Into the second month of the new year and I am still wallowing around at square one! The Visconti, while very attractive to me... well, let's say the history of the company's QC is giving me chilblains in my toes. So, going to shelve that for now. Shame really because the material on the lava pens is incredibly seductive. If I could be certain of the QC of the nibs and the longevity of their new magnetic closure (there's a discussion about this on the other site that I recently stumbled across) this would be a no-brainer. Without that confidence... too much risk.
What's left? Nothing really. A suitably priced/featured 149 never really appeared - I suspect they're out there, but I also suspect there is a degree of reluctance in the community to sell to me. Not talking about ebay, I don't go there for anything other than new stuff these days.
I also look at all the flashy new pens/designs of the last few months. Endless variations on themes by Leonardo - each an identical pen beyond the materials - or endless offerings sporting run of the mill Jowo nibs. FC are out of the picture too: I've had five of their pens, three needed new parts. I am not impressed. They will never have my business again. Maiora, Edison, Leonardo, and on and on. Simple plastic tubes with cookie cutter steel nibs, unless you want to pay a premium for a gold cookie cutter.
Someone earlier suggested thinking about the characteristics of a new pen that would appeal. That's a tricky question, but I have thought about it quite a lot. My most fun nib is an #10 FA. Not the most practical, just the most fun for me. If I could find a more practical nib with a similar bouncy feel I could probably go for that, which makes me wonder about the Pilot soft nibs in general. Pilot is the only Japanese pen brand I've bought.
Sailor and Platinum are mainly built for small hands, even their supposedly larger models are usually only thicker from what I've seen/handled. I cannot justify getting such tiny pens only to try the nibs and so they are dismissed from my decision. Pilot however seem to make larger pens. Kind of an oddity considering.
Oh, and whatever choice I end up making (if) the pen has to be modern. I don't find vintage pens to have any specific operational advantages over new pens, and as we have seen, in general aesthetics are usually not a great draw (the Visconti lava aside).
Not losing sleep over this, the occasional brain dump is needed to clear space!
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