You most disappointing pen or pens

[CapeClear]

Another vote for the MB 149. I don't know what I was expecting but I never fell in love with my 149. It had all the correct boxes ticked but it just did not live up to the price tag and I suppose I couldn't get over that mentally. I sold it after a few months. The MB F. Scott Fitzgerald is still my grail pen however.

[AtomicLeo]

My metal Pilot Falcon.....kills me to admit that. I tried one in a shop and fell in love. Saved for MONTHS to buy one for myself for my birthday. The CON-70 converter has this nasty problem of starving the feed. Have to press the button every once in a while to get ink to flow again. This resulted in a big glob of ink dropping on my favorite PJs and ruining them. I bought a M nib not realizing that it would write between a M and BB, much too wide. So pretty but just too frustrating to use. Can't bringing myself to sell it.

[gwgtaylor]

For me it's a modern Conway Stewart 100. Original MI nib wouldn't write well. Dry feed and hard starts. Sent it back and had it replaced with a medium nib. It writes well enough but the nib tines click together when you write. It's unnerving. I would send this one back but already shoveled too much money for this mediocre pen. Rubbish nibs.

Second biggest disappointment is the Lamy Safari. I have a 2009 orange LE that I've inked twice. I don't understand what people see in this pen. I'd rather use a preppy or vector any day.

[KrazyIvan]

For me it's a modern Conway Stewart 100. Original MI nib wouldn't write well. Dry feed and hard starts. Sent it back and had it replaced with a medium nib. It writes well enough but the nib tines click together when you write. It's unnerving. I would send this one back but already shoveled too much money for this mediocre pen. Rubbish nibs.

Second biggest disappointment is the Lamy Safari. I have a 2009 orange LE that I've inked twice. I don't understand what people see in this pen. I'd rather use a preppy or vector any day.

It's the section isn't it?

[dduran]

Another vote for the 149! I actually owned 2 of them (one of which was a 1960s era w/ tri-colored 18c) but they were the first one to go when I had to trim my collection.. Didn't last more than 2 months, tops!
Given I'm a Pelikan freak and has a disdain for brands that's more built on image than substance, but I actually admire the vintage MBs and a couple of them are my grail pens!

[pocketses]

A Rosetta Napoleon let me down. It still won't write, even after I replaced the nib and feed. And that nib and feed had no problem in the pen I snagged them from. I know, it's an off brand, but it cost the same as a Lamy Safari or so, so the least it could do is put down a line. It's not like I'm asking it to make me crepes in the morning or anything fancy.

[AndyT]

Kaweco Ice Sport with a BB nib. Oh, it's all right now, but I had to put in way too much work to get the ink flowing nicely. And the converter situation is still irksome, so it looks like this one will end up as a bulb filler. Still a cool little item though, and I did get a free clip.

[CapeClear]

The mini Monteverde converter works perfectly in the Kaweco Andy. I only have mine a few days (also a BB) but have had no problems at all with it leaking etc. It is tiny though!

[Mod_wolves]

Kaweco Ice Sport with a BB nib. Oh, it's all right now, but I had to put in way too much work to get the ink flowing nicely. And the converter situation is still irksome, so it looks like this one will end up as a bulb filler. Still a cool little item though, and I did get a free clip.

Funnily enough today I received a kaweconverter in the post. If you don't want to convert your sport into an eye dropper, Why don't you give that a try? I got it from cult pens but la couronne du compte also sells them and I'm assuming other places... They're really inexpensive (mine was £2.50 just under $4) fits perfectly. It is a squeeze type converter though so it requires a little bit of patience to get a full fill.

Hope this helps.

[gwgtaylor]

Second biggest disappointment is the Lamy Safari. I have a 2009 orange LE that I've inked twice. I don't understand what people see in this pen. I'd rather use a preppy or vector any day.

It's the section isn't it?

The section doesn't bother me too much. It's just that it's so fugly and not a particularly good writer. No idea why people like them so much.

[AndyT]

The mini Monteverde converter works perfectly in the Kaweco Andy. I only have mine a few days (also a BB) but have had no problems at all with it leaking etc. It is tiny though!

It would certainly be better than juggling empty cartridges and syringes, which is the current state of play! I'd have added one to my order but the company I bought from doesn't stock them, strangely. The idea of the bulb filler appeals though, for the fun of it and a bit of extra capacity.

[KrazyIvan]

Second biggest disappointment is the Lamy Safari. I have a 2009 orange LE that I've inked twice. I don't understand what people see in this pen. I'd rather use a preppy or vector any day.

It's the section isn't it?

The section doesn't bother me too much. It's just that it's so fugly and not a particularly good writer. No idea why people like them so much.

I like mine a lot. I would have never learned to hold a pen properly without it. I do hear nibs being of variable quality. I did encounter this with my Logo in 1.1 mm. It was a bit rough but I smoothed it out.

