My Newbie Experience With Parker Sonnet

[Leonil]

In February 2016 my brother got me my first fountain pen, a Duke 209, and since I have drowned in Rhodia and Clairefontaine paper as well as Iroshizuku, Waterman and Parker ink.

 

Last month in June I decided to get myself a nice fancy new fountain pen - being new to everything minus paper and ink, I went to my department store that sells parker, waterman and mont blanc pens

 

My first purchase was based purely on how it looked, and that it was on sale for $100, from $159. The Parker Sonnet, Stainless Steel Medium Nib.

 

 

Not knowing any better, I actually wrote a review which gave this pen a 7/10 because the nib was a little scratchy... little did I realise that it was scratching my paper on the right stroke, and the ink would pool into it and bleed through the paper... I returned the pen and exchanged it for another, which ended up hard starting and skipping like crazy. So afterwards I thought, well, since the store has a huge discount on their Parker models, I'll get the one that looks fancy, has a gold nib and its only $250 down from $360.

 

 

I got it home, I wrote 10 pages with it and realised the converter was cracked and found that the feed that connected to the converter was broken which caused the conveter to crack. This was replaced with another copy of the pen which hard started. I came to this forum to learn more about pens and after cleaning the pen and using flush etc... It still skipped like crazy and I realised the tines of the second copy were pointing away from each other when I held it up to a light. I knew instantly this was wrong.

 

When I was waiting for a manager to see me at the store on my next visit to see if I can get a replacement or repair, I was playing with a Lamy Safari. It was "smoother" than the Parkers I had, it also had no issues with hard starts, flow and skips etc.

 

The store had about 12 pens that had the cartridge installed on the rack, so I lined up each pen and did a quick writing sample... every single one of the Safari's performed to a point where it was not only better than my Duke and the Parker but in a row, I tried the Safari, the AL-Star, the Studio and the 2000 and not only did they work "out of the box" they were cheaper than the Parker I currently had and perform to a point where my newbie self noticed a stark difference.

 

Overall: 4.2/10

 

Appearance: 9/10

I love the look of the range and the feel and the Great Expectations with Red trim was a pen I lusted over the entire odyssey I was trying to get a decent copy. But Alas, never again and after 5 weeks of going back to the store, I was over it - the pen's look makes me cringe and terrifies me now when I buy a pen online knowing that I won't know if I will have similar problems with another brand/pen. I now cannot justify paying more than $100 on a pen if I cannot test write it, but that wont happen where I live, the pens I DO like the look of HAVE to be ordered online or pay huge markups for my local paper store to order one in.

 

Construction: 7/10

The Sonnet Range is built well, all metal and I loved the feel of the grip section. However posting the pen left a noticeable line which suggested that it wasn't something I wanted to keep doing to a lacquer body with a possibly metal inner cap

 

Fitting: 5/10

I do not like propriety products so when I got my first Parker, it did not come with a converter, had to order one in. The feed of the Great Expectations pen cracked the converter possibly due to a previous owner who attempted to return it or a careless department store clerk. The pen's trim looked nice on both versions and I really like the finial and the nib designs.

 

Nib: 0/10

The consistent poor performance I was able to get out of the pen range was horrible. Steel nibs from a Safari outperformed the Sonnets I had and my Duke 209 had a nib was was not scratchy even if the Sonnet was smoother (possibly baby's bottom) for one copy of the pen I had. This area is where my experience really grinded (pun intended) and almost put me off fountain pens (but I ended up buying Lamy and saving for a Conklin Duragraph and a Monteverde Impress as well as investing in some Pilot Metropolitans due to the general praise I hear from reviews.)

 

Testing and usage: 0/10

The worst month's experience with a fountain pen - my $10 Duke has been perfect out of the box and still outperformed a couple of the copies I got of the Parker Sonnet.

Edited July 9, 2016 by Leonil

[Bluey]

Sorry to hear of your disappointment. $100/159 for a plain stainless steel pen with a stainless steel nib . You were better off with the Duke . In many cases, stainless steel nibs are as good as and sometimes better than their gold equivalent, but that's not really the issue. The issue here is how did such a pen manage to be priced at anything over $10.

 

Parker used to have a grand reputation many years ago, so I'm told. These days they are but a shadow of their former self.

Edited July 9, 2016 by Bluey

[northstar]

The issue here is how did such a pen manage to be priced at anything over $10.

