Visconti Mirage? Good pen?

[sidpost]

I have heard good things about the Visconti Mirage fountain pen being a really nice pen experience.  At $160, there are a lot of pen options that compete with this one.

 

What is the deal with the Visconti Mirage?  Better option at $160 or, should I look elsewhere?  I should note, I am looking at the Pilot Custom options too since the Nibs I tried were so nice.

 

TIA,

Sid

[fabri00]

I bought one Visconti Mirage in blue some time ago because I found one new sold for a very good price.

Is a good pen, with steel nib. Mayby a bit short if you have big hands like me.

Nothing great nothing bad.

I like it because the shape is not fully round as majority of the pens now available in this range of price.

Piilot Custom has a gold nib for about the same price, but as pen is a bit boring to me.

I have several Pilots, but most of the time I never ink any of them.

[sidpost]

I assume you are referring to the Pilot E-95 with its inlaid Nib which for me is roughly the same price.  That style and hooded Nibs just aren't my "thing" today.  With its small gold nib, I'm sure it has a wonderful feeling for most people but historically that pen shape hasn't worked for me.

Reviews I have seen on YouTube from Goulet Pens suggest it is a bouncy responsive Nib similar to gold Nibs.

[nm4]

Totally not worth it.  The Visconti steel nibs are of mediocre quality at best; that descriptor applies to the rest of the pen as well.  You can find steel nibbed Viscontis for under $50 on online websites - at that price they are fair (still not a great value).  I recently purchased two Opera fountain pens with steel nibs...the price was <$200 but still far too much for the nib quality.  The nibs were very rigid and had feedback even after tuning and smoothing - I think it's the material and shape.

 

Visconti quality control is very, very, very poor so if you buy one make sure you have a good return/exchange policy.  After purchasing 8 of their pens I have had to exchange 4 (bad nibs or defective fillers) and have had to have nibmeisters fix 3 of the others.  Never had such an issue even with <$10 pens from ebay.   I haven't made mention of their customer support but you can look at my thread where a $700 pen was lost forever because of their incompetence and no amends were made.

 

The Visconti gold/platinum nibs write far, far better than the steel (ie no feedback and great flow) but again have significant quality issues.   If you get a good one (as I had with my now forever lost Homo Sapiens) it is truly a fantastic pen.

 

N

[sidpost]

I did see the thread with the pen that apparently sat in Italian Customs over a holiday period and Visconti never responded to a message from Italian Customs that may or may to have been sent to them.  The pen was returned to the USA but, it appears the local USPS office lost it in the "final mile" and the insurance claim process was similar to mine and likely would not be accepted.

 

USPS postal insurance seems like a SCAM at times due to policies and directives from a distant Ivory Tower disconnected from the local postal employees.  Similar to the Home Insurance companies in Florida that altered inspection reports to deny valid and legitimate claims.

 

For the price, I think I will look elsewhere at this point.

[jchch1950]

On 10/2/2024 at 12:07 AM, nm4 said:

. After purchasing 8 of their pens I have had to exchange 4 (bad nibs or defective fillers) and have had to have nibmeisters fix 3 of the others.  

 

N

I take note and forget about purchasing pens from this brand.

[Mark from Yorkshire]

As a counter point British and have a Visconti from a reputable UK seller and all is fine. The pen and nib write fine and is good to use.