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Wancher Pen Performance


dlddr

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I own 2 of fountain pens from Wancher and both of them seem very sub-par in terms of performance.

Both pen are less than year old with very little usage due to their issues.

 

1 has frequent hard starts along with leakage through section.

The other one has no leak. But it is very wet and has hard starts.

 

Is this common for other people who purchased from Wancher?

I've emailed them but then require videos of the issue before they'll even consider repairing it.

My limited knowledge tells me it might be sealing problem and baby bottom but I don't want to start making repairs on my own.

 

At this point, I think I have to eat the cost of the 2 pens. 

I never had issues with Japanese made pens before (Nakaya, PIlot and Platinum) but this incident has really changed my perception on which brands are "safe".

 

Let me know if any of you had this issue and how did you solve it?

 

EDIT: I should also add that I messaged Nakaya while placing an order if they would remove the sections and nibs from the Wancher pens and install their own but sadly they said they do not work on pens made by other manufacturers.

Edited by dlddr
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 I had a similar experience but I bought my Wancher second hand. Very unsatisfactory.

Love all, trust a few, do harm to none. Shakespeare

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I have 2 Wancher pens.  They have interesting materials for the pens and their prices are attractive.  And I specifically ordered their in house nibs.  I would not say that their nibs are bad to use but it is nothing really exceptional to write about.  It does what it does.

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I one, the True Urushi Dream Pen.  I like it.  It too has hard start issues if not used frequently.  When used daily, no problem. 

 

I have many pens inked and thus nat all get used daily and hard starting is an issue I have learned to live with given my way of using them.  I have an antique packet inkwell filled with water to dip my hard starting pen nibs into and all is well.

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So far it sounds like Wancher nibs can have some hard start issues.

 

Can anyone recommend me a nibsmith that could take care of this?

I'm wondering if the current covid pandemic has affected any of the popular nibsmiths.

(I live in Canada, if that helps)

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I have 3 Wancher pens. Two are most excellent and one is a firehose. No hard starts. Nib adjustment at home is easy. Many pen brands suffer some sort of nib issues more or less commonly.

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Update.  I used mine for the first time in a while.   No hard start despite lying idle for about a week.  

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no issues with the wancher 18k nib / ebonite feed combination - writes smoothly and no hard starts out of the box.  

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No issues with my 18k wancher nib/ebonite feed. No dryout issues. Only thing I wish is that it came in finer widths, but it's next on my list for a regrind anyways (if you need a re-grind, I recommend Gena Salorino. You'd have to ship it down to the US, but she charges very little and does superb work with a fast turnaround)

 

I'm surprised they are giving you any issues at all on warranty work. I bought two vintage restored pens from them, one had a slightly leaky rear seal, and they paid for return shipping/full warranty work no questions asked. Didn't have to send them a video or anything.

 

Honestly I've had an utterly superb experience working with them. I inquired about getting a japanese eyedropper my mom recovered off a sunken WWII japanese transport in the 70's and they wouldn't even let me pay for the shipping to them, let alone the work. They spent a year finding an artisan who had a matching cap and manufacturing new seals for it while preserving the "35 years of saltwater" patina the urushi had developed. It's a bummer you've had a less great experience.

 

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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15 hours ago, Honeybadgers said:

No issues with my 18k wancher nib/ebonite feed. No dryout issues. Only thing I wish is that it came in finer widths, but it's next on my list for a regrind anyways (if you need a re-grind, I recommend Gena Salorino. You'd have to ship it down to the US, but she charges very little and does superb work with a fast turnaround)

 

I'm surprised they are giving you any issues at all on warranty work. I bought two vintage restored pens from them, one had a slightly leaky rear seal, and they paid for return shipping/full warranty work no questions asked. Didn't have to send them a video or anything.

 

Honestly I've had an utterly superb experience working with them. I inquired about getting a japanese eyedropper my mom recovered off a sunken WWII japanese transport in the 70's and they wouldn't even let me pay for the shipping to them, let alone the work. They spent a year finding an artisan who had a matching cap and manufacturing new seals for it while preserving the "35 years of saltwater" patina the urushi had developed. It's a bummer you've had a less great experience.

