I Heart Faber-Castell

[ink-syringe]

I have had a lot of frustrations in my pen buy experience. I am shocked at how inconsistent the pen buying experience is even in 2014. I mean, we have lasers now! heh.

Recently:

I bought a Kaweco that was defective right out of the box and had to be replaced (admittedly the replacement is very good).

A Caran d'Ache that was disastrous and messy. The nib is smooth but while it is marked F is only slightly finer than a whiteboard marker. Bonkers. The feed must be cracked. It leaks ink even just sitting on the table. Caran d'Ache has not responded. I hate this pen.

A TWSBI Diamond 840 AL that has the single worst nib I have ever used in my life. It literally takes up paper fibers in the nib. (but otherwise an awesome pen, hope to get this nib and or feed replaced).

4 Lamy pens. All of which worked great right out of the box but had variable nib quality. One was scratchy and dry (since replaced with a nice one, no biggie), 2 were good if not outstanding and one (Vista) has one of the best nibs I own. Stunning pen. (2 were purchased to give as gifts, one was a store display with a personalized cap that I got nearly for the price of a ball pen, I like a pen with a story and it was orange. I love orange).

A Pilot Knight. Amazing pen. Would still be amazing at 3x the price. Not my favorite aesthetics (though I love that hefty clip!) but what a writer. I regret not getting another since you can't get standard Pilot pen models here and some places have the Knight on close out for crazy prices.

Faber-Castell LOOM. Also amazing. Very robust pen. Outstanding nib.

So mixed. I sort of feel like if I order a pen w/o trying it there is a 50% chance it will be crummy to write with or downright defective.

When I was at the Fountain Pen Hospital in NY I tried a lot of pens and they were also quite variable within even the same pen model. Except one brand stood out as consistently high quality.

So over the last few days I went to a bunch of pen shops and book shops and tried every pen of this brand that I could find (5 stores (all the pen stores in Seoul are in walking distance so it isn't as much work as it sounds)) and I am want to say that Faber-Castell not only make some great pens, they make a very consistent product. I would say that they also make the bests bang for buck pen in the world right now: The Basic. The Basic is a beast of a pen for low dollars. Bravo.

In each store I tried the LOOM, the Basic, Ambition, and E-motion pens and in some cases a more than one of each (man they have a lot of finishes for the e-motion pens!) and also tried a few models I did not keep track of. Small sample size (a couple dozen pens) totally unscientific and subjective. But I am impressed. Good pens at every price point. The cheaper pens have stunningly good nibs and represent an outstanding value. I did not get a genuinely bad nib EVEN ONCE of all the pens I tried, all were smooth, all were wet but not messy, all were good writers right out of the case. Not a single dog among them and some were fantastic.

Consistency is an issue with fountain pens. Consistency is also an under-appreciated quality in fountain pen manufacturing and retail. I wish I liked the looks of their pens more but I am now a Faber-Castell fan none the less. I am pretty much done buying pens for a while, but if do buy one more it will be a Faber-Castell pen. I think they make a heck of a product.

Edited August 16, 2014 by ink-syringe

[rwilsonedn]

A number of people have commented over the years on what a good pen the Basic is, and they've all mentioned the nib. But I think no one has done a study as systematic as yours. Thanks for your work and for reporting it so clearly!

ron

[stevesurf]

Wonderful, candid reviews; I enjoy this style of reporting. Only thing missing is the video of you getting the sales people to let you demo them all!

 

If you like the consistency of Faber Castell, you'll love GvFC; amazingly complex little engineering wonders.

[ink-syringe]

I should add I did this over several days walking around that area. It was totally unscientific and I know very little about pens compared to the pros on this board. So please take it with a grain of salt. I maybe know more than your average bear since I am older but nothing compared to folks here.

 

I'll also add that I did try to buy something at some stops and not just take up time and ink. At PenBox (where this all started) I was picking up a repair. The person who does them was at a meeting and I had to wait an hour for him so that was sort of how this started. Even there I bought a Tanzo Carnet cover and previously had bought pens and ink and another things there.

