Visconti Management

[Doug C]

 

 

How many of them have palladium nibs?

two

[by78]

two

 

 

FYI, Visconti's steel nibs, except the so-called Chromium nibs, are outsourced German nibs. Those tend to write far more reliably, as you would expect. It's the palladium nibs that gives Visconti its deserved reputation for shoddy quality control. By the way, did you buy the two palladium-nibbed pens from a nibmeister or have them tested by the vendor before shipping?

[kestrel]

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.

Not always possible. Within 12 miles of my home are three Walmart superstores, 3 animal feed/supply stores, and more liquor stores than I can count. The nearest brick and mortar pen store is more than 350 miles away. If I don't buy online I don't buy. I only see one B&M per year, in Kansas City when I am there on business.

[Erik Dalton]

Not always possible. Within 12 miles of my home are three Walmart superstores, 3 animal feed/supply stores, and more liquor stores than I can count. The nearest brick and mortar pen store is more than 350 miles away. If I don't buy online I don't buy. I only see one B&M per year, in Kansas City when I am there on business.

 

Lol..Same here. Fountain pens, Apple Store, all those nice to have around type things are a day trip away.

[rodja]

 

 

FYI, Visconti's steel nibs, except the so-called Chromium nibs, are outsourced German nibs. Those tend to write far more reliably, as you would expect. It's the palladium nibs that gives Visconti its deserved reputation for shoddy quality control. By the way, did you buy the two palladium-nibbed pens from a nibmeister or have them tested by the vendor before shipping?

 

FYI, the Palladium nibs are also made by Bock for Visconti. Bock initially made these nibs available to everybody but later signed an exclusive deal with Visconti.

[praxim]

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.

 

Not always possible. <.....>. If I don't buy online I don't buy. .....

Same same. The only pens I have tried before buying were those I had previously bought. Fortunately, first choices were often good ones. Like others here, I read a lot.

 

Are we on topic? I own no Visconti (I came close to buying a particular one) so, yes.

[katanankes]

 

 

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

 

I own 20 or so Visconti, half with palladium nib. They always wrote out of the box with no problem. I have one that is a bit dry, that's my biggest complain about nibs.

 

I think that we need apply statistics 101 to this reasoning. Just because people say that Visconti has terrible QC, this does not mean that ALL Visconti pens have problems (otherwise the company would already be out of business). However, if you have a problem with 1 pen out of 9, that is NOT a good track record at all. That would mean 11% of defective pens, that would be huge. I do not know what the actual figures are, but I tend to agree that Visconti could do (could have done) a better job. I have two high end pens with defects in the enamel on the clip. That's unacceptable. I would have bought more if they were more attentive.

[lionheartlee]

I didn't take the time to read it all but out of my 9 PD only one needed work

[Mulrich]

 

I own 20 or so Visconti, half with palladium nib. They always wrote out of the box with no problem. I have one that is a bit dry, that's my biggest complain about nibs.

 

I think that we need apply statistics 101 to this reasoning. Just because people say that Visconti has terrible QC, this does not mean that ALL Visconti pens have problems (otherwise the company would already be out of business). However, if you have a problem with 1 pen out of 9, that is NOT a good track record at all. That would mean 11% of defective pens, that would be huge. I do not know what the actual figures are, but I tend to agree that Visconti could do (could have done) a better job. I have two high end pens with defects in the enamel on the clip. That's unacceptable. I would have bought more if they were more attentive.

 

 

Response and confirmation bias also have large roles in individual perceptions (are those stats 101? research methods 101?). People who have working Visconti pens are probably less likely to talk publicly than those with complaints. Once an idea is in someone's mind and they find supporting evidence, that perception becomes more entrenched and we believe it more, even if it's incorrect. It certainly seems like Visconti has a QC issue but I strongly doubt it's as prevalent as the internet makes it seem.

[Ceelo]

In my experience with Visconti, the quality control shortcomings doesnt just extend to nibs. Ive had misaligned clips, enamel rubbing off, material stability quirks, alignment issues between barrel and cap - things you wouldnt normally see in other brands so often. The older 14kt nibs have been pretty close to perfect but not so much the Pd nibs. Dont need statistics to work out that it is a bit sloppy.

[Doug C]

 

 

FYI, Visconti's steel nibs, except the so-called Chromium nibs, are outsourced German nibs. Those tend to write far more reliably, as you would expect. It's the palladium nibs that gives Visconti its deserved reputation for shoddy quality control. By the way, did you buy the two palladium-nibbed pens from a nibmeister or have them tested by the vendor before shipping?

Both have been straight out of the box. I do admit one of them (Carbon Dream) was a stub that was so wide and wet that I did send it to Mottishaw.

