Levenger Fountain Pens

[Seaboss]

Good to hear the mostly positive feedback. Certainly we can spend quite a bit of money for a fine fountain pen, however, I think the challenge for an everyday writer, is to find a brand that represents good quality at an affordable price. I think Levenger fills this need. I recently found the Levenger Outlet on Ebay. The prices for returned/refurbished items is quite good. If I could only find a way to win some bids. I always seem to get out-bid at the last second. It's all a learning process.

 

Take care.

 

Have you tried eSnipe? (www.esnipe.com) for your eBay bids? I really like it because I don't have to watch my bids and it also takes the emotion out of bids, so I don't get crazy at the last second. It's very possible you're losing out to eSnipers.

 

t.

 

Thank you for esnipe recommendation. I will give it a try!

Take care

[jaqcp]

I have bought a number of pens and ink from Levenger, though never a Levenger pen. Where they impressed me the most is with their customer service. They shipped quickly and when a mistake was made (they shipped two Rotring Cores with the wrong nib size), they shipped the correct pens immediately and kindly asked me to just give the incorrect ones away rather than sending them back! I also love their Cobalt Blue and Cardinal Red inks. All in all, a very good company.

 

 

[Parker51]

I have three pens purchased from Levenger. A Verona which is wonderful. A Philius which was a non identical, but similar replacement for an earlier Philius they sold me which wore apart after light use. The third is a Parker that was a Levenger exclusive which is falling apart. I contacted Levenger about a replacement or service and they indicated that despite their guarantee they could not replace it as they no longer have any of that pen model, or even a similar pen. They offered to replace it with a significantly cheaper True Writer, or suggested contacting Parker directly for service or replacement as they do not offer repair services. I find it interesting that the only pens I have ever had which literally fell apart through use, and I have over a hundred and fifty pens, both vintage and modern, from over two dozen manufacturers, both came from Levenger. Perhaps this is a coincidence, but I wonder why Levenger, until they started selling only house brand pens, seemed to sell only a limited selection of a wide variety of manufacture res. Perhaps in the past Levenger made "Special Deals" and the pens I had problems with were part of a couple of those "Special Deals".

[iroshizuku]

I've tried a couple of Levenger FPs in their store in Boston. Personally I think the building quailty of their pens are not comparable with some of the Japanese pens (pilot, sailor, platinum) which are in the same range of price. Their nib is kinda smooth, but a little bit too wet to me. Feeling in hand is just so so.

[BillZ]

I have purchased 7 Levenger FPs. I gave two as gifts. My only complaint is the variations in line width for a given size nib. Of the 5 I currently have inked,4 are F and 1 is M. The M is an Obsidian with the two-toned nib and it writes as fine as the other Fs. As these are the only multiple brand pens I ahe I don't know if this nib variation exists in other brands. I bought all of mine on EBay and will continue to loo for bargains at the Levenger Outlet.

[Boston Brian]

I have three Levenger pens, and my problem with them is that especially when using their cartridges there seems to develop an air bubble between the ink and the nib, and the pens will simply stop flowing, and I have to unscrew the barrel, tap the pen and then the ink drops down towards the nib. I have found it so frustrating that I no longer bother to use the Levenger pens and they stay in the drawer.

Anyone else have this problem?

[ailleurs]

I have three Levenger pens, and my problem with them is that especially when using their cartridges there seems to develop an air bubble between the ink and the nib, and the pens will simply stop flowing, and I have to unscrew the barrel, tap the pen and then the ink drops down towards the nib. I have found it so frustrating that I no longer bother to use the Levenger pens and they stay in the drawer.

Anyone else have this problem?

 

Yes, this is exactly the issue I have with my Plumpster on a Diet. The converter doesn't fill all the way because of air, and an air bubble prevents ink from flowing to the nib. I have to keep unscrewing the barrel and priming the converter. It's the only pen I own that does this. It's a shame too because when the ink does flow, it writes really, really well.

[Glenn-SC]

I have three Levenger pens, and my problem with them is that especially when using their cartridges there seems to develop an air bubble between the ink and the nib, and the pens will simply stop flowing, and I have to unscrew the barrel, tap the pen and then the ink drops down towards the nib. I have found it so frustrating that I no longer bother to use the Levenger pens and they stay in the drawer.

Anyone else have this problem?

 

Yes, this is exactly the issue I have with my Plumpster on a Diet. The converter doesn't fill all the way because of air, and an air bubble prevents ink from flowing to the nib. I have to keep unscrewing the barrel and priming the converter. It's the only pen I own that does this. It's a shame too because when the ink does flow, it writes really, really well.

 

My experience with True Writers was similar.

 

Levenger sure knows how to Market.

 

That is why I no longer use any Levenger pens.

[Boston Brian]

The sad thing is that many of their pens look awesome, like the Plumster, Chesterton etc, surely Levenger must have received complaints about this air bubble problem from other buyers, I know that I will never buy another one, because of the frustration involved.

[MarkAL]

I have a Levenger Black Obsidian with a F nib that I bought about 8 months ago and I love it. I use it to grade papers and other work from my grad students. It always starts up right away and there's never been any fuss at all with the pen (at least so far). It's a great workhorse pen. It's much smoother than my Pelikan 200 with a gold nib (it's scratchy) and my Waterman Phileas is a good writer, but the plastic barrel feels cheap. I only one, but I think I'm going to buy another and keep it inked with something other than my angry grading red.

[Alice L]

Won't pay full price for them, but I have to say that I love my Starry Night! (Got it on a closeout.)

[Mr. Upright]

I bought a Levenger Newton a few years ago in their outlet in Florida. As a physicist, I couldn't resist the name. It's a joy to look at and hold in the hand, but it never really worked well with the bottled Cobalt Blue I also bought (I love the color, but it's not the best behaved ink). I cleaned the pen out and put it in the drawer for a long time.

 

 

Just last week I popped in a Waterman black cartridge and found that the pen writes like I dreamed it would. Now I can't wait to try other inks in my new favorite pen. Maybe some day, when I'm itching for another bottle of black, I may put in Noodler's Dark Matter. Newton and Oppenheimer would make it physics^2!