A little advice needed with my first high end Visconti.

[chojo]

Hi folks as the title says I've recently received my most expensive pen to date, a Visconti Divina Elegance midi in royal brown. It is beautiful in every respect, except for the way it writes. It is a very wet writer which I don't mind so much but it also dries out and skips really quickly. Upon receipt of the pen I filled it with Rorher & Klingner Alt Goldgrun and it was lovely, I wrote for about 30 minutes then was called away to take care of something else. I returned around an hour later and the pen would not write at all, after fiddling with the piston knob I managed to get the ink flowing again but within 5 minutes it was skipping to the point where it was unusable. My first thought was perhaps the ink didn't agree with it although I've never had a problem with R&K before but anyway I flushed the pen and as I have no Visconti ink I filled it with my most reliable ink - Diamine Majestic. Again it wrote for a while then started skipping again.
Now as someone who is not used to high end pens is there something I should be doing? Perhaps a secret handshake or something that only High end users know about. My only other Visconti is a Salvador Dali not the $3000 one!
So do I simply return the pen or can anyone help me out? Speaking of returning it, It was purchased from Amazon can anyone see any issues with returning it to them? Will it have to go back to Italy to be inspected before a refund or replacement is given? Any help or advice is much appreciated.

Thanks.

[Crazyorange]

I believe the pen has a special system to allow the pen to travel filled with ink. I'm going blank on the correct name for it but that would allow the pen to go dry. I'm sure someone will come along and give input.

Congrats on a beautiful pen.

[Paddrino]

What type of paper are you using? Did you try some more absorbent paper to see if it happens on there as well? What I find on my visconti's is that if I am writing on slick paper like rodia, and I get some oils from my hand on the paper it will skip. The nib is polished often times on the edge of having baby's bottom and any oil on slick paper may cause it to skip. I've found this to be the case with both of my Homo sapiens.

[tandaina]

The Divina Elegance uses a captive converter. So there is nothing that needs to be done to make it write properly, it's not a vacuum filler, there is no shutoff valve.

If you can take it back and exchange it do. It sounds like a QC issue which sadly Visconti's high end pens often have. The Italians make beautiful stuff but it isn't necessarily known for its reliability. You can either have a nib miester adjust it, or just return the thing for a different one and hope for better QC on that one. You should *not* have to fiddle with an expensive pen to get it to write, you aren't doing anything wrong. Honestly, you shouldn't even have to flush a new pen to get it writing, and most pens should work with just about any ink.

[Scooby921]

My new Homo Sapiens did the same thing. It would dry up a bit and hard start if I waited more than a few seconds between letters / words while writing. When it did finally write it was really wet for a short time and then dried up again. I wound up flushing the pen several times with soapy water to pick up and remove any residual oils which might have been in the feed and under the nib. Flush it again with clean water to get the soap out (duh). Since then I haven't had any problems with it. Three different inks all writing incredibly well.

[chojo]

Thanks for all the replies folks, having flushed it a third time and still having problems I've requested a replacement. Tandaina is right I shouldn't have to mess around to get a new pen to work I was hoping there may have been something I just didn't know about but it appears not. I'm quite annoyed though that at this price point quality control isn't as it should be. Thanks again.

[Anne]

Thanks for all the replies folks, having flushed it a third time and still having problems I've requested a replacement. Tandaina is right I shouldn't have to mess around to get a new pen to work I was hoping there may have been something I just didn't know about but it appears not. I'm quite annoyed though that at this price point quality control isn't as it should be. Thanks again.

Yes, I have to agree with Tandaina as well. I have an Opera Crystal that doesn't like to dot i's or end sentences with a period. It's their stub nib. Nice line variation though

[chojo]

Well I returned it and amazingly I have the replacement already! I only requested a replacement on Friday night, kudos to Amazon for that Just a bit strange as the first one took over a week to arrive. So far so good, I'm leaving it it now to see if it dries out like the last one did. Thanks again for the assistance.

[Crazyorange]

Keep us posted.

