Hey folks,

I recently picked up a couple of Cross Solos from various sellers here on FPN. One of them was from Richard Binder, and I expected that one to write perfectly (it does). However, the other one came to me completely unmodified and it writes with the true Japanese precision that the Pilot nibs (in this case Cross-marked Pilot nibs) are famous for. Absolute smoothness, no fuss. These pens cost me less than even a Phileas would - around $5-$10 each. And two great bonuses to me are the screw-on caps, which all self-respecting pens should have unless it's a Sheaffer Targa, and the magnificent posting mechanism, which is a snap ring at the very top of the inner cap that holds on to the end of the barrel. No other part of the cap touches the pen. This seems to be a standard Cross posting design and it does wonders for eliminating posting scratches! And at such cheap prices, you can have a first-class pen without much fear of losing it.

Anyone have any thoughts on the Cross Solo? These pens seem to be the Sheaffer school pens of today. Too bad they quit making them. Cross's loss is our gain.

Best,
Summer Greer

Love might be too strong a word, but they are great pens, I have had one since they came out (part of a set with BP/MP/RB) and I think they write really well. I also think they look really nice.

Shame they no longer make them (although I seem to recall they have been reintroduced in some markets under a different name), I also bought another recently partly because I wanted a spare and partly because I read that the nib section can be swapped into the cheap and modern(ish) Parker Big Red RB/BP introduced some years ago to create an FP.

Andy

The Corss solo is a great pen. I find the XF nib to be comparable to my Sailor XF - so, for the money, it's a great pen!

I love my solos too..... Very handy and great writers... they fit my hand perfectly!

Owner of two Solos here. Are really very good pens. I like the fact that their nibs are great and the whole pen is really light.
I do not use F nibs, only M and B, depends on the ink. Don´t know who made the nibs, but are superb.

Count me in! I use my XF almost every day and I'm thinking about getting another with a fine point. I don't post the cap much, but I agree it's a great feature, and when I do post, I hardly notice any added weight.

Do you have any idea when they switched from the original pseudo-split cap band to the single flush one? I think it was around 2003, but really don't know.

I have one XF, two F (one of which actually has a bad pellet -- that must make it a rare collectors' item ), one M and two B. The medium is a Solo Classic (with gold-plated trim), and the rest are the "promotional" ones with powder-coated trim.

-- Brian

Andyk is right -- the Solo's nib section is a perfect fit if you have a Parker Big Red BP or RB that you'd like to turn into a FP.

And Martius' observation was dead on -- the Solo seems to be the modern version of what the Sheaffer School Pens of the 1960s and 1970s were -- inexpensive, bulletproof FPs. It's a shame that Parker and Sheaffer have all but abandoned the sub-$10 market to the Chinese pen makers. Without good starter pens, where are tomorrow's fountain pen fans going to from?

I have nothing but love for my Cross Solo pens...

I hate to say it, but I think the Solo is better. The "school pens" I used in school always leaked like crazy around the nipple. Picked up a couple the summer before last -- there was that old familiar leak!

-- Brian

Hey,

I have three Solos, one with a fine nib and the other two with a broad nib. The broad nibs write exceptionally well, very smooth. The fine one writes good too, bu not that smooth. And the screw-on cap is really nice.

Wilfred

I am tremendously pleased with mine (XF nib). I filled most of a small notebook over the course of last Saturday drafting something lengthy and the pen was a pleasure to write with, it had no unpleasant idiosyncrasies and it was smooth and pleasing to work with. (I filled it with J. Herbin's lavender ink out of simple curiosity.)

(The best I can sometimes say about a pen is that I forget about it once I'm writing: this pen was delightful and I didn't mind it, if that makes sense.)

-Kushana

I still have one black M and one green B. I agree they were great pens, and I too wish Cross hadn't stopped making them. Anyone from Cross listening?