The Worst Pen Ever

[Fabienne]

In my case, I loved the looks of the Jinhao X450. The first I bought was a real pain, since the section would run out of ink and the pen would stop writing; I had to prime it every five minutes or so. I bought three more, trying to get one to "write right". None of them did. All of them had exactly the same problem. The feeders of those pens are a joke. I have never seen anything so poorly constructed. One of them looked like it had even been rubbed with rubber cement for some reason. The feeder back center guide was a piece of plastic stick, stuck loose in the back hole of the feeder... in a few words: ridiculous. I was never able to have one of those pens writing properly.

 

The same thing happened to me. Exactly the same. Those pens ended up hitting the trash. I spent far too much time on them and they never performed. I think the feed doesn't send ink to the nib fast enough and that is that.

[fpconvert]

What is the absolute WORST, stupidest pen you've ever had in your possession?

 

I mean the crappiest, most non-usable FP. The hardest to start, the scratchiest nib. Whatever.

 

Now is thy chance to rant.

An old vintage Parker 51 in ugly green and gold. The pen used the old fashioned rubber bubble. It use to leak, ink burp while writing, slow starting, and skip.

 

I got mad one day when the ink leaked all over the place right after opening the cap I threw it and it hit a wall like a dart.

[fpconvert]

Because of this I have NEVER looked at or ever purchased a Parker pen.

[lahlahlaw]

Yup... Zebra V301: simply awful!!!

I second this pen with a big fat 2! It is offensive that Zebra engineers would design such a worthless turd. I think I'm going to smash it into pieces and post the pictures here for everyone's enjoyment!

[scrivelry]

Easy, my Zebra V301. If you dislike someone so much that you wish they never get the joy of fountain pen use, just buy them one of these and they will stay away from FPs for decades.

 

Well, it's actually not that bad, it's worse, much worse.

 

Something of a relief to read this. I can't get mine to work. I've been looking at the barrel, which looks like some calligraphy thingers I have, and wondering if the calligraphy points would fit in there.

 

Not that they work very well, but they do work. Whereas the V301... I totally feel your pain.

 

(And before the "you get what you pay for" squad arrives, I've got Bic disposables that work just fine, as do my Pilot Varsities which I just wish weren't so broad-nibbed. So, clearly, a workable pen can be had at the price. the V-301 just is not it.)

 

T

[scrivelry]

 

this!

 

i loved using their mechanical pencils as a kid, so when i saw they made a pen i thought i would check it out. its so bad i use it to poke holes in things

 

Oh, I love this! I will have to try it with mine...

 

T

[carlosviet]

This is fun!

 

Up to this moment in the mentions of people, Zebra leads the race closely chased by Parker vector

 

Zebra 301 15

Parker Vector 12

Parker Sonnet 9

Lamy Safari 7

Hero 616 6

Platignum 6

Platinum Preppy 6

Noodlers Ahab 5

Noodlers Konrad 5

Aurora Ipsilon 4

Noodlers Flex 3

Noodlers 3

Noodlers Demostrator 3

Pelikano 3

Hero 2

Jinhao 2

Jinhao x450 2

Lamy 2000 2

Montblanc 146 2

Parker Arrow 2

Parker 45 2

Parker Frontier 2

Parker 51 2

Sheaffer Skripsert 2

 

(etc)

 

Grouping by brands, Parker seems unreachable!

 

Parker 42

Noodlers 22

Zebra 15

Sheaffer 13

Lamy 10

Hero 9

Platignum 6

Montblanc 5

Waterman 5

Aurora 4

Jinhao 4

Pilot 4

Conklin 3

Omas 3

Pelikano 3

Cross 2

Osmiroid 2

Pelikan 2

Platinum 2

Visconti 2

Edited September 16, 2013 by carlosviet

[GabrielleDuVent]

Parker 51 that I tried. Made an awful lot of scritch noises, didn't write, too thick, too heavy... needless to say, I didn't buy it, despite the clerk's "they all disappear after a day or two of use!".

[robofkent]

Sad fact of life that not all pens are going to work for everyone. I have a Parker Vector that I am very fond of.......on the other hand I have a Parker Premier that I wish I had never bought....it is too heavy and despite its gold nib feels too stiff and nasty.

[akustyk]

For me, it's got to be the Noodler's Ahab. I've tried two, and each was unusable out-of-the-box. I finally get one to write, sort of, after playing with the feed/nib settings, but still it was awful. The nib was scratchy, and dry. The whole filling mechanism messy. The section uncomfortable to hold. Overall, it's a badly designed, badly manufactured pen. Yes, I do understand that it's super cheap, but, the Preppy is cheap, too, yet, writes, in my experience, very nicely.

[PAKMAN]

the best pen on earth = the worst pen on earth

 

You can take almost any pen and find one person that has had a wonderful experience and another that has had a horrible experience. Some it that is QC from the factory or damage that was done by a previous owner for used pens. Most of it is the fact that some like wet nibs, others like dry nibs, some like buttery nibs others love feedback, heft vs light, wide vs thin, broad vs ef, user adjustable vs factory perfect. With billions of us on the planet and no two alike in our wants and desires it is highly unlikely that the "Perfect" pen would satisfy even a decent percentage of we fountain pen users!!!

 

If it doesn't fit how we think a pen should write, look, feel etc. then it becomes a bad pen or maybe the worse pen we have ever encountered.

 

My Worst pen ever was a Lamy 2000 which I gave up on and sold at a pen show... one of my best pens ever was the Lamy 2000 I bought the same day at the same pen show.

 

Bought a brand new Pilot Falcon sf and was determined to love it.. hated it, sold it! Ever the optimist, I may try another one, one day!

[WirsPlm]

I got a generic Chinese cloisonne pen, basically because it was shiny and pretty. The nib was terrible, scratchy and blotchy (using it felt like dragging my fingernails down a chalk board). I tried smoothing it, widening it, and finally had to give up and just put it in a drawer. I do like the way it looks, so I may see about a replacement nib at some point, but for now I'm happy with my other pens.

[pajaro]

Wearever.

[sandy101]

Platignum no 5. It came with a ball point in a nice box, but the ink flow was poor - even with the cartridge they provided. I washed it out, but it still stops - particularly on down strokes.

 

It looks the part, but doesn't really do the job. Chocolate fire guard springs to mind.

[rwilsonedn]

Carlosviet:

Thanks for the running tabulation! It's really remarkable to me that Noodlers has been able to accomplish so much in so short a time. It's taken Parker generations.

ron

[Pterodactylus]

the best pen on earth = the worst pen on earth

 

You can take almost any pen and find one person that has had a wonderful experience and another that has had a horrible experience. Some it that is QC from the factory or damage that was done by a previous owner for used pens. Most of it is the fact that some like wet nibs, others like dry nibs, some like buttery nibs others love feedback, heft vs light, wide vs thin, broad vs ef, user adjustable vs factory perfect. With billions of us on the planet and no two alike in our wants and desires it is highly unlikely that the "Perfect" pen would satisfy even a decent percentage of we fountain pen users!!!

 

If it doesn't fit how we think a pen should write, look, feel etc. then it becomes a bad pen or maybe the worse pen we have ever encountered.

 

My Worst pen ever was a Lamy 2000 which I gave up on and sold at a pen show... one of my best pens ever was the Lamy 2000 I bought the same day at the same pen show.

 

Bought a brand new Pilot Falcon sf and was determined to love it.. hated it, sold it! Ever the optimist, I may try another one, one day!

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img268/7183/ou6w.jpg

 

(Parker Vector - M ..... Parker Quink Blue Black)

(Noodler´s Ahab EMF ..... Rohrer & Klingner Salix)

[Christi0469]

the best pen on earth = the worst pen on earth

 

You can take almost any pen and find one person that has had a wonderful experience and another that has had a horrible experience. Some it that is QC from the factory or damage that was done by a previous owner for used pens. Most of it is the fact that some like wet nibs, others like dry nibs, some like buttery nibs others love feedback, heft vs light, wide vs thin, broad vs ef, user adjustable vs factory perfect. With billions of us on the planet and no two alike in our wants and desires it is highly unlikely that the "Perfect" pen would satisfy even a decent percentage of we fountain pen users!!!

 

If it doesn't fit how we think a pen should write, look, feel etc. then it becomes a bad pen or maybe the worse pen we have ever encountered.

 

My Worst pen ever was a Lamy 2000 which I gave up on and sold at a pen show... one of my best pens ever was the Lamy 2000 I bought the same day at the same pen show.

 

Bought a brand new Pilot Falcon sf and was determined to love it.. hated it, sold it! Ever the optimist, I may try another one, one day!

 

 

The exception to this is the Zebra 301 which seems to be universally despised. There are also pens that suffer from poor quality control. User adjustable is nice provided that the pen is usable out of the box. The placement of the cap threads on the Konrad is really inexcusable (you can bend the tip of the nib if you close the cap all the way.

[MBFan]

I really dislike using my MB 145 and Pelikan M205... there's nothing wrong with them per se, but they're just...blaeeehhh. Nope, me no likey!

[fpconverted]

Vintage parker 51 in an ugly gold cap and green body.

This pen never flowed properly from day one, would blob hiccup and leak.

[Blade Runner]

the best pen on earth = the worst pen on earth

 

You can take almost any pen and find one person that has had a wonderful experience and another that has had a horrible experience. Some it that is QC from the factory or damage that was done by a previous owner for used pens. Most of it is the fact that some like wet nibs, others like dry nibs, some like buttery nibs others love feedback, heft vs light, wide vs thin, broad vs ef, user adjustable vs factory perfect. With billions of us on the planet and no two alike in our wants and desires it is highly unlikely that the "Perfect" pen would satisfy even a decent percentage of we fountain pen users!!!

 

If it doesn't fit how we think a pen should write, look, feel etc. then it becomes a bad pen or maybe the worse pen we have ever encountered.

 

My Worst pen ever was a Lamy 2000 which I gave up on and sold at a pen show... one of my best pens ever was the Lamy 2000 I bought the same day at the same pen show.

 

Bought a brand new Pilot Falcon sf and was determined to love it.. hated it, sold it! Ever the optimist, I may try another one, one day!

You are correct sir!