Had I But Known - My Most Painful Newbie Mistakes

[Chouffleur]

I recently quoted someone here on a less-specialized platform (G+). One of the commenters wrote, "Lots of gems on FPN."

 

He was right of course. The original quote was from mhosea, "You can learn about pitfalls without actually falling into pits."

 

With that in mind, please describe an early stumble, what it cost you, and what you learned.

 

The pitfall I avoid may be the one you warn me about. For which I shall be grateful.

 

 

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https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/204724-how-not-to-adjust-a-nib/page-3?do=findComment&comment=2812771

[The Blue Knight]

Never carry around a pen you cannot afford to lose only carry those that you can.

 

I lost a Parker Sonnet Matte GT only a week after buying it. It wasn't the most expensive pen in the world however at that time it was my nicest pen and one I couldn't really afford to lose it wasn't until 8 months later I did replace it. From that point onwards I only carry sub £15 pen around at uni.

 

Don't polish shiny metal clips.

 

This is my most recent mistake I noticed one or two tiny marks on my Diplomat Excellence A clip and I had the stupid idea of using a polishing wheel and polishing compound to polish out the marks. However to my horror when I started doing so it revealed a copper alloy base metal which has ruined the look of the pen and I will probably need to buy a new cap which I imagine will cost £50 or so.

[Uncial]

Don't fork out big money on a pen you haven't seen and tried in the flesh.

 

Don't buy one fountain pen and decide whether to keep up the habit or ditch it on the basis of that single pen.

 

Take 'rave reviews' with a pinch of salt (or at least until you have seen it and tried it yourself).

 

Marry someone who is stupidly rich and accept no pre-nups.

[ernestcow]

Not sure if it counts but, leaving a perfectly round pen uncapped next to you because of a distraction. The sight of pens falling isn't pleasant hahaha

[AAAndrew]

Buying a vintage pen for the celluloid and not looking at the nib.

 

Buying un-restored vintage without knowing what's involved with restoration.

 

Not looking at the tipping on a vintage pen before buying it.

 

I'm sure I'll think of many more since I'm rather good at making mistakes, but usually I learn from them (after a time or ten)

[EricaTX]

Buying two bottles of the same ink because you love it so much. It actually takes quite a bit of time to go through a bottle of ink, and your second one will just sit there.

 

Find tutorials on YouTube. My favorite are the ones Brian Goulet does.

[Cordovian]

Visconti clips don't actually clip. Visconti's also don't fair very well when they fall to a tile floor. Two very important Visconti lessons I learned the hard way.

 

The Michelangelo cost me $395 but Viconti fixed it for $50 and a twelve week wait.

[sandy101]

Quality is better than quantity.

 

Quality includes personal features - grip, weight, nib size and your own writing style - not all pens will be comfortable for you, and that doesn't change as the price increases. A £150 pen that's too heavy for you, is a £150 paperweight.

 

Cheap pens can be quality pens, but ten cheap pens (and postage) add up to a storage problem - and you probably could have bought one more expensive pen and got what you wanted in the 1st place.

 

Not all inks are suitable for all FPs. Sometimes they're too dry - sometimes to wet. Try a different ink before engaging in a lengthy repair.

 

New pens can come with gunk in them and may need a flush before being filled with ink.

 

Not all notebooks/papers accept FP ink equally. This forum is a good resource to help you decide which suit you.

 

A pen case is a really good idea. Never underestimate the ability of a pen to unscrew or uncap itself and fill your pocket with ink. A pen case prevents this.

 

Make sure you know what the filling system. International Cartridges will not fit Parkers, and very old Waterman pens will not accept today's Waterman Cartridges. Trying to fit the wrong cartridge into the wrong pen can be messy and frustrating. Easily done - as it is not always clear which pen takes which.

 

 

Postcards and many other kinds of paper hate FP ink. Carry a biro/rollerball for these eventualities.

 

People love receiving letters - use your pens to write some - you will get a lot back.

[Kuscer]

Don't adjust your own nibs.

Don't use Diamine ink (personal experience, the GUNK!!!)

Don't buy a Vanishing Point (maybe mine's...defective...? or something?)

[spotted and speckled]

Carry a small Nalgene bottle for your ink, like these: http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10000245&N=&Ntt=nalgene

 

As a newbie, I traveled cross country for a week-long conference and brought a bottle of ink to refill from. Bad idea. The cap cracked sometime during the airflight and I thought I was going to have to buy the hotel new carpeting.

[thatotherguy1]

You know that thing that television doctors always seem to do with a freshly filled syringe of medication? The flicking the side with your fingernail then removing the air by slowly pressing the plunger towards the sky and stop when the medication starts forming a drop at the end of the needle?