 

At another place I actually did buy a pen. At Boheme, I bought two bottles of ink and a nib and had recently bought the TWSBI. This is the little store in the arcade below Shinsegae Department store. At KyoboBooks I bought Rhodia pads, LIFE and cartridges. I buy a lot there, enough to get their discount. Trust me they get enough of my money. haha. I guess I didn't buy anything else except a couple Hi-Tec C at the Pilot store at Jonggak Station.

 

So here is the the thing: THERE WAS VIDEO! haha. I was at Kyobo in the Faber-Castell corner drooling over the hot sexy GvFC pens which I will never be able to buy in my life and there was a television news crew interviewing people about why they still used fountain pens and if they had smartphones, etc. So they interviewed me and I guess I was on TV. I don't have a TV here so who knows if I made the cut.

 

I guess my main point is that fountain pens are really really inconsistent. A total crapshoot. Shockingly so. But the most consistent brand in my admittedly tiny sample and unscientific empirical experience seems to be Faber-Castell. Pretty much every Basic, Loom I uncapped seemed to work right out of the box and had a nice nib for $50.

Edited August 16, 2014 by ink-syringe

[ink-syringe]

Sorry for all the typos in my posts. Some are quite terrible. I really have a hard time with this editor. It also weirdly retains formatting from wherever you copy and past text from and that keeps causing me confusion. I am on a bunch of forums but none use this software so I am not used to its behavior and am fumbling about much more than I usually am! ha!

 

I corrected some things above. ack!

[stevesurf]

It's interesting that using fountain pens is considered newsworthy; nice to see. Fountain pens are probably better described as "diverse" along with inks, making for near infinite combinations and a quite an active forum here. Keep up the interesting posts

[Baric]

It's interesting how varied tastes are. Usually the first thing that comes to mind when I see a Faber-Castell is "Ick!" I know that there are sooo many people who would disagree with me but I have a strong negative reaction to them on a purely visual, visceral level. Cold metal sections, harsh angles, metal knurling that makes my fingers ache just looking at it... not for me.

[ink-syringe]

In the time I have written this post I have dramatically changed my assessment of these pens.

 

I started a different thread about this elsewhere. After spending a few days home working and filling pages of actual work with Faber-Castell pens I can now say they are ergonomic nightmares that are painful to hold and fatiguing to write with.

 

I maintain that the pens have truly outstanding nibs. I remain totally impressed by the fit and finish of the pens I have seen. They lay down super lines. They are even, wet, but not messy, very reliable (thus far) and the feeling of the nib on the paper is extraordinary.

 

But the true test (imo) of a pen is not how it performs on the store counter, but how it is in an actual work situation.

 

These pens are painful, fatiguing and uncomfortable to use for any real length of writing.

 

I am very sorry.

 

I judged the animal based on a visit to the zoo, not, as it is in the jungle.

 

I have learned.

 

(as for the aesthetics, some pens are nice, overall I am not that big a fan of their design, but I was so seduced by those nibs, let me just say again the nibs are amazing. The lines they lay down are incredible (imo) )

Edited August 17, 2014 by ink-syringe

[ink-syringe]

So, yeah. I still Heart Faber-Castell.

 

I did not love the slippery LOOM or the freakishly unbalanced Basic.

 

They are gone. Banished to pen purgatory and In their place is the Ondoro.

 

I was not that crazy about the E-motion. Though it was not as uncomfortable as I thought it would be it is just kind of short and fat and the grip is smooth metal. Seemed like a bit of lateral move comfort-wise. The Ambition, though in some ways lovely, is an odd bird because I feel like they should make the metal section longer or shorter. If you hold the pen far back then it is probably not an issue. I tend to want to right where that transition is. Again, it is better than the LOOM and Basic, writes well and is pretty but not the most comfortable pen. That leaves the Ondoro. And THAT, pen-heads, is the Faber-Castell pen that completely worked for me.

