ok, my waterman charleston is about a month old. first fountain pen, and so far, only fountain pen. love the waterman blue, but i think the XF nib for me is too fine. i am slowing down, so that is helping form my letters better. but i saw a post about the green ink and i like the color to be more vibrant. i am thinking i would be better off with a fine or medium nib.

so, do i trade the pen here? or can i get waterman to exchange it ( i think i read someone doing that)? i got it for a great price, $49, so it may not make sense to spend $10 or $15 and might be better off trading it or just buying another one.

sam

Sam,

You got a deal on that pen. I contacted Pam and she was out of the Charleston. Waterman is supposed to do a nib exchange for $10 bucks. I contacted them about it...and they never resonded. I bought a Phileas with the medium nib because I could not locally find the fine nib...and I believe it is just a bit too wide. I would have preferred the fine nib. I already had Watermen pens, not FP, and was happy with them. I have to admit, I am a bit disapppointed in their customer service. YMMV.

Randy

I had my Waterman Hemisphere nib exchanged from a F to an XF because the stores don't carry XF. They charge $10 for the exchange & takes about 3 weeks.

In the US, the waterman number is 1-800-best pen. They are generally pretty good about getting things done quickly and decently.

Recently they turned a Waterman opera of mine that had no flow on the upstroke into a very pleasant writer.....for ten bucks.

I exchanged nibs on two Liaisons.....ten bucks because I sent in the two pens together.

I bought a Waterman Expert I on ebay and the section was cracked. They fixed it for.....ten bucks.

One note for people, Waterman no longer has nibs for the Liaison cobra and I was told on the phone that they could no longer do nib exchanges on this pen. Th rege reason for this is the Cobra was a special edition. The regular Liasion can still be given a nib exchange.

I have gotten pens back in about 3 weeks.

A few weeks ago I dropped my Parker 100, slightly bent the nib and then fixed it myself so that it did not write at all. I mailed it in and 'fessed up to meddling with the pen and threw myself on their mercy. It will be interesting to see if they fix this for the usual ten dollar pastage fee. (Remember, parker and waterman US are all the same now).

SO, if the pen writes smoothly and is still in good shape and someone wants to pay you $56.00, maybe sell it off and go from there, especiallyif you think you might want another pen.

Or, for ten bucks send it in. I would call first and discuss the nib size you want. The Phileas medium is a broadish and wet medium, more so that the typical medium on most of their other pens. At least that has been my experience confirmed by the tech I spoke with. My Liaison mediums are not as wide as the Phileas medium and neither is the medium on my Edson. I had fine nibs on the first LIaison and Edson and I felt they bit into the paper a bit.

good luck. jc

I should add that if you think the ten dollar fee is holding you back from sending the pen in, check out what some of the other pen companies charge. There is at least one well known company that charges about $25 or more for an exchange if the nib has been inked.

The ten dollars is not so bad given they must pay someone to do the work, someone to box it up (and buy the box) and mail it.

There are many people out their runing nibs and sending them back or sending them in because they forgot to clean the pen or dropped it (like I did with my parker 100).

Heck I have heard people on the pen boards sending in pens three and four times until they get the nib they want.

And I confess I have gotten back nib exchanges from companies where the replacement was not so hot.

IMO, ten bucks is not so bad. j

well, i dont want to open a can of worms. love the pen, no problems with it. just thinking that a wider nib would allow more of the beauty of the ink to come through, like someone had on an exemplar. i think it was green handwriting.

wondering if a medium nib would be too wide.

sam

I wish I could help you.

I bet if you ask, someone with a charleston would send you a writing sample of a medium nib. I suppose that is not a perfect solution but maybe better than flying blind.

Or maybe someone who is a waterman fan can compare the charleston medium to other waterman mediums. I have found the Phileas medium wider than the other Waterman mediums I have (Liaison, Edson, Expert) but that may just be my limited number of examples.

Curious to see what you do and how you like it. I have come to like waterman pens more and more this last year. jc

john, what a great suggestion. if anyone can compare the nibs on a waterman, that would be great. i am not unhappy with the XF nib. i used a cross apogee and the guy there said my handwriting was small and my normal writing pattern was rushed and i did not form letters and the cross apogee medium nib tended to not delineate my "a' and my "e" in that they tended to run into itself. im fine with the XF, it is just that i see that richer color with a wider nib. maybe i am expecting too much

sam

On watermans nib exchange, is there a limit as too how long you have owned it? I have a phileas with a fine nib that is just driving me up a wall... too dry and thin very scratchy... my Laureats have one fine and one medium the fine writes very nice and the medium is a wet writer but not so wet as to smudge just a beautiful line. My charleston has a broad which seems more like a medium to me (I love this pen) especially compared to my Carene broad which writes the most beautiful perfect bold line which lays down a deep dark color. Perfect for my signature! My Expert II is a medium and it is a gorgeous writer, maybe my favorite for just writing letters etc. I have a medium Hemisphere which is a great writer with a nice line especially for the money. The only one I am not happy with is the Phileas fine... which is more like and ex-fine in my book. hope this helps...