Congrats! Iāve just finished journal writing with my 700VAC R and Iroshizuki ink! Itās my favorite travel pen, both because of the large ink capacity and significantly decreased chance of leakage during flights.
During my last flight, I didnāt even keep the nib upright, and still didnāt have problems. I had multiple vacuum fill pens with me, including the VAC Mini and Pilot Custom 823, and none of them leaked.
Iām guessing you already searched FPN (Fountain Pen Network). Back when I used to be on Reddit, there was a u/willvintage from Redeem Pens that specializes in restoring vintage pens. You can search for his site and social media. He can probably give you guidance.
I donāt know where you are based, but if in the USA be aware that Sailor pens have a dramatic markup over the home and other foreign markets. I generally advocate buying local but both my Sailors have come from abroad and saved me a lot of money. Actually I probably wouldnāt have brought them at all if paying US prices. My Pro Gear Imperial Black came form Amazon Japan for $200. The same pen is $470 plus tax in the US! My Cult Pens exclusive Gunmetal PGS Midnight Sky was $180. Regular PGS run around $220 and that is without the plating on the Cult Pens edition
Buying from abroad has its risks and drawbacks but when using a reputable seller it can save you $$$. The Gentleman Stationer discusses the situation here in his re-review of the Imperial Black. gentlemanstationer.com/ā¦/battle-scars-revisiting-ā¦
Also be aware that the 21k nib, while having very little flex, is actually quite soft and easily sprung or bent if roughly handled.
Did you keep your Visconti Bronze Age? That is one of the few pens left on my wish list but I know their nib QC is abysmal and if/when I have the funds I know I will have a hard time paying their prices for a pen that Iād probably have to send straight off to a nibmeister.
Thanks for the response. Any particular retailer you would recommend buying from? Is buying from Amazon JP fairly straightforward from the States or do you need a VPN or something? I'm not at all opposed to buying abroad, I've bought several of my more expensive pens from La Couronne du Comte (R.I.P.) and Appelboom since they used to include VAT in their MSRPs and remove it if you shipped to the States (and often with free, very fast shipping thanks to DHL! Just had to wait weeks or months for stock sometimes). Sadly this doesn't seem to be the case anymore.
I'm used to all manner of gold and titanium nibs so not too worried about man-handling the nib.
No I don't have either Visconti anymore. I initially got the Bronze Age in EF, second-hand, and unfortunately the vacuum piston got snagged while cleaning one time and totalled the nib. I bought a BB unit to replace it, and that wrote TERRIBLY. I had bought the Dark Age brand new in the meantime (with an F nib) that also wrote terribly. I sent that one for work, but by the time it came back I realized I hated so many things about the pens (the capping mechanism can become mushy for seemingly no reason, with no way to ever clean it out or recover it, you never know how much ink you have, filling is an absolute pain unless you pay extra for the special inkwell, and if you use it you soak ink in to the section which will slowly leech out on to your fingers indefinitely, no matter how much you clean it, thanks to the weird way the porous material interacts with temperature and moisture) that I traded them both. The Dark Age at least wrote well by that point, but I had to sell the other as known needing work. Yes you should unfortunately budget to send a Visconti to a nibmeister if you decide to buy one (and probably buy a tipping size large to make sure it arrives with enough material to work with - Italian sizing is incredibly unreliable). The QC really bothered me but the more new pens I bought the more I realized essentially all of them have terrible QC out of the box.
Both Nakayas I've had ran dry after a page or two unless the feed is under pressure. I have had to send half my (new) Montblancs to have nibs replaced, reground, or flow issues solved. The brands I've had the best luck with (bought at least two and had no issues) are Lamy, Pelikan, and TWSBI.
The only pens I still have are:
Conid (currently being modified to take a vintage 1970s 146 nib)
Both Lamy 2000s (one B, one F)
Montblanc 145 (M), 146P (BB, modified), 1960s 149 (EF, flexy, unknown if modified, undisputed king of fountain pens for me), Heritage 1912 (B CI, modified), Slimline (XXF, modified)
Nakaya Decapod (EF, flexy, has issues, don't care enough to fix, but gorgeous)
Pelikan M200 (F), M800 (M)
TWSBI 580 (EF)
Waterman Phileas Blue (M CI, modified but didn't need it, just to add character - my first fountain pen and one of my last gifts from my late mother)
Sounds like your VIsconti experience echos my worst fears. I hadnāt considered the porous nature of the material being an issue for absorbing ink but that would also annoy me greatly. Thanks for the feedback.
In terms of overseas suppliers. Ordering from Amazon Japan was no different to Amazon US or UK. I didnāt even need a to create a new account. When buying from Amazon I normally ensure the seller is Amazon itself rather than a third party to avoid fakes although apparently this isnāt foolproof as Amazon sometimes mixes their own stock with that of third parties (see a recent Pilot Metro post). Cult Pens have been excellent and Iāve use them several times. They left a Lamy nib out of one order I placed but quickly expedited it to me when I contacted them to report it was missing. Their prices are good and you can get free shipping if you spend enough. Iāve also used The Pen Company for one order and they were great. Iāve heard good things about Pensachi but have not personally used them.
Unfortunately prices at Cult Pens and TPC look pretty much identical to USA prices... of course the model I gravitated towards (1911 L Trinity) just so happens to be a USA exclusive also. Ugh.
EDIT: Looks like the Sailor Profit Black Master is basically the same pen and $200 from Amazon Japan. I can live with that. Thanks.
Report back about how you like it when it arrives.
You will get a warning notice with this pen because it is ion plated. Sailor will advise to only use their inks in it to avoid plating damage and early reports from ion plated nib owners did suggest that the plating could be damaged, presumably from non-Sailor ink usage. There has been a lot of speculation about why this happened but a general consensus was that acidic inks could be the issue.
Both my Sailors are ion plated and I have chosen not to stick to Sailor only inks but have resiolved to be be selective about what I do put in it. Pilot Iroshizuku inks are generally neutral to slightly alkaline as are the original Herbin line and the DeAtramentis Document line. Waterman inks can be very acidic so stay clear of them despite their great reputation (Serenity Blue has an acidity similar to vinegar). There are a number of websites that have measured the acidity of popular inks you can reference. Also, a number of forum posts on Fountain Pen Network report and discuss the acidity of specific inks.
Well, mark one for Amazon JP, the pen got here super quick. It's gorgeous. Mark one against Sailor though, they include a single proprietary cartridge and no converter in the box with a $200+ pen?!
Iāve had this happen with cheap pens before, itās definitely corrosion. It doesnāt harm the pen function but if you donāt like the look you can replace it with a nylon screw which wonāt react to ink.
@Valdair Try Procolor or Somiko (Young Profit) for steel nib and Sapporo for 14k gold nib. For me the best one is Sapporo MF, and F and M are also good. Their nibs are a bit on a dry side, but it can be tuned. You may also try 21k, but it's much more expensive considering the difference with 14k in writing experience.
It's worth noting that almost all Sailor nibs are not flexy at all. Even Pilot Custom 74 F gives more flex.
Since the 21K is what Sailor is known for, I don't think I will bother if not for a 21K nib. It sounds like the pricing in the USA is indeed unreasonable and this has been well documented for a while - the prices I see buying from e.g. Japan make much more sense for a mid-range production C/C pen with gold nib.
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