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Visconti Management


OneRiotOneRanger

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I just read on Reddit (pun not intended) that Dante del Vecchio left Visconti. Apparently, he was not a majority owner, and was forced out.

 

IMO, he was/is a brilliant designer, but maybe he will one day learn to spell words like quality control and customer service, or not, and he will be complimented by people with those skills.

 

The current Fahrney's catalogue shows him designing new models for Pinieder (sp?).

 

Clearly the Italian pen market is undergoing some changes. Once sorted out, what shall we see?

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At his age, Mr. del Vecchio is unlikely to learn the importance of customer service or quality control. Lifelong bad habits are often too ingrained to overcome. With the recent closures of Omas and Delta, I expect Visconti, with its appalling inability at quality control, to go the way of the Dodo bird as well. Five years after switching to in-house palladium nibs, their quality and reliability are as horrendous as ever. On the account of this alone, Visconti deserves to die as soon as humanly possible.

Edited by by78
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I love Visconti pens and would rather see them resolve their issues than go the way of OMAS. And for what its worth, I own many Visconti pens and have experienced few problems (and I readily acknowledge others have different experiences).

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Did I not see a post from Dante on FPN once? Maybe I'm wrong. :unsure:

 

I don't have any Visconti pens, but I've seen some at my local auction house, and they have been great looking pens. They have all had gold nibs though so perhaps they were older models. :)

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I love Visconti pens and would rather see them resolve their issues than go the way of OMAS. And for what its worth, I own many Visconti pens and have experienced few problems (and I readily acknowledge others have different experiences).

 

 

How many palladium-nibbed Viscontis do you own?

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Dante left FPN years ago after a group of complainers piled on rather than politely discussing pens with him.

 

For all the complaints, Visconti makes a fair number of awesome pens. Their B nibs started me down the slippery slope of hoarding, er, collecting. Their Ripples are still my mainstays right alongside my MB Skeletons and I prefer their Pd stubs to the 18kt thanks to their softer feel on the pages.

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A very important vendor warned me about the fragility of palladium nibs and that they shouldn't be used as flex nibs. That is why if I buy another visconti, I might opt for an older model with a 18kt 750 nib. Have two viscontis so far, might be interested to purchase more.

Edited by georges zaslavsky

Pens are like watches , once you start a collection, you can hardly go back. And pens like all fine luxury items do improve with time

 

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The 18kt are nails, the smaller 14kt of the early years are nirvana, and the Pd are quite good if you're not heavy handed. I loathe the fad for flex, so take my light-handed preferences into account. Your mileage may vary, as they say.

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Did you buy them directly from nibmeisters, or did you ask the vendor to test them out before buying?

Nope.

 

I bought one, a B, that had noticeable nib issues but I planned on getting it reground when I bought it so I didnt care. The rest have worked great and are some of my favorite writers. I mostly have F nibs with a couple EF or M. I also am not a flex writer and try to keep a light hand when writing.

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I think Visconti won't go the way of Omas or Delta. They've really marketed themselves in a similar way to pelikan and Mont Blanc - Pelikan's quality control on nibs is similarly stupid.

 

I think Visconti is fairly safe, but they do need to bump the damned QC. If the divina metro in green celluloid was properly made, it would have been my favorite pen of all time, no question.

 

We keep buying them because they keep making such striking designs. Delta and Omas were just expensive and well made, they lacked a lot of that "spectacular" appeal (omas did have some amazing celluloid but that isn't enough to justify a $600 pen)

Edited by Honeybadgers

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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I really love Visconti pens. Their designs are beautiful in my opinion and I do hope they stick around for a very long time. However, they desperately, desperately need to get on top of their quality control in regards to their nibs. I refuse to buy any more until I can be reasonably sure I won't have to go through the expensive rigmarole of testing and returning a few times before getting a pen that writes. It must cost them a fortune in returned pens.

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Nope.

 

I bought one, a B, that had noticeable nib issues but I planned on getting it reground when I bought it so I didnt care. The rest have worked great and are some of my favorite writers. I mostly have F nibs with a couple EF or M. I also am not a flex writer and try to keep a light hand when writing.

 

 

You are so extraordinarily lucky, so much so that I didn't think this is even possible in this physical universe.

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Pens should be bought in a shop, not online, in order to try them.

It is a very personal object, and those writing better in my collection are all bought in a physic shop and tested before buying, fitting very well in my hands.

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I've been "lucky" too with Visconti's nibs, though admittedly I only own one Pd nib - an EF that wrote flawlessly. I tend to gravitate towards their older gold and steel nibs, all of which wrote satisfactorily.

 

Ditto Delta, Montegrappa and Grifos.

 

If there's one Italian penmaker that gave me grief with regards to nibs, it has to be Stipula. NONE of the dozen or so of their pens that I bought NEW, wrote satisfactorily out of the box without requiring some sort of adjustment.

 

 

Shahrin B)

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You are so extraordinarily lucky, so much so that I didn't think this is even possible in this physical universe.

 

From my anecdotal observations across the pen world, I've heard more complaints about their B nibs than their F nibs (my one B nib was problematic), which might explain how I've avoided significant hassles. I should also mention I have had one or two non-nib related issues that required some warranty work (the hook-safe cap mechanism had a slight catch).

 

I don't doubt Visconti's QC needs help but I'm not sure the problems are as universal as made to seem. And I should also mention that I've had some type of issue from almost every pen manufacturer in my collection–Visconti may have a higher incident rate but no one is immune.

 

Recently, when I buy any pen, Visconti or otherwise, I budget an additional $40-50 for nib or other repair work. If the pen doesn't need anything, great. This also forces me to be extra conservative when hunting for good deals.

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