Something that has put me off buying Visconti's non-C/C pens is that a lot of them are made in ways that are unconventional and, to me, "cheapen" the pen.
The most obvious examples are the "piston fillers" like the Divina, Diamond Jubilee LE, Homo Sapiens midi, etc. The captured converter has the worst sides of both C/C fillers and true piston fillers. Captured converters have neither the easy maintenance of C/C pens nor the ink capacity and durability of piston fillers. I don't understand why they don't just allow you to unscrew the barrel of a Homo Sapiens and let you replace the converter if it breaks. It's basically like taking a standard C/C pen and gluing the barrel to the section and just hoping that the converter lasts forever.
A less-known example, because these pens don't get taken apart often, are, what I call, the captured converter power fillers.
For example, the Visconti Cosmos, Homo Sapiens, Wall Street LE, and several others, have "power-fillers" that seal against a plastic tube inside the pen. My educated guess is that this is less durable long-term, and it also has a much reduced ink capacity.
Another example is their use of ink windows that are separate plastic pieces that are glued to the section and barrel of the pen. Breakages can happen here, and this also seems bad for long-term durability. Vintage pens like the Parker Big Red Duofold or the Montblanc 134 have parts that either unscrew or come apart with heat. Only shellac is used to bind pieces together. The result is a pen that can survive decades, and be easily repaired, whereas if a Visconti breaks, as in the below picture, replacement is the only option. Repair is out of the question.
So what do you guys think of Visconti's various unconventional pen building methods?
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