If you own a Visconti Van Gogh Midi, could you tell me a little about your experience with it?

I'm interested in things like:

- How good was the nib out of the box?
- Did yours have a two-tone nib? (Pictures on various websites have been conflicting on this subject.)
- Do you have any trouble with the metal section on this pen?
- How's the converter's capacity?
- Are the nibs true to size?
- Where did you buys yours, and for how much?

as well as whatever else you think might be worthwhile for a prospective buyer to know!

Thanks so much FPN'ers... you guys are just swell

i actually had a similar pen in in mind the wall street piston filled for a long time... there are too versions one with the converter the other one is piston filled. the last one is the one i am more interested and it does not come cheap.. what colour would be your favorite from choice of colours... i lke the grey and also the brown. i heard always good review from the visconti pens... i still might go for the wall street. or maybe aida... certainly visconti has nice pens and the ink bottles are so cool....

Hi there.
I had two which I recently sold. I would answer your questions thus:

- How good was the nib out of the box?
Excellent

- Did yours have a two-tone nib? (Pictures on various websites have been conflicting on this subject.)
No. One was gold coloured and the other silver coloured. (both steel)

- Do you have any trouble with the metal section on this pen?
It was a deal-breaker for me, as it was uncomfortable and made worse by the engraving around the collar of the section.

- How's the converter's capacity?
Excellent.

- Are the nibs true to size?
IMHO, they are a size more narrow than 'standard' sizes.

- Where did you buys yours, and for how much?
PrahaBleu off fleabay and I was very happy with the product and service.



Leonie

Hi,

I have a Van Gogh midi since june this year.
It's one of my daily writers.

How good was the nib?
I find it excellent.

Two-tone?
No, just silver colered.

Any trouble with the metal section?
No

Converter capacity?
Very good.

Nib size?
I have a fine which to me writes like I would expect from a fine. Never owned an EF so I don't know if my fine is more close to an EF of any other brand. I like it very much the way it is.

Where bought?
Visconti Showroom in Florence.
If you ever visit Florence go to the Visconti Showroom! It's a great shop with very friendly people, willing to explain everything and show everything about Visconti. You just feel the love for the brand the salesman has.
(No affiliation to it.)

Nicolet

I have a blue Van Gogh Midi that I purchased at the New Jersey pen show a year ago. I was thrilled to have it at the time but I can honestly report that I have not used it for more than 15 minutes since then. I don't know why I never reach for it. The nib is silver in color and the pen is as comfortable as any other, in the hand.

I have an Ocean Blue Van Gogh Midi I purchased from James & Pear Tree Pens when he had his patriotic sale this past July. I got a great deal and the pen wrote nicely out of the box. Fine nib, writes like a fine (to me). I was apprehensive about the metal section, as the other pen I had with a metal section was not good for me. However, it seems fine to me. It is kind of short, but it doesn't bother me like I thought it would. I use my midi fairly often, with Noodler's Aquamarine contract ink.

I don't really like the crescent clip, but it isn't a deal breaker for me. It might be if I were using the clip often, I can't say though. I'm looking at getting another midi eventually.

I bought a Musk Midi used in the Marketplace. I much prefer the size and weight to the Maxi I had a go with- there's less metal in the cap, so it is a bit lighter.

I've one with a single-toned silver-colored steel nib. I don't know what it was like out of the box, but when it came to me used I was very impressed. Very firm, but *very* smooth. One of the best firm nibs I've ever used, and it handily beats out a many of the gold nibs in spendier pens.

I still don't like the metal section It's a bit less chunky as the Maxi, and the balance is better. I also don't like the crescent clip much, but I much prefer it on the Midi- smaller. the Maxi's clip was so fat that it got in the way where I usually clip a pen, on the collar of my shirt.

Ink capacity is no better or worse than any old international converter; if you had a special converter w/ a higher capacity, you could use it.

But, in the end my experience is like playpens. I never actually *use* it- but I take it out and doodle with it for a minute or two every day or two, like any other pen I have inked. Sort of bums me out, but it's working out to be one of those pens that just isn't clicking for some reason. It is very pretty- you can see through the material more than it might seem on a website, at least for the particular pen I have.

