"The Delicate Ones" - Tell us about the pens you love but that have... issues!

[Jon Szanto]

I thought it might be interesting to have a thread where we can share those pens that aren't, well, perfect but you'd never consider not having and using them. It can be just some minor adjustment you make in your normal pen habits, a tweak to the pen to keep it going, anything out of the ordinary.

A recent one for me is a pen I really enjoy, to look at and to use: a Lucky Star "LuckyStriper". Nice acrylic that is well made, except that when I swapped in a different nib I noticed that threads inside the section are just a teeny but loose. The nib unit can move and I discovered it by pushing in the converter one day and popping the nib out!

It's basically custom and I don't think a new section is in order, and so, frankly, I just did a kludge: one layer of Teflon tape on the threads of the Jowo nib unit (holding a Franklin-Christoph nib). I'm a bit more careful when filling, but all it really took was that small adjustment and it stays in the rotation.

What are the pens you have to baby?

[An old bloke]

Lamy Safari. The bl**dy thing would not keep connected to a converter or a cartridge. I wanted to like it, but it was totally unreliable.

[Dougc]

I have a lot of pens like that. One is a Joe Cali button filler where the button falls out.

I just have to remember to catch it when I unscrew the blind cap.

Sent from my SM-A505U using Tapatalk

[manoeuver]

I keep fighting with this Prera. It's the perfect shirt collar pen-- lightweight, slip cap.
It's been so friggin picky about ink. Half the time it won't write.
I caved and put Pilot Blue-Black in there, it never fails, but it's so danged boring.

[FredRydr]

There's my black Connaisseur with the nib unit that hard starts unless I flick the pen a couple of times. I've flushed and ultrasoniced, even swapped converters around from the Balance II and Nostalgia that have no problems, check the nib to plastic feed gap, all to no avail. I could scream, but for years I just flick the f$&%er a couple of times and commence to write. With its factory stub nib it remains a favorite in the hand.

IMG_3291.jpeg

[TSherbs]

TWSBI GO: Arggh. Everything is awesome about it, but no matter what I get these random hard-starts for just a half a stroke, but....arrrghhh...do I hate that.

[Bold2013]

TWSBI GO: Arggh. Everything is awesome about it, but no matter what I get these random hard-starts for just a half a stroke, but....arrrghhh...do I hate that.

Ditto.

Maybe an after market nib would help? Thinking about making it my BSB pen if I can get it to write well.

[peroride]

What are the pens you have to baby?

Scribo Feel.

Luscious precious semi-flex nib but piston feels leftover from the Omas post-buyout era. When is the end cap gonna twist off on normal use? ARGH!

CEO even admits to wanting a piston revamp but comes out with the Piuma line: same nib but in cartridge/converter

If I could do overs, Piuma, FTW

[Chrissy]

I've probably mentioned this elsewhere on here but I have a really nice Parker 45 black Coronet with a factory 14ct stub nib and because it's such a nice smooth nib and is easy to clean I decided to regularly use Parker Penman Sapphire ink in there.

PPS is a hard starter in most pens but this combo needs so much babying that I've almost given up on it several times. It won't start without being dipped in water, then even when it starts it skips and railroads certain letters for a while. It might almost normally write a short paragraph and I think it's OK but then it starts to skip and railroad again.

It's been cleaned and whizzed in the USC regularly but as soon as it's inked up with PPS it simply says "No. I'm not going to play nicely now." I wouldn't be surprised if the internal feed has melted or something so one day I must try another ink in there. Perhaps I'll give it a drink of Scribe Indigo and see if it likes that?

[singlechange]

Jon, This is an interesting and useful thread for me to read. Thank you for starting it. For example, I've have a vintage Moore purchased from very respected nibmeister Ron Zorn himself, who described the nib on it as "something you only find when a Blue Moon is Out." It was sent back for adjustment only a week after I purchased it and when I got it back it wrote perfectly for a couple of days and then I again had issues like sometimes skipping or hard starting. Just reading this thread, where member Chrissy mentions Parker Penman Sapphire, has made me think that the ink I used may be the culprit.

