A subjective journey into the world of fountain pens, or quality is not necessarily a matter of price…
I have written several times about why I started dealing with fountain pens, collecting them – I will not repeat that now. Obviously, this hobby, or rather passion, has given me a lot of joy over the years, but like any such activity, it also has its downsides. I think every stationery collector has experienced some disappointment, big or small. Now let's talk a bit about these...
What I would like to say upfront: I have no intention of disparaging any brand. Surely each has its own fan base and there can be a hundred positive experiences to contrast with my negative ones – but this article is about my disappointing fountain pens. I would like to share with you the unpleasant surprises I have encountered over the past years – and perhaps some lessons can be drawn from it. Let's put it this way: this article is a subjective journey into the world of the fountain pens I consider the worst...
The beginnings
When I was just getting to know fountain pen brands, I mostly chose writing instruments based on their appearance. I liked ordering from the The Count's Crown website. Unfortunately, you would search in vain, the site is now unreachable, the business went bankrupt. (This is also an interesting story, but more on that later...)
Alongside the exciting first experiences, there were also some less pleasant ones – sometimes these were immediately noticeable, sometimes they only became apparent later when I had a point of reference.
The most important experience and also a sad truth is that price often does not correlate directly with quality. Another important experience is that every manufacturer can make mistakes – even at the design table. Today, we can still often encounter thoughtless designs, poor technical solutions, and shoddy material use.
Let's proceed brand by brand – let the subjective guided tour begin...
Pilot
One of my favorite brands. I have six Pilot fountain pens and one Namiki in my collection. My best pen is the Pilot Custom Urushi Vermillion – a wonder. For ink, I consider Iroshizuku the best, so I am positively biased.
But.
I have a fountain pen from the Sterling Silver Collection series, which is beautiful, but compared to the other Pilot fountain pens in my collection, it is truly disappointing: ink flows from its nib and feed. I hardly use it for this reason. But at least it looks nice in the collection...
With the price of this pen, I could have bought two Capless pens...
The Pilot Capless is a great pen, very usable in everyday life, except when it runs out of ink and needs to be refilled: because refilling it due to the integrated nib with the converter is a kind of nerve-wracking ritual. Unscrew, dip in ink, suck up, take out, turn over, tap, squeeze out air bubbles, dip in ink again, suck ink... and the ink reservoir is still only half full... – so it is indeed a bit of work. There is a separate video on YouTube about how to refill the pen properly...
The Pilot Custom 823 is not designed for beginner pen users, but for me, it is a perfect pen.
2. Sailor
At the other renowned Japanese pen manufacturer, the nib thickness caused me an unpleasant experience: the Sailor „B” nib corresponds to a Pilot „M”. Over the past years, I have gotten rid of quite a few Sailor fountain pens equipped with EF and F nibs because I found these nibs very scratchy and they provided no writing experience. Since then, I have learned my lesson, and to be honest, this is not the brand's fault...
Even the entry-level Sailor gold-nibbed fountain pens are typically of good quality, but in my experience, it is worth approaching from the Pro Gear series right away and not starting with the more classic (and much duller) black Sailor 1911 Standard.
Platinum
The Platinum brand for me is synonymous with the #3776 series. I must say, it is one of the best and most reliable fountain pens in its category – no wonder it is considered the flagship of the brand. It is characterized by a well-thought-out size, weight, and proper material use, available in numerous interesting colors.
And last but not least, maximum reliability, thanks to the Slip & Seal mechanism, which prevents the nib from drying out. This fountain pen is a proper „workhorse” made for everyday use.
13. – the two brands dominated the school fountain pen market across Europe for decades. While Pelikan also opened up to the premium segment, Geha consistently focused on practical, durable, and affordable student pens and office supplies. This strategy paid off: Geha pens found their way into the hands of millions on school desks and writing tables, not only in Western Europe but also – through various commercial channels – in the eastern part of the continent.
