Graf von Faber Castell Pens

[beluga]

Since 2008 I have been cruising in the background (I shall come to talk about one of the reasons below) and today I would like to make my voice heard here for the first time.

I love fountain pens and I love this forum, which is in part explained by the fact that at school back in Germany, where I grew up, we were required to use fountain pens - and old habits apparently die hard.

This may also explain why I concentrate on German pens: (Graf von) Faber-Castell, Lamy, Pelikan and to a lesser extent Montblanc.

 

My favorite fountain pens are probably Graf von Faber-Castell (GvFC), of which I own around nine. The exceptionally smooth nibs are supplied by Bock, which also provides Pelikan with nibs and which makes Graf von Faber Castell the one brand where I would have the least hesitation to order on-line because I can rest assured that their nibs will work. While some nibs obviously wrote better than others, I've never come across a GvFC pen that I would have to return to the vendor or reject outright in the store. Which is not something that I could say for the other three brands, Lamy nibs are very well made, but ink flow can be a problem (despite such well behaved inks as Waterman); and I have tried both Pelikans and Montblancs in the store where even the store clerk had to admit that the nibs were poor writers.

 

Graf von Faber-Castell customer service is excellent and I like the fact that you can order spare parts directly from Faber-Castell USA, something that I learned on this forum and which I found very useful in the past. Among the others; I've found Lamy customer service always very friendly and extremely helpful, Pelikan appears good and Montblanc - well; let’s say there is room for improvement.

 

My favorite Graf pen is the Classic series Grenadilla, of which I own one with medium and one with broad nib each. I came to this series sometime around 1993-1995 during a trip to Germany when Faber-Castell had placed one of their people in a leading Frankfurt, Germany pen store to show their recently introduced “Graf Collection”, as it was then called. I was immediately taken by this design that gracefully blends wood with metal, the nib was exceptional, the pen had the perfect size, heft and balance (I usually write with the cap off) for my hands, and I liked the then silver plating.

 

I have since added the - now rhodium coated - pernambuco and grenadilla pens to my collection and have also bought several pens of the Guilloche series and an Ambition model.

 

The rub is, in the absence of a dedicated FPN Graf von Faber Castell/Faber Castell Forum there is not much discussion about these pens.

World Lux carries them, but Pam from Oscar Braun pens told me she had to drop the line as there was not enough interest, which I take to mean not enough people know this brand.

 

Even if Faber-Castell should be the smallest fountain pen brand among the four I mentioned above; isn’t a dedicated GvFC Forum something we ought to consider?

I think these pens deserve it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beluga

 

(white whale - black ink)

Edited December 11, 2009 by beluga

[Pfhorrest]

There are not enough Graf pens in circulation to warrant a thread, I suppose.

 

I don't fully agree on the quality of the nibs out of the box - the M nib on my Pernambuco took a full two months to settle. It's now one of my best writers, but still.

 

However, I do agree that they are splendid pens in other respects.

Edited December 11, 2009 by Pfhorrest

[AltecGreen]

The Writing Instruments forum serves as the forum for the brands that do not have a brand specific subforum.

 

Asking for a new brand focus is a very touchy subject here and the admins have made it clear that they are not going to consider a new subforum in the near future.

 

Here is a post I made that hopefully will explain the situation.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=126887&view=findpost&p=1260767

 

 

 

On the subject of GvFC, I do like their pens and one of the first pens I bought was a GvFC. However, there is not much discussion of their pens on FPN or several of the other pen boards aside from the yearly debate over the merits (or lack thereof) of the Pen of the Year. The discussion about the 2009 Pen of the Year was less than flattering to GvFC. My personal problem with GvFC pens is that their nibs are tuned way too wide for me.

 

As an aside, Pelikan nibs are made in house again. I think the last Bock nibs used by Pelikans were for the M1000 and those were going back to in-house production.

 

Since you are a fan of German pens, have you considered Sonnecken. I see more interest in the Sonnecken pens than GvFC.

Edited December 11, 2009 by AltecGreen

[beluga]

The Writing Instruments forum serves as the forum for the brands that do not have a brand specific subforum.

 

Asking for a new brand focus is a very touchy subject here and the admins have made it clear that they are not going to consider a new subforum in the near future.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, my apologies, I didn't mean to step on anybody's toes.

 

The fact is that when I needed some information on GvFC pens or parts, I usually had to Google and ended up on the FPN more often than not.

As the information on GvFC was widely spread across, I thought I make the suggestion after I ran across a similar post that had mentioned it as well.

