Zebra V-301

[Sailor Kenshin]

Come to think of it, I have a black one that's only a couple years old. It was dip-n-write for days (Noodler's Bad Green Gator) but now it's stable and is my Downstairs Pen.

[mhguda]

I just used mine after more than a year in the drawer, just to see if it worked. In my case, it was the Zebra cartridge. Once I took that out and put a Parker slide converter in (and accepting the fact that it's not a perfect match, the converter being slightly too long, so had to use a little trick to keep barrel and section together) it's been going nonstop. I did not use it for a year but tested just now and it started fine, ran with a fine but wet line, just like I remembered and just as I like it. Your cartridge may be causing the dryness.

HTH...

[Amyj]

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.

They're still the same. Though now they are available in my local dollar store chain, rather than previously mentioned stores.

 

I've been tempted to store mine upside down in my bag, but I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up leaking if I had it that way.

[jekostas]

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.

 

It's a fibrous material inside. It's a PITA to do and probably not worthwhile given how little these pens sell for but if you already have one and are determined to get it working you can try it.

[2xhorn]

Thanks everyone. I think I have it going now. The thing that seemed to take it over the edge, so to speak, was letting it soak tip down in a bottle of waterman florida/serenity blue.

 

I also disassembled several times, soaked the wick in the bottle, scored the wick, removed the wick entirely, made a very half hearted attempt to open the channels in the section and dipped/wrote dry repeatedly.

 

The soaking wrote longer before dry than mere dipping and perhaps was more effective at getting the capillary flow going.

 

I also replaced the ink in the cartridge with the waterman blue.

 

I have the usual selection of converters lying around but can't seem to lay my hands on them after a move. The converter from a jinhao 159 wouldnt fit (hole too small). Im curious for those using a converter, can you suck ink up through nib, section, and wick? Or do you fill and attach?

Edited November 21, 2014 by 2xhorn

[benbot517]

I wanted so much to like this pen. I love the design, and at the price it would be a great deal. However, like this review said, it just wouldn't write. It irritates me because I love the other stuff Zebra does, and they really, for the most part, make a really solid product.

[Sailor Kenshin]

You really do have to keep dipping in other ink and write write write that way to get it started, BUT once it decides to write, it will do so until the cart's empty, even if you neglect it for weeks.

[larnivon]

You really do have to keep dipping in other ink and write write write that way to get it started, BUT once it decides to write, it will do so until the cart's empty, even if you neglect it for weeks.

I bought mine ... gee I can't even remember if it was last spring, or summer 2013. Put a cartridge in it and dropped in in my pen cup at work as a decoy to keep people away from real pens. Haven't looked at it in months.

 

Pulled out just now to test it. Wrote right away, nice line. Same thing with the R301 rollerball (though that one definitely does only date to the summer).

 

I don't use them because they are boring, but my experience is the same as some of the recent posts here.

[table4bat]

Thank you for writing this review. I was planning on buying a Zebra FP, but after reading your review, I think I'd have more fun watching my dollar bills be flushed down the toilet.

[Lamyrada]

This is an old post but I just met this pen yesterday and have to confirm that the bad news are still valid in 2014. I am on a trip and did not carry a FP with me, so I went to the local Walgreen's and fround the v301. Oh,i was so happy, a FP on the pharmacy? Cool!

 

Well... It's bring a failure . The ink does not want to flow and I am running the risk of doodle deprivation. I am desperate and even at just $5 it is too expensive a pen for a nice looking stick that cannot write. Tthe cap does not jiggle any more but the #^$&%^ pen will not write. Don't waste your time! This is trash! This means Zebra does not test these pens. There is no QA testing!

Edited December 18, 2014 by Lamyrada

[mhguda]

Stick a Parker converter (the small slide one) in there and fill through the nib & feed and the pen will write until all the ink is gone... never a startup problem, and it lies for months unused - writes every time I pick it up.

I think the cartridge it comes with is lousy, but once the wick is saturated, the pen is really very good. Nib is not bad, either. Don't give up yet!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Now I feel sorry for the poor little V-pen, and I even wrote a bad review in my blog.

 

It WILL write....IF you know how to get it going. It needs dipping. And writing. Until the ink starts to flow. Then, it will write for ever. If no ink bottle, water will do. Just dip. That's all.

[johniem]

I've had my Zebra for a couple years now, carry it in the pen loop of my Franklin-Covey planner. It was a slow starter at first, but aren't most pens until you get the ink flowing through? Since then, it always starts immediately and writes a smooth fine line. I refill the cartridge with Noodler's Black. I like the pen, just wish it looked like a P51! Would I buy another? You bet.

[Vecos]

I just bought one of these as my first fountain pen today, and like many others, the ink simply refused to flow at first -- Here's what I did to get it working.

 

1) Dipped and wrote in warm water for a good long while, with no improvement.

 

2) Removed the cartridge and sucked up some warm water through the nib -- Possibly hazardous and definitely unsanitary, but at least it seemed to saturate the nib with water. The pen wrote for a while after the cartridge was replaced, but kept getting lighter until it finally ran dry (i.e., the water didn't seem to be pulling the ink along with it very well).

 

3) Removed the cartridge, turned it mouth down, and gave it a light tap so that the ink flowed up to the mouth. Re-inserted it this way into the pen (nib down). Repeated this process two or three times -- Each time the cartridge was reinserted, some of the ink seemed to get forced into the wick, which I think finally got it saturated enough to write properly with. (Warning: the ink might splatter when the cartridge is removed/tapped)

 

I'm pretty sure it was the last thing that did the trick, and soaking the wick in another ink/leaving the pen alone for a while would probably have the same effect, but if the pen is being stubborn and you really need it to start working in a hurry, this might help. As others have noted, the pen seems to write beautifully once the ink starts flowing -- Hopefully it'll last this time! (And again, this is my first fountain pen so take that 'beautifully' with a grain of salt; I was just glad to finally have it working at all.)

[basterma]

The best thing for starting pens in my book is an odd method, but it has worked for almost every pen I tried it on.

 

Get a suitcase or loaptop case with wheels. Put the pen in it so the nib points towards the ground. Walk outside with it for about ten minutes. The vibrations from the rolling wheels do wonders for shaking ink down the feed. Assuming the tine separtion is good, this works every time. If the tines are too far apart, then you have to get the edge of a pice of paper and coax the ink from the feed to the slit, then to the tip of the nib.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Just dip it in water or ink and write until the cart flows.

 

That said, they need to improve that odd feed so ink gets to the nib faster.

[fpdougm]

This pen gets a bad rap (doesn't start, skips, and so on) but I think the problem is the ink that comes with it. Somewhere on this site (could not find where) someone else said, the pen works fine: use any other ink.

 

I've been running the V-301 with a "Platinum" brand converter and inexpensive Waterman ink for over a year. The system works reliably. I carry it in my pocket as my primary writing tool when outside the house.

 

I had the same problems that everyone else reported when I first used the pen and a cartridge that came with it, I tried some of the soaking type solutions. A converter and different ink made all the difference.

 

I am so amazed to see a functional fountain pen for under $10 that I hope everyone will give this baby a try and have a chance to consider the benefits and pleasures of fountain pen use.

[mhguda]

@fpdougm: my experience mirrors yours exactly. When I replaced the cartridge with the supplied ink by a converter with my own ink, all my problems went away. To the extent that now, two years on, I don't even have to think when I want to use that pen. It can be lying in a drawer, unused, for months; I fish it out, put nib to paper, and it goes. Every time.

[2xhorn]

Well, after a few months of sitting with Waterman in the cart, it's finally writing pretty reliably now. I realized that the bottle of Waterman had been getting kind of thick, especially with the Zebra sitting in it tip down for hours at a time. I diluted it with a couple of drops of distilled, rinsed the works of the Zebra, and refilled and shortly thereafter it got going pretty well.

[dkirchge]

Sorry for the necropost, but I just found my V-301 laying in the drawer; it must have been laying there for a year or so since the last time I saw it, I'd almost forgotten I owned it. I checked to see if there was a cart in it (there was, a Zebra black, and it even still had ink in it), pulled off the cap and... it wrote fine. No skipping, blobbing, or any other sort of issue; the pen laid down a nice smooth line, same as the day I bought it. Maybe I bought the one perfect pen that rolled off the line, but as far as I'm concerned, this is the best inexpensive fountain pen I own. I'll be returning it to daily driver status as soon as I can remember where I stashed my spare carts.