Top 5 fountain pen mistakes I've made

[@WMH98296]

Thanks for the "confession." I've had fountain pens for ~60 years, although I only became a serious collector about 40 years ago. Over the years, I have made a few mistakes, myself. Attempting to "adjust" the ink flow rate with a straight pin. Tweaking the nib "tines" myself, rather than finding a nib meister to do it. Dropping a new Waterman Edson on the pointy end of the cap, denting the cap (it's now one of my "beater" pens). Spending years buying pens indiscriminately, without any rhyme or reason (I now have about 120 pens, ranging in value from $20 to $2,000 US). Failing to keep records on my collection, so now I cannot recall what I paid for each pen, their respective nib widths (F or M), and in a few cases, what model the pen is and whether it's anything special (edition-wise). And, as you've confessed, I don't always do a very good job cleaning my pens. But other than these matters, I've enjoyed the hobby. Thank you for providing us with your excellent videos! Much appreciated.

[@jachymvales2531]

Dropping a pen uncapped is THE worst feeling, no doubts about that. It happened to my Lamy 2000, I had to buy replacement nib, ugh.

[@richardgardiner9597]

I loved your rant. My wife calls Ford "Mr. Potato Head" and I call Trudeau "Prime Sinister Zoolander"

[@marilyngardner4269]

I mashed a nib once. I put it in a pen that it was designed to fit, and was doing a friction fit replacement of just the nib. Unfortunately I didn't get the nib in quite far enough, and when I replaced the cap (you call it the lid) I kept on turning even though I felt some resistance. This bent the tines. I suppose it's repairable, but it was just a steel Bock nib, so I replaced it. I still have it--one more and I'm making nib earrings!

[@Sonicman415]

Pens, tea and vinyl✌🏽✌🏽✌🏽 Getting ink on yourself is part of the charm 🥳

[@mellagace7963]

My first mistake was buying calligraphy ink that said safe for fountain pens and put it in my Moonman T1… thankfully, with the help of great folks from the FB group I had just joined, I was educated and the pen was saved.

[@acrophobe]

I showed my Pilot Metropolitan to a 4th grade student without explaining how to write with fountain pens and she instantly tried to write with it, and when the ink didn't come out like a ballpoint pen right away, she mashed the tip into the paper as hard as she could and bent the nib clean backwards into a U shape. Unbelievable. Never again.

[@civrn368]

Kid's are about as sharp as bowling balls these days.

[@archivist17]

Always the most flattering thumbnails! Lol.

[@christinecharbonneau4448]

Mistake: packed my pen case in my luggage, it wasn’t there when I got home. Lost 3 Auroras, my Pelican 1000….still weeping.

[@marilyngardner4269]

Oh, that is tragic.

[@knightingalesaid]

Oh wow, that terrible. I carry pens with me too. I have lost and broken FP pens at work. It's strange but you worry about them like a pet. Gee, we need to start a Go Fund Me page for you.

[@mariastreifer1369]

Oh no…so sorry! Check your homeowner or rental insurance. Many cover claims for personal items stolen or lost outside the home. That was the case for me years ago when my suitcase was stolen from my rental car in Europe. Good luck.

[@debbybrown5687]

Leaving fountain pens on the table where my cat can get to them. She likes to knock them off one by one. They've all been capped and because they fell onto carpet they survived. So now I put them in my pen roll and onto a bookshelf, out of harms reach. I did leave the penroll on the table once and she knocked them all off in one go! Thanks Winter! Plus I have to wrap all of the cord around the penroll or she will just chew on it and it becomes soggy and frayed. She's never actually actually broken a pen though. I have when using too much brute force and ignorance trying to unscrew a section from the barrel and the plastic cracked. It was a cheapy pen so I just threw it in the bin and that was that.

[@olegsolomonik6594]

I dropped the pen twice and both times it ended up damaged the cap. First one was 3776 and the cap got cracked but I was lucky that it was a pen which was a replacement for the one I was not happy with because it was very scratchy. But I didn't ship the first one back so I was allowed to take the good cap out of it and send it back with the broken cap. Second was Moonman M700 and top of the cap broke off making it unusable and the seller was unable to help me because nobody sells cap separately plus that particular color is out of stock everywhere. So when I found it in stock on Etsy I just bought a new one. People should be aware that most pens, no matter how expensive they are, are made from very fragile plastic

[@ichirofakename]

I've thrown out a few pens that stopped writing. Now I have a better idea how to address the problem, but if I can't fix it pretty quick, or if the problem recurs endlessly, it still goes into the bin. Life's too short.