Aaron

Hmm... it seems like everyone who's replied has a single-tone nib. I wonder why so many websites, even really legit ones like Fahrney's and Paradise Pen, have pictures of two-tone nibs? Is this just a case of them reusing pics of the Van Gogh Maxi?

The two pens on top are my solid black Midi and Laguna Verde Swisher's LE Maxi.

The quality was impeccable, including the nibs. I had mine reground to .4mm italics to suit my writing better -- but nothing against the nibs; I do this to most of my pens. The pens are on the heavy side; bordering on too heavy for me but not quite there.

Both of my nibs are single tone white. But perhaps the pens you are looking at online are the new gold trim versions? Those may have two-tone ibs.

QM2

No, these definitely have silver trim.

Here are some of the pictures I've seen...

From Paradise Pen:

Click to view attachment

From Fountain Pen Heaven:



From Montgomery Pens:



Pear Tree Pens features the same pictuer as Fountain Pen Heaven.

So what's going on? These pictures are all of the Midi, mind you.

I have a Midi Sandal Red and I love it.

- How good was the nib out of the box? - Awesome, smooth and wonderful

- Did yours have a two-tone nib? (Pictures on various websites have been conflicting on this subject.) Steel nib - medium, fine wasn't availble, Italy was on vacation (literally) and I didn't want to wait

- Do you have any trouble with the metal section on this pen? No, a number of my pens have metal sections, I like the metal

- How's the converter's capacity? Pretty much standard

- Are the nibs true to size? Yes

- Where did you buys yours, and for how much? SwisherPens - I think it was about $125 without shipping, you can check the website SwisherPens The Evergreen and Cappucino have gold trim and run higher, the transluscent Tortoise is much higher

If you watch the MarketPlace, they show up every one in a while.

I briefly owned a Van Gogh Tortoise Demonstrator. The nib was of the highest quality, but there was a problem which struck me as a rather severe one with the cap. The screw on the back of the cap is not cosmetic. It's the only thing holding the clip in place. If you tighten or loosen it, you do the same to the clip. In order to keep the clip on straight, the screw had to be tightened until it was sunk a millimeter or two beneath the surface of the clip. If the screw was loosened until it was flush, the clip was too loose, and rattled. Worst of all, tightening the screw damaged the material in the cap, producing a fine powder out of the resin. I worried that eventually the threads would be stripped, or the clip might crack, so I sent it back. Also, the cap didn't post securely, which may or may not be an issue for you.

Apart from the cap, it was a beautiful pen, and I wish I could've justified keeping it.

How good was the nib out of the box?
Excellent!
I just washed the nib-section unit with some mildly soapy water and rinsed it well.
It's been behaving beautifully---no hard-starting, no skipping....

Did yours have a two-tone nib? (Pictures on various websites have been conflicting on this subject.)
No, mine is a single-tone steel Fine nib

Do you have any trouble with the metal section on this pen?
None whatsoever! I thought I might dislike the pen for this reason (I hadn't tried it in a store before I ordered it over the phone), but my fingers are in no danger of slipping off the section...and I love the metal engraving on the section end.

How's the converter's capacity?
Very good.

Are the nibs true to size?
Mine is a Fine and writes just a little bit wider than I thought a regular Fine nib would write.

Where did you buys yours, and for how much?
I bought mine about a month ago for the shockingly low price of $82.50 USD (and it was brand-new, not used) from Holt's Cigars in Philadelphia. I heard about their 50% off sale at Ryan Roosinck's blog
here and here (Sept. 4th and 5th posts)

I love using my Midi and I would recommend it to folks who like to post their pens' caps who want a very nice modern writer. I tend to hold the pen at the section-barrel "junction" (perhaps a little higher than some people??) but the Midi is perfectly balanced *for me* when I grip it.

(late edit: Just wanted to mention that my Midi is the Musk Green one....I don't know if there were different nib options with different colours.... )

I have a green one and a blue one. I love the blue one, it's absolutely fabulous and I'm currently using Visconti Sepia in it.

The green one however...(shaking my fist)...I discovered some corrosion around the nib after filling twice with Pelikan Blue/Black. So, I cleaned it thoroughly and tried again. The pen never worked well to begin with...it would skip frequently, etc. Ultimately I decided it needed a much better cleaning and disassembled the nib and section. BIG MISTAKE!!! Now I can't get the darned thing back together. I've emailed Visconti USA to inquire about replacement sections/nibs but have gotten no reply.

