So, I decided to try again. I bought myself a Tobacco Brown Duragraph with a fine nib. Beautiful, perfectly-sized pen. Who could ask for anything more? And what did I get? Trouble, trouble, and yet MORE trouble.
Had it one month, in for repairs every Saturday. Feed problems; nib problems; refusing to write X 4. So, I said enough already, e-mailed Bob, the prez of Conklin, who e-mailed me back, saying he would 'look into it.' While he's looking into it, my friendly pen store manager very nicely offered to take it back. I took it back and purchased a Visonti Van Gogh fine nib. It works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After dealing with the Conklin tiniff, I am glad to see a pen that writes. I'm not used to that.
Goodbye, Conklin Fountain Pens.

My Duragraph, a black one with fine nib, purchased in 2005, worked fine right out of the box. Sorry to hear that yours didn't.

Sorry to hear about your experience - I have the very same pen you did - a Duragraph in Tobacco Brown, lovely color - and experienced ridiculous problems with the feed and/or nib and/or flow. Sent it to Conklin, they promptly replaced the faulty parts with ones that worked (shouldn't be necessary, I know, but still...) - and sent it back to me, free of charge, priority shipment to Canada. I have heard here on FPN that Conklin has finally started to address the issues with their feeds.

Regards,

R.ticle One

I think that's true; they've started to change up the feeds, I think. Still, there's far too many of them that are stuck in dealers' inventories that have bum feeds. Sorry to hear that it didn't work out. Glad to hear that your local dealer/enabler was kind enough to take it back!

My wonderful Tobacco Brown Duragraph just came back from the Conklin headquarters for repairs. Just stopped writing. I'm not sure if this is my original pen or a new one. Hmmmmmmmmm. Anyway, the nib is all gold in appearance now, as opposed to the old one. New converter, also. It wrote right out of the box with no prompting. Good. I have always loved Conklin, and especially the Duragraph because of its size and balance.

Good to know. I lucked into one of the LEs at a not to be missed price for the gorgeousness. If customer service is good, I may need to expand my collection.

UH-OH. Trouble in Paradise. Took the Duragraph to work today and it started skipping, and then just stopped writing. Brand new nib, brand new feed, brand new converter.

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, it'll be off to Conklin again, I know......

Rut ro

When you got it back from New Jersey, did you flush it with lukewarm soapy water (a drop of dishsoap will do) to rinse/dislodge any oils? You might try it first if you haven't done so. Might save a little unnecessary postage.

No, I didn't; but I will. Thanks much!!!

Hey, how'd this one turn out?