[AndyT]

Funnily enough today I received a kaweconverter in the post. If you don't want to convert your sport into an eye dropper, Why don't you give that a try? I got it from cult pens ...

Thank you - as it happens the Kaweco came from Cult Pens, but I passed on the Kaweco converter for some reason, muddle-headedness most likely. The eye dropper is bound to happen eventually, but for the time being I'm going through a phase of chopping and changing inks. Talking of which, that big nib really does bring out shading, which is enjoyable.

I was a bit hesitant to mention the Sport in this thread - after all I really like it now - but the nib really was a shocker with the tines jammed tightly together. That sorted out though, the smoothness is every bit as impressive as I'd been led to believe.

[Bogon07]

Second biggest disappointment is the Lamy Safari. I have a 2009 orange LE that I've inked twice. I don't understand what people see in this pen. I'd rather use a preppy or vector any day.

It's the section isn't it?

The section doesn't bother me too much. It's just that it's so fugly and not a particularly good writer. No idea why people like them so much.

I like mine a lot. I would have never learned to hold a pen properly without it. I do hear nibs being of variable quality. I did encounter this with my Logo in 1.1 mm. It was a bit rough but I smoothed it out.

Most problems with the Safari/Al-Stars can be alleviated by removing the nib and cleaning off the Lamy test ink resisdue on the feed & nib and giving the pen a good flush out.
Perhaps you could try another nib but if that doesn't suit then I'm sure you can easily find some-one to take an 2009 Orange Safari off your hands for a commensurate price.

That being said my 2nd biggest disappointment was a pink Safari with a B nib. Two problems one using the Lamy blue cartridge and two the bastards in the Deluxe Pen shop didn't clean it out after using various inks inks in it. It took three days of soaking and flushing to get all the crap out. One of the dis-advantages of buying from a B&M shop is the pens being used by all and sundry.
It is now fine and I use different ink in the cartridge.

My biggest disappointment is the Noodler's Konrad Californian Tortoise - hard start then ink blob city. Still need to twiddle the nib/feed.

[snedwos]

For me it's a modern Conway Stewart 100. Original MI nib wouldn't write well. Dry feed and hard starts. Sent it back and had it replaced with a medium nib. It writes well enough but the nib tines click together when you write. It's unnerving. I would send this one back but already shoveled too much money for this mediocre pen. Rubbish nibs.

Second biggest disappointment is the Lamy Safari. I have a 2009 orange LE that I've inked twice. I don't understand what people see in this pen. I'd rather use a preppy or vector any day.

Second biggest disappointment is the Lamy Safari. I have a 2009 orange LE that I've inked twice. I don't understand what people see in this pen. I'd rather use a preppy or vector any day.

It's the section isn't it?

The section doesn't bother me too much. It's just that it's so fugly and not a particularly good writer. No idea why people like them so much.

I like mine a lot. I would have never learned to hold a pen properly without it. I do hear nibs being of variable quality. I did encounter this with my Logo in 1.1 mm. It was a bit rough but I smoothed it out.

All my Safaris and my Nexx are excellent writers. The section isnt quite right, but I can deal with it. (It's especially awkward with the stub).

My biggest disappointment is the Pelikan M215. The nib was terrible. It was replaced, ad te new one is much better, but I still don't like how it writes on good paper (viz Clairefontaine). It just seems to have a much more diluted form of the same problem as the first one (quite a bit of first stroke skipping, and and uncomfortable squeaky smoothness). It's top of the list for eventually selling because I still feel disappointed ad because it's a pen I know will sell decently or trade for something I'll like.

[Annie]

I often find that modern pens are set up with nibs that write too dry, but it's not hard to adjust them to have a wetter flow.

+1 on dry nib syndrome on modern pens. Fortunately, I am never without my thumbs which work well in correcting nibs.

[Tracy Lee]

I often find that modern pens are set up with nibs that write too dry, but it's not hard to adjust them to have a wetter flow.

+1 on dry nib syndrome on modern pens. Fortunately, I am never without my thumbs which work well in correcting nibs.

Care to describe your adjusting process for those of us that haven't done much of that?

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

[dduran]

Care to describe your adjusting process for those of us that haven't done much of that?

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

How I do it with Pelikans and some Parker Vacumatics is to slowly spread the tines very slightly (slow is fast)..
Here's John's page on this: http://www.nibs.com/Article6.html (last part)

Stephen also has a video on this (using the "Waverley" method) "wait, before someone sues me, what's the non-TM'ed name for it again?

[Paul-H]

My biggest frustration with the 149 is that my fake classique is a much better writer, I hope the 146 that is sitting in the post office awaiting my return from holiday is a much better writer. Mind you none of them can hold a candle to my Parker Duofold AF, this is just a pure joy to use.

Paul

[KrazyIvan]

Wow, "lots" of MB downers. I do want one eventually but I will keep my expectations low.