 

First, the grip, is way more comfortable than it looks. Yes it is metal but the contours make a big difference, at least for the way I hold a pen and the transition from the metal section to the wood is such that, well, it just works. The pen is light and well balanced and long enough that you can use it very comfortably without posting the cap (I don't like posting caps unless I have to). It sounds like I am saying the pen is, ergonomically speaking, not bad. I'll go a step further and say its is downright cozy. I think I would have liked it a tad longer but still very comfortable grip.

 

I got the wood one. I could not help myself. I love organic materials the wood on this is lovely. It makes me wonder what a wood section would feel like (ink stains be dammed!). I love the hex shape. I like the cap even. Simple, somewhat industrial looking, lovely fit and finish (all 3 pens had great fit and finish that was for sure).

 

Which of these things is not like the others: The Ondoro. Five B5 pages and no fatigue at all. Lovely pen.

 

Slight downside: The nib on this on is not as good as the other two were. This nib needs a little work. I made a mistake in not taking that nib from the Basic and swapping it. The nibs on both the Basic and the LOOM were astonishing. This nib is not so great.

 

It is smooth but oddly a dry writer. It starts okay but by the bottom of the page it is very very dry. Then after a bit of a rest becomes wetter again and then as you write (especially fast writing) it dries up again. Not sure what causes that or how to fix it but I hope I can get it adjusted for a wetter more consistent flow. I have been doing the thumbnail trick but that only seem to help temporarily.

[ink-syringe]

Let me also say Faber-Castell is a heck of a company.

 

I did talk to their representative and they were very kind and understanding. They pretty much were like "Yeah, if those pens are new and don't work for you try to find one that does. If you find one you like better, return those two and if you have problems we will talk to the dealer we'll work it out. We want you to have a pen you will enjoy and use."

 

Also gone also is the defective leaky Caran d'Ache ... so returning those three got me to better place.

Edited August 19, 2014 by ink-syringe

[penultress]

I wanted to chime in and say that my Ondoro is one of my favorite pens right now! I had the nib ground to a cursive italic by Richard Binder and asked that the pen write a little wetter. I don't know if this is the fault of the nib or if it is because I enjoy red inks in this pen (it's the black one). Right now though it is perfect and it's so light I can carry it everyday.

 

I just purchased the E-motion in the brown croc finish earlier this year and I also had the nib ground to a "pillow italic" which is Tim Girdler's grind of something between a stub and cursive italic. The weight of the pen would cause a cursive italic to tear into the paper, so I knew I needed something that flowed better. I like the idea of the wood one and I may decide to purchase that one later. There is also one in a red croc that is beautiful, but I found out it is only available in a ballpen. No word if an FP will be made.

 

I like both my Faber Castells!

 

Edited August 19, 2014 by penultress

[ink-syringe]

I am loving this pen now. I love the wood hex barrel. I just needed to get that nib right. So long as I go slow the flow is okay.

[ink-syringe]

I wish there was a good nib person in Seoul. I would live to get some nibs tuned and maybe a custom grind. Meanwhile ....

[arcadeflow]

I almost bought a Faber Castell Basic, but I changed my mind when I found out it had balancing issues, and the section with slices that discourages you from using a converter and dipping the nib on a bottle of ink. I also don't like their designs, I would buy it simply because I was curious about that great nib and lack of troubles, but I guess there are always flaws in pens. Maybe it is all a trick to make you decide you have to pay more for a model without those issues.

[ink-syringe]

I think maybe the carbon one might be lighter, the metal barrel one is the one I had. The carbon ones are not available here. The ink problem is unfortunate but not a total deal breaker for me. I think the ones with black rubber grips might be better. Mine was silver in color and would have stained in a hurry. In fact the tester was indeed dirty. The nibs are amazing for a $50 pen. Their designs don't all appeal to me but the Ondoro is one I do like.

 

I kind of love that the barrel is wood (though I would not hesitate to get the resin one) I wonder how it will fade over time. The hex edges are crisp now. I imagine they will soften over time. I am okay with the metal grip on this one. The contour makes it work.