[ArchiMark]

Have had at least a dozen or so Visconti's and they all wrote well, gold nib and palladium nibs..

 

Also, have had at least a dozen or more Delta's and they all wrote well..

 

Probably have had about half a dozen Stipula's and they were great writers...

 

About a dozen or more OMAS pens and they were great writers...

 

And about a dozen Aurora pens, great writers all....

 

Hmmm..............see a pattern here....

 

Meanwhile, I bought a MB Writer Edition once and pen leaked from body/section....cost me about $300 to fix from MB Service Center.......

 

Go figure.....at least seller was decent and split the bill with me....

 

As for people making sweeping generalizations here from an individual sampling pool of maybe a dozen pens, whether great experience like I've had, or less so, like others have posted, if you ever studied statistics, you'd know this is way, way, way too low of a sampling pool, to draw any general conclusions from.

 

You'd need to have bought at least a 1000 or more of something and then identify the ratio of good to not good to draw any meaningful conclusions. You would never rely on such tiny data sets to know whether a medication or healthcare treatment works well or whether coffee is safe to drink, etc.

 

Everything posted on forums is anecdotal at best. Doesn't mean your experience isn't true, just that you can't make broad conclusions from it.

 

Turning flame shields on now.....

 

[praxim]

As for people making sweeping generalizations here from an individual sampling pool of maybe a dozen pens, whether great experience like I've had, or less so, like others have posted, if you ever studied statistics, you'd know this is way, way, way too low of a sampling pool, to draw any general conclusions from.

 

You'd need to have bought at least a 1000 or more of something and then identify the ratio of good to not good to draw any meaningful conclusions. You would never rely on such tiny data sets to know whether a medication or healthcare treatment works well or whether coffee is safe to drink, etc.

 

Everything posted on forums is anecdotal at best. Doesn't mean your experience isn't true, just that you can't make broad conclusions from it.

 

... and without an agreed set of criteria.

[georges zaslavsky]

Have had at least a dozen or so Visconti's and they all wrote well, gold nib and palladium nibs..

 

Also, have had at least a dozen or more Delta's and they all wrote well..

 

Probably have had about half a dozen Stipula's and they were great writers...

 

About a dozen or more OMAS pens and they were great writers...

 

And about a dozen Aurora pens, great writers all....

 

Hmmm..............see a pattern here....

 

Meanwhile, I bought a MB Writer Edition once and pen leaked from body/section....cost me about $300 to fix from MB Service Center.......

 

Go figure.....at least seller was decent and split the bill with me....

 

As for people making sweeping generalizations here from an individual sampling pool of maybe a dozen pens, whether great experience like I've had, or less so, like others have posted, if you ever studied statistics, you'd know this is way, way, way too low of a sampling pool, to draw any general conclusions from.

 

You'd need to have bought at least a 1000 or more of something and then identify the ratio of good to not good to draw any meaningful conclusions. You would never rely on such tiny data sets to know whether a medication or healthcare treatment works well or whether coffee is safe to drink, etc.

 

Everything posted on forums is anecdotal at best. Doesn't mean your experience isn't true, just that you can't make broad conclusions from it.

 

Turning flame shields on now.....

 

Absolutely true. I have half a dozen of stips, more than twenty omas, three nettunos, one conklin made by visconti and two viscontis but never have been disappointed by them. I bought most of my omas pens, my nettuno pens and several stips from André Mora and most of my other stips from Mottishaw. Both sellers are very meticulous and looked that the pens worked extremely well out of the box. My modern conklin nozac made by visconti was bought from Gary Lehrer at a beyond more than bargain price for a 150 limited edition piece worldwide demo pen. He also checked meticulously that all worked well. That conklin is as good as my trustworthy MB149. Once again, I always buy the seller first not the pen.Also a stellar after sales service is what I am also considering when purchasing a pen or a watch or anything else. I also have heard a lot of good from Bryant which is one of the best and from another guy which is Guillaume Chappuis from 123Stylos which also stands firmly behind his products.

Edited November 16, 2017 by georges zaslavsky

[jar]

Have had at least a dozen or so Visconti's and they all wrote well, gold nib and palladium nibs..

 

Also, have had at least a dozen or more Delta's and they all wrote well..

 

Probably have had about half a dozen Stipula's and they were great writers...

 

About a dozen or more OMAS pens and they were great writers...

 

And about a dozen Aurora pens, great writers all....

 

Hmmm..............see a pattern here....

 

Meanwhile, I bought a MB Writer Edition once and pen leaked from body/section....cost me about $300 to fix from MB Service Center.......

 

Go figure.....at least seller was decent and split the bill with me....

 

As for people making sweeping generalizations here from an individual sampling pool of maybe a dozen pens, whether great experience like I've had, or less so, like others have posted, if you ever studied statistics, you'd know this is way, way, way too low of a sampling pool, to draw any general conclusions from.

 

You'd need to have bought at least a 1000 or more of something and then identify the ratio of good to not good to draw any meaningful conclusions. You would never rely on such tiny data sets to know whether a medication or healthcare treatment works well or whether coffee is safe to drink, etc.

 

Everything posted on forums is anecdotal at best. Doesn't mean your experience isn't true, just that you can't make broad conclusions from it.

 

Turning flame shields on now.....

 

Amen Brother; Preach the Gospel!

[Bill P]

I owned over 10 Visconti's..most with the Palladium nib and numerous Delta, Stipula, Grifos, Montegrappa, Omas, and Aurora Fountain pens....ALL Italian brands and all make very high quality Fountain pens.

 

In my personal experience I have not found the quality of the Visconti Palladium nib (or any of their nibs) to be any better or worse than any of the other Italian Brands...and I have not found the Italian brands to be any better or worse than most other Fountain pen brands.

 

Have I had an occasional one that needed adjustment or that needed to be cleaned with a soapy water solution ? Yes...but I have never had a nib or a pen from any of those manufacturers that needed to be sent to a nibmeister, or back to the vendor or factory...

 

Not saying these Italian Pen manufacturers are perfect...but I have not experienced it. No better or worse than most Pen Manufacturers...in my experience.

 

The people who do have bad experiences tend to be significantly more vocal than the users who have great experiences.

[FriendAmos]

Have had at least a dozen or so Visconti's and they all wrote well, gold nib and palladium nibs..

 

Also, have had at least a dozen or more Delta's and they all wrote well..

 

Probably have had about half a dozen Stipula's and they were great writers...

 

About a dozen or more OMAS pens and they were great writers...

 

And about a dozen Aurora pens, great writers all....

 

Hmmm..............see a pattern here....

 

Meanwhile, I bought a MB Writer Edition once and pen leaked from body/section....cost me about $300 to fix from MB Service Center.......

 

Go figure.....at least seller was decent and split the bill with me....

 

As for people making sweeping generalizations here from an individual sampling pool of maybe a dozen pens, whether great experience like I've had, or less so, like others have posted, if you ever studied statistics, you'd know this is way, way, way too low of a sampling pool, to draw any general conclusions from.

 

You'd need to have bought at least a 1000 or more of something and then identify the ratio of good to not good to draw any meaningful conclusions. You would never rely on such tiny data sets to know whether a medication or healthcare treatment works well or whether coffee is safe to drink, etc.

 

Everything posted on forums is anecdotal at best. Doesn't mean your experience isn't true, just that you can't make broad conclusions from it.

 

Turning flame shields on now.....

 

 

 

People are more likely to write when they have a bad nib than when they have a good one. I for one have owned numerous pens from the OMAS, Delta, Visconti ... only had problems with one Delta .... never had the urge to write (here or anywhere) that the pens were as I expected. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more happy people out there than unhappy ones.

[Mulrich]

The fact that more people write about problems with Visconti relative to other brands does suggest that Visconti's QC isn't as good as others', but that doesn't help us know how big a problem Visconti has with QC. Visconti could have 10x the problems as other brands and their defect rate could be less than 1%.

[FriendAmos]

The fact that more people write about problems with Visconti relative to other brands does suggest that Visconti's QC isn't as good as others', but that doesn't help us know how big a problem Visconti has with QC. Visconti could have 10x the problems as other brands and their defect rate could be less than 1%.

 

I would not necessarily jump to that conclusion. There could be all sorts of other explanations. Here's one: assuming the same rate of QC problems across OMAS, Delta, Visconti etc., and the same rate of complaints, if there are more purchases of Visconti pens, then we should expect to hear of more problems with Visconti. Now, what is the probability that Visconti sells more than OMAS, Delta, etc.?

[Mulrich]

 

I would not necessarily jump to that conclusion. There could be all sorts of other explanations. Here's one: assuming the same rate of QC problems across OMAS, Delta, Visconti etc., and the same rate of complaints, if there are more purchases of Visconti pens, then we should expect to hear of more problems with Visconti. Now, what is the probability that Visconti sells more than OMAS, Delta, etc.?

 

Valid point and something I overlooked. I've never seen actual fountain pen sales numbers but I think it's safe to assume Visconti sells more than OMAS and Delta. I'm not sure where they'd stack up against Pelikan or some of larger Japanese brands.