Was there a pen that you purchased for yourself (or received as a gift) that was a pleasant surprise?

I mean a pen that you purchased despite advice not to.

A pen you bought with little or no information. (or expectations)

A pen where the manufacturer doesn’t have the best reputation.

You get the idea. Or perhaps a pen you received as a gift that falls into the same categories.

Mine was a contemporary Conklin Duragraph, received as a gift: I have not heard the best things about the contemporary Conklin’s but this one was a winner. It is a large attractive pen with a buttery smooth nib and good flow. It always put down a good line no matter the ink. A consistent writer – it has become one of my favorites. Maybe this pen is an exception but I love it.

Interested in hearing your stories.

Regards

K

Two come to mind:

• Wality 69L
• Pilot 78g

I like fine point pens, and I had never really used many Vintage pens, but on the marketplace a Parker 61 came up at a very good price, so I purchased it.

I didn't know, really, anything about it, let alone that it was a capillary filler.

Recently, I decided it was time to give this pen a test drive.

I read several articles on this and other forums about "reviving" Parker 61s.

I let the section soak in water overnight, and then blew it dry with an aspiration bulb, repeating this process a few times.

Based on a recommendation I read here in the Parker forum, I started filling it with Quink.

The nib was almost perfect. Just a little scratchy on the right side, but, less than a minute with a lapping film had the nib perfectly smooth to my satisfaction.

Each night I would "Quink" it up, and use it the following day until it started writing light.. then I'd "Quink" it up again.

It took probably a week before it would take a normal fill, and now it writes several days before running dry, and, instead of using Parker Blue Quink, I have started using Herbin Eclat de Saphir, which is a lovely dark blue.

Because of the age and the mechanism of the capillary filler, I shall never attempt to use anything "Bulletproof" or super-saturated like Noodlers, or perhaps any of the more saturated blacks on the market, but this old-guy is now my "goto" blue pen that I use at work for meetings, and taking notes in class.

Frankly, I wasn't expecting to have this pen "grow" on me the way it did.

A pleasant surprise? My "61" is just that.

My Danitrio Tac Carry's. I have 2 of them, and one has a stub nib. Both are very smooth, w/ nice heft. They write and feel like much more expensive pens.

It was actually a Visconti Crystal Van Gogh Rollerball. I had bid a max of $49 on ebay, and somehow I won. I'll tell you when you run into a situation where you need a BP or RB (not very often for me) it sure is nice to pull out this pen!

Pilot78 G stub nib.....just didn't seem like it would be much. Rivals my expensive nibs for character in writing.

Diminuitive Swan from ebay with cracked cap for $30. Nib was fantastically flexy. What a find!

I just bought it a short while ago, a Jinhao "Chinese Red Army Long March Commemoritve". I ordered it for fun because of the theme, paid around $12 US, and it turned out to be one sweet fountain pen. My one complaint was it only comes with a Med nib. I'm very surprised at the quality and how well it writes.

A pleasant surprise was the Bic Xpen Select.

My green ebonite Stipula Saturno. I had read only one review, and it was favourable, but decided to take the plunge without further due dilligence since I really wanted a modern crescent filler. The pen satisfies me in all respects: its nib is a joy to write with; the fit and finish is excellent; it fits my hand perfectly; and it is very well balanced unposted just the way I like it.

I have two:

- A Conklin New Nozac in a broad nib, ground to a crisp italic by Ward Dunham.

- A Bexley "Tea Time" stub, ground to a broad crisp italic by John Mottishaw.

Both are spectacular wet writers that deliver exquisite lines. And both were leaps of faith for me - I read nothing about either of them before buying.

Sheaffer cartridge/school pens... Whenever my more expensive pens get finicky, all I have to do is reach for one of these to remind myself why I love fountain pens.

On a different note, the Delta Dolcevita Medium was also a surprise. I was not expecting much and only bought it because Bittner was having a good sale (MSRP is $435 and it was on sale for $179 ). The nib is an amazing performer.

Cartier Diabolo - With all the rants over lifestyle pens, I was expecting a mediocre pen, but it actually turned out to be a pretty great writer. Nice, springy nib and gorgeous flow. A bit touchy about paper, but glides when it gets what it wants.

Sheaffer school pen - Extremely smooth, and only cost me $4. What more can I say?

Boy, this is easy for me. I have had a terrible experience with OMAS. I could never understand all the people that raved about them. My 360 and Ogivia collect dust and are just not worth the effort to make them work.

Call it a leap of faith - but I took one more dive and purchased a Paragon from the Arte Italiana Collection. I must admit I really, really like this pen. The nib flows as well as my other 2 do not. Superbly. It is a very smooth writer, and at the risk of jinxing myself, no problems!!!

Thanks goodguy for the recommendation and Pam Braun for the great price.

Andy W.

Two pleasant surprises. One is a Hero 329, which is one of my favorite pens. It was donated to me by a kind and generous FPN member who noticed in a post that I had wanted a Hero 237-1, but was on a pen NAS (non acquisition syndrome) due to budget. He pm'd me, said he got one (Hero 329), didn't like it, and wanted to send it to me. He did not even accept postage. I got it, and it was great. Different tastes, and it worked well for me.

