What modern manufacturers or fountain pens rank highest in your book for consistent quality and performance and attractive design? Which have disappointed you?

For my part, Pelikan, Waterman and Sailor rank at the top for quality.

Modern Parkers have been consistently disappointing (Sonnets and the 100 - though a 100 BP with a Visconti gel refill is one Parker non-fountain pen that gets a lot of use).

The 3 modern pen makers on my list are (in no special order)

Aurora
Pelikan
Mont Blanc

I have excellent experiance with all 3 pen makers,never got burned with either and LOVED all their pens.
The quality on their pens was nothing short then wonderful.

As for disapointing ?

Dont really have one but I did have 2 Parker Sonnets and they were a barrel of trouble.

I have had great success with Conway Stewart, Delta and Bexley in addition to those that goodguy mentions. Delta and Bexley nibs are always terrific and I love the design and colours of CS pens, like the Wellington.

The biggest disappointment, by far, has always been Conklin. They make some attractive and inexpensive pens but they never write well - always seem to have a feed problem, etc... so that they skip all the time. Too bad, they generally look very nice.

Okay, you seem to stress "modern" so that my 51 and Crest sort of get locked out.

Highest for consistent quality and performance and attractive design ==> Pelikan
Disappointing for consistent quality and performance ==> MB

Mike

Pilot/Namiki in terms of quality, consistency and reliability. Especially when you factor in the added complexity of the nib retraction mechanism of the VPs. I've had 6 F nibs, all the same width and flow and smoothness even across models (VP, Fermo, Falcon, Ecrino). Pels have been very well made and reliable except the finer nibs were inconsistent in width. Lamy Safari/AL-Stars very consistent and reliable but EF nibs do vary a bit, and also being cartridge/converters, there's less stuff to deal with.

But then again, no disappointments!

Doug

After 20+ years of FP used my disappointments have all been MB's.

For consistent excellence of performance out of the box, from their cheap pens to their expensive ones, you probably can't beat Pilot; I find most of their pens attractive too, in their rather conservative, elegant way (the same may be true of other Japanese companies, but I've not bought/tried enough of their pens to say). I suspect that the custom-made pens by Nakaya and Edison are of consistently high quality too, but they're perhaps in rather a different category (and of course pens bought from sellers who check them first (e.g. Messrs Binder and Mottishaw) should all be fine regardless of who makes them).

Disappointments include Stipula on account of hard-starting, skipping nibs (one seemed to repel ink), along with many others I've long since returned and forgotten.

Simon

fave: pelikan

dis: every other production line manufacturer

Waterman are the best

Of my modern pens my favorite is the Sailor 1911.
sEcond favorite Pelikam M400.

under the "didn't live up to expectations" heading: Parker sonnet cisele and Parker Duofold.

Sailor and Bexley are my top favorites among the modern manfacturers

Waterman make some really nice pens. The nibs are quite smooth and tasty.
Nakaya makes some of the finest pens out there(IMHO). Gorgeous pens that write like a dream.
I really loved the Montblanc 149 I used to own. Lovely pen.

My favorites over the years have been piston filling Montblancs and Auroras! Have owned a bunch of both brands, and they've all been terrific pens.
Disappointments with quite a few others, but sample sizes too small (less than or equal to 4 problem pens per brand) to make any meaningful generalizations.

Favorite modern pens - Aurora Ipsilon deluxe, Parker Sonnet (yes mine works perfectly) and Lamy Safari. They have all been good to me. Wality ED from India - holds a ton of ink and is very old-school.

Non-favorite pens - Platinum Preppy ED - the body cracked when the section was screwed back in and left me with a handful of Noodler's ink. But it's a $2 pen, and it wrote just fine, so I can't complain too hard.

My favorite modern pens are Pelikans. All of them wrote great out of the box.

My biggest disappointment was the Waterman Carene. It had a scratchy nib that skipped. It is buried in the bottom of a drawer somewhere.

I cannot comment on Parker. My only Parkers are vintage 51s.

I was disappointed with my first Pelikan, an M800 that came with misaligned tines. Hopes are high that I'll get a smooth writer back from Chartpak. Other than that my Namiki Falcon and Delta Dolcevita are superb.

