Best And Worst Pen Purchases Of Recent Years

[inkstainedruth]

Well, I've only been doing this for about 5 years. Best? Much as I want to say the Plum Parker 51 Demi, it's actually a tossup between it, the Pelikan M400 Brown Tortoise, the Sheaffer Snorkel with the factory stub nib (slightly oblique AND has some flex to it), and the Parker Vacumatic Junior Red Shadow Wave (which has been in rotation since I got it, nearly a year and a half ago. Oh, and toss in the Parker 41, simply because it was the best deal -- 50¢ at an estate sale, buried in a shoebox full of mostly ballpoints.

Worst? Probably the late model Parker Parkette (think "lever-fill version of a 21). I had a new sac put in it in November, but the darned thing won't take up liquids -- the recommendation of the repair person was to sell it "as is" for parts.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Lloyd]

I wanted such an extra-fine line for writing tinily in a Moleskine pocket-size diary. I LOVE this PO nib!

Do you still own a Franklin-Christof? If so, have you considered a Matsuyama Needlepoint?

[Aquaria]

Best: Argh. Tough one. It's a three-way tie for me:

 

Franklin Christoph 66 Stabilis in Ice, EF nib. Incredibly smooth writer, and stunning to look at.

 

Platinum 3776 in Blue Chartres with F nib. No other pen matches it for writing Japanese characters. It writes as hard as nails, surprising for a 14K nib, but it somehow feel like it's the most "acrobatic" nib I own. It can really get in there and twist and turn through kanji like nothing else.

 

Waterman Carene Blue Obsession, F nib. Beautiful pen. Beautiful writer. It's rare when I don't have it inked.

 

Worst: Another three-way tie:

 

Nemosine Singularity. I love the nibs, but I've had nothing but hideous leakage issues with all them. If it's not filling up a pen cap from being left on a desk for a couple of hours, it's leaving huge blobs of ink all over a page. Can't be trusted in my backpack, purse or pen cases.

 

Pilot Crystal. Whim buy. Very dry writer that never felt comfortable to write with.

 

Platinum Preppy. Dry nib that feels clunky to write with. I have Dollar pens that write better than this ever did. Sad, because I love the highlighter version of this very pen.

[ethernautrix]

Do you still own a Franklin-Christof? If so, have you considered a Matsuyama Needlepoint?

 

I do - two. One, the 65, is currently inked; I've been using it quite a bit actually the last couple of days. F nib. I hadn't used it in a long time and was reminded why I liked it and so poked around the F-C website. Yeah, the Masuyama Needlepoint... I wonder, hmm... The Pocket 66 sure is sweet.

[jar]

I can't think of one that I would consider as best.

 

The one that might be considered a disappointment (although it was still a very inexpensive learning opportunity) was the Pilot Custom 845 Vermilion with the BB nib. I found the urushi lifeless and boring and the nib so wet that it was just barely usable if I stuck to inks like Pelikan 4001. Someday I might try the plain black urushi version or a Yukari family version to see if the urushi has any more life.

[juulz]

What a fun thread!

 

I am very new to fountain pens, but my favorite so far is a Lamy Vista, F nib. Writes so nicely and I love snap caps so I can start writing without putting my coffee down!

 

I bought a couple of Jinhao 159's that I gave away within a week - they were just too heavy for me, although they wrote quite nicely.

[FountainPenCowgirl]

Disappointments happened early for me, so I've mostly avoided those recently and gone for known favorites. My big stretch in the last year (started as a birthday gift request) led to a new favorite brand: Visconti. I have three - a Rembrandt(? Medicine head this morning), a Van Gogh "Irises'" and a burgundy Hall of Music, all with medium nibs, all filled with a signature ink. Love, love, love their beauty and especially the tactile experience of putting them to paper.

 

I don't know I need a fourth (like I will inevitably neeeeeeeeeeeed the new Lamys), but I'm glad I made the investment in thhre

Edited January 20, 2017 by FountainPenCowgirl

[Guardy]

Best: HHHHHHNG DECISIONS! Probably my Geha Schulfüller: a vintage pen in fairly decent condition that cost me an entire 2€, hah. Besides, it's my pride and joy because I fixed it up all by myself, and it's just a really good pen that gets plenty of use.
If nibs count: That new EF nib really transformed my old Lamy AL-Star from something that... kind of exists, I guess, into one of my favorite pens.
But really, I'm very happy with most of my pens. I feel like I need to put at least one Chinese pen on here, too, but I can't decide... eh. The Wing Sung 322 is a remarkable pen - incredibly fine but very usable nib, and pretty flashy, in its own, weird way.
Then, there's my Pentel Tradio TRF, which I almost forgot to list, because I keep forgetting that I even have it... despite using it on a near-daily basis. If I need a pen, I grab this one, because it's the most reliable pen I have ever owned. It's relatively unremarkable otherwise, but if I only ever could use one pen from my collection... this would be the one. Not half bad for a sub-10€ pen.

