Conklin Duragraph Unboxing

[davidoof]

This pen really disappointed me. I loved the look of it. It had a nice feel and balance in the hand. The box made me feel as if they were selling it as a luxury item, even though the price was relatively modest.
The problem was how poorly it wrote out of the box. Using the supplied converter it didn't just skip but often just stopped writing altogether. I sometimes like fine nibs, sometimes medium, so went with medium. It felt and wrote like the scratchiest 'extra fine' ever. The tangs seemed perfectly aligned so I think the problems were lack of flow and lack of polish.
Things improved somewhat when I threw in an old Waterman cartridge (which improved flow) and wrote at length as some pens obviously improve hugely once they've had a chance to adjust to your hand. It did get better and as the 'M' line was so fine made it my daily carry as it suited for writing in my small notebook.
When I got around to polishing the nib it finally became 'alright' so now I'm happy with it (although I haven't tried the converter again yet). However, as an 'out of the box' experience it was one of the worst. For the same money, a Parker or Waterman offers far more, with no immediate fettling needed.