 

Yeah, don't do that with an ink syringe filled with Private Reserve Avocado. Voice of experience. I'm still finding spots of green months after the incident.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Do Not join the Pen of the Week in the Mail Club. It is addicting waiting for the mailman.

Pen of the Month either.

 

Pen of the Quarter is a much better pen Club.

You then have months to learn more about fountain pens and by saving your money can get a better one.

 

Chase the nib, not the make and model. You can buy all 51 variants and colors of a P-51....and end up with only 3 (F, M&B in nail) of the 45 or more nibs of various widths and flexes.

 

After you are no longer satisfied with your modern blobby nail/semi-nail nib, alternate between getting them Stubbed and made Cursive Italic. F, M, B & BB...as you will. It saves the amount of pens needed.

Personally I wouldn't go with either in EF....but some folks eyes are so good they can see the difference between a Stubbed EF and a Cursive Italic EF.

 

Semi-vintage (Pelikans before 1997), or Vintage ('60's and before) pens give you a first class pen with better than modern nibs, at an affordable price. Better balance too.

Do learn to post your Standard and medium-long pens....they are then long enough posted and have such good balance posted. Some folks absolutely refuse for religious grounds to post and have the nerve to say a Standard or Medium-Long pen is too small for them.

 

IMO you waste money buying new....or modern....but I'm an old fashioned guy.

Do buy your used pens from some one reputable ... will cost more, but he won't sell you a bad pen.

A modern pen bought used saves you 1/3-1/2 the cost....if pre-owned makes you happier than used; fine.

 

Pen Repair, second edition by Jim Marshall&Laurence Oldfield is the best pen repair book around. Better than Frank Dubel's one (the first repair book).....best though is to buy pens not needing repair.

Some old pens that sat in a drawer for a generation will need a new rubber sac or cork.

 

Buy a good coated glass loupe of 10-12 X.....buy a rubber baby ear/nose syringe to clean up pens, both twist off nib and C/C pens. A needle syringe is good to have too.

[Azura]

Don't adjust your own nibs.

Don't use Diamine ink (personal experience, the GUNK!!!)

Don't buy a Vanishing Point (maybe mine's...defective...? or something?)

Diamine Midnight blue is personally my favorite dark blue ink. Yes they prone to smear...

[Mannyonpil]

I love Diamine ink. I use Merlot routinely, along with Eclipse. I just got Green/Black and Twilight and love those too, although not quite as much as Merlot. They are thicker inks, to be sure, but they are just gorgeous and I have not had a single problem with them thus far.

 

Azura, I will try Midnight Blue. I have been thinking about it or a while but I already have more ink than I can use...

[Mannyonpil]

My best newbie mistake: snapping a pen in half because it was in my pants front pocket and I sat down.

[ac12]

hind-sight is 20/20

 

#1 - Never carry around a pen you cannot afford to lose only carry those that you can. (same as Blue Knight)

I had a 14k gold Cross pen stolen from my desk at work, during the day. After that no more good pens went to work with me. To this day, decades later, I am still upset at that loss. My carry/office pens now are inexpensive but good writers. My good pens stay at home.

 

#2 - Be VERY VERY careful when trying to remove a section.

It is all to easy to overheat the barrel and damage/destroy the barrel of the pen, or break the barrel by not using heat. I have a few of these in my AW SH*T box.

 

#3 - When loading/transferring ink, ALWAYS stabilize the bottle/vial. I accidentally knocked over a vial of ink, luckily the mess and damage was contained, but it came very close to staining the table cloth, and that would have been BAD, $$. I now stabilize the bottle or ink vial and I do all my ink transfer/loading in a baking tray, to contain any spills.

 

#4 - Bathroom sinks will stain.

I now flush my pens into a 1-gallon tub, so I don't get ink onto the bathroom sink. Then I dilute the flushed ink in the tub with more water, then pour that diluted ink into the toilet and IMMEDIATELY flush the toilet.

 

#5 - An UltraSonic Cleanner (USC) is not a magic cleaner and has to be used with care.

I completely deplated a gold plated nib with my USC. I now carefully inspect and limit how much I clean a plated nib.

 

#6 - Inspect the nib (as Andrew said)

I bought a pen, only to find that the tip of one tine was broken off. And it was an "all sales are final" so the antique dealer would not take it back. CRUM.

 

#7 - If you find an ink you like, BUY IT.

I delayed buying an ink that I wanted, and when I was ready to buy, the seller had gone out of business. CRUM.

Similarly for limited run inks, sample it early to determine if you want it or not. Sometimes you can't sample and you have to rely on the online ink samples, which are not always accurate.

 

#8 - If you find a pen you like, BUY IT.

