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View Full Version : New Stipula Speed with Broken Piston......



RayCornett
April 2nd, 2015, 01:51 PM
I was given a Stipula Speed. It arrived today. The piston knob rotates forever and is squeaky. It should stop rotating after a few turns. The person who gave it to me never got it to fill. Now I think I know why.
Is there anything I can do on my end without having to send it back to Italy? I did email them but I really hate the idea of it taking months to be taken care of.

Jon Szanto
April 2nd, 2015, 02:32 PM
Ever since that pen came out a couple of years ago, the reviews have not been kind. I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

RudyR
April 2nd, 2015, 03:56 PM
ayeeee, Stipula. Ever go out with someone whose really attractive but is seriously flawed on the inside? That's Stipula. I was going to buy a Eturia, but the first one I tried, the piston was sticky. Another one I tried the piston wouldn't even move. That company is in limbo right now but I got a feeling that if the QC and customer service issues are not addressed then it will go the way of Conway Stewart (which was a far better brand then Stipula).

Stipula gives Italian pens a bad name. I seriously caution anyone from buy any Stipulas till way in the future, if it still exists.

RayCornett
April 2nd, 2015, 04:16 PM
I went to their website and it actually mentions the upcoming 2013 catalog,,,,,sheesh

Ste_S
April 2nd, 2015, 04:36 PM
Stipula went kaput in 2013 roughly, and were bought out by another company. They've been trying to keep the brand going by all accounts, but repairs is apparently not one of their strong points. There's someone over on FPN who's been waiting nearly a year for his pen to be returned

fountainpenkid
April 2nd, 2015, 05:08 PM
If you take it apart, it will never stay together properly again, so I'd either try sending it to stipula for repair, or scrap it. I should note that you could glue the barrel back on to the section but I would question the durability of such a repair.

Quantum Sailor
April 2nd, 2015, 05:29 PM
I've encountered two Stipula pens in my short fountain pen history and neither have been very good. One I tried to get to be workable until I just gave up and returned it. The other was a gift to my gf and I eventually just tried regrinding the nib and found I was able to finally get it to write to her liking. So I'm not really impressed with the brand. I would try sending it back if you can.

reeja12
April 18th, 2015, 06:50 AM
Good to hear this

gregamckinney
April 18th, 2015, 02:55 PM
I've personally never had trouble with the half dozen or so Stipulae I've owned in 20 years, but have had LOTS OF TROUBLE with other Italian pens. I think of modern Italian pens as the bipolar supermodels of fountain pens.
If you like the pen enough to put a few (more than 50, less (probably) than 100) dollars into it, I would recommend sending it to a pro restorer like Joel Hamilton to see what he can do.
You will avoid the crazy delays that a trip to Italy will entail, even though you'll pay more than "warranty service" prices.

Best Regards, greg

RayCornett
July 15th, 2015, 06:20 PM
Well, earlier this month, about 3 months to the day of its arrival and several email exchanges with weeks between replies the Speed has finally been replaced and I am actually quite happy with its performance(after about 10 minutes of nib tinkering). The only complaint I actually have is that if you dip the pen too far into the ink while filling the ink gets into the section grooves by capillary action and you have to get all of that out before you can write unless you want the ink allover your fingers. Nice medium nib and smooth writer.

I liked it enough that I acquired another Speed, an orange f stub, through a trade. This one arrived just about an hour ago. I have not inked it up as of yet because there is a question I have which one of you might be able to answer.

As you can see in the pictures the orange one has a slight gap between the magnetic ring in the barrel. When the collar with the nib and feed is unscrewed and the magnetic ring comes off it seems the "sleeve" the collar goes into protrudes out of the barrel by maybe 1/32 of an inch. The white pen does not have this "problem". I am assuming this "sleeve" is just pushed into the barrel at the factory. Does anyone know if this is correct? If so, would pushing it in against a flat surface push it in the rest of the way?