What disappointments have grown to be favorites ?

[lowks]

When I think about this one pen comes to mind. A vintage Croxley. When this pen arrived initially, I hated the way it wrote. The feedback was on the slightly high side and the ink flow was not generous enough for me. I was close to the point of declaring this one a FAIL and wanted to sell it, but then decided to stick with it for a little while and I am glad I did because as I used it more, the feel of the pen began to grow on me and now it's one that I keep inked up and use daily. There is a slight flex to it for those times when I want to get fancy yet it's also great as a daily writer.

[catbert]

Pelikan 400NN (my first Pelikan). Was hoping for some flex, or at least spring. It turned out to be a stiff HEF and a joy to use.

[inklord]

Pilot Stargazer (=Stella 90s) in "fine". Wrote horribly dry and scratchy when I got it. I mean: not with some Japanese "fine" feedback, but SCRATCHY and so dry, my inks looked faint and featureless. After gently bending the nib tines up over my fingernail and repolishing on a fine ceramic stone and Mylar foil - voila! a smooth, moderately wet, springy nib in a super solid pocket pen! Now it's one of my most treasured pens due to the pronounced shading and nuanced ink flow coming from its nib!

[amk]

My first Parker 45. Oh darn it, horrible little pen, I thought, compared to the Vacs and Duofolds I was looking for... but it was only a couple of euros on a junk stall. Got it home, oh dear: encrusted with dried ink, looking sad, the plastic a bit dull and with a couple of bite marks and a load of crud (sealing wax?)... thought I'd wasted my money.

Then I cleaned it up, and filled it with ink, and started falling in love with its super soft, wet gold nib. Now I have a dozen!

[Cob]

When I think about this one pen comes to mind. A vintage Croxley. When this pen arrived initially, I hated the way it wrote. The feedback was on the slightly high side and the ink flow was not generous enough for me. I was close to the point of declaring this one a FAIL and wanted to sell it, but then decided to stick with it for a little while and I am glad I did because as I used it more, the feel of the pen began to grow on me and now it's one that I keep inked up and use daily. There is a slight flex to it for those times when I want to get fancy yet it's also great as a daily writer.

I agree: Croxleys are excellent pens; I have a couple and I like them. The nibs are as you say usually semi-flexible and the entire pens are of very good quality.

Cob

[Empty_of_Clouds]

What disappointments have grown to be favorites ?

That's a tough one. It's more a case of which one has been the least disappointing, and that's hard to pin down as they have all been disappointing in different ways.

[Kaputnik]

In the sense apparently intended, none. A couple have become favorites after taking positive action to correct defects. A Montblanc Noblesse became a favorite after I had the nib re-ground by Greg Minuskin. I have a certain liking for my Stipula Passaporto after I eventually succeeded in fixing its flow problems, but that required a bit of work. The time I put into getting it to work right adds to my appreciation now. And a couple of other current favorites needed a bit of nib tweaking to bring out their best.

There are pens which I appreciated more after a bit of practice with them, largely a question of finding the sweet spot. A Pilot Capless Decimo with EF nib, for example. I wouldn't say they were actually disappointments at first, though.

[mhosea]

The closest thing I can come up with is the Parker "51". It's not unusual for it to take awhile for people to warm to the hooded nib. There's a bit of a learning curve there, and perhaps more importantly, the hood has to be adjusted correctly so that there is a little give in the nib and so that it isn't too dry. Once you get all that straightened out, however, it's a great pen.

[Waski_the_Squirrel]

I can list a few.

The Platinum 3776 was a huge disappointment. I nearly gave away my first one a few times. However, as of this year, I'm up to four of them. I've grown to love the model.

Another is Noodler's Periwinkle. I had no other blue ink like it, but it was horrible to write with. Then, one day, I tried it in my Lamy ABC (another pen I don't like). It turns out it works great in that pen. My opinion on the pen is up, but I still don't like it. Since other Lamy pens seem to handle this ink as well, I don't have to revise my opinion on this pen.

[lowks]

In the sense apparently intended, none. A couple have become favorites after taking positive action to correct defects. A Montblanc Noblesse became a favorite after I had the nib re-ground by Greg Minuskin. I have a certain liking for my Stipula Passaporto after I eventually succeeded in fixing its flow problems, but that required a bit of work. The time I put into getting it to work right adds to my appreciation now. And a couple of other current favorites needed a bit of nib tweaking to bring out their best.

There are pens which I appreciated more after a bit of practice with them, largely a question of finding the sweet spot. A Pilot Capless Decimo with EF nib, for example. I wouldn't say they were actually disappointments at first, though.

What kind of flow issues.

[Kaputnik]

...I have a certain liking for my Stipula Passaporto after I eventually succeeded in fixing its flow problems, but that required a bit of work. The time I put into getting it to work right adds to my appreciation now...

What kind of flow issues.

Ink starvation when used in eyedropper mode, which is the only way I wanted to use it. It was better with ink cartridges, but as an eyedropper, ink would simply stop coming through the feed. Taking the feed out of the pen and giving it a thorough cleaning didn't help. It wasn't a nib problem; the ink wasn't coming into the feed in the first place. It would work for a while and then just seize up.

After trying different inks and various other things, including a ball bearing inside the barrel to break up surface tension, I did a hack which exposes more of the feed inside the pen, at the cost of making this unusable as a cartridge pen. Not everyone has had this kind of issue with this model, but I had to work with what was in front of me.

[DaveBj]

Once again, no great exchange of dollarage too place, but the Baoer 79 (fake Parker) that I bought was really a disappointment at first. Sometimes it would work great; other times not at all. Then I figured out that the nib has a relatively small sweet spot (compared with, say, a Varsity), and it is so well hooded that it is hard to tell by looking only at the nib how I was lining it up with the paper. Now when I post the cap, I carefully align the clip with the top of the nib, making it easy to tell how I'm orienting the nib. Now it's a nice wet writer.

The aeromatic filler is another story; I haven't figured out yet what I'm going to do with that

[KBeezie]

Most of my disappointments do not become favorites, they tend to linger, in those cases they become favorites by being traded off for ones I like.

But I guess if I had to say for one that was a disappointment when I got it, but ended up being "a" favorite (ie: not really a favorite, but it's not one I hate... maybe least favorite, or one that I at least treat like the tool it was intended to be...) Is the Lamy 2000. When I got it in trade the nib was extremely dry, it was also very rough despite looking like it was perfectly aligned along the writing surface. A couple days adjusting it and testing, then final adjustments after a week of testing I was able to get it to be one of my smoothest with a good flow that's not dry and not too wet, while maintaining a solid western EF line.

So that's the only one I currently have that I can think of that was initially a disappointment but ended up staying.

[lowks]

Got another for this thread. Recently secured a Sheaffer Statesman from Ebay. The pen was a disappointment from the start. Scratchy nib with misaligned and loose feed section. I didn't give up on the pen, brought it to my local pen doctor, fixed her up and now the pen is a favorite daily writer.

[TSherbs]

I echo KBeezie's post, word for word, right down to my Lamy 2000 experience. But once I smoothed the nib and separated the tines a bit, I became very happy!