Alas, the blue one is divine............................................

As an aside, I have the same ink flow issues with my Visconti Opera...but I dare not take that one apart!

Happy buying!

Once again, I am befuddled as to why everyone who's replying seems to have a single-tone nib when so many websites show pics of a Van Gogh Midi with a two-tone nib! Any theories?

Never seen a two-tone on a VanGogh of any size. Usually the two-tone nibs for Visconti are the 18k nibs, which are usually on their LEs. The 14k nibs are usually single color, as are the steel nibs.

I find Visconti's steel nibs too stiff for my preferences; I don't enjoy writing with them.

I have a Maxi Tortoise in two tone but the Midi and Opera Club are single tone. Hmmm.

Bill

- I bought my blue Midi used, but out of the used box, the nib was perfect.
- It's a silver steel nib.
- I like the metal section
- Plenty of capacity
- My M is a bit wet I think, but I like it.
- Used, can't remember the price.

As a note, the spring clip on mine seemed weak and as a result it fell out of my pocket one day, cracking both the barrel and cap. I sent the pen to Visconti who replaced both at no cost to me. I was VERY happy.

The Van Gogh Midis all come with steel nibs, which are monotone. Van Gogh Maxis USED to have 2-tone 14K gold nibs, but Visconti switched to monotone 14K nibis, too.

The most likely reason that you are seeing images of Van Gogh "midis" with 2-tone nibs is because they're not actually Midis. They're Maxis. For a reason I cannot understand, Visconti supplied retailers with an incomplete set of stock photos of the Van Goghs, so we were forced to improvise (or take our own) if we wanted to be able to post representative barrel colors on the site for visitors to see. And, Visconti hasn't sent out new images since they switched the nibs from 2-tone to monotone. Since I'm too tiny to afford a photographer, and my photography skills leave a bit to be desired, I opted to use an image of the Maxi in place of the nearly-identical image of the Midi.

I hope that answers your question and lays to rest any confusion over this issue.

James

That's interesting; I thought that were really soft!!!


Leonie

Don't some of the Minis come with 14k nibs? I could swear I've seen people selling them in the Marketplace...

Looks like it- just found this one over at Swisher. THe pic does look like a Maxi, though.

Really? How odd! My steel Midi is also very firm.

Incredibly smooth though! Smooth as my Pilot 823.

Currently, only the Tortoise Demonstrator Midi is available with a 14K gold nib. All Midis used to be available with 14K nibs, but that changed a year or two ago. One can still purchase the gold nibs separately to install on a Midi of any color. That pen in the Swisher site is a Maxi - the 2-tone nib is a give-away.

James

I had the same issue with mine but I promptly sent it to Visconti for repair. I'd suggest you try to email Ken from Visconti USA .. his email address is listed in the pen manufacturer sticky in the Italian pen forum. I emailed Visconti and never got a response, emailed Ken and had a reply in a matter of an hour or so.

As the owner of 4 Midi's I echo James's comments above. All my Midi's came with single tone nibs. And if I may say, the nibs on the Midi's are excellent and more consistent than the gold nibs on the Maxi's.
My observation after experiencing many Visconti's - Midi, Maxi VG's and Voyager

Thank you, this is a really helpful explanation!

I own two midis, a vanilla with steel nib (medium), and a tortoise demonstrator (fine nib in gold 14K monotone). I bought the vanilla from Art Brown (NYC) about three years ago. Had a problem with a broken cap which was replaced by Visconti. Probably the smoothest nib I've ever owned. Period.

My Tortoise was purchased three weeks ago at the Visconti showroom in Florence. A great experience if you ever have the chance. But, I paid up for the privilege - no bargain, but a unique shopping experience I'll never forget.

I love both of my midis - I use Visconti blue in the vanilla, and black in the Tortoise. No problems with the section. I like the spring clip. The salesman explained the screw can be used to increase or decrease the clip tension. My only complaint: no where does it tell you the converter is a screw-in. So, I ripped it out and destroyed the converters threading. Had to order a new one.

Overall, these are my two most favorite pens (of 14 I own). The vegetal resin is a bit fragile, and when tightening or loosening the cap it is a good idea to hold it by the metal ring to avoid snapping the cap off at that point.

I think these are beauties to look at and use.