 

 

As far as moderating is concerned, I might consider that - even if I am fairly new around here - as I used to moderate various watch fora for a while, but that is another story.

 

 

 

 

Again, my apologies.

 

 

Beluga

[BerneseMtDogEatsArco]

I can see the Lamy fan folks screaming in the background.... (JK!)

[beluga]

I can see the Lamy fan folks screaming in the background.... (JK!)

 

 

I understand and completely agree.

 

If I could own only one pen each from two different manufacturers, one would be Faber Castell, the other one would be a Lamy.

I own various Lamys including Personnas and Accents, and bought a Safari for my daughter.

Lamy is another great German brand, very innovative and aesthetically pleasing designs and Lamy consciously cultivates the middle price range and provides excellent value for money.

They have been more than helpful to address various ink flow problems and provide excellent customer service.

 

My idea to consider Faber-Castell was not meant to be at the expense of a possible Lamy forum, which would have equal merit in my eyes.

Rather, the suggestion to consider a Faber-Castell forum was borne out of my experience as moderator of various watch fora where the administrator was always looking for new worthwhile forum additions.

(Some worked and took off, some raised insufficient interest and withered away.)

 

 

I did not mean to ruffle feathers, breach forum etiquette, or start a mutually exclusive competition for a single available forum spot between brands.

 

 

 

Beluga

[encremental]

Why do you think that FC's nibs are made by Bock? It's the first I've heard of it.

 

John

[tanburi]

I adore Grafs and CdAs, but it is Lamy that first deserves a forum. Grafs are more likely to remain special and have a limited audience. Let them remain so

 

Future Graffer

[AltecGreen]

The Writing Instruments forum serves as the forum for the brands that do not have a brand specific subforum.

 

Asking for a new brand focus is a very touchy subject here and the admins have made it clear that they are not going to consider a new subforum in the near future.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, my apologies, I didn't mean to step on anybody's toes.

 

The fact is that when I needed some information on GvFC pens or parts, I usually had to Google and ended up on the FPN more often than not.

As the information on GvFC was widely spread across, I thought I make the suggestion after I ran across a similar post that had mentioned it as well.

 

 

As far as moderating is concerned, I might consider that - even if I am fairly new around here - as I used to moderate various watch fora for a while, but that is another story.

 

 

 

 

Again, my apologies.

 

 

Beluga

 

Don't worry. Your post was fine but I was just heading off any potential explosions. Once the issue of a Lamy subforum comes up things get a bit tense. I wish the admin team would put up a pinned message stating their policy on new subfora. Your point about searching for information on GvFC being spread around is a common theme. In my exoerience, that is the chief reason why people ask for a brand specific forum was so they had a central location for information. I'm undecided whether that's a sufficient reason to create a subfora.

[Pippin60]

I can see the Lamy fan folks screaming in the background.... (JK!)

 

:roflmho:

[beluga]

Why do you think that FC's nibs are made by Bock? It's the first I've heard of it.

 

John

 

 

Hi John,

 

Yes, not many people are aware of this and I am not even sure whether GvFC wants this to be public knowledge, but then again why not?

After all; Bock nibs are among the best.

 

I had an inkling; the GvFC Graf Collection/Classic line nibs just "felt" so much like Bock and earlier Pelikans that I just had to know. (BTW many thanks to AltecGreen for pointing out that Pelikan now manufactures their own nibs in-house, something I was not aware of.) I also reasoned that GvFC was probably not big enough to produce their own nibs, so Bock would be a natural choice.

During a phone conversation about some other unrelated issue I put my suspicion to someone within GvFC who has access to this kind of information and the person confirmed my hunch.

 

 

 

Beluga

[encremental]

Well, Beluga - that is interesting! I must say that I've never felt that Bock had any particular 'feel' to them (e.g. Pelikan & Visconti seem as different as nibs could be, although equally delightful), but I can imagine that as it is only comparatively recently that Faber Castell have begun to make pens again, this could be true. On the other hand, I would have thought that they are a big company (all those pencils!)- bigger, certainly than Yard-O-Led, a tiny company who make their own nibs in the UK.

 

Anyway, I shall be going to the G von FC boutique in Selfridges next week to pick up a pen they were servicing, so I shall chat with the nice guy there and report back. I think he gets a bit bored.

 

John

[tfwall]

The rub is, in the absence of a dedicated FPN Graf von Faber Castell/Faber Castell Forum there is not much discussion about these pens.

...

Even if Faber-Castell should be the smallest fountain pen brand among the four I mentioned above; isn't a dedicated GvFC Forum something we ought to consider?

I think these pens deserve it.

 

 

There are many top notch makers out there without a forum: David Oscarson, Caran d'Ache, Cartier, Michel Perchin and Recife to name just a few. I don't necessarily think that this is a bad thing. It is simply a matter of numbers, both of pens and of owners.

 

If it is exposure that you are looking for, then it is much better to have Faber-Castell cast in among many in the Writing Instruments forum. Many more people peruse this forum than they would a moribund Faber-Castell forum or even a Regional Focus --> Germany forum.

 

Back when I first arrived at FPN in 2005 there were many fewer forum and no regional focus forums at all. Discussion was focused on more well known larger brands, which had more pens (longer and larger production numbers) and which more people were familiar with and collected. There being fewer members, there wasn't was a viable percentage of owners who had pens from lesser known manufacturers (e.g. 1% of 500 members is 5, 1% of members of 20,000 members is 200. Five people a sub-forum doesn't make. Two hundred perhaps).

 

At some point there may be enough interest (and topics) for a Faber-Castell sub-forum. Lamy fans have been agitating for a while to get a sub-forum, but among other problems is the shallowness of the Lamy line. There simply isn't enough different pens or enough vintage pens to make many fresh topics. Another option would be to go the way of a regional forum, but there you are left with what to do with the Montblanc and Pelikan forums. If you merged them into a regional focus forum, would this give Faber-Castell a boost in exposure or would it drown them out even more than they are now in Writing Instruments (while muddling the MB and Pelikan discussions)?

[kernando]

I can see the Lamy fan folks screaming in the background.... (JK!)

 

Background? Shouldn't we be so lucky?

[beluga]

Well, Beluga - that is interesting! I must say that I've never felt that Bock had any particular 'feel' to them (e.g. Pelikan & Visconti seem as different as nibs could be, although equally delightful), but I can imagine that as it is only comparatively recently that Faber Castell have begun to make pens again, this could be true. On the other hand, I would have thought that they are a big company (all those pencils!)- bigger, certainly than Yard-O-Led, a tiny company who make their own nibs in the UK.

 

Anyway, I shall be going to the G von FC boutique in Selfridges next week to pick up a pen they were servicing, so I shall chat with the nice guy there and report back. I think he gets a bit bored.

 

John

 

 

 

John,

 

 

There is Faber-Castell and there is Graf von Faber-Castell (GvFC).

The latter was set up after 1993 to better differentiate their premium products, starting with "The Perfect Pencil".

 

You are right, Faber-Castell is a big company but they didn't really enter the fountain-pen market until the Graf von Faber-Castell division was established.

Until then, Faber-Castell was better known as one of the world's biggest producers of wood-cased pencils (they own and manage their own pine plantation in Brazil), art and drawing supplies, slide rules, the TK mechanical pencil, and other office supplies. Before the arrival of he computer, there was hardly a high school student or engineer in then West Germany who did not use a Faber-Castell slide rule, or an engineer or architect who was not familiar with the ubiquitous TK pencil.

 

But fountain pens?

Before 1993 Faber-Castell was not a household name for fountain pens.

They were late to establish themselves in the market and concentrated first on the wood-cased GvFC Graf Collection, followed later by the Guilloche line.

 

Subsequent E-Motion, Ambition and Mondoro fountain pen lines belong to the Faber-Castell Group and somewhat obscure the line between Graf von Faber-Castell and Faber-Castell divisions.

If you click on this link: http://www.faber-castell.us/14786/Welcome/index_ebene3.aspx and select "Graf von Faber-Castell", at least it tells you what falls under the "Graf" line.

(It won't tell you though who supplies their nibs. For that I had to make a phone call to their corporate headquarters in Stein near Nuremberg. )

 

 

 

 

Beluga

Edited December 13, 2009 by beluga

[figosmum]

Hi everybody,

 

I'm brand new here so forgive me if I ask something obvious - is there any place on this network where i can see a broad and a medium faber castell nib writing in comparison? I have a faber medium nib, but suspect I might want a broad nib (for the anello I'm giving myself for christmas, or will bully my husband into giving me).

 

Thanks

Katinka

[beluga]

Hi everybody,

 

I'm brand new here so forgive me if I ask something obvious - is there any place on this network where i can see a broad and a medium faber castell nib writing in comparison? I have a faber medium nib, but suspect I might want a broad nib (for the anello I'm giving myself for christmas, or will bully my husband into giving me).

 

Thanks

Katinka

 

 

Katinka,

 

 

have a look at what I posted here today: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=135458

 

If you really like wide nibs, go for a wide Faber-Castell one.

If you don't like it you could add a medium nib or exchange the nib (http://www.faber-castell.us/18434/FAQs/Graf-von-Faber-Castell-Questions/index_ebene2.aspx) under certain conditions.

As it is customary to try nibs in a shop with ink, I don't believe Faber-Castell would refuse to exchange a nib if it had been tried a few times and cleaned thoroughly by you before the exchange.

 

 

 

B,

Edited December 16, 2009 by beluga

[voop]

.... Grafs are more likely to remain special and have a limited audience.....

 

Well, isn't that true of FPs in general, in the midst of this BIC-world?

 

GvFC make excellent FPs. I have only one, though, as they are not common around my neck of the woods, but that is one excellent writer too. Their main problem is, that the GvFC websites are not easy to navigate and see the series etc.

[beluga]

.... Grafs are more likely to remain special and have a limited audience.....

 

Well, isn't that true of FPs in general, in the midst of this BIC-world?

 

GvFC make excellent FPs. I have only one, though, as they are not common around my neck of the woods, but that is one excellent writer too. Their main problem is, that the GvFC websites are not easy to navigate and see the series etc.

 

 

Good points,

 

hardly anyone I know uses fountain pens any more and when I unscrew mine during a meeting to take notes I initially expected a few eyebrows to rise.

But were are NOT alone, once in a while a colleague who knows that I have ink bottles in my desk drawer drops by to refill his pen and talk.

 

And I also agree that the Faber-Castell website is not intuitive to navigate, but I find the US website is somewhat better organized than the German one.

 

One last factor that may explain why GvFC is not better know is that they were a late entrant in a saturated, possibly shrinking market where some other German players were considerably longer established.

 

Which may be a good thing in disguise, as GvFC need to be better than their competitors to carve out and establish their market niche.

So far, I find their products well built, solid performers that are backed by solid support and are reasonably priced.

They seem to try to cater to two different market segments at the same time: "standard" which can be found on their website under the "Design" header and "premium" which is organized under the "Porsche Design" and "Graf von Faber-Castell" header.

 

 

While I would not usually buy pens with steel nibs, I bought the other day one of their Mondoros and both the M and B steel nib that I tried in the shop were excellent.

 

 

 

B.

[voop]

.... Grafs are more likely to remain special and have a limited audience.....

 

Well, isn't that true of FPs in general, in the midst of this BIC-world?

 

GvFC make excellent FPs. I have only one, though, as they are not common around my neck of the woods, but that is one excellent writer too. Their main problem is, that the GvFC websites are not easy to navigate and see the series etc.

 

 

Good points,

 

hardly anyone I know uses fountain pens any more and when I unscrew mine during a meeting to take notes I initially expected a few eyebrows to rise.

But were are NOT alone, once in a while a colleague who knows that I have ink bottles in my desk drawer drops by to refill his pen and talk.

 

I believe that I am the only one in my ~200 people large department, who writes with an FP. In the management chain from my dept. and up to our "top dog", there're exactly zero other FP users (our "top dog" is an FP user). I do not know the FP usage in the other dept's. I have never seen anyone in the administrative functions using FPs.

 

Yes, there are others out there, who are daily FP-users -- but they're few and far in between around here.

 

And I also agree that the Faber-Castell website is not intuitive to navigate, but I find the US website is somewhat better organized than the German one.

 

Maybe so, being (foreign-language) germanophone, I naively thought that it'd be the better choice to look there - I'll try the US-site at some point. However, the GvFC pens I have were all impulse-buys when in (soon-to-be-former) pen-shops, closing out on FPs ;(

 

One last factor that may explain why GvFC is not better know is that they were a late entrant in a saturated, possibly shrinking market where some other German players were considerably longer established.

 

Which may be a good thing in disguise, as GvFC need to be better than their competitors to carve out and establish their market niche.

So far, I find their products well built, solid performers that are backed by solid support and are reasonably priced.

They seem to try to cater to two different market segments at the same time: "standard" which can be found on their website under the "Design" header and "premium" which is organized under the "Porsche Design" and "Graf von Faber-Castell" header.

 

 

While I would not usually buy pens with steel nibs, I bought the other day one of their Mondoros and both the M and B steel nib that I tried in the shop were excellent.

 

 

I have not tried pens from FC, other than those sold under the GvFC moniker - I believe that they are all gold-nibs, are they not? In any event, excellent pens, robust build, nice ergonomics, butter-smooth-nibs.

Edited December 19, 2009 by voop