[Anne]

Very nice! I am so glad that they didn't hassle you in returning it.

[Sandy Fry]

I keep hearing of these QC issues with Visconti. I must just be super lucky as I have several Visconti's and never had a problem with any of them.

David

[Llewellyn]

I keep hearing of these QC issues with Visconti. I must just be super lucky as I have several Visconti's and never had a problem with any of them.

David

Same here, I have over 25 of them and have had a couple of issues but not enough to put me off the brand. I don't think their QC is any worse than other companies, but their critics seem to be more vocal.

[Bogon07]

I keep hearing of these QC issues with Visconti. I must just be super lucky as I have several Visconti's and never had a problem with any of them.

David

Same here, I have over 25 of them and have had a couple of issues but not enough to put me off the brand. I don't think their QC is any worse than other companies, but their critics seem to be more vocal.

Double Ditto with 40+ V-pens. Seems some with other brands it is fine to have all your pens worked on by a nibmeister first.

I must admit my recent Desert Springs was unimpressive to write with on the first fill but on the second it wrote wonderfully with the same ink, Noodler's Navajo Turquoise. But it didn't require any nib work just a short run in as the pull-turn captive converter don't hold that much ink.

[Paddrino]

Yea I've noticed the quality control argument as well. I guess the loudest voices will be heard. Sadly I had to send my florentine hills Homo sapiens off for nib repair because of a horrible nib. On up strokes the nib was literally scrapping the paper apart . My Bronze Age has had no troubles, and my Van Gogh writes wonderfully.

[Llewellyn]

Yea I've noticed the quality control argument as well. I guess the loudest voices will be heard. Sadly I had to send my florentine hills Homo sapiens off for nib repair because of a horrible nib. On up strokes the nib was literally scrapping the paper apart . My Bronze Age has had no troubles, and my Van Gogh writes wonderfully.

Over in the other place there is one particular person who would trash Visconti and their supposedly woeful QC at every opportunity he got, even though he admitted that he didn't own any. His defence was that he had read enough stories about problems to make up his mind. It also seems (to me at least) that if you question the QC of the brand that is named after a mountain then you're going to get subjected to a barrage of abuse.

But I'm straying OT - I love my Visconti's.

[Paddrino]

Hehe me too. For me personally, I don't see any other pens that I enjoy the look of more. The first time I saw the florentine hills I was hooked for life. Green is my favorite color, and I looked at it at my local pen shop every time I went to the mall waiting for a price decrease. I ALMOST bought another one today, but I have a custom pen I am waiting on to get created so I talked myself out of it..... But it took about 20 minutes shhhh little pollard willows you will be mine soon ;

[Bogon07]

The VG Pollard Willows has spectacular resin... I was tempted by that one too. Especially after Youstruckgold post his one.

Paddrino congratulations on the Florentine Hills - I found my one did not seem to write quite as well as the similar Blue Crystal HS (which has the nicest Palladium nib so far) so it could be Visconti is having slight issues with the 23K nibs as the increase the production of them. However like the Desert Springs it has improved with use.

[Llewellyn]

Pollard Willows is one of my favourite VG's - lovely resin. I'm not as enamoured by Irises as I thought I'd be (too lime green for my tastes as it turns out). I'm still trying to decide whether to replace the Room in Arles I had.

[Llewellyn]

The VG Pollard Willows has spectacular resin... I was tempted by that one too. Especially after Youstruckgold post his one.

Paddrino congratulations on the Florentine Hills - I found my one did not seem to write quite as well as the similar Blue Crystal HS (which has the nicest Palladium nib so far) so it could be Visconti is having slight issues with the 23K nibs as the increase the production of them. However like the Desert Springs it has improved with use.

Wow, mine looks completely different. Part of the attraction of the VG's I think

[Paddrino]

I have the iris, and I really enjoy it. I am debating on buying either the pollard willows or find a pine trees next. I'd the shop I went to yesterday had pine trees, I would have bought it on the spot. Alas too many pens so little time