My new Sheaffer Imperial is on its way to becoming a new favorite, as well, but it's hard to say how much of that is just 'omg new pen'-enthusiasm.

 

Worst: I can appreciate a wide variety of pens, because my tastes are incredibly fickle. As long as a pen writes, I'm usually happy with it, or will be at some point. That said...
Delta Dolcevita Federico. Massive retailer problems aside, it's clunky, uncomfortable, unreliable, doesn't even write particularly well (I genuinely have 10€ pens that write better) AND it's incredibly picky when it comes to inks. I heard a lot of great things about this pen, but it's really just... meh.

Online Academy. Granted, it's cheap and I managed to fix it and now it works fine, but really? It just flat-out didn't write when I bought it. The tines were out of alignment, the nib was scratchy AND had a massive case of baby's bottom (which is an entirely new level of rubbish), the feed was badly cut and badly aligned with the nib... The thing was about as expensive as a Lamy Safari. I don't expect much from my pens, but I do expect them to write, no matter the price. At least fixing it up was an educational experience, I guess. Quite frankly, going by past experiences I should've known better anyway... but man, that brushed metal finish is glorious.

[ENewton]

My best was a Parker 51 Demi Aero. I had written with Waterman pens for years, but then I had the chance to buy a pen in my favorite color, dark purple! It turns out to be the perfect pen for me in every respect: the weight, the shape, and how it writes.

 

The worst was a Kaweco Sport. I really liked the size and shape of the pen as pictured, but the plastic looks and feels cheap, and the nib is by far the worse of any that I have used in more than twenty years. At first I couldn't write for more than a few words without experiencing hand pain; as a longtime fountain-pen user, I wasn't accustomed to having to exert constant pressure on a nib to get the ink to flow. Fortunately, someone was able to adjust the pen for me, but I still don't like the nib, which feels brittle and as if the tipping material were somehow below the nib rather than at the tip. Of course, the Kaweco is a relatively inexpensive pen, but it doesn't even write as well as a Dollar pen, let alone a Pilot Metropolitan.

[VivienR]

Worst? All my chinese pens. They are simply unreliable. At least I have a bad track record with them. Best, well everything else. Oaky top thre: Montblanc Princesse Grace de Monaco, Sailor 1911 Large, Parker Duofold International.

[chromantic]

Best - Two Pelikan M150s, a blue Sheaffer Cadet and a black/orange Waterman Jiffie.

 

Worst - A yellow plastic Pelikan - yes, Pelikan, not Pelikano - stick pen with a folded nib that lays down two thin lines with a blank strip between them (this is called railroad?). Pelikan should be ashamed for putting their name on this.

Edited January 20, 2017 by chromantic

[requiescat]

Best of the recent couple years: Aurora Optima. I have two now, a 75th Anniversary and a blue chrome, which when put together remind me of the taegukgi on the South Korean flag. (I'm Korean-American and spent part of my childhood in Seoul.) They're perfectly balanced, the ideal weight for my taste, beautiful (I love auroloide!), and they just work.

[Buzz_130]

Best: Nakaya. Going through my pen log, the competition isn't close. I've put more ink in this converter more often than my next five pens combined.

 

I'll add a favorite category. Mine is the Parker "51" as I love this pen for work and home. I won't bring my Nakaya out of my office, so I need a pen to make the trek to work, jot mindless notes from another round of meetings, sketch ideas down when putting together correspondence for the office, and other work. The pen is subtle, beautiful, nail, reliable, and generous.

 

Worst: Visconti HS Bronze. Sure the nib is nice and gives a soft touch to the paper. But I find my Japanese soft fine nibs are equal to this experience. The nib will put down the driest ink in quantities that would leak through Rhodia paper, the fill system is unreliable, and the lack of a ink window with an unreliable fill means I can't trust the pen will write when I need it.

