The Worst Pen Ever

[7point62]

One of my two vintage Wearever Deluxe 100s. That striped celluloid is nice looking but this one is super scratchy, skips, and has to be held at an awkward angle (for me) to write at all. My other Deluxe 100 though is as nice a writer as I could ask for.

 

Close second is a vintage "Elgin" with a glass nib. I bought it purely for the novelty of a glass nibbed fountain pen. It's actually very smooth, but it's a firehose. It's what looks like a F but writes like a BBBB due to feathering/bleeding even on the best of paper. Due to this it also runs dry within a page or two of writing despite having a huge capacity.

[johnmetta]

I think i just learned a bit about this one. The worst pen in all of creation is the one you just bought for a lot of money that turns out not to fit you. Interestingly, this is probably the best pen in all of creation to another "you."

[dogpoet]

Nope: it's the best pen in all creation to some other freak: there's only ever one "you", and that's how solipsism works.

(A fine point, though, and well worth remembering.)

[byronss]

I think i just learned a bit about this one. The worst pen in all of creation is the one you just bought for a lot of money that turns out not to fit you. Interestingly, this is probably the best pen in all of creation to another "you."

 

Totally agree! I've had just such an experience with a Nakaya. The nib was a nightmare for me - and it was the second nib! The first was also a nightmare and I sent it back. Didn't bother sending the second one back, because I figured I'd just get more of the same. Two months later and a lot of tinkering, it's now lovely and smooth but a tad too broad for me, but that took quite a bit of work, and it should have been right in the first place! If it had been a cheap Chinese pen, it would have gone in the bin.

 

 

 

[Anitropius]

Haven't had that many bad experiences with any pen that I've owned - but the one I liked the least was a Parker Vector that came in that Vector Caligraphy set. You got three nibs in it, but they all tended to be quite scratchy and not that very fun to write with, so I ended up giving up on fountain pens for a few years, settling with my Pilot V5 rollerballs because my sixteen year old self didn't want to spend more than 15 bucks on a pen, and there really was no other alternative to the Vector in that price range for me. I still wish that some mysterious stranger would've come around with a Lamy Safari or Sheaffer No Nonsense and enlightened me in those days...

Edited February 4, 2013 by Anitropius

[trent]

My worst pens ever have been an absurdly dry Parker Sonnet, two leaky Lamy 2000s, and just about every Hero pen I've ever tried. The Zebra V-301 was pretty awful too, especially when I tried to post the cap, but it only cost about four bucks. Aurora Styles and most Watermans that I have tried haven't been too great either.

[Sandy Fry]

Zebra V-301...absolute garbage pen.

[BT-7274]

Another Parker Vector rant...Back in 6th grade(whoa, 6 years ago), loaded with whatever black ink it came with, it kept leaking ink all over my hands. No matter what I did, my hands would be stained black by the end of the day. Despite that being my first experience with fountain pens, here I am. I guess I could say 'at least it was smooth'.

 

Now, that Vector did have a matching rollerball, which was by FAR, more reliable. Sadly, someone absconded with it during an engineering class just last year.

[johnmetta]

Nope: it's the best pen in all creation to some other freak: there's only ever one "you", and that's how solipsism works.

(A fine point, though, and well worth remembering.)

 

I meant "you" in the first case in the sense of "one;" thus, "you" in the second case was meant to imply "another one." Hence the quotes. Although, given that confusion, it would have been better phrased to use the impersonal pronoun.

Edited February 4, 2013 by johnmetta

[TLab3000]

The late 70ies Pelikano model. It was not just me, everybody hated them. We had to use them in class and I still think it was really irresponsable to force little children to learn writing with this horrible instrument. It traumatised us (so to speak, fountain pen wise) and because of this bad experience many of us have never tried a "real" FP.

Seriously, it was diffult for many pupils to learn how to write. But adding to the problem by having them use pens that don't work properly made it a really frustrating experience for some of us.

[de_pen_dent]

That's an interesting point. I have two Ipsilons, the older style where the cap ring has two black bands and the words Aurora and Italy in contrasting silver lettering, and the newer style where the cap band is a fairly plain metal band with the wording engraved into it.

 

My older one is a black and silver version with a sterling silver cap, the newer one is an Ipsilon Deluxe in blue with gold coloured trim.

 

Somehow, despite it's 14K nib, the blue and gold Deluxe looks and feels incredibly cheap and tacky. It's very light, the plastic doesn't feel particularly great, the clip sits on the cap slightly askew, the blue infill colour on the clip isn't accurately applied, the cap ring looks nasty, the injection moulding lines are clearly present on the section and the converter isn't the best. It looks and feels like a cheap promotional give away.

 

The odd thing is that many of these characteristics are shared with the black version but somehow it looks and feels much nicer. The converter is the same, the plastics are probably the same, the moulding marks on the grip are also there, but the sterling silver cap gives it a little more weight as well as a little more class, the black and silver cap ring looks much better then the new style plain brass ring, the clip sits straight and there is no inaccurately applied coloured infill on the clip to ruin the appearance.

 

All in all, I think the quality of materials and construction, other than the cap obviously, is the same between the two pens, but there are just enough small niggles with the Deluxe that make it appear shoddy, whereas the black and silver version appears to be a better quality pen.

 

I am sorry for the slow response - I missed your reply earlier. Thanks for elaborating - that was very useful!

[dadoody]

Parker Urban.

 

I'd do better to dip a twig into an ink bottle and write with better smoothness and flow.

[Pen2009]

Any Parker and Cross. I don't even remember which model I had problems with; but, I remember their logos on my problem pens. To this day, no Parker nor Cross pens in my collection.

[marigolds]

I really hate my Lamy Studio. It's kind of dry-ish and a little skippy and just generally finicky. Too bad, because the cobalt blue rubbery stuff it's coated with is so pretty, and feels nice in the hand--but it's just no fun to write with. (For me.)

[nicholasyeo]

It was a certain Lamy Safari. Lucky everything after that was wonderful!

[torstar]

For what I paid and lost in time for repair before finally ditching it, the Parker Sonnet.

 

FPN is filled with complaints and praise for this particular pen.

[swain]

Have to add my voice to the Parker Vector victims. Horrible noisy scratchy nib--had people complaining about the noise in meetings.

The worst. And no adjustment would improve the wretched thing.

[brewerjeff]

Zebra V-301...absolute garbage pen.

 

So many horrible pens, so little time.

 

Amen. on the Zebra. I think this is an attempt to discourage people from using FPs. Its inability to write probably is a result of having a wick instead of a feed. Maybe if one left it upside down long enough the wick would become saturated and then write properly. I lost patience and tore mine apart, looking for the evil within. Then Trash.

 

The Noodlers roller ball I was foolish enough to buy was the same way. A couple of days of non-use and the wick became impenetrable. It is easy and cheap to replace the wicky thingy.... if that's your idea of a fun writing experience.

 

My latest "worst pen award" goes to a trio of Indian Serwex pens.

 

The "free" Special (10p)that the vendor included was so scratchy I never inked it up. Maybe with a few hours work I could get 'er going but why? Do I need another burping ED? With about 53 rupees to the dollar, and 100P per rupee, a "10p" pen would cost, approximately... $.001877 ? Maybe the "P" stands for something else.

 

The Serwex 162 piston filler actually works, except the piston mech is do hard to use I have only filled it twice (?) There must be some way to lubricate it, but how, and I have pens that write without the work.

 

The Serwex MB has one major flaw, the snap on cap does not want to snap off. The fit is so tight that I actually experience pain in my arthritic wrists trying to pull the cap off. This morning I thought I'd try again. The force of pulling the cap off pulled the plastic threaded section out of the metal barrel part! How useful is that? It would be possible to use, I guess, if I had nothing else, not even a No2 yellow pencil, then.... I think I'd try another Zebra V-301 first (see above).

[Sailor Kenshin]

All you had to do with the Zebra was dip it a couple of times in any ink, then write. From that point it wrote reliably until the cart was empty.

[basterma]

For me it was a Chinese Youth plunger filler that burped like a herd of cattle and had a nib with almost no tipping that required so much force to write it cut paper. If you used light pressure you got a line that was dashed with such narrow sweet spot... Even though it cost less than a dollar (I think the stationer knew they were duds) I so wanted it to work because I had a Youth Parker 51 clone that was (and still is) an amazing pen to write with.

 

I agree on the Base. Schneider makes some really nice writers for the money. I have a folded nib pen and even its a nice writer.

 

Lamy is in the middle for me. The nibs just don't do it for me. Its the same nib on every pen and each time I am just underwhelmed. The styling promises more than what I personally get out of the nibs. If the pens looked more bland, I wouldn't notice as much...