[migo984]

I have a sweet little Omas Princessa in Royal Blue celluloid. Made in 1994 I think. The nib is a glorious 18k medium but with a stubbish cut. The tines are proportionately long & elegant, and 99.9% of the time I can write without being conscious of the nib even touching the paper; it’s an amazing writing experience. BUT tilt the nib half a degree in the wrong direction, or press a teeny fraction too hard, & the tines click slightly out of alignment. It still writes but there is a frisson more scratchiness. A gentle press of the back of the tines and it clicks back. Maybe someone used it with too firm a hand in the past however the nib isn’t sprung in any way, it’s just ultra springy. It rarely happens but the possibility that it could, at any time, plays on my mind.

I really love this beautiful little pen, and will treasure it always, but it really is a tiny prima donna of a pen 🙂

[Chuck Naill]

I don’t purchase delicate pens and I’m not trying to be a pain. A pen is a tool for me.

[Ron Z]

There's my black Connaisseur with the nib unit that hard starts unless I flick the pen a couple of times. I've flushed and ultrasoniced, even swapped converters around from the Balance II and Nostalgia that have no problems, check the nib to plastic feed gap, all to no avail. I could scream, but for years I just flick the f$&%er a couple of times and commence to write. With its factory stub nib it remains a favorite in the hand.

As I told Fred, Sheaffer had a bad bunch of feeds that are just balky. Prelude, NN, and feeds from other pens are the same, so can be swapped into a Connaisseur pen. Even the hard rubber NN and student pen feeds will usually work, and the hard rubber ones are IMHO more reliable. You have to wiggle the nib out first.

BUT Fred, from your picture it looks like baby bottom. Is the inside radius of the nib really that big/deep or is it just an illusion in the picture. You really shouldn't be able to see it with the naked eye.

[FredRydr]

...Fred, from your picture it looks like baby bottom. Is the inside radius of the nib really that big/deep or is it just an illusion in the picture. You really shouldn't be able to see it with the naked eye.

I don't know how you recognize that from a top photo. I zoomed in, but that photo's resolution is too low and it pixelates. SO...I retrieved the Connaisseur and looked it more closely with a loupe. The stub has plenty of contact between tipping and paper surface. Might it be a fat wide baby bottom, such that the butt cheeks are broadly flat against the surface while the slit is somehow raised from those flats? I dunno. I'll bring it to Raleigh if I make it.

By the way, Jon, the photo in your initial post would make Rod Serling proud.

[Ron Z]

By the way, Jon, the photo in your initial post would make Rod Serling proud.

Anybody with astigmatism....

[Jon Szanto]

I don’t purchase delicate pens and I’m not trying to be a pain. A pen is a tool for me.

And yet, after all this time, you do it so effortlessly! Look, the title even has quotes around the phrase, I was looking for a more poetic way of saying "which pens do you really like but they always need attention" or something. Go with the flow, Chuck - I know you value the utilitarian aspects. Does this also mean, though, that you have *never* had a pen you liked but had to accommodate a quirk or two?

By the way, Jon, the photo in your initial post would make Rod Serling proud.

Well, that is a very kind comment!

Anybody with astigmatism....

And I do offer my humble apologies. For the first time in my life, in my mid-60s, I'm starting to have optical issues myself. I'll try to be kind in the visuals.

[Ron Z]

There was a pen, maybe a Carene', that had the name "vertigo." No thank you. I have enough trouble with that.

[Sailor Kenshin]

And yet, after all this time, you do it so effortlessly! Look, the title even has quotes around the phrase, I was looking for a more poetic way os saying "which pens do you really like but they always need attention" or something. Go with the flow, Chuck - I know you value the utilitarian aspects. Does this also mean, though, that you have *never* had a pen you liked but had to accommodate a quirk or two?

By the way, Jon, the photo in your initial post would make Rod Serling proud.

Well, that is a very kind comment!

Anybody with astigmatism....

And I do offer my humble apologies. For the first time in my life, in my mid-60s, I'm starting to have optical issues myself. I'll try to be kind in the visuals.

Oh, I dunno. I like the background. I like the colors. I like the pen...apart from the fact that the very tip rests on a black dot in the background picture, making it seem like a pen with a really odd nib.

[bunnspecial]

Right now it's my Montblanc 146 Calligraphy.

When it works, it's phenomenal, but it doesn't seem to want to work for more than a few lines of writing then needs a rest before it will go again.

I'm hoping service will sort it out...

[FredRydr]

The delicate ones? My 1903 Conklin crescent from the era of Mark Twain's advertisements never gets any use. I really should treat it less like a delicate thing and just use it!