 

WOW!   Any pics of the pen?

 

BTW.  Your link to your boat load of pens for sale does not work.  FYI.

Edited by Tinjapan
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no issues with my Wancher fountain pens from Kickstarter projects.. all of them work really nicely.

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  • 1 month later...

Update on the situation

 

Recently, Wancher has begun accepting repairs from their Seven Treasure line as it seems like the problem is more common than they initially thought.

They told me I can send both Seven Treasure and Kiei Urushi pen that I purchased from them for repair.

Once they got it, they told me that they cannot repair the Seven Treasure pen as the ebonite feed does not work with their new piston filler pen.

They told me they can downgrade the feed to plastic, refund me the cost of upgrade and then offered me 15% off coupon.

They added that this is their first attempt with piston filler mechanism and that I should expect problems like this.

 

I got disgusted with their response and told them they can keep both my pens as the pens caused me more stress than joy.

 

Well, that ends my interaction with Wancher. 

I am thoroughly disgusted by their QC and response.

I won't be buying anything from them.

 

For those who have fine Wancher pens, treasure them.

They're a rarity apparently.

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I was always tempted by Wancher but was wary of their nib/feed combos since I've never had a chance to try them firsthand.  I am glad I held out...I'll just save up for a Nakaya, instead. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Final update (hopefully)

 

Since my last interaction with Wancher, it looks like my case was escalated.

A new rep contacted me and we negotiated a deal.

 

While the pen performance and the initial interaction with Wancher left a lot to be desired, walking away from this, I am more or less satisfied with the final outcome.

 

Maybe in the distance future, if I hear many good reviews & comments about Wancher pens, I might give them a try again.

 

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On 6/21/2021 at 10:07 PM, dlddr said:

Update on the situation

<snip>

Once they got it, they told me that they cannot repair the Seven Treasure pen as the ebonite feed does not work with their new piston filler pen.

They told me they can downgrade the feed to plastic, refund me the cost of upgrade.

<snip>

I just had a search to see if anyone else had a similar experience to me with their gold nibbed Seven Treasures pen...

 

I had a Dream Urushi through the Kickstarter campaign and it was a good pen, the urushi was well done and the pen wrote well.  I only sold it on as I had other pens I much preferred and so it was not being used.  Roll on to the Seven Treasures KS campaign.

 

Got my pen with the medium 14k nib and ebonite feed and within 2 days it was on it's way back to them (to give them their dues they were quick to respond and they arranged and paid for the pick up/return).  Got the same email response quote above.  I complained and said I was not interested I needed them to get the ebonite feed working for me.  2 months later I got a response that my pen was on it's way back to me.

Pen arrives, with a plastic feed - was unhappy about this and let them know my views - I was refunded for the ebonite feed though (which was KS add on item).  Thing is the nib at first was very rough, then became a lot smoother, but still not great.  Had a look under a loupe and found one tine was slightly out.  Slight pressure and it was back in place (which with a gold nib should have not worked) then a small bit of writing later and the tine was back out of alignment ... - looking round the collar with a loupe I noticed there is a second plastic sleeve that does not fully go all the way round, stopping before the bottom of the feed.  I think this additional ring is putting too much pressure on the sides of the nib and was probably introduced to keep the nib and feed in place.

I'm giving it a few more days but I suspect by them I'll be asking Wancher to collect the pen (and this time the box as well) with the view that either they actually make it work properly else give me a full refund.

 

My present view is the pen design was made without consulting the people actually making the parts with the result of the second collar being implemented as a work around, but one that with softness of the gold nibs just does not work.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been using mine a bit more since posting about it above.  Have had no issues with slow starting g until today.  Opened it up and it is all but out of ink.  Been working perfectly for me.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Decided to keep mine.  The tines on mine seem to be on the soft side so when not in use the tipping looks out of line and initially the pen will skip of a second, but then it runs smooth with the tine feeling in line.  Hence the alignment bouncing around earlier.

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