[@renegmw]

Those are the little mistakes you've made? HA! hold my ink. My first fountain pen was a Rotring ArtPen because I like to draw and since I was the John Snow of FP owners I made the worst mistake ever...you already know...you figured it out...yes, I filled it with India Ink! My poor pen was like 7:53 after that xD Unusable. This was eons ago, I didn't even know it was my fault, just thought it was a bad quality pen or ink or whatever. rip pen.

[@pinkpandamiranda]

Hahaha, "hold my ink." I'm totally gonna use that.

[@jennieeveleighlamond]

Virtual hugs and wishing you science juice from Quebec!

[@adorta]

Worst mistake was buying a Lamy 2000 and dropping it nib down on the very first day. Tins splayed badly and had to purchase a replacement nib without even using the original one for the first time. Also made the mistake to use calligraphy ink on a Pilot Prera and damaged the whole feeder. Last one was trying to take apart the feeder from a Lamy Studio ended up scratching and removing parts of the rubbery section.

[@kathycullenstern9652]

I dropped my EDC Metropolitan recently nib down on my hardwood floor. I bent the nib back and the F now writes like a scratchy M. I also dropped my Explorer when it was closed. Now it doesn’t close with a tight snap so I don’t use it anymore and put its F nib on my Metropolitan.

[@thomashorton8302]

my biggest mistake was probably my first pen i started off with thinking ima buy a Lamy safari bc it's cheap and apparently good, then went actually i'll get an al-star it's a few pound more then changed to a lamy logo because it was thin and i'm used to ballpoints (i now hate thin pens) and then went to a cp1, the order was £65 and i now have 8 pens and that's my least favourite

[@Symphing12]

One of the mistakes I made is that I didn't plug the drain and lost a nib down it. Luckily I was able to get a replacement from Fountain Pen Revolution.

[@alanbumpus9169]

I had an Esterbrook SJ I was going to put a new sack in. When trying to take it apart I broke the section. Like the turntable in the background. Do you have much vinyl?

[@hamana2011]

Thx to Lamy Studio slippery slopes dropped a pen before I started using it Thank God Nib is not too expensive to replace

[@MissMarilynDarling]

the first pen i got was a jinhao 992 or a monteverde monza and I put some black ink in it and it stained the feed and I wanted to get rid of it and I put the feed in rubbing alcohol and went to watch videos on how to unstain the feed and Brian Goulet said DO NOT PUT YOUR PEN IN RUBBING ALCOHOL IT WILL MELT IT and I rushed to the sink to find that it was fine but I had a mini panic attack it hadnt even been in there 5 minutes but oof Ill never do that again

[@LordWhatever]

Worst mistake you say.... as an artist my worst mistake was to ink my fountain pen with India ink, 🤦🏾‍♂️yes I was newbie, but I was able to clean them properly with soap and warm water. Just like you I almost gave up and threw the pen to the garbage pail but KZbin saved my day and pens.

[@HoangTranWork]

My number one mistake is trying to "fix" the nib myself with micromesh... Now I have a clean unused Lamy 2000, waiting for a new nib replacement o.o

[@andrewcamacho4092]

Fountain pen ink mistake: leaving the cap off the bottle and knocking it over. Noooooooooo!!!!!

[@edwardstaats4935]

It is now towards the end of June so I do hope things are doing better. I am looking forward to my jabs but little chance of getting sick here (NZ). Ink on fingers is a badge of honour. Happy Canada Day

[@trlan55]

I got my daughter a pen and when I was changing ink for her I dropped it, missing my foot by cm's, it stuck in their oak floor like a pocket knife.

[@geslinam9703]

I just dropped my Pilot a Decimo about two weeks ago. On a hard ceramic floor. Of course it landed nib down. Good thing. - I didn’t love the pen, it didn’t have a good nib, and I finally had a reason to buy a new nib, which is awesome. And I can take the old nib to my jeweler and maybe sell it for gold weight. I’m sure there will be more dropped fountain pens in my future.

