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A week and a half ago I was planning a visit to a local pen shop where Kirk Speer was griding nibs. I looked over several pens to pick which one to bring for Kirk to work on. One of the candidates was the Visconti Opera Gold. I got it last May, used it a short while, and since then it has been in storage. When I took the Opera out of its pouch to line up with the other pens being considered, this is what I found.
The barrel is cracked. I turn the pen in the palm of my hand and see the whole situation.
Oh boy.
Still going.
Yeah.
The barrel has a clean break that fully goes through three sides. In the last picture I can see a line where I think the break wants to complete itself on the final facet.
I’ve started the warranty return process with Coles of London, Visconti’s US distributor. My guess is the pen will need to back to Italy given the nature of the damage. I’m at a loss to understand how this occurred from sitting in storage other than being a material defect, but that determination is now for Visconti to make.
It’s a shame because despite the lack of use of this pen since last May, I very much appreciate its design and build quality. You can go back here to see my initial writeup. I felt I’d finally found the right Visconti for me. Now that feeling is shaky. I am hopeful Coles and Visconti can remedy the problem