Pens Everyone Seems To Love That You Hate

[The Blue Knight]

I think it has more to do with the process. See here: https://www.facebook.com/victoriaandalbertmuseum/videos/10153140693578880/

 

That was really interesting.

[benbot517]

I have a love-hate relationship with the Lamy 2000. I love it from an engineering side. It's beautifully made, and very well designed. I love the looks of it, and I enjoyed the nib on mine. However, on a user side I don't like it. I understand that many people like the shape of in, but it doesn't work for me. I couldn't find a way to grip it comfortably. It really bugged me because I liked everything else about it.

[pepsiplease69]

I don't hate any pens, but there are some that I would be quite reluctant to buy.

 

1) Current production Viscontis. I don't understand their beauty.

 

2) Nakayas without any designs on the body. What do they have that a skilled Indian pen maker cannot give to their pens? An arguable point is the nib, but then the nib can always be adjusted to one's liking.

 

3) Current production Cross, Parker, Sheaffer, and Waterman pens. It seems like everything these companies embodied in their designs have been lost with the new owners. Though I was never really a fan of Cross to begin with.

 

 

+1

[Chthulhu]

I just can't seem to like any of the classic Pelikan or Mont Blanc designs well enough to want one.

[max dog]

I like this thread to hear about peoples varios experiences of some well regarded pens. For me the biggest dissapointments were namiki falcon, parker sonnet, and lamy 2000. With the falcon I was plagued with ink flow issues. Was OK with carts but the pilot converter did not work well. The sonnet should have been called the Skipper as that's all it dad. The lamy 2000 was just an awkward pen to hold and I kept rotating the nib off its narrow sweet spot too often.

A few years later I tried the pilot falcon and the agitator in the converter helped and it is more reliable and I like it now. I gave the sonnet another chance and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th ones are great. I think the sonnets up to abt 2013 were all problematic.

 

I can't see myself ever getting a vanishing point. I hate clickable ball points as the click mechanism drives me crazy and just makes a pen feel cheap, so I would never want one in my fountain pen. The placement of the clip near the nib at the section is just unnatural.

[jmccarty3]

My biggest disappointment is the Noodler's Neponset. It requires too much fiddling, and doesn't really flex all that much.

 

The Namiki Falcon also didn't impress me. The nib was quite rough, not at all what I expected from this company.

[Yaakova]

I don't hate it, but I have no desire at all for a Vanishing Point.

 

I definitely agree. The vanishing point pens offend my sensibilities. It's a fountain pen pretending to be something it's not, and having the clip down by the point is just wrong.

[NibDog]

Mine has been my Pelikan M215. I love the looks and the form factor but the nibs never worked out for me. Always seem to skip on the downstroke frequently. Have tried a few of the steel M2xx nibs and always have this problem to one degree or another.

 

I really want to get an m800 but worry i might not like the way that writes either

Edited May 23, 2015 by NibDog

[Water Ouzel]

I don't hate any pen so far. Maybe I haven't enough yet to make such a decision.

 

Perhaps I just need a lot more pens...

[Orange25]

Pelikan M215 - I like it but I don't get the high praise. The body feels very cheap and the nib is no better than my Lamy Safaris.

 

Regarding the look of the Vanishing Point, I could never get comfortable with the clip position.

 

TWSBI 540 - felt solid enough for the money (though see below), but the nib wasn't that great. No smoother than cheaper pens and needed some initial adjustment to get it flowing the way I like. Also, the nib was a hard starter. Eventually, the barrel cracked near the top.

[fly_us]

I don't hate MY pens. I purchased because i like them. But there are several pens i could not justify myself to puchase:

 

- Pilot Vanishing Point: That's pen look weird to me, espeically the clip position.

- Montegrappa pens: what are they doing with the pens? all kind of weird design, and of course, the price tag.

[requiescat]

There are some well-beloved pens I just cannot bring myself to even try even though I keep hearing good things about them. The Parker 51's design leaves me cold. I suspect if I bought one I'd soon be passing it on. And Montblanc pens tend not to do it for me, although maybe if I got to experience a Montblanc nib I'd change my mind.

 

I've had the opportunity to use a friend's Lamy 2000. It's a well-engineered pen from a design philosophy that leaves me completely cold. My tastes run things like my Nakaya Naka-ai and Waterman Lady Patricia and Parker Vacumatic. It's a great pen for some people but just not for me. And the Pilot Metropolitan didn't do it for me either--a combination of the step and the weight made it uncomfortable for me. I prefer lighter pens and don't feel that that automatically makes them feel "cheap."

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I can't think of any pen model which literally everyone but myself likes, and which I hate. But I dislike a few where that puts me in the minority.

 

• Pilot Metropolitan. That step in the section doesn't seem to bother a lot of people, but those of us who are bothered really don't like it.
• Parker 51. I've tried to like it, I really have. Time to admit it, I just find it a boring pen which is no fun to write with.
• Kaweco Sport. I don't like the cartridge only design, or the joke of a converter that they offer as a sort of afterthought, or using it as an eyedropper filler. I don't like that the pocket clip is sold as a separate piece, not integrated with the cap; it keeps coming off.
• Edison Hudson. Not by any means a bad pen, but I can't see any difference in writing quality between it and other pens that cost me much less. And it's much too large. File this under "what was I thinking?"

[mongrelnomad]

Pelikan M800.

[jvr]

I've never liked the design of Cross pens and hence never bought one.

 

I recently went through a cull of pens I had bought thinking I'd like them, but that somehow didn't work out. Among them:

 

- all my modern Parkers

- Pelikan M200 and M600

- Montblanc 146

[Bennett]

Very interesting thread. I wonder if some of the mentioned disappointments were due to the assumption that a pen will have a perfectly tuned nib right out of the box. Nib adjustments are more often the case even for the more expensive pens. Bennett

[Brotzmann]

I didn't really like my Lamy 2000 and I don't like the look of the Safari.

I do like some of the pens others hate though so it looks like there are some pens that you either love or hate, no in between.

[jar]

Nib adjustments are more often the case even for the more expensive pens. Bennett

 

I keep hearing that but that is certainly not what I have experienced. I can't remember the last time I had to adjust a nib on a fountain pen whether new or used. I have ordered custom nibs but that is not related to a pen not working properly. I also had one pen with a customized nib that showed hard starts if it sat more than over night but the seller fixed that problem on the first try.

[Fabienne]

Lamy Safari. I have a broad nib and it is oddly scratchy, as if the tipping was very porous.

[peterg]

No death threats please. Just remember my loss is your gain.

 

 

 

Parker 51. No, make that all hooded nib pens. Even if they are superb writers.