Skippy nib that hard starts

[maclink]

I have a Leonardo Momento Zero that I bought soon after the pen's initial release.  This pen has never written without trouble.  It tends to hard start after relatively short periods without use and it skips occasionally.

 

The tines seemed in-line, but I managed to have a look with a magnifying glass x15 and here it is:

 

 

The tine on the right seems a bit twisted leading to a misalignment.  This one seems to need some help from a nibmeister, doesn't it?

[inkstainedruth]

It also looks as if you might have some baby's bottom with the tipping (which would have been my first guess anyway -- I had that problem with a Pelikan M200 B nib, which skipped no matter what ink I put in the pen, until I took it to a nibmeister at a pen show).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[mizgeorge]

52 minutes ago, maclink said:

... This one seems to need some help from a nibmeister, doesn't it?

But it shouldn't. A pen that costs that much should work perfectly out of the box. Regardless of its age, I'd be inclined to go back to the original vendor and explain that it has never been right and see if they will do something about it. 

[A Smug Dill]

4 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

It also looks as if you might have some baby's bottom with the tipping

 

 

3 hours ago, mizgeorge said:

A pen that costs that much should work perfectly out of the box.

 

The nib on my Leonardo Momento Zero, also bought shortly after initial release, was also problematic but just in a different way. The ball of tipping was split asymmetrically, and one hemisphere was larger and thicker than the other, making that tine bend upwards when the nib was pressed down onto the page; I could hear the clicking of the inner surfaces of the tines as they move and rub against each other. (My initial thoughts was that it wrote smoothly but just not finely enough, because in my initial testing, I wasn't trying to write in different languages and scripts that require deliberate hand pressure moderation to get the desired shapes or ‘line variation‘ for short, distinct pen strokes.)

 

That is why I now pass on Leonardo pens, even when the discounted offers look very good, unless they're down to the level of ‘equivalent’ Chinese pens with similarly questionable nib quality control. I can't make Leonardo want to do better and invest in doing better, but I hope collectively we can change the market demand for its pens and drive down Leonardo pens' street prices to match their poor value as functional writing instruments.

[silverlifter]

25 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

but I hope collectively we can change the market demand for its pens and drive down Leonardo pens' street prices to match their poor value as functional writing instruments.

 

But, they look so pretty! 

 

I used the phrase "the pen equivalent of empty calories" to describe many modern pens in another thread. I didn't have Leonardo in mind at the time, but the epithet is like the Tardis -- there is always room for more!

[inkstainedruth]

23 hours ago, silverlifter said:

the epithet is like the Tardis -- there is always room for more!

Oh, just IMAGINE how many pens you could fit in a TARDIS.... 

Hmmm.  I wonder what pen the Doctor would use.  Or would that depend on WHICH regeneration? 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[silverlifter]

2 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Hmmm.  I wonder what pen the Doctor would use.  Or would that depend on WHICH regeneration? 

 

The One, True Doctor, Tom Baker, would undoubtedly use a Vacumatic as he spent quite a bit iof time in the late 30s-early 40s, and it would match his scarf!

[Bo Bo Olson]

Problems have to addressed immediately...or folks can get bent out of shape with old problems.

Now I think it's nibmeister time.