$10 do you have them for $10???

[Leonil]

$10 do you have them for $10???

LOL... I get that Fountain pens are expensive, all things considered - I also appreciate affordable copies that take advantage of copyright expiration and allows for affordable pens. At the same time, I do not appreciate pens that dont work out of the box once I start paying more than a Lamy Safari that retails for $50 here in Australia.

[Bluey]

$10 do you have them for $10???

Not an actual Sonnet(a quick check on ebay shows that they go for around $64 brand new), but there are many cheap Chinese that look exactly (plain stainless steel pen with stainless steel nib) like that that will write a lot better than than the pen the OP had.

I mean, how many ways can you make a plain stainless steel pen with a stainless steel nib? There's not a lot of room for differences in manufacturing quality there that would justify a much high price.

Edited July 9, 2016 by Bluey

[hbdk]

Sorry to hear about your trouble. Unfortunately my own experiences with Parker and Waterman (same company) are identical. A Sonnet, 2 Hemispheres and an Expert II - all with bad nibs and/or bad flow. The only modern day Parker I have had good experiences with is the Frontier, which is made in India and no longer a part of the official Parker line. The Frontier is an excellent pen.

 

The Baoer 388 (Sonnet clone/tribute) is in my book a much better writer than the modern day original. I buy them 10 at a time and give them away to friends and clients. They need a good clean and sometimes nib aligning. There might me one dud out of 10, but at that price you just throw it away and grab another

They also take standard no. 5 nibs, so you can get an even better writing experience from them with e.g. a Bock nib.

[PAKMAN]

Sorry to hear about the bad experiences with the Sonnet! If you had bought it on-line rather than a dealer I might have thought it was one of the many Sonnet counterfeits out there in the world. My experience was different but I bought mine 5 years ago and opted for the very top of the line with the Sterling Silver Fougere model with the 18 k nib. It looks and writes like a dream.

[rwilsonedn]

Sorry to hear about the bad experiences with the Sonnet! If you had bought it on-line rather than a dealer I might have thought it was one of the many Sonnet counterfeits out there in the world. My experience was different but I bought mine 5 years ago and opted for the very top of the line with the Sterling Silver Fougere model with the 18 k nib. It looks and writes like a dream.

 

Perhaps the new Parker has decided to drive the counterfeit Sonnets off the market by descending to their level of quality ...

ron

[tamiya]

LOL... I get that Fountain pens are expensive, all things considered - I also appreciate affordable copies that take advantage of copyright expiration and allows for affordable pens. At the same time, I do not appreciate pens that dont work out of the box once I start paying more than a Lamy Safari that retails for $50 here in Australia.

 

which shop, matey? (Mainly so I know who to avoid)

 

Any chance you took note of the date of manufacture of these dodgy units?

 

Bought my Sonnet early on when they first appeared, its French made gold nib wrote smoothly from get go. Good flow no skips, zero complaints. (Had zero idea that FPs can be tuned back in those dark days anyway!) Fed it a diet of mainly Parker Penman, quite often left to dry out. Simply refilled and it works again.

 

Now also own many Baoer 388s every colour they've made them in... but even with hours of fiddling, they don't write as sweet as my genuine oldtimer.

 

Neither do any of my Lamys either, they're all steel nibs but have more tooth than either my Frontier (steel) or Sonnet (gold) which have never needed tuning.

[pkoko]

Call parker and ask for nib replacement... They did that to my sonnet and it writes great. Parker has great customer support

[tamiya]

Call parker and ask for nib replacement... They did that to my sonnet and it writes great. Parker has great customer support

In the USA? :/

 

Haven't tested it myself but suspect CS might be different down here in the antipodes. Fancy Parker is sold mainly in chain department stores; dedicated pen stores usually avoid selling same as they're too commonplace to be worth stocking. Dept store counters usually don't know much & their customer satisfaction guarantee usually starts (& ends) with a refund for product return.

 

Every other place I've bought Parkers from, it's always been taking the time to make sure it writes right before paying - have never been offered aftersales service by importer/distributor. Only place that I know of who routinely does around here is MontBlanc... and found our local boutique closed (for Reno) last time I wandered past that ritzy part of town.

[FineInk]

I agree - Baoer 388s are a great pen. They tend to write well and you can get them for $2-3 on eBay. They make a great giveaway.