I have mixed experiences with the renowned Hamburg manufacturer's fountain pens. My first Pelikan writing instrument was an M400 White Tortoise fountain pen, equipped with an EF nib. The nib practically oozed ink, it wrote thickly, „meatily,” smudging the paper.
This EF nib would have received at least a „B” rating from any other brand... to this day, I don't understand how it passed the quality test.
My Pelikan M805 fountain pen, on the other hand, works beautifully and reliably.
Lamy
Now this is again a typical story... The classic Lamy 2000 is one of the best fountain pens I've ever dealt with. That's why I bought the metal version without thinking when it was released – it also caused great disappointment.
The steel Lamy 2000 is, in my opinion, a flawed concept: poorly gripped, heavy, and slippery – a perfect example of how to misinterpret a successful series.
Visconti
My wife and I have a few Visconti fountain pens, and she loves them. The magnetic cap is very practical, and the pens are very well designed, especially I like the Van Gogh collection.
However, the ink dries out very easily, which is annoying.
Pineider
I tried quite a few fountain pens in the Florence store, and they seemed to be of very good quality, but they are indeed overpriced.
The nib of the Avatar model purchased there was unfortunately also disappointing: there are lower prestige brands that use higher quality nibs. But it is a fact that the design is very good...
Edison Pen Co.
From the budding American manufacturer, I managed to acquire a super steel stub nibbed Edison Menlo. Writing with it is a wonder, it glides on the paper, the steel nib feels as if it were made of gold...
Excited by this, I bought three more fountain pens – two with gold nibs. What do you think happened? I was disappointed again... the nibs skipped on the paper and scratched.
The company's manager was very nice; we discussed via video call what the problem might be – but in the end, it was Kovács Zoli, the pen repairman, who solved the issue. The ink channel was so narrow that the stub nib didn't get enough ink... Additionally, he had to grind the nibs to make them suitable for everyday use. So there are coincidences (Menlo) and there is reality – creating a good model series requires many years of experience...
And now let's talk about those fountain pens that completely blew my fuse...
17. Montegrappa Mule
I have only one fountain pen from the prestigious Italian manufacturer: a mirror-finished, brass, elegant Mule. I don't intend to buy more... In my opinion, the Montegrappa Mule is suitable for many things, but least of all for writing. A nib made of metal (I deliberately don't say steel) can kill a person, but three of us tried for half a day to get it to write, and we only managed two sentences...
Somehow, I don't think that the quality testing of extremely expensive fountain pens should be done by the customer... It was Kovács Zoli again, who, with considerable effort, made the pen usable: he ground the nib and worked on the ink channel for a long time...
Should Zoli's phone number be packaged with each Montegrappa fountain pen?
Conklin Nozac
The Conklin Nozac is a fountain pen with quite a decent design, featuring an ingenious magnetic cap. And that's where all the positives end. This pen is completely unsuitable for daily use.
The Jowo nib sometimes flowed ink, other times it couldn't draw a line at all. Its mechanism was a real nightmare: I never really knew if it was sucking up any ink at all. I don't remember having even a minute of joy while using this fountain pen. We tried valiantly with it – then it ended up in the trash.
I saved my biggest disappointment for last. I suspect many will scoff at this now:
Namiki Nippon Art Crane and Turtle
More specifically, a Namiki fountain pen from the Nippon Art series was disappointing. It was priced similarly to the previously mentioned Sterling Collection, obviously neither is considered the flagship Namiki Emperor – but still, these are specifically expensive, high-prestige fountain pens. Beautiful box, beautiful pen – but not assembled properly. 
It also “snot”: it leaks and smudges with its own brand ink. Moreover, when I unscrew the cap, the entire section loosens and every time I use it, I have to screw it back in by 2-3 mm. Do those who buy this fountain pen actually write with it, or do they keep it in a display case as a work of art?
Which fountain pen has disappointed you? Write it in the comments, or in the Pens and Watches Facebook group!
You can find Zsolt's other articles in the Budapest Pen Show community magazine here.
