Nemosine Singularity Demonstrator First Impressions

[jvcn]

I really want to like this pen. I love demonstrators and this is a very reasonably priced one. I also wanted the fine stub nib (0.6). My initial impression is negative. And that's mostly the nib. The look of the pen and the overall balance and feel are good. The converter is normal and ok. I'm odd in that I prefer aerometric systems and converters to either the standard ones or to piston fills. But I recognize what the market wants and live with it.

 

But the nib is rough, dry, and scratchy. Tried 3 different inks (Sheaffer Skrip Black, Noodler's Zhivago, and Chesterfield Ancient Copper) to no avail. I called xfountainpens and they told me to try to realign the nib. I tried to do that and it helps a tad, but only a tad. Without heavy pressure the line is faint and watery. They will probably be sending me a replacement. I bought 8 Jinhao 599s for ~18 bucks and so far of the five I've tried, all five write better and more smoothly with no tweaking than this pen.

 

I hope the new one is good as I really want to like this pen.

 

This comment may not be representative of the run of the mill Nemosine but I think it's worth recording bad experiences as well as good. Certainly a chinese pen with a nib this bad would be damned to high heaven. But I rarely pay more than $6 for a chinese pen and roughly half work fine out of the box and many of the others can be tweaked easily. At that low a price I can be more forgiving and consider 50-50 a good deal.

 

This isn't a Pelikan or Montblanc so it's not fatal. Still, it's a bad first impression. I like the fact that some dealers test their pens before sending them out though that practice may be controversial.

 

Will follow up if I get a replacement.

 

 

[Gloucesterman]

I have six of the Nemosine pens, three of which are demonstrators (1 - 0.6, 1 - 0.8 & an EF). All of these have come from xFountainpen.com. One required a bit of smoothing and a nib adjustment (easily pulled out and replaced) to write very well.

 

My purchases from Todd and xFP have been satisfactory. IMO you are working with a very good organization who will work with you to make things right.

 

BTW, (No affiliation)

[sannidh]

Is this so similar to TWSBI?

 

TWSBI shared this

Edited September 9, 2015 by soniknitr

[Starguard]

I just got a Nemosine demonstrator myself a few days ago, It has a medium nib and it wrote very well right out of the box. I've been very happy with it so far.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Katherines

[jvcn]

Xfountainpens has been quite responsive. They're sending me a new nib and also a small ink sample that they made a mistake on in the first order as well.

 

We'll see how the new nib writes. I don't expect miracles but I fully expect it to hold its own against some recent Jinhaos and Sheaffer No Nonsense pens I picked up for small change.

[spaceink]

I like my Nemosine demonstrator. When I lost it, I quickly ordered another one. Have been very happy with the 0.8mm stub so far. Wrote well out of the box. Maybe yours just needs a little nib adjustment with some 12k grit mesh.

[MKB]

I really like the narrow 0.6 Nemosine stub. So much so that use it in other pens that except a #6 nib. So far so good on the ones I've received.

[jvcn]

I got the new 0.6 stub today. Fortunately it writes decently out of the box. I think I still need to tweak it a bit and it's not quite as smooth as the default stubs on my vintage early 90s Sheaffer calligraphy pens but it's clearly an acceptable writer. The other one is still scratchy and not quite right no matter how much I fooled with it.

 

Plus one for service from xfountainpens. Good and quick response. Will buy pens and inks from them again even if the jury is still out on the Nemosine.

[onetwothree]

I've been quite unlucky with Nemosines to be honest.

I bought my first one that come with a broad nib. That pen worked nicely, fairly wet and really smooth. The most impressive part is that the pen itself (ignoring the nib) looked and felt way superior in term of quality to other pens and in particularly to other demonstrator. I genuinely think Nemosine body is nicer and probably better made than many much more expensive pens (Pilot Custom 74 demonstrator im looking at you). Unfortunately broad nibs and me dont get along very much, for one they are fairly impractical for every day use. Filling forms (with tiny tiny squares for your to put long numbers) or even writing on cheap ink-feathering paper just make these pens fairly hard to work with (not to mention the ink expenditure; i've ran out of ink in my nemosine within 2 hours of starting to use it).

So whats wrong with it you'd ask? well the fact that after i was pretty in love with my first i bought a second trying to reach a more reasonable balance with practicality, and when that nib didnt work, i bought a third pen, and when that pen didn't work i ordered a half dozen separate nibs to try different sizes and styles and none of them work. I probably have like 10 nemosine nibs lying around the house and only the first initial broad nib worked well from start. Eventually I've got the rest to "kind of work", not being a nibmeister or not even decent for that matter, i worked myself on the nibs and they can work but they are still quite temperamental (would dry out quickly, or have writing angles way more restrictive than what you would expect for such kind of nib cut, etc)

My hope is that eventually I can find a nib that would work with this pen from another brand (tried a noodler's nib and while it fits, it not a perfect fit and has startup issues, i figure with some work it could work but this pen is too nice to have a franken' pen).

All things considered I would not recommend this pen unless you can either return it easily (without any kind of cost to yourself for your works), or you can work on the nib or change it for a good one.

[RMH]

Have had a Nemo demonstrator with both a .6 & a .8 nib for a month. Both nibs worked well without fiddling with them. I find the .8 to be the best practical writer at work (meaning crappy paper). Also, I use Quink & R&K Salix.

[Pen_Noob]

My pen is outputting lots of ink blobs on paper. So not usable.

[MKB]

My pen is outputting lots of ink blobs on paper. So not usable.

I've had similar experiences and finding caps filled with ink. I've been careful to fully seat the nib and feed as suggested. I wonder if I'm getting air leaks at the converter connection. Seems not to be a snug fit. I do like the smaller stubs though.

[Pen_Noob]

Well, I found out something interesting. Think Nemosine is manufactured by Jinhao, at least the feed from a Jinhao X450 (i think it is that model) fit perfectly into it. Still with Nemosine's feed, the Jinhao is working nicely, Nemosine likes too do the thing with ink blobs. And fully seating feed and nib doesn't help either.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Pen_Noob

[wmfowler]

I have six of the Nemosine pens, three of which are demonstrators (1 - 0.6, 1 - 0.8 & an EF). All of these have come from xFountainpen.com. One required a bit of smoothing and a nib adjustment (easily pulled out and replaced) to write very well.

 

My purchases from Todd and xFP have been satisfactory. IMO you are working with a very good organization who will work with you to make things right.

 

BTW, (No affiliation)

 

Very happy with my Singularity from xFP. Standard XF nib in the clear demonstrator and it has been a true workhorse as well as a pleasure. Consider me a pleasantly surpised and very satisfied customer.

[Pen_Noob]

Update on my situation.

The technical support of xFountainpen is awesome. Even if I am quite far away I got sent a new replacement section and feed.

Now the pen writes very well, pretty wet but controlled and it a pleasure to use.

I especially like the grip it is long enough and girthy enough so that I don't feel fatigue even after a long writing section.

To my surprise I am considering it now to be one of the best pens I have.

[Bookman]

I have a demonstrator Nemosine Singularity. I also have a red one. They're a little over two years old. I've never had a problem with either one. I bought Goulet/JoWo nibs for them, one F and one EF. The eyedropper option really makes this pen for me. I prefer to use them as eyedroppers. I've even run Noodler's Baystate Blue in my eyedropper-demonstrator. Here's that story.