Do you recommend Leonardo pens?

[mauckcg]

On 8/9/2022 at 7:49 PM, CraigN said:

TheDutchGuy,

 

I bought one of those hotcakes this past weekend at the DC Pen Supershow, a Leonardo Mosaico with a fine steel nib.  I also purchased a Leonardo pen last year at the DC show from Dromgoole's.  It was a pleasure dealing with Yoost and yes, he had lots of Leonardo pens in display.  I hope he returns next year.

 

I understand that some users have encountered issues with nibs.  Fortunately, I have not had any problems with either of the steel nibs that I own.  I also like the ink capacity and material colors that are offered.  

 

Regards,

Craig

Congrats.  I've only had one steel nib I couldn't fix.  Mostly it's a nib misalignment or the tines need spread to get ink to flow properly.  Glad you got a good, one, enjoy it!

[ErrantSmudge]

There's been some discussion in this thread about quality issues with earlier Leonardos that came equipped with Bock nibs.  I recently encountered an opportunity to own one of these pens and I'm reporting on my experience.

 

At this year's San Francisco Pen Show, I was browsing the Leonardos on display at the Dromgoole's booth. The salesperson offered me a deal on an older Momento Zero, a Blue Sorrento with a Bock nib in M.  After some time spent dip-testing the pen, I accepted the offer.  (At first it was very erratic and skippy, but after a few dips it mellowed out considerably and I decided it was worth taking a chance).

 

My Blue Sorrento is from 2020 and is serial number 006, so I guess it's early production. At home cleaning the pen, I realized this had to have been a customer return; it was filled with dried ink, and several colors came out during a long soak with pen flush.  I'm guessing someone put a very saturated ink in the pen, it clogged, and they returned it to the shop.  Ultimately I had to disassemble the feed and clean all the parts individually.

 

The nib has no major defects - I don't have problems with skipping or hard starts (with one exception, see below).  Compared to my Momento Magico with a Jowo F nib, it writes smoother and drier. (I would say the Jowo nib has more feedback than the Bock, as neither are "scratchy" nibs).  The line with Waterman Blue ink is a bit too dry for my taste, but with a wetter ink (currently Diamine Blue-Black) I'm getting an acceptable amount of wetness.

 

I did experience minor dryout/hard start issues with Waterman Blue (the first stroke after letting it sit capped overnight runs dry) but with Diamine Blue-Black the pen has not given me any problems.

 

I may yet tweak the nib to increase the flow, but I'd say that aside from being a dry writer the Bock nib is quite acceptable and I'm happy with my purchase.

 

[Desertrat]

I have the Momento Zero Grande Magico....piston filler, and it has really been flawless!

I have been using it with mostly brown, pumpkin cake, and chocolate brown inks.

[FountainpenGraphy]

just to make this thread clear, from my view point, I had a chance to get a Momento Zero for a good deal, and test it, it was fabulous, it had two take aways for me: 

- the Jowo nib on different pens behave differently.

- Leonardo pens have great build quality 

 

I end up getting 3 other leonardos and loved them all. 

in fact, Leonardo is now a new favorite brand of mine.