use and how well I clean it, it sometimes - but not always - leaks in some mysterious way I can´t figure out. No huge amounts, but enough to stain your fingers and gather in the cap...

Anyone else had the same experience?

That's a poser. If it were just the converter doing it, I'd suspect it wasn't properly seated, allowing too much air into the ink chamber and thus a dribble... but the repeat with cartridges makes that unlikely. Have a look down the back of the section with a good bright light and whatever magnifier you might have handy, and see if there's not some kind of imperfection on the nipple than might prevent the ink-source from sitting properly and/or damage the opening of the source to introduce an air-leak.

I inspected as best as I could (don't own a magnifying glass) and could spot the tiniest of tiny imperfections on the edge of the "attaching" section of the converter. Couldn't see anything wrong with the nipple.

Thought I'd give it another go since I had only been using cartridges lately, so I fitted it and filled up with Ottoman Azure, wiped, did a few strokes and put it aside. Took it up again 30 minutes later, took off the cap and... disaster! It didn't only leak, it made me reconsider why it's called a "fountain pen"... Ok, a slight exaggeration, but after rushing to the sink with it and wiping my desk I rested my chin in my azure hands and concluded that it's not a good converter. I'm still confounded as to why I had some leakage with cartridges as well, but compared to this it's negligible. Possibly residues from earlier leaks that I hadn´t managed to clean out? I've had every part of it soaking in water overnight to clean out and will try a cartridge again.

Can't resist replying here, as the Hemisphere is what originally brought me to FPN last year. I used a black, medium Hemisphere for four years prior as my only pen. (Before I came here I never had more - nor less - than one fountain pen! ...). I started looking for another pen because my Waterman had intermittent flow problems. Ironically, after trying many pens both modern and vintage, I purchased another black Hemisphere, this one a fine, from another FPN member, and it is one of the best writers I've ever had the pleasure to use. In this respect my findings agree with Dima's. Considering customer service is good, you can't really go wrong with a Hemisphere at the price. Tastes vary, but I agree with those who like the heft and design. Pelifan: I had some (slight) cap leakage due to dropping bookbag and such, and also I had a convertor which leaked from the back, so my old M Hemisphere was a leaker also. You could probably have the feed adjusted for a small fee if you can find a pen doctor in your vicinity.

I recently received a Red Mable Hemisphere as a gift. I like the pen. The nib is a fine, and it draws a nice, wet line. It is relatively smooth, only dragging on cheap papers (the sweet spot is VERY apparent on cheapo paper, but it is very forgiving on good paper.

My only complaint is that when you cap it, then remove the cap, the tip of the nib is covered with ink. It looks as if it is coming from the blind cap, but you can clean out the cap, then cap and uncap (almost that quickly), and the ink is back. This does not affect the way that it writes, and as you write, the ink is drawn away, but it looks bad....