[@gloriavillanueva2913]

My worst mistake was purchasing a used Lamy 2000 for $100. Apparently it has a leaking issue. $90 to fix. 😔

[@arcfide]

I put a Montblanc 146 through the drier once....

[@PensandTea]

OUCH!

[@stuffstuffstuffyay]

I dropped my vintage waterman100 year old pen /flex nib, luckily only the noodler feed broke and I was able to replace it yay!

[@MultiEbbot]

Oh i dropped some pens . In fact I did drop my uncapped Pilot 823 demonstrator on a rock yesterday while taking a picture on it. (I´m stupid i know)

[@Seefood73]

My worst pen disaster so far is a pen that broke in two. Acrylic at both ends, bondic didn't do it, I'll try epoxy next. It's a penbbs 535 "year of the ox", cost about $90 with shipping I think. Could have been worse :)

[@nicholaskrayer1639]

Dropped a pen and turned it into an involuntary fude nib. Curiously, it continued to write fine. Fortunately for me, it was a Wing Sung pen.

[@sailcat9]

Oh, man. I dropped a Lamy 2000 square on its nib once and it broke my heart. I didn't simply replace the pen; I sent it in to Lamy for a nib replacement that cost very nearly as much as buying a new one just because I couldn't give up the pen. Dropping a pen is the worst.

[@EricFell]

Hopefully you're all science juiced up now!! I've been meaning to ask: where would you recommend a fellow Canadian get a Leonardo Momento Zero? The Prugna and Blue Hawaii are so tempting!

[@PensandTea]

I order mine through Pen Venture. I get hit with customs but Emy is the best nib tuner for my liking out of anyone I’ve tried and I love their customer service. Ships DHL and always arrives super quickly

[@stevekail4543]

My worst pen experience was when I dropped an Edison Collier onto a tile floor and it cracked in places that made it so it couldn't be salvaged. A lesser mistake was when I saw an article on-line that said a person could make a wrench out of a plastic card to take apart a Narwhal pen. When that didn't work I tried a miniature needle nose pliers. Ruined the pen.

[@bitteralmonds666]

Science juice 🌡🤔🧐

[@bitteralmonds666]

My fountain pen mistakes: 1. Never clean my pens. I’ll dip the nibs into water or maybe put them under a small stream of water to “clean” them 🙈💦 2. I eyedropper everything - and I never check whether there are holes or not on the pen body ☠️💦 3. I use them on all kinds of paper, regardless of texture. I’m one of those crazy people who uses fountain pens for almost everything because “pens are tools” ✍🏽🧐🤔 4. I’ve bought pens that cost more than $20.00 and they’ve all been generally underwhelming. All of them. I now know to strictly stick to Pilot EFs and stubs 😎👍🏽 5. I’ve bought non-Japanese stub pens ☠️💦

[@aladdin91056]

How about losing a pen? Lost my Pearl and Black Duofold International now watching them grow massively in price on EBay 😱

[@marilyngardner4269]

I had one and sold it at a garage sale maybe 30 years ago. I am such an idiot.

[@decluesviews2740]

Dropped my Lamy 2000 nib down into the sink and bent the nib.

[@glennkelley6096]

Thumbs up

[@sirexcellenceiii7639]

So just to be clear, you're talking about 9:26 marijuana right?

[@PensandTea]

I wasn’t but for some maybe lol

[@sirexcellenceiii7639]

Hehehehehehehh @@PensandTea I know you were talking about the "V," word; just givin' ya a hard time = ) Happy Friday !

[@arlenealennox3136]

Why in the world wouldn’t you at least throw a tissue over the drain!? My mistake was leaving a pen where my puppy could get it-happened twice, once to my original TWSBI Mini and to a Pilot Plumix.

[@iMac9991]

calling the vaccine "science juice" 😂 also yeah. my cousin and his fiancé are practically trapped in canada... still

[@anmarein4608]

Why do you have to refer to vaccines as "science juce" in order to not get demonitarised? Hm, fountain pen mistakes. Not so many (yet). I've ruined some gold plating by not cleaning the pen and then cleaning it to agressively. But it was an oder pen anyway. And I have some old school pens of mine, that are chewed on on one end and have slightly bent nibs on the other 😜. But they still write fine.