I'd say that Visconti have been a bit of a disappointment for me. I had the nib switched out on a Van Gogh Maxi but find it to be uncomfortable to write with for long periods of time plus the rattling converter drives me nuts.

MrR

I wish I knew enough about modern pen manufacturers to speak to this question in a more erudite manner - but I don't!
I DO know that I love my little Bexley Simplicity and my vintage Pelikan 120 - so those have to be on the list of who I think are some of the best modern manufacturers.
I still miss a MB, and, although I can't afford another, I would have to add this to any list of best manufacturers just because the old one was so darn good!
I wonder if these impressions will hold up once I have had a chance to actually try some other brands !!

Love my Pelikans, M1000, M805. I adore my newest acquisition Sailor Pro-gear.

I hat#d my MB 146 it was always away at MB for repair(continual leaking) and I will never spend my hard earned on another Omas product- new pen 6 1/2 months away for a nib exchange?

Stubnut

My favorite modern brands are Omas (despite the poor customer service, Omas nibs are very unique), Dunhill, Pelikan, MB, WATERMAN and Parker (most of my parkers are vintage models except one which is a 2002 marbled green duofold).
The biggest disappointments were Aurora, VISCONTI, Delta, Jorg Hysek, Caran D'ache and Lepine on which nibs and/or filling system were far to be of great capacity and far to be easy to use.

My favourite brands are Aurora (superb quality) Pilot (great nibs out of the box) and Pelikan(for me,always reliable)

My biggest disappointments are Omas,Delta and Parker.

Ronin

Best I have ever had was Pelikan never a lick of problems at all Worst I have ever had were the new MB they even feel cheap. Nothing but a hyped up name. Now the old ones that is a diffrent game all together.

Just my .02

My favorite modern would have to be Pelikan and Sheaffer.

The most disappointing (in order of price) would be Mont Blanc, Conway Stewart, Bexley, and Conklin.

I'd have to say, out of modern pens, Auroras have consistently impressed me. I have 2 Aurora 88s and love them. The quality, style and writing performance is spot on.

The most disappointing ones from the quality perspective were Pilot and Parker. Nothing I could not fix, though.

I hope that I don't get flamed for this but from the "expectations" perspective, the one's that have not met my expectations were Pelikan 600s. The design is nice and traditional but I have always expected the nibs to be much smoother. Again, nothing that can't be fixed.

I've only had a few Dani-Trios, but they are very reliable writers and although most are large, they are light-weight enough to be very comfortable in my small hands.

My favourite modern manufacturers are:

Bexley
Taccia
Visconti

I've been disappointed by:

Parker
MB
Sheaffer

Pelikan and Lamy are my current faves
I'm kinda disappointed with Parker, Sheaffer and Waterman.
Parker is just a shadow of what they used to be. Sheaffer has a limited product line and Waterman insists on super heavy pens using the notion heavier= better (Starting with the Le Man)

My VP has most impressed me in regards to reliability, innovation, and quality of writing. My biggest disappointment has been my Lamy Al-Star, it skips a lot. Smooth writer otherwise, but I'd have rather put the money towards something else like a Phileas.

Positive:
Tibaldi (1990s)
Mecury (very well made)
Dunhill (ditto, perhaps even better)
Visconti
Bexley (although I have only one)

Negative:
Sailor 1911 (a good enough pen, but much over-hyped)
Platinum (excellent nib, but the clip is rusting as I write)

Best for me: Waterman and Lamy (consistently stellar)

Worst for me: Parker (skipping and feed problems)

Mixed experiences for me: Pelikan

Lamy--always excellent, great pens. I've geen generally underwhelmed by Pelikan, except for the Epoch, and have sent back or sold those I have tried. This may be a matter of taste as much as anything, however.

cheers
eric

Eric and MrBlue- what were your experiences like with Pelikan? I've been rather underwhelmed myself, at least for modern Pelikans. The 5 different modern Pelikan nibs I've tried were pretty disappointing. Even after I've adjusted the tines. I don't doubt that a modern Pelikan from Mr. Binder can be excellent, but the stuff I've had hasn't been so hot from the factory.

Vintage Pelikans are another story, amongst my favorites.