 

Buzz

[ISW_Kaputnik]

"Recent" years is open to interpretation. For myself, maybe I'll just keep it to the past two. My favorite and worst pens overall were bought before that, but in the past couple of years I might have thought that more experience would lead to better decisions.

 

Best, Pilot Murex. Ever since I learned of these integrated nib pens, I've wanted one, and in fact I also tracked down two of the similar MYUs. The Murex is the nicest writer of the three, a good everyday pen, and I love the simple yet beautiful design.

 

Worst, Visconti Rembrandt. By no means actually bad, it's one of those pens that makes me wonder why I wanted it. It had a tendency to dry out during writing, although I've improved that. The magnetic cap closure is a gimmick which quickly stopped impressing me. Once I actually saw it, the clip design stopped appealing to me. On the whole, a so-so pen that has made my "if I ever get around to selling" list, but there's no hurry.

[PDW]

Worst? All my chinese pens. They are simply unreliable. At least I have a bad track record with them.

 

My shoulder bag has two pen holders: I'm currently carrying a couple of my 2016 purchases: turquoise Jinhao 599 fine nib (Rotring turquoise cartridges) and a smoky black translucent Jinhao 599 fine nib (Octopus black). Plastic doesn't have the feeling of solidity as the Lamy original and the 'fine' nib is a real European EF, but they've both been utterly reliable so far, even after the bag gets thrown around - immediate start, no blotches; and silly cheap.

 

Buy now before the trade war starts

Edited January 21, 2017 by PDW

[Bluey]

Worst? All my chinese pens. They are simply unreliable. At least I have a bad track record with them.

I think you didn't wash them with water and dish soap when they first arrived.

[crescent2]

Best is hard to say; I really like almost all my pens, even the cheapies. Almost all of them write consistently well and smoothly. A few are special--the Demi 51 that was made the year I was born (it writes well but the filler could use a little work), and the Anniversary Van Gogh my daughter bought in Florence and gave me for Christmas. It's beautiful and writes well, and of course has a lot of sentimental value, too.

 

Actually I only have/had three that didn't consistently write well, so I suppose they tie for worst because of that. My free Charlie pen, despite following NT's directions, still likes to surprise me with a big blob of ink that ruins whatever I'm writing. It was free, so I can't complain. My Safari B makes every ink look very washed out. I bought it a new 1.1 nib, which isn't quite as dry and isn't great, but the only ink that really looks good from it is Yama-dori. And the recent infamous pale rose Michelangelo Venus pen--the loveliest I've seen but would absolutely refuse to write after a short page, even after one return for work by the seller. It is on its way back to the retailer for a refund.

 

Somewhat ironically, Visconti shares billing as a favorite and a worst. Imo, they are beautiful pens but quality is very inconsistent.

[amk]

Best: probably my Lamy 2000 BBBBBB with a big fat nib and incredible ink capacity and Bauhaus looks. I love it to bits. I have more expensive pens, I have more colourful pens, but this pen is just such a wonderful beast. Love it to bits.

 

Recently joined by the M400 tortoise brown with italic broad nib.

 

Worst: the monster Wing Sung 590. Was fun for a couple of days but it's just too big for me, plus the nib squeaks.

[BillH]

-snip-

It was free, so I can't complain.

-snip-

 

 

Complain away. As has been proven on the forum in uncountable threads, the price of a pen often bears NO relationship to how it writes... whether you got it free or "paid-through-the-nose" doesn't matter. If it doesn't write well, blobs and skips, and requires lots for tinkering just to be a crappy pen, so be it, call it the way you see it.

 

Come to think of it, this holds true for some really overpaid athletes and actors as well... but that's a different forum I think

[langere]

Oh, too many to count on the good side. I really enjoy to Aurora Archivi Storici 022 I'm using right now, as the Sheaffer Valiant with a Triumph nib. I just discovered the pleasures of the Geha 760, following Bo Bo Olsen's suggestions - love the flex nib. I'm basically a happy camper with my pens.

 

The ones that haven't been good ones I've repaired or have had them repaired. I just don't give up on pens, though I clearly have favorites. My Lamy 2000 perhaps, since it has such a small sweet spot. That is a pen, in my opinion, that I just need to use all of the time to not forget how to hold right and I'm just not willing to use that one and thus ignore many of my other really sweet pens.

 

Erick