 

Honestly if they would reduce the weight of that barrel i think they would have a great cheap pen in the Basic. The ink flow and nib were outstanding for a pen of this price.

 

Well if it was trick, it worked but I am good with how it all came out. They did have very responsive customer support. I wouldn't hesitate to by another Faber-Castell pen if they make another design that I can get behind. The Ondoro hits the sweet spot for me. Balanced, good writer, not odd shaped.

 

Little bit of a honeymoon period with this pen so take it with a grain of salt. I'll also admit that after dealing with several pen companies over the years the fact that they responded to my email so quickly was refreshing. Good customer service goes a long way.

[Xand3]

Not that its terribly relevant, but if you live in Seoul, then the carbon pens are most definitely available. I found them at a place called Pen Shop Korea near the subway station 영등포구청.

 

The carbon (I own one) is fairly unbalanced still. The outlier among the basic series is the mother of pearl one. Bought one for my girlfriend and was surprised to find a lighter feeling barrel... still unbalanced, but lighter.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Xand3

[ink-syringe]

This was a fountain pen? I was told by Kyobo and by the head of Faber in Korea that they were not importing the carbon fp in Korea only the other pens and pencils.

 

Though he also told me that the Ondoro and Basic do not share the same nib and I am not convined that is true either.

 

In any case it sounds like a lateral move anyway. if its just as unbalanced. I am pretty happy with the Ondoro.

 

I haven't been to that pen shop. Is it worth going? There are some in Gangnam that I haven't been to either.

 

Done shopping for pens for a while now anyway but good to know what is out there.

[Xand3]

This was a fountain pen? I was told by Kyobo and by the head of Faber in Korea that they were not importing the carbon fp in Korea only the other pens and pencils.

 

Though he also told me that the Ondoro and Basic do not share the same nib and I am not convined that is true either.

 

In any case it sounds like a lateral move anyway. if its just as unbalanced. I am pretty happy with the Ondoro.

 

I haven't been to that pen shop. Is it worth going? There are some in Gangnam that I haven't been to either.

 

Done shopping for pens for a while now anyway but good to know what is out there.

 

It was most definitely a fountain pen. Saw it in person not more than 2 weeks ago available from: http://penshop.co.kr/shop/main/html.php?htmid=proc/office_info.htm&tplSkin=interactive_C

 

I bought a Carbon basic FP at Kyobo in City Hall 3 years ago too. Not sure about availability from Kyobo these days though, I suppose.

 

Anyways I find pen shop Korea to be much, much preferable to Kyobo. They seem more knowledgeable about their pens, and give better prices. Two examples:

 

I bought a platinum preppy from them for 3,000 won. They had a 1+1 event going on, so I got to leave with 2.

 

Bought a Sheaffer 100 from Kyobo. 48,000 won, and only got the pen. Bought a Sheaffer 100 from this store, paid 40,000 won and got 2 free bottles of Skrip ink with the purchase.

 

They have a larger selection than Kyobo too. Iroshizuku inks, dip pens, anything and everything. I'd definitely check them out.

[ink-syringe]

<side_jack>

 

I don't usually buy from Kyobo either, usually PenBox or Bohme. I have not tried Pen Shop. In this case I got my Ondororororo directly from Faber and that was what I was told. But as I said I am not sure I what to believe. However, since I also heard it from Kyobo I thought it might be true. Since Faber sells so much (from kids stuff to high luxury pens) they really seem to have a presence here. Kyobo in Daegu has a whole wall devoted to the GvFC stuff in very fancy display cases.

 

I wish they would rethink the design of the LOOM and the Basic. They could really have something to compete with the LAMY stuff.

 

I noticed some new barrel designs come in but they al have the same clunky weight.

 

I miss that nib on the Basic though better than the one on the Ondorororo.

[ink-syringe]

Ah, Pen & Art in Gangnam... I know about them... a ha.

 

Thanks for the info.