What Are Your Fountain Pen Deal Breakers?

[oldrifleman]

Mine are

• Caps that come free too easy, I have a couple of pens with "magnetic" locks" that are worthless and now just sit in a drawer
• skipping or hard starts, if it can't be fixed it will be gone
• Look cheap

[Carguy]

Metal sections irritate me, as do cartridge filler pens. There was a time I would have snubbed a steel nib, but not now - I have some steel nibs that I’d take over a gold nib that is stiff and scratchy any day.

[hbdk]

Metal sections

No clip

Frosted or high gloss metal barrels

[N1003U]

 

~ Nothing comes to mind.

Every pen purchase is a case-by-case decision.

Tom K.

This.

 

What I am taking from this thread is not what is irritating about fountain pens, but rather, despite being a fairly niche product, how much diversity there is amongst our beloved fountain pens!

 

One person's deal-breakers seems to be another's desirable features, and fortunately, there are LOTS of features to choose from: sizes, colors, weights, weight distributions, filling systems, construction materials, clips (or no clips), engravings, location of design/manufacture, and on and on. Not to mention a hobby that one can enjoy for as little as zero invested cash (though in such a case some skilled rummaging may be required), or splurge for thousands, and still come together with others who simply love the act of putting ink to paper.

 

For me, maybe the only dealbreaker is a pen that doesnt work, and cannot be made to work. But really, everything in the pen realm is always negotiable. It is just too much fun to explore the possibilities.

 

Maybe the worst deal for me would be to miss out on a really cool experience because of a pre-conceived notion.

Edited February 2, 2020 by N1003U

[inkstainedruth]

Agreed. After I had gotten a couple of Parker 51s, I had questions about them so I contacted Tony Fischier. He gave me the answers, but then said "And now you'll start looking at Parker Vacumatics...." And I was going, "Nope, not gonna happen, too Art Deco looking for me." Only then, a few weeks afterwards, someone had an Azure Blue Pearl Maxima with him at a pen club meeting and it was All Over™....

I'll bet if someone asked Tony about it even now, years later, he'll still be laughing about how he was right and I was wrong. Because then I started paying attention to Vacs, and got a little Azure Blue Sub-Debutante at my first pen show, and then started drooling over the Shadow Wave colors....

I still have more 51s than Vacs, but I've got a bunch of Vacs, including a *2nd* Azure Blue (didn't realize for a long time that they weren't just a 3rd Generaion Vac color, so now I have what I think is a Slender Speedline filler as well). Right now, I really need to flush out the Red Shadow Wave (Junior?) Lockdown filler, and put thread sealant on the threading for the blind cap jewel -- but I ran that pen for roughly 4 years without flushing it once. Just refilling with Waterman Mysterious Blue as needed.

I only wish my laptop was half as functional.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[como]

That's the thing about pens: when they die, they look like sleeping beauty. When my laptop dies, it looks like death, with that forever black screen.

I only wish my laptop was half as functional.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Mech-for-i]

Pens that do not write consistent ; I had no issue if a pen write dry or write wet , need to be writing on sweet spot or even needing tuning but it had to write in consistent manner not sometime gushing sometime starving and alike

[Autiflip]

For me it is snap snap caps, stiff nibs and very classic formed pens.

I do not find anything attractive on for example a montblanc 149.

Also: fingerprint magnets. It is just SO annoying having a chrome or shiny black pen because I cannot stop cleaning it.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Autiflip

[adamselene]

Pens that fling their cap off vex me.

 

Deal breakers:

 

Any writing misbehavior.

 

incontinence.

Edited May 7, 2020 by adamselene

[Erik Dalton]

Traditional torpedo style without a lot of bling

larger m800 size and up

heavier but well balanced is better

generous ink flow in a medium or stub nib

C/C fillers are fine. Piston fillers better

deal breaker - Metal Sections

Anything shorter than an M-400

[vicpen123]

Sharp edges at the stepped junction between the section and barrel at the point where I hold the pen.

 

Sheaffer Targa and Pilot Metropolitan are the worst.

[AmandaW]

Any pen that evaporates it's ink - that rules out most snap caps, vegetal resin (ie Noodlers) and all the Lamy pens with a hole for an ink window

Metal grip section

Rubbery coating anywhere, but especially on the grip cos it goes sticky or flakes off over time

More than two turns to unscrew the cap

Boring nibs - which to me means Western fine or medium - anything finer or bolder, or any other shape is worth a look

Overly patterned or decorated

No way to see how much ink is left

Visible inner cap on demonstrators

New pens that don't write nicely out of the box - no matter whether it's brand new or secondhand advertised as a good writer - I expect it to work

Scratchy nibs! I don't mind feedback or graphite-feel but scratchy or clicky drives me nuts

[Arkanabar]

I got a pen a while ago which, in spite of being a screw-cap, is also pretty much a friction-fit cap. I suppose it might be suitable for a situation where I'm doing a lot of capping and uncapping while seated, but that's a really limited use-case for me right now.

[sidthecat]

I buy flex nibs with pens attached, so rigid nibs are safe from me.

Edited May 7, 2020 by sidthecat

[MoriartyR]

I often thought I had deal-breakers with pens but over time I have ended up buying and enjoying pens that broke most of those rules. Either my preferences changed, I learned to appreciate things I hadn’t before, or there was something else wonderful about a pen and I found my deal-breakers weren’t so important after all and I could adjust quite easily when motivated.

 

I guess there are still some ‘rules’ I haven’t broken (yet) but I no longer consider anything an absolute deal-breaker. Buying an uncoated ebonite pen is one that springs to mind. As a pipe smoker I am very familiar with the material and know that there is nothing you can do to avoid the material oxidizing and becoming dull, green and, eventually, rough. Modern German ebonite is definitely much better than the old ebonites but it will still deteriorate in the end. However it is still a beautiful, warm, deep material and I will probably buy a bare ebonite pen someday (and keep it in its box, inside a drawer, in a locked, dark room with a dehumidifier - or preferably in a vacuum).

Edited May 7, 2020 by MoriartyR

[ScarletWoodland]

Anything that costs more than a week's wages is out altogether, and those over 2 days' pay are on very thin ice.

 

Pen body wise, there are things I'm not fond of but will tolerate if I like the other features (and the cost-value ratio looks right to me).

 

With nibs, if skips, scratches or splooges and starves and I can't fix it in under an hour, then it's in trouble. Sub £10 and I'll just swap the nib out but any more and it's going straight back.

[NumberSix]

If forced to choose, I would say:

 

Metal Sections - I just don't enjoy slippery pens. It's bad enough with ballpoints like the steel Jotter.

 

Caps that Don't Post Securely - this one drives me up the wall. The worst offender I have owned is an otherwise beloved Parker 45 Flighter. The cap seems like it posts securely, but than at any moment it's liable to, er, take Flight(er).

 

Come to think of it, maybe that's the true source of the name "Flighter", and the whole thing was one big troll on the consumers?

[A Smug Dill]

If forced to choose, I would say:

 

Metal Sections - I just don't enjoy slippery pens. It's bad enough with ballpoints like the steel Jotter.

 

Considering that the grip section on the Aurora Alpha is metal but not slippery per se, I wouldn't form a logical equivalence between metal sections and slippery pens. There's also always the possibility of media- or sandblasting metal sections to stop them from being 'slippery' smooth glossy chrome, either at the factory (prior to sale) or after-market.

Edited May 10, 2020 by A Smug Dill

[Estycollector]

I thought surely overtime I would evolve, but I tend to only go after pens of interest which tend to be those from the 1930's through the mid '50's. Things appeared to change dramatically after that era for me. This is true for vintage mechanical pencils as well.

 

I have no use for anything that doesn't work so I tend not to take a chance on a maybe. I also carry and use all my stuff for use at my work besides writing letters. I have no wall hangers or mantle pieces.

 

I prefer the feel of Bakelite, plastic, and hard black rubber. I enjoy a good feeling nib.

 

I've been pleasantly surprised by pens that no one hear talks about like Venus and Eberhard Faber gold flexible nibs.

 

I haven't caught the Sheaffer bug to date. As I said in another thread, the snorkel appears to me to be a gimmick, but I may be spoiled by wet Waterman inks that clean off easily with water and soap.

[YonathanZ]

Step down from the barrel to the section. Hate it.