Pens That Surprised You?

[ParkerDuofold]

Sorry, I just intended a little balance. There are a lot of people who don't like the 51. They have trouble with the hooded nib or the style. As you had trouble with yours, I had better luck. I had expected little, and I beat the hell out of the pen. Used for stuff I didn't know was a no-no. The more I learned about the pen, the more horrified I was by what I did to it. It still even looks good.

Hi Pajaro,

 

No need to apologize... but thank you. No harm; no foul.

 

I know a lot of people don't care for the L2K... and I don't get that, either.

 

 

- Anthony

[Kodiac136]

Hi Pajaro,

 

No need to apologize... but thank you. No harm; no foul.

 

I know a lot of people don't care for the L2K... and I don't get that, either.

 

 

- Anthony

I'm one of these "people"... honestly, I love the pen, it just isn't comfortable to me. Something about the tapered section just feels wrong in my hand.

[Joban]

The other year I purchased a Montblanc Rouge et Noir in black. To me it was just another pen to add to my collection and yet every time I have it in my pocket someone comes up and either points to it or ask to look at it. They act as if it is something really special.

 

Now considering I have some top price old Omas pens and others yet none get the attention that this pen gets. Talk about surprising, that is surprising. As for writing, with a few adjustments it is fantastic, but that is my opinion. As for the attention it gets, now that is priceless plus when they discover it is a fountain pen, well that is an additional discussion.

[inkeverywhere]

Great suprise for me was when I purchased a Wing Sung 698 fitted with an extra fine nib. I would opine this is a highly underrated pen. I have a couple of them now in constant use.

 

Greatest disappointment, by a country mile, is the Twsbi Eco I bought. IMHO nothing more than a piece of junk.

 

 

Greg

[tadas]

Jinhao 991. I don't know what possessed *anyone* to rip off the design of a UnBall roller ball pen for a fountain pen. That said, they cost around a buck, and have the same very nice nib as a Jinhao 992 without the potentially leaky plug on the end. They successfully work as an eyedropper without needing an O ring or silicon grease. Put them away for a week, then open one and it starts writing with no problem. They're demonstrators, if you like that. They come with a converter. Did I mention they're a buck apiece? My go-to for scary ink.

[chromantic]

​My most pleasant surprise was my first 'nice' Pelikan, a black/burgundy M150, after having only used various Pelikanos up to then. A lovely pen and a lovely writer that has led to many more M-series (and a vintage 140).

[mitto]

Pleasant surprises:

Parker 51

Parker 45

Pelikan 140, 400, 400NN

 

Bad surprises:

Hero pens. All of them.

[minddance]

Pilot 912sm. It is a silk brush. I used to HATE it but it grew on me after filling with different inks and writing on different papers. On the correct papers, the inks are all fully fledged out, fron the very driest portions to saturated sheeny parts. Great for recreational writing but not my everyday writer because these nuances can be very blatant and distracting. The nib is almost infinitely responsive to writing pressure and angles and it shows all these dynamics on paper.

 

But sometimes, I just want a consistent neat clean look and it would have to be a hard nib with ink that has not so much variations. Then I would reach out to other pens

[magnus919]

There are oh so many good & bad stories. I'll limit it to just a few.

 

Best

• Baoer 388. For only two bucks and a few minutes of nib tuning I had a pen that writes like something worth quite a lot more. I've given many of these away (after tuning them myself to write more smoothly).

 

Good

• Wing Sung 698. Truly a "cheap" pen. This thing hangs as one of my top three everyday writing pens. I especially like taking this with me when I'm going out and about and don't want to risk losing an expensive pen, but still want a nice writing experience. Substantial ink capacity to boot.
• Parker Duofold Senior (big red)... a vintage piece... I got it for free by accidentally becoming part of a contest in another group, and winning. It didn't work well at all when I first tried it. I put it away and forgot about it. I recently gave it a really thorough flush and tried again. Now it writes quite nicely, and I've been journaling with it exclusively all this week so far.

Bad

• Namiki Falcon. This was my first "expensive" pen and it never worked right for me. It still doesn't. It looks like the nib is (bleep), and maybe I was given one by Levenger that had been used before. I don't know. But too much time passed and I couldn't return it. I later came to find that, for me, flex is just a gimmick anyway.
• Several Noodler's pens. When I first got started, I picked up a few Noodler's pens. (bleep), (bleep), temperamental (bleep). I thought I hated fountain pens until I listened to someone who told me to get a Lamy Safari. I don't like the Safari much, but strictly as a matter of comfort in my hand. It functioned marvelously and showed me that there are better pens to be had.

[SoulSamurai]

I just picked up a Platinum Carbon desk pen loaded with Platinum Carbon ink that had been sitting untouched, nib-up, for several months. It wrote perfectly the moment I touched the nib to the paper. I had been expecting it to at least take a stroke or two to get started after sitting for so long with a pigment ink. So yeah, surprised at how reliable it is for such an affordable pen.

[georges zaslavsky]

Positive : Modern Conklin Nozac made by Visconti demo power filler and Nettuno Deus Maris

Negative : Waterman Liaison and Edson as well as Visconti HS.

[JulieParadise]

Absolutely positive: Platinum 3776 Tortoise Celluloid B

 

I had a 3776 Bourgogne for a short while in 2017 with a dry SF nib (the nib, in fact, wrote nicely, objectively) that I did not like. I had bought it new for ca. 65€ via Amazon directly from Japan. I did not like that one. At all. The size, the feel, the nib. So I sold it quickly.

 

In February a Tortoise came my way, pre-owned, for 85€. I cannot recall why I took a chance and bought it, since, in essence, it is the same pen, right? Size-wise, at least. But oh, how amazing a writer this pen is. The feel is perfect, the material, how it feels and how it looks, and the nib! Juicy and stubbish, wet and full of character. I suspect it had seen someone skilled who has worked on it, but neither the previous owner knows nor do I for sure so I can only speculate.

 

Every ink is fun in this pen, they all look great, so I use it to go through my samples. It is so juicy that it easily spits out a converter full over 2-3 A4 pages, so I often refill it. It can be cleaned within a few minutes, it does not dry out, knows of no hard starts or ink starvation. Name a problem a pen can have and this pen makes you forget about all of them.

 

I just love that pen and hardly can I make myself use my other pens. I knew -- or at least expected -- I would like it, as this kind of celluloid always appealed to me, I just did not think I would have the chance to acquire one of those beauties for a reasonable price soon. I am still surprised about how much I like it. Love it. Love it.

Edited March 31, 2019 by JulieParadise

[akrohn2010]

The Good Surprises:

 

- Lamy 2000. Still my "desert island" pen despite owning many much more interesting, custom, and unique pens.

- Wing Sung 601. I keep being surprised at what a great little $15 pen this is. Hooded nib, slip cap, smooth line, writes every time. Maybe a tad scratchy with some inks.

 

The bad:

- Franklin Christoph Model 03/66. Don't get me wrong, I love the folks at FC, especially their customer service, and their pens are great craftsmanship. But I could never get comfortable writing with either one.

- TWSBI Vac Mini. An uncomfortable writer that constantly leaked, cracked, or burped. My Eco was much better.

- Parker Vacumatic. This one hurts to admit because I want to love this pen. I love it as a piece of history and its Art Deco design, but even after getting the nib ground down to EF it STILL lays down such a wet line it smears and bleeds every time I use it and isn't practical. I've tried just about every "safe" and dry ink I own with no change.