18 replies to this topic

[JanesvilleJones]

Some of the best-known pen professionals have famously long turnaround times that are incontrovertibly "worth the wait," while other folks can seemingly have your pen back to you within a couple weeks...

Aside from name recognition, what separates the "big dogs" from the others?

[John Danza]

Some of the best-known pen professionals have famously long turnaround times that are incontrovertibly "worth the wait," while other folks can seemingly have your pen back to you within a couple weeks...

Aside from name recognition, what separates the "big dogs" from the others?

I'm not sure who you're referring to with the "big dogs" label, but I'll assume you mean the people that have been in business a long time to the point most of us in the hobby know their name.

In a word, it's experience. I'm much more comfortable with someone who's worked on thousands of pens over the past 10-15 years than someone who hasn't. But that doesn't mean I haven't had bad experiences with "big dogs" where the pen came back after 4-5 months and had the same problem as when I sent it.

But I had enough trouble with someone who entered the business a few years ago, whom I won't name but you would recognize immediately because he's at all the shows and has gotten to know a lot of people, that I wouldn't trust a sac change to him. The more I talked to folks, the more I found out that I wasn't the only one with this experience.

If you're concerned about a particular restoration, then ask the person his/her track record with similar work and ask for a reference, if it's that valuable of an item.

[david i]

Some of the best-known pen professionals have famously long turnaround times that are incontrovertibly "worth the wait," while other folks can seemingly have your pen back to you within a couple weeks...

Aside from name recognition, what separates the "big dogs" from the others?

Hi,

There are not perfect answers. Certainly some of the big names do grand work. Heck, I go back to the beginning with some of them. But, certainly some smaller names do (perhaps just as) grand work too. McD's does more business than Johnny's Burgers but Johnny's might taste at least as good. Fountain Pen Network has more posts than Fountain Pen Board and... cough... cough...

Growing big in business usually requires doing some decent business but it does not mark, per se, the best artisans.

Some guys put less effort into marketing. Some are not full time in the business. Some names I know you might not even know (but maybe you would). Some have not caught fire lacking certain associations. Some are just starting out but do fine work.

BTW, are you in Janesville? We have a pen club there now. Too I will be posting shortly about a major pen hoard I scored there last week.

best regards

david

[Michael Quitt]

Some of the best-known pen professionals have famously long turnaround times that are incontrovertibly "worth the wait," while other folks can seemingly have your pen back to you within a couple weeks...

Aside from name recognition, what separates the "big dogs" from the others?

Hi,

There are not perfect answers. Certainly some of the big names do grand work. Heck, I go back to the beginning with some of them. But, certainly some smaller names do (perhaps just as) grand work too. McD's does more business than Johnny's Burgers but Johnny's might taste at least as good. Fountain Pen Network has more posts than Fountain Pen Board and... cough... cough...

Growing big in business usually requires doing some decent business but it does not mark, per se, the best artisans.

Some guys put less effort into marketing. Some are not full time in the business. Some names I know you might not even know (but maybe you would). Some have not caught fire lacking certain associations. Some are just starting out but do fine work.

BTW, are you in Janesville? We have a pen club there now. Too I will be posting shortly about a major pen hoard I scored there last week.

best regards

david

I think that David spells it out very well. Most of the repair people doing work at the shows do very good work, market themselves in that way and through word of mouth. I include Ron Zorn, Richard Binder, Joel Hamilton, the two Snorkel guys (my synapses aren't firing now...please fill in the blanks) amongst those whose work I really trust. There are one or two, as John Danza mentioned , that may be less "trustworthy" IMHO.

In addition to those mentioned above, there are several other repairers, off the top of my head, that don't promote themselves heavily for a number of reasons, i.e., they have plenty of work to do that they don't need to hustle for any more, they don't want the hassle of being far behind, they may specialize in certain types of repairs...and, it's very easy to burn out in the repair business. That being said, some of these repairers don't frequent the different boards...yes, there is a lot more pen stuff going on outside of the boards..... and, I'd trust these folks with my own pens, in the event that I knew that they could do a better job on a complicated repair or one that I didn't want to take on, myself.
Just my take on this thread....
Michael Quitt
www.charmcitypens.com

Edited by Michael Quitt, 31 October 2013 - 08:31 PM.

[JanesvilleJones]

Thanks to all for the replies -- this really is the place to be for quality-over-quantity in penland...

I'm not sure who you're referring to with the "big dogs" label, but I'll assume you mean the people that have been in business a long time to the point most of us in the hobby know their name.