Second was a Pilot 78G. I actually have 3, as the first was so good, I got more. Got them at a steal of a price, and didn't expect much, but as I said in my favorite pens post on another thread, my favorites are sort of a tossup between the Hero 329 and the Pilot 78G. None of them cost me much at all, and the Hero was zero cost.

Donnie

A Wearever Deluxe 100. I wasn't expecting much from an old stainless steel nib, as most of them are correded beyond use, but my Golden Deluxe 100 turned out to have one of the smoothest XF nibs I've run across. The only one that is better, I think, is one on a barely used Parker "51" vac.

Not that most of mine are a problem, but that old Wearever is really sweet.

Naturally, it took a while to get it up to snuff -- the feed was butchered and I had to resac and reset the nib and feed to get it to stop blobbing and then running dry (the key, I discovered, is that the small side slits in the old Watermans style feeds must be completely clear from end to end, else they blob).

I've not used it for a while, maybe next time a have an empty pen in the rotation. It worked just fine with Noodler's Walnut last time I filled it if I wrote with it every day.

Peter

So far I am a little surprised -- their is no trend as of yet. 14 responses and 15 different manufacturers. Only a couple of manufacturers mentioned twice.

What does this mean or is it to early to tell.

Several years ago, I was given a MB 149 by a well meaning friend who wanted to give me a special gift. I was as polite as I could be, but I had no expectations of the pen. In fact, I had negative expectations. In honor of my friend, I inked the pen and wrote with it. I was very surprized. It was a comfortable pen that wrote excellently. It turned out to be as dead on dependable as my Pelikan pens. I have added a couple more 149's and some 146's to my collection and I have been pleased with them all.

For me, I have a certain expectation about pens I spend time researching to buy and collect. The suprise here would be if it didn't perform as I expected. It is usually a pen I know little about, or receive when it is unexpected that are a suprise. I would imagine there will be very little in way of a pattern here.

about 2 years ago I bought a Parker 65 flighter.The pen's section and I wasnt happy with the pen.The seller said he will give me my money back but I told him I dont mind if he can sell an other pen.
I gave him a long list of pens and the last pen on the list and the Omas Paragon.
I was far from excited to get the pen but after a while in using the pen I found that this is the best writer I ever had and best I ever used.

Mine has to be a cheap little Pilot eyedropper I purchased at a local department store known for its bargains. It cost me S$7(>US$5), and was labelled as a ' Pilot Tank Fountain Pen'. It turned out to be the best writer I had at that time; I had just started out and had a Parker Jotter & Pelikano, which were stiff nails. Despite the cheapness of the pen, it was buttery smooth. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any information on it at all. Googling it just got me back to FPN where someone else had made mention of them.

Waterman CF XF gifted to me. My initial impressions were a very scratchy nib (thought it had fallen and been damaged or something it was so bad), bit of lacquer coming off and filler not working. Felt like keeping it in the old junk drawer. But got the sac replaced with a nylon one and nib re-aligned a tad. It has now turned into a lovely writer, always laying down a reliable line with no flow issues at all, lovely clip, fills ink nicely, no leakage in the pocket (touch wood!) and the gold 'swan' wings impress a lot of people.

Among a handful of pens from my grandmother's estate, which included such treasures as a Parker Duofold and "51", and proven road warriors as my Esterbrook (The ease of using a fountain pen got me through high school), was a cheap, cartridge-loaded Sheaffer's. Yesterday I cleaned it and slapped a fresh cartridge in it. The line it produces is fantastically fine, finer than a .2 mm archival-grade ceramic tip drafting marker! I'm amazed!

I know I keep mentioning it, but Aurora Ipsilon. My favorite pen for feel is my Cleo Skribent Ebonite. It's like silk.

Also: Conklin Twain Signature ballpoint and Visconti Wall Street Ballpoint.

My Rotring 600 with knurled ends and 18K EF nib. I knew absolutely nothing about this pen, I saw it at a pen shop at a fantastic price of approx USD30 brand new. Thought it was a good deal for a gold nib and bought it immediately. And what a delightful writer it is. To my hand uncapped it is very well balanced and I feel no writing fatigue whatsoever. The EF nib has just the right flow and writes more like a F which I like. This is the pen I take on tours or while traveling.

Are you referring to this pen?

I buy all of my pens in "the wild". I am never surprised whenever I get one to work. Sometimes, though, I'm astonished.

Paddler

Yup, that's the one! Only where I purchased it they only have it in Green, Teal & Red.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the Wality 69 eyedropper. It was my first eyedropper, and I'd had my eye on nothing but pens over $100 for a while. I think part of what I love about this pen is that it helps me to remember that there isn't necessarily any correlation between writing quality and expense.

Hero 100 and 616 and 900 Golden Waves/Doctors Pen, Wing Sung 237, 233 and 235 all really write well. A Sensa Merdian medium that just has a great feel and smooth flow. All wonderful surprises. Thanks to Norman and Todd for being there and being right.