In most retail stores, pens are sold out of the box without any examination or testing. Even some of the best-known fountain pen companies are known to sometimes (or even frequently) ship pens with poorly aligned nibs, ragged tipping points, and other annoying but easily corrected flaws. Small defects like this can make what would otherwise be a wonderful everyday writing instrument into nothing but a costly desk ornament.

Here at Classic Fountain Pens, every pen and nib unit we sell is carefully examined, tested, and then optimized for the individual writing characteristics of the end user before it is shipped. We take care to make sure that the pens you buy will not just be beautiful to look at, but will also serve you for durable day after day use.

Given all this, the best use of a pen store is to judge the looks, feel, and balance of a pen, not the way it writes. Many demo pens have been written with by any number of prospective customers, and it takes only one ham-handed individual to change the feel and performance of a pen and nib for everyone that comes after.

Another very important factor in the choice of any fountain pen is ink flow, but if the store only allows you to dip a pen to test-write it, be aware that the ink flow may be heavier than if you had filled the pen and then blotted the feed. The best test of the way a pen writes is filling it with ink, blotting it, and then writing for several sentences. Only then will you have a feel for the factory-set ink flow.

Here at Classic Fountain Pens, we're able to modify ink flow to your own requirements, as well as adjusting the nib for the degree of pressure you normally use when writing. Tuning a pen to the needs of the individual customer insures that your investment in a quality fountain pen will provide for an excellent writing experience far into the future.

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