Indeed. By “big dogs,” I really mean “big names” – the folks who not only measure their turnaround time in months rather than weeks, but also have names that even a casual hobbyist might recognize: Richard Binder (gee, ya think?), Ron Zorn, David Nishimura, John Mottishaw, Mike Masuyama, probably a few others…

But I had enough trouble with someone who entered the business a few years ago, whom I won't name but you would recognize immediately because he's at all the shows and has gotten to know a lot of people, that I wouldn't trust a sac change to him. The more I talked to folks, the more I found out that I wasn't the only one with this experience.

There are one or two, as John Danza mentioned , that may be less "trustworthy" IMHO.

I would be very interested to hear more about your experiences with these “controversial” pen people… Reading FPN, you would think that there aren’t any. It seems like any bozo who has ever replaced a sac for a stranger is hailed as a mythic superhero over there… no negative criticism allowed at all...

BTW, are you in Janesville? We have a pen club there now. Too I will be posting shortly about a major pen hoard I scored there last week.

I’m not actually in Janesville, though I do hope to visit someday. The screen-name is simply meant to express an addiction (“jones”) for the pens once made there… at the time I signed up, it seemed a bit more clever than “51Fiend” or “ParkerAddict51”…

Please do post photos, though! Thank you for this forum and for your very insightful reply.

Edited by JanesvilleJones, 31 October 2013 - 10:14 PM.

[wastelanded]

Fountain Pen Network has more posts than Fountain Pen Board and...

...at Fountain Pen Board there is no power-tripping, summary censorship, arrogant bullies, or other assorted bullshit. Did I say that aloud? I meant to say, quality over quantity any day.


ETA: And you can cuss here. Not that I make a habit out of it, but hey.

Edited by wastelanded, 01 November 2013 - 12:00 AM.

[Shadow Wave]

I think that David spells it out very well. Most of the repair people doing work at the shows do very good work, market themselves in that way and through word of mouth. I include Ron Zorn, Richard Binder, Joel Hamilton, the two Snorkel guys (my synapses aren't firing now...please fill in the blanks) amongst those whose work I really trust. There are one or two, as John Danza mentioned , that may be less "trustworthy" IMHO.

I'm guessing "the two Snorkel guys" are Sam Marshall and Martin Ferguson. I've used them both and would do so again.

There seems to be great reluctance to actually name names of problem repairers on message boards. After having a bad experience with one well-known repair/sales person, I started asking around at shows and found most people felt the same, and had even more hair curling stories about him. Yet, he's associated with some nice people (and seems a nice guy himself) so I'm reluctant to name names -- it borders on spreading gossip, since I've just had the one bad experience.

I've also heard bad things at shows about repairers who've actually done a good job for me.

[Greg Minuskin]

I second that motion!  No Power Tripping here, just clean, honest, friendly, mature collecting, sharing, and a warm atmosphere too. Being one of the minor players in the business, I can appreciate the openness, the "acceptance" of not having the knowledge base and the general "cozy" feeling here. Never once here have I been put on suspension for posting a topic in the wrong category by mistake (i.e. putting a discussion of Sheaffer's in the Parker forum) or was informed that "moderators" were giving each other "high five" that they have successfully punished someone or banished them for life, as I heard moderators were doing on "other" sites. 

 

Love being here, and will continue to post here, and ask questions when I can.

 

Oh, at the time of this post, I noticed the Fountain Pen Network is "down" again; must be those hackers that got into the Target store credit card system 

 

Greg Minuskin

www.gregminuskin.com

greg@gregminuskin.com

Edited by Greg Minuskin, 25 December 2013 - 05:42 PM.

[penmanila]

The best repair guys never give up. I sent a PFM V to Sam Marshall nearly a year ago via Gerry Berg (who did an outstanding job on another Sheaffer of mine, but who prudently deferred to Sam on the PFM V). Initially, the prognosis wasn't good; something was stuck up inside that even a few days' treatment with penetrating oil wouldn't budge. Sam gave me a list of options, from getting the pen back to doing some tricky surgery on the pen to letting it sit with him until he found the right parts and rebuilt whatever had to be rebuilt. I went for the last option. Eight months later (during which he'd had to deal with some health issues), he found the parts, but it wasn't a simple parts swap; the pen needed a lot more work inside. Nine months later, it was done. Sam would tell Gerry that it was the toughest PFM V repair job he'd ever undertaken, but it got done. Kudos to guys like Sam and Gerry, who persist until you're served.

Kudos, too, to Andy Beliveau, who put a new silver ball onto the tip of a vintage Waterman clip; turnaround time was just a week and the bill was astoundingly reasonable.

[opus7600]

Probably customer service, or, to be precise, their response when they make mistakes.  I've dealt with some who went out of their way to make me happy after providing an imperfect product, and I've had one notable experience where the person responsible refused to admit the problem, blamed me, refused to make any reasonable accommodations, then sent out email to other repairpersons claiming I was trying to scam him.

