What Pen Did You Broke/Lose/Spoil Today?

[diplomat]

Well, I was at this exhibition at Mart (Museum of Modern ART, in Italy) with wife and kids. A nice multimedia display called "The Century of Jazz". I got with me a Parker 21 I like particularly because it's a great juicy writer and it's sturdy and I am not afraid to damage. The pen was in the inner jacket pocket, next to my heart.

 

At one moment, I decided it was too hot and I removed the jacket and put it on the kid stroller. Few steps and Bang. The pen fell down. I rescued it immediately, and quickly ascertain that no visible damage was there... then my kid needed my attention and goodnight...

 

Once at home I removed the pen from the pocket (I had to write a postcard I purchased there) and to my surprise the pen would not extract from the cap.

At the moment I didn't connect that with the earlier incident...

 

Then I tried instinctively to twist the barrel. And the barrel unscrewed from the section naturally, so I thought "Ah yeah, stupid, it's a snap cap!". And I pulled it harder. Then suddenly it happened: the barrel parted in two, cracking irregularly just under the threads of the section.

 

Goodbye my old friend! A glorious death on the field... and in the name of the Art.

 

So now I was looking the "Writing Instruments" section and thought... no, no new pens to report today, just one farewell.

And I decided to create this thread to see if breaking/spoiling/losing a pen is frequent as to get one (197 pages!).

 

Hopefully my last contribution to this thread.

 

Ciao,

 

Andre

[psfred]

Oh, I've busted a few, believe me!

 

However, the only problem I have at the current moment is a gooey sac in a Snorkel that I replaced to too long ago. Very annoying for the sac to turn to goo.

 

Peter

[shahrincamille]

I recently broke the iridium off the right tine on my Vacumatic, a striped black with unbelievable translucency

 

Luckily I've recently managed to acquire a rather beat-up Vac of the same color but much more ambered, with a great, intact nib and a very clean breather tube. I just swapped sections on these pens

 

 

Shahrin

[Robert Hughes]

A few days ago I ruined the teeny tiny little feeds in two Snorkel pens during a ham-fisted first attempt at repairing the pens. Does anyone carry replacement Snorkel tubes?

[Sallent]

I destroyed my Monteverde Regatta in an unfortunate accident. I also killed a Parker 45 not that long ago.

 

What can I say....I'll probably be sent to Fountain Pen hell when I die.

[Dave PK]

Sadly, I've pretty well confirmed that I lost two pens on New Year's Eve day. I was flying cross country and I realized I couldn't find them in my laptop bag. I had filled the two I thought I wouldn't be broken up over losing -- a blue carbonesque VP and a waterman expert II. I figured I left them on the cuttingboard while inking and packing my stuff. Now I can't find them anywhere and I'm sure they either fell out in the cab or during security.

 

Of course I've spent a few days obsessing about where I just might have left them. So much for dispensible. Next time I'm taking a phileas. Then I *really* won't care.

 

My consolation is that I was able to order a new Pelikan M400 F with money from family for Christmas! Hope it gets here soon. (Strangely this has also lead me to realize how much more I liked the waterman expert II more than most do.)

 

Oh well, they're just things, right? (Ducking...)

 

Dave

Edited January 5, 2009 by Dave PK

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Well, not today, I'm glad to say.

 

But I've destroyed a very nice nib while trying to remove it from a cheap but really good fountain pen so that I could give the thing a thorough cleaning. I've cracked off some feed fins from a couple of fountain pens. One Kaweco Sport just came apart with the threaded part of the barrel separating from the rest of the barrel after I tried to ensure that I'd never have to worry about a cartridge getting lodged in the back of the pen again. I broke a Parker 45 feed while trying to freeze/thaw it into coming apart (that feed/nib/collar wasn't working when I bought it though). I've destroyed a new Pelikano Jr. cap by doing nothing at all special with it (those new caps just stink).

 

I appear to have lost some old Sheaffer cartridge fountain pens, wish I had those back again. They may be lost around the house, but they're quite thoroughly lost even so.

 

Yeah, I just have to accept all of the losses. It's like everything else in life. It's like life itself - none of us is getting out of it alive!

[diplomat]

Sadly, I've pretty well confirmed that I lost two pens on New Year's Eve day. I was flying cross country and I realized I couldn't find them in my laptop bag. I had filled the two I thought I wouldn't be broken up over losing -- a blue carbonesque VP and a waterman expert II. I figured I left them on the cuttingboard while inking and packing my stuff. Now I can't find them anywhere and I'm sure they either fell out in the cab or during security.

 

Oh, that's a sad story! Two nice pens indeed... airport security is a dangerous place: they put a lot of time pressure and make a damn chaos around...

 

But it could have been worse: to lose a pen the last day of the year is closing a bad year, but to lose them the first day of the new year would mean to start with the wrong foot!

 

I am sure the M400 will make you forget them anyway!

 

Cheers,

[GirchyGirchy]

Nothing today - but recently scratched my brand new Visconti Van Gogh tortoise demo the second time I took it to work. It flew out of my pocket and onto some gravel. I love the Van Goghs, but don't think I'll take them to work anymore since they tend to come out easily.

 

Pens are pretty, but unlike most nice watches, are darned easy to break.

[ANM]

One of my Sheaffer Balance II pens cap broke in two about a week ago. A new one arrived in the mail today. Thank you Joe in Seattle.

[JayJay]

A couple of days ago I forgot a pen was in my jacket pocket. I took the jacket off, and unfortunately, I did not have the pen clip secured on the jacket. To my dismay the pen fell to the floor causing the section to separate from the barrel. It was my favorite pen, a Pelikan Toledo.

[HesNot]

Yesterday I realized I've somehow lost my graphite Lamy Safari - not a huge loss but it was my "knockabout" pen so it will have to be replaced.

 

I have been travelling a fair amount for work and was in the habit of taking out my 4 pen case (so as to keep nibs up) out of my briefcase and would put it along with my cell phone in the seatback pocket in front of me. Of course, at one point I got off the plane without remembering to retrieve it! I did remember as soon as I hit the concourse so I could go back on the plane and retrieve it thankfully - that would have cost me a Lamy 2000 that I adore, a Pilot black carbonesque vanishing point, a Pilot Murex and a Pilot Volex!

 

I WON"T be following that strategy again - pens will stay in my case in my coat pocket...

 

As for your 21 - I'm sorry about that one - I've lost two 21s to cracks (neither after any fall - just the notorious brittle 21 plastic) and one scratch free 61 to a hood crack (again, just the old brittle plastic).

Edited January 6, 2009 by HesNot

[dumdummuoi]

This is a while back, but I've been mourning the broken clip on my Marlen Sydney. I got it as my first purple pen. It's still my only purple pen. But I wiggled the clip the first day it arrived, and it broke right off. I glued it back on, but it's very obviously glued on, and also not very strong. I've been feeling stupid ever since, even though it wasn't entirely my fault--I didn't tug it any harder than I do on all my other pens; it was just a rather fragile clip. I haven't broken another pen since.

[diplomat]

A couple of days ago I forgot a pen was in my jacket pocket. I took the jacket off, and unfortunately, I did not have the pen clip secured on the jacket. To my dismay the pen fell to the floor causing the section to separate from the barrel. It was my favorite pen, a Pelikan Toledo.

 

Ouch! That sounds similar to my misadventure but... a Toledo! What a rotten luck!

 

I am sorry for you.

[matt385]

 

 

Presently I can not find a Shaeffer 350 that was broken when I got it off of ebay. I sent it to Richard Binder and I've had it back for about 4 weeks and its missing.

[StephY]

As a 17 year old I involuntarily murdered a Parker 75 Cisele given to me by my Aunt (who has used the same Cisele BP since I was born - and still to this day). Somehow it landed in the bottom of my school bag, separated itself from the cap, and the section snapped in two. This one still hurts.

[andrewp182]

I got a new fountain pen delivered to the office today, a Lanbitou 211, I think.

Upon writing my first sentence with it, it leaped from my hand and hit a granite floor.

The injuries were not too bad, the tines just bent a bit. After fixing them I resumed my writing, only to have the right half of the tipping material fly off, rendering the nib useless. I had no spares, and buying a new one would cost more than the pen. I was about to write a little rant about the low quality of the latest batch of Lanbitous, only to find that the FP had rolled off to a better place. Ascending from my desk never to be seen again.

 

I guess some pens just have a death wish.

[THREELETTERS]

I badly injured my pilot 78G M the other day while trying to demonstrate the marvels of line variation to an unimpressed friend...

 

Now, yes, I know it's a 78G and I was trying too hard, but what are you gonna do, eh?

 

 

 

 

This does provide me with an excuse to get a new pen though ....perhaps an XF for my bleeding journal!

[Ernst Bitterman]

Last night, I finished off a nibless point on a Sheaffer cartridge pen of the 1970s; mangled it good while drawing it to get at the feed for Frankenpenning up a Wality to give my father for his birthday. I'm hoping that it will count as a sacrifice to keep more meaningful destruction at a distance-- there are, alas, no nearby volcanoes to toss the point into while chanting and making the Voorish sign.

[Pink Ink]

Not fountain pens but I lost my Coleto gel pen. Too bad, since it had blue, purple and pink ink all in 0.3mm refills. Oh well, this gives me an excuse to go down to Target and get some Bic Shimmers to replace my dwindling supply of those.

 

As for fountain pens, last month, I took the nib from a Pilot Penmanship (XF only) and put it into the Knight (M only). Within a few days, I dropped the Knight, nib down and the tines went all bent. Too bad since that was my fave pen. Lucky for me the Penmanship costs only $10. But still, that’s my fave fountain pen nib ever, grr.