What is your costliest FP disappointment ?

[coase]

Montblanc 146. It was a gift for a special occasion. It leaked and skipped. The leaking was fixed but it never wrote the way I wanted it to. Not quite wet or smooth enough for me. My vintage Sheaffers and Parkers were way better and I don't worry about losing a big ticket item. I don't resell it because it was a gift but I don't plan on using it regularly.

[Poeticnook]

I wouldn't say it's costly but from all my pens, this is the only one that disappointed me - the faber castell ondoro, I got one with a broad nib and it writes really nice, but then the cap doesn't seal well, so the nib dries out when not used for say a day, it's a hard starter and you have to coax the ink out for it to write again, I think they should design a better cap seal to remedy this issue

[ian1964]

Not so much the Pen but the nib. The EF nib on my Pelikan M200. Everyone was raving about the Pelikan EF nib on another forum so I bought one. Well, no matter what did it just scratched the paper. So, I thought what the hell.....I wrote several words on a sheet of 1200 Grit wet and Dry. Then smoothed it off with 2400 to 12000 Grit paper and WOW! OK, not an EF anymore but a great Medium stub I use for work.

[lowks]

Not so much the Pen but the nib. The EF nib on my Pelikan M200. Everyone was raving about the Pelikan EF nib on another forum so I bought one. Well, no matter what did it just scratched the paper. So, I thought what the hell.....I wrote several words on a sheet of 1200 Grit wet and Dry. Then smoothed it off with 2400 to 12000 Grit paper and WOW! OK, not an EF anymore but a great Medium stub I use for work.

Ended well enough

[top pen]

Not so much the Pen but the nib. The EF nib on my Pelikan M200. Everyone was raving about the Pelikan EF nib on another forum so I bought one. Well, no matter what did it just scratched the paper. So, I thought what the hell.....I wrote several words on a sheet of 1200 Grit wet and Dry. Then smoothed it off with 2400 to 12000 Grit paper and WOW! OK, not an EF anymore but a great Medium stub I use for work.

Funny I had exactly the same experience with a Fine M200. Scratchy, dry wouldn't really write. I had to mess around with that pen for hours before I managed to get it to write properly and had to use sheets from 4000-12000 grit I ended up with a stub, with a slightly left oblique nib on it. Writes well now however it has scared me off buying another Pelikan any time soon.

[penwash]

Not so much the Pen but the nib. The EF nib on my Pelikan M200. Everyone was raving about the Pelikan EF nib on another forum so I bought one. Well, no matter what did it just scratched the paper. So, I thought what the hell.....I wrote several words on a sheet of 1200 Grit wet and Dry. Then smoothed it off with 2400 to 12000 Grit paper and WOW! OK, not an EF anymore but a great Medium stub I use for work.

Did you retain any tipping material after you smooth it?
I smooth a lot of nibs and it's rare that I ended up with a Medium starting from an EF unless I grind it to a... well, stub.

[ian1964]

No Penwash...no tipping left. It is a bit like the Parsons Itallix pen I got from Massdrop now. My nib resembles an Itallic or Stub now.

[penwash]

No Penwash...no tipping left. It is a bit like the Parsons Itallix pen I got from Massdrop now. My nib resembles an Itallic or Stub now.

That makes more sense.
A nib without any tipping material will eventually be worn out by using it on paper. It'll take longer for steel nibs, and sooner for gold ones.
That's why re-tipping services exist.

Having said that, you may decide not to pay for re-tipping for a couple of reasons (that I can think of): You may plan to use the nib sparingly, or you don't feel the nib is worthwhile to pay for its re-tipping, or whatever. Re-tipping is not a must, it's just an option to consider.

[Mister5]

I had an azure Vacumatic that I won off eBay around 2003. The thing leaked regularly. It sat in the drawer until I decided to clean out and just threw it away. I didn't know about getting pens repaired hence my idiotic move.

[lowks]

I had an azure Vacumatic that I won off eBay around 2003. The thing leaked regularly. It sat in the drawer until I decided to clean out and just threw it away. I didn't know about getting pens repaired hence my idiotic move.

Ugh, how much did you had to pay for it?

[Silverbreeze]

The mosquito filler on my Typhoon just never worked right for me. Great pen though

[Titivillus]

A Visconti Manhattan in blue. Loved the pen and it wrote like a dream but then ink leaked between the celluloid and filler discoloring it. Sent it back and they returned it with no repair so I sold it as I'd rather not have to look at it.

[Mister5]

It's been so long I don't recall. Back then I'm guessing around $50. My latest debacle with a Vacumatic is getting one repaired and then dropping it nib down on a cement floor later that week.

[lowks]

It's been so long I don't recall. Back then I'm guessing around $50. My latest debacle with a Vacumatic is getting one repaired and then dropping it nib down on a cement floor later that week.

Hurts even reading that!