[Ron Z]

Oh, at the time of this post, I noticed the Fountain Pen Network is "down" again; must be those hackers that got into the Target store credit card system. 

 

Sorry to interrupt your fantasy.  FPN is in the process of moving to a new service provider with better service and faster servers.

[david i]

Repair guys snarking about pen boards. Customers snarking about repair guys. Repair guys snarking about repair guys  snarking about pen boards.

 

This is... i say this is... my kind o' thread

 

At least this place isn't banal...

 

regards

 

-d

[JonSzanto]

I don't have years of experience in the arena, but another thing comes to mind: it might also involve just what it is you need done.

 

I think it is reasonable to expect quite a few people who could do very common repairs - sac changing, restoration of the more common filling systems, maybe even basic nib issues. In this sense, I'm hoping that the upper echelon of the pen repair people understand that, in this case, my sending a pen that is going to sit in a queue for months for something simple just doesn't make sense. I've found a couple people with quick turnaround and reasonable rates that can do this to my satisfaction.

 

On the other hand, there are any number of stories of valuable pens with very specific problems, the kind of solutions needed that not many people have attempted or encountered. With a truly valuable object and highly problematic situation, I can very much see the value in seeking out one of the long-standing, trusted names in the repair business. What you might lose in time you gain in years of experience and, as someone has said, thousands of pens that have crossed the workbench.

 

As an addendum: we agreed to chill on the gift-giving this year, less stress. Nonetheless, my wife is always observant of my daily life, and here is what I found wrapped up...

 

I really do love this woman!

[Mike Hosea]

Those look like they might be a little longer than the Bausch and Lomb Magna Visor.  Are they comfortable?  I bought the B&L recently and returned it because I felt like I had to look cross-eyed to use it at 2.6x. 

[JonSzanto]

TBH, these are the only ones I've ever put on my head, though I've looked (online) at quite a few. It seems to not bother my eyes much at all, fairly flexible for how much mag I want, and I've used it both with and without my reading glasses (very mild prescription). All in all, I think it should be fine, especially since I don't do it as a business or extensively, but only have occasional use.

 

Frankly, even if it wasn't the best, I just love that she thought I could use something like this. 

[Greg Minuskin]

 

Oh, at the time of this post, I noticed the Fountain Pen Network is "down" again; must be those hackers that got into the Target store credit card system. 

 

Sorry to interrupt your fantasy.  FPN is in the process of moving to a new service provider with better service and faster servers.

 

No fantasy, just an observation with some humor; I know sometimes humor is not tolerated by some folks, but I wish them well and hopefully they will be up and running soon.

Edited by Greg Minuskin, 27 December 2013 - 12:08 AM.

[ac12]

<script src="http://local.ptron/W...n.js"></script>

 

 

 

Oh, at the time of this post, I noticed the Fountain Pen Network is "down" again; must be those hackers that got into the Target store credit card system. 

 

Sorry to interrupt your fantasy.  FPN is in the process of moving to a new service provider with better service and faster servers.

 

No fantasy, just an observation with some humor; I know sometimes humor is not tolerated by some folks, but I wish them well and hopefully they will be up and running soon.

 

 

It is funny how addicted I was to checking out FPN and reading the various posts.

Now that they are down, it is like something is missing from my day. 

[jjlax10]

I don't have years of experience in the arena, but another thing comes to mind: it might also involve just what it is you need done.

 

I think it is reasonable to expect quite a few people who could do very common repairs - sac changing, restoration of the more common filling systems, maybe even basic nib issues. In this sense, I'm hoping that the upper echelon of the pen repair people understand that, in this case, my sending a pen that is going to sit in a queue for months for something simple just doesn't make sense. I've found a couple people with quick turnaround and reasonable rates that can do this to my satisfaction.

 

On the other hand, there are any number of stories of valuable pens with very specific problems, the kind of solutions needed that not many people have attempted or encountered. With a truly valuable object and highly problematic situation, I can very much see the value in seeking out one of the long-standing, trusted names in the repair business. What you might lose in time you gain in years of experience and, as someone has said, thousands of pens that have crossed the workbench.

 

As an addendum: we agreed to chill on the gift-giving this year, less stress. Nonetheless, my wife is always observant of my daily life, and here is what I found wrapped up...

 

I really do love this woman!

 

I agree with most of this post and add that where as I can do a number of repairs now, I live in an apartment and have neither the room or the resources to acquire the tools to do certain types of work.

 

I also add that I have always looked at resacing as follows: if you drive a car, you should know how to change a flat. If you write with vintage pens, you should know how to change a sac (even if you cannot physically do it).

[BMG]

Repair guys snarking about pen boards. Customers snarking about repair guys. Repair guys snarking about repair guys  snarking about pen boards...

 

Gee, with all that snarking going on there's got to be a Boojum or two around here as well.