Hi all,

I am trying to decide between Visconti Opera Master and Waterman Exception Day & Night as my next "heavy" elegant pen. Both apparently weigh at 1 3/4 ounces, but the Opera Master comes with a piston filler. Good thing about the exception are that it has a better, smoother nib out-of-the-box (correct me if I am wrong here), and is much cheaper. But, sadly, it has a cartridge converter that I don't really like. I hate to fill it up more than once a day and I write a lot.

So, any idea if this pen is suitable for ED conversion? Any internal parts uncoated metal? If so, which ones? Any other openings in the barrel (breather holes) other than the main opening for the section?

Thanks!
Stanley.

There are no holes, as far as I can tell, but I am pretty sure you'd have difficult with sealing the section > barrel joint, which is a bayonet joint and there is no way I can imagine that you could keep that ink-tight.
Loadsa metal inside that barrel, too!

I love mine...one of my top 3 best writers...and the ink-capacity is not an issue for me.

Roger,

Unfortunate to hear that. Any idea of how much ink (in ml) the converter holds? Is there only one standard converter or do "oversize" converters exist?

Interested to know what the other two writers are.

Stanley.

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That Waterman is going to come with a standard Waterman converter; I have never heard of oversize converters for Waterman.

You can make an eye dropper of an exception. But if you want a better pen then hunt for man 100 night and day (I know I will search for one )

Oh is it... How much ink does the standard waterman converter hold? I own only two waterman pens and neither of them have converters. Can someone check and tell me? It'd be a great help. Thanks!

I just got inky fingers trying to answer the first...but couldn't But it's 'about the same as most others' and 'not very much' !

The "other two" would probably be my Delta Monza LE, and Delta Alfa Romeo 1750 LE, but it's so close-run with others that I change my opinions from day-to-day....and I have about 6 others, with or being returned from, nibmeisters, which could change all of this!
I can't see the (untweaked) Exception's losing its place, though

Thanks Roger. I think I have now decided to go with the exception (over Visconti Opera Master and Divina Black). I hope I get a smooth Medium nib.

By the way, this brings me to my second question - How thick is the Medium actually? I read somewhere else that the Exception's medium nib writes more like a medium-fine. Should I go for a Broad nib instead? I am looking at a smooth nib which will lay a line which measures more than 0.6 mm. If someone can confirm, it would be great.

Thanks!

Mine is a very smooth stub, so I'll see if I have a scan of that...can't help with a Medium, but I'd guess I personally would be inclined to go for a Broad versus a Medium...you can always get it made a bit narrower...to make it broader is a bit more fiddly!!


here we are; the green is the Exception N & D stub..... very highly recommended, but not easy to find...I got mine from Jean-Michel Lewertowski....super service.

Roger,

The writing with that stub looks real nice I must say (gosh, do I love broad writings). But, since I value smoothness in a nib too much as well, I guess I will stick with the usual round nibs.

Based on your experience with Liaison, I suppose I should stick with the Medium as my choice of nib, but I still wish someone with an actual nib might be able to confirm this for me.

Thanks!