Zebra V-301

[amberleadavis]

The black accented V-301 comes with black ink cartridges. The blue accented V-301 comes with blue ink cartridges. I have both, although I only bought the black one today.

 

Along the same lines the yellow accented H-301 (highlighter) comes with a yellow highlighter cartridge and the pink accented H-301 comes with a pink highlighter cartridge.

 

 

I'm sensing a trend.

[EvilCasper]

I got it to work. After I poked a very small hole into the side of the cartrige and then covered it to prevend leakage. It has worked without failure.

Edited October 5, 2013 by EvilCasper

[dkirchge]

I'm happy to report that mine is still writing smoothly and easily.

[lahlahlaw]

I hate my Zebra, so much so that I sprung the nib on purpose just to see how it felt. I should throw it away but one of these days I'll feel like doing it again, sadomasochistic, I know...

[GTOZack]

I had this pen once, only once, at work

 

it didn't start up properly, rather it made an incision on the cheap printer paper.

 

and I looked at a friend whose were looking over my shoulder.

 

....

 

no one said a word for a minute

 

I tossed the pen in the trash. I did hope it was a good pen

[TehWildman]

I also picked one of these up a week or so ago. It took a little tinkering (I found soaking the grip/feed section and making sure to inset the cartridge with the nib down worked) to get it to work, but its a pretty nice pen for $4.

 

 

The fact it compliments the other zebra steel-family pens is icing on the semi-sweet cake.

[txpen]

I bought one of these a couple of months ago when I saw them at Walgreens. My initial experience with it was pretty bad. The ink wouldn't flow smoothly and nothing I did would seem to correct it. I finally set it aside and it just sat on my desk unused for a couple of weeks. Then I tried it again and it was a completely different experience. Ink flow is great and it writes as smoothly as my old Sheaffer school pen.

[Zookie]

I suppose I'm a little bit late with this, but I got one of these a few months ago and have been using it quite a bit. I think it's a nice pen, I'm not too fond of the ink however.

Once I get an empty cartridge, I'll refill it with my favorite ink, Private Reserve Ebony Green and see how it behaves.

You can't beat it for the price!

I'm going to see if I can pick up a couple more.

[amberleadavis]

I suppose I'm a little bit late with this, but I got one of these a few months ago and have been using it quite a bit. I think it's a nice pen, I'm not too fond of the ink however.

Once I get an empty cartridge, I'll refill it with my favorite ink, Private Reserve Ebony Green and see how it behaves.

You can't beat it for the price!

I'm going to see if I can pick up a couple more.

 

Welcome to FPN.

 

I would say the biggest trick to these pens is not to use the ink that comes with it and hope for a great experience out of the box.

[Zookie]

Thanks for the welcome!

I switch pens often, but I really like this one.

[mhphoto]

My experience is the same. Horrible flow and skipping at first, threw it in the pen case for a month, then it worked perfectly. I can still leave it there for months at a time and it'll write on the first try.

[mhguda]

Same here. I hadn't tried mine in more than a year, but I picked it up just now, and it just writes. My change was that instead of the supplied cartridge, I use a converter. It does make the pen somewhat of a Frankenpen, but it works. Perfectly.

[wjrii]

For what it's worth, I don't think these are "proprietary" cartridges, at least not exactly. I have a "Cello" brand pen that my wife's cousin brought back from India, and the cartridge looks absolutely identical, right down to using a plastic plug to cap the back. Size looks to be a perfect match, but I haven't run out of ink in either one since I've had them both.

[2xhorn]

I glanced at the stationery section at Walgreens, saw a Zebra fp and said neat! Never owned zebra anything but knew they got good reviews, so I figured it had to be decent.

 

Wrong! Horribad. Terriawful. It never starts and when it does I can't even sign my name before it stops.

 

Took the wick out, no improvement at all. I can shake it til a drop comes out and sign my name. That's it. The feed is just off. You can tell by sucking or blowing through it.

 

I may take it back. Four bucks is four bucks. Zebra should pay me for my irritation.

[Sailor Kenshin]

It takes forever for the wick-feed to saturate with ink. Did you try leaving it capped, nib-down, for a couple od hours?

[2xhorn]

Oh yeah. I have tried everything. It doesn't work for (bleep) with the wick entirely removed. Without the wick, the ball in the cart may be blocking flow as noted elsewhere

 

It's a bad design. It has little to do with the wick. The feed has insufficient air flow.

 

The one thing I havent tried is opening up the air channel. Now I am just letting it sit with a load of Florida blue in the cart.

Edited November 14, 2014 by 2xhorn

[jekostas]

With the Zebra FP it helps immensely if you cut a channel in the wick before you ink it up. You can pull out the wick using a pair of needle nose pliers, and then using a knife tip score the entire length.

[2xhorn]

With the Zebra FP it helps immensely if you cut a channel in the wick before you ink it up. You can pull out the wick using a pair of needle nose pliers, and then using a knife tip score the entire length.

I might give that a try, thanks. What is the wick material? It's pretty hard on the exterior, is it fibrous inside?

 

Also, I find it interesting that it has the elaborate baffles of a regular fp. One might think the wick system would obviate the need for that with the requisite ink and air flow occurring through and around the wick.

 

I let the wick sit in the waterman bottle for a couple of hours. It got darker than it had been, but didn't help.

 

I will say this. When the nib is wet from dipping or the bursts of flow, it's a quite decent writer. But it really runs dry abruptly.

Edited November 17, 2014 by 2xhorn

[Sailor Kenshin]

Not sure how good the new v-pens are, but the old ones took forever for that unusual feed to saturate. I accomplished this by means of dipping into ink and writing until the 'real' ink flowed. But then they'd write without trouble until the ink ran out, no matter how long they were left standing.

 

That alone made them valuable as knockaround pens.

[2xhorn]

Not sure how good the new v-pens are, but the old ones took forever for that unusual feed to saturate. I accomplished this by means of dipping into ink and writing until the 'real' ink flowed. But then they'd write without trouble until the ink ran out, no matter how long they were left standing.

That alone made them valuable as knockaround pens.

Yes, between the promise of this and how nicely it writes when wet, I have been giving this pen more work than it probably deserves. I have to confess that I have always liked the zebra cheapcool aesthetic as well.

 

I have been dipping, sucking, licking and shaking this thing for a week trying to get it going and have filled several pages of cheap paper with doodles. Still not going, but the nib is smoothed out and it's pretty nice when wet.