MONTEVERDE MEGA INK BALL MAJOR PROBLEMS

[caphillnibs]

I hope this is appropriate for this forum, and if it is not my apologies...I am new here. I will prefact this by saying that I own a few fountain pens and was intrigued by the Monteverde Mega INk Ball so I bought one and have been very disappointed. I have tried filling it with a cartridge, a converter, many different types of ink, letting the pen sit point down overnight, EVERYTHING....and the pen will still not write. Does anyone know what to do? Has anyone had problems with these pens and been able to do anything to get them to write? This is a brand new pen and it won't write. I can shake it and get it to write a few lines and then it dries out. HELP!! What should I do? Any advice would be much appreciated.

[ZeissIkon]

If you haven't already, try taking out any cartridge or converter and soaking the pen section (point unit and the gripping part, what's left after removing the cap and barrel) point down in water overnight. What you describe sounds very much like a clogged tip; some rollerballs come with extra tips or sell replacement tips at good prices, because they're apparently prone to clogging with dried ink and harder to clean effectively than a fountain pen.

[Scrawler]

I saw one of these for the first time yesterday. One of the reasons that so far I have eschewed ball pens, is that I do not like to throw away the entire writing mechanism. I like fountain pens, because all I have to do is load ink into it. I have since been looking for others of this type, where you keep the writing tip and change the cartridge or fill with ink. The friend who showed it to me has been on a quest for the perfect writing instrument since before I met him 30 years ago. He complained that the pen itself is too large for him, which is why he no longer uses it. He had no such problems as you mention. His pen writes fluently and fluidly.

It writes with no effort at all, and he commented that from the point of smoothness, the Monte Verde was the smoothest pen he had used. I tried it and it was just an effortless write. I have noticed that some rollerball pens squeak and skip. With a disposable point, I suppose they cannot test every single ball to make sure it meets spec. In the case of the Mote Verde, I would have expected that as the several different sized balls are expected to remain with the pen, that each one should have been tested. If following Zeissikon's suggestion, it does not improve, you should complain to Monte Verde and have them replace the tip. This pen should be a very competent and easy to use instrument. One question, did you use a carbon black ink in it? I have recently found that carbon inks can dry in the feed leaving them clogged, and unlike a nibbed fountain pen, you cannot wet the feed of a rollerball to make it flow again.