I wanted to buy a WHITE Lamy joy, but I kept delaying the purchase. When I was ready to buy, the pen had been discontinued, and most of the US dealers had cleared their stock. I had to buy one at full price and another from England. So watch the limited editions or limited runs. Unfortunately this also means you need to have a fund $$$ already built up for such purchases, as you cannot save up for something that could disappear in a few months, or less.

 

#9 - Whenever possible get/buy ink samples, before committing to buy a bottle.

Ink samples are only $1.25, a full bottle could cost from $10 to $30. Buying a bottle of ink, only to find that you don't like the color can be costly.

 

#10 - Practice repairs on CHEAP expendable pens, not pens you really want to keep.

The hidden tuition of learning to repair pens are the pens that you destroy as you are learning.

This is my AW SH*T box.

 

#11 - Recognize when a repair is over your head and get help, or send it to a pro to do.

 

#12 - False belief that, "because it is on the internet, it has to be true."

Some of the stuff out there are just plain wrong.

Others are worse, the poster is doing something incorrect on purpose, so you screw up your repair and wreck your pen.

Look for multiple sources of information to cross-check what you find, and help to find errors or frauds.

Edited June 9, 2015 by ac12

[The Blue Knight]

Some good advice ac12

 

Another one from me

 

#13 A collection is not built over night.

 

What I mean by this is when you first come onto any pen forum there seems to be overwhelming feeling that your 1 or 2 pens aren't good enough and you need a whole collection. I know I felt the same 2 years ago. I ended up buying primarily low cost sub standard pens because I was so eager to have a collection. However I didn't realise the joys of having a few pens you actually use rather regularly rather then many you use infrequently. I ended up selling and giving away most of them. I think only in the last 6 months I have actually started building a proper collection. That leads me onto another.

 

#14 Try to plan purchases out and set a pen budget

 

We have all done seen a pen online and go ooh cheap and 2 weeks later when it arrives in the mail you ask yourself why on earth did I buy this. So therefore leave it a few days maybe a few weeks before purchasing so you have time to think it through. Also try to analyse whether a pen compliments the pens the you already own it you are aiming towards a collection. A budget helps with this as when you only have x to play with you will make sure it is better spent.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

In no particular order, some lessons I think I've learned.

 

1. Don't buy more than three models of the "good starter pens" than the kind people around here mention. If you have three pens already, each of which cost you $40 or less, start considering more upscale models, or start looking at vintage. Or decide that you're already satisfied and call it good.
2. Don't try to widen the tine gap on a dry writing steel nib by pushing it down on the paper. Read the FAQ threads for better ways to deal with this. The fact that I got away with it once proves nothing.
3. Despite what I said in lesson #1, buying a more expensive pen that is widely recommended doesn't guarantee that you won't have problems out of the box.
4. Some nib problems out of the box turn out to be that this particular nib needs to be rotated differently, or held at a different angle than you're used to.
5. Get a loupe, 10X or 15X. Inspect any nib under it before attempting any smoothing.
6. Remember that many people have strong opinions for or against some particular pen based on their sample of one. Think of that when taking others advice on what to buy.
7. Remember that your experience with a given pen will probably be based on a sample of one. Take that into account when making recommendations.
8. Restoring vintage pens can be a lot of fun, and there is great satisfaction in seeing some apparent piece of junk turned into a reliable writer, knowing that you did it.
9. But, that said, not every restoration goes the way it should, or not easily. Practice on something that won't be worth much even if perfectly restored, a Wearever, Arnold, or another third tier brand. It may still turn out to be a perfectly adequate writer.
10. Remember that most of the advice around here is well meant, but not all of it is good. That absolutely includes anything that I write.

[Zanshin]

Vac fillers expel a lot of air on the downstroke before they fill. If you forget this and fill from a new, full ink bottle, the ensuing explosion of ink is something to behold...and takes a lot of cleaning up.

[ancalagon]

Don't impulse buy, especially from office supply stores. Their selection (at least in the U.S.) is awful, and likely overpriced. My first 2 pens were $40 and $50 from office supply stores, both relatively expensive (for me) and neither one made me happy.

 

Don't impulse buy a random ink if you haven't read a review or tried a sample. My success rate with bottles of ink where I haven't read a review or tried a sample is zero. I have tried bottles where I only read reviews and it turned out fine, but that's a bit risky. Often, I'll think (based on reviews) that I'm going to love an ink, then I get the sample and I'm completely disenchanted. Other times, I'll put an ink in a bunch of samples I'm getting, thinking I probably won't be interested, and I'm blown away by how great it is.

 

Don't get the popular thing merely because it's popular. I got a Lamy Safari, despite finding it quite ugly and being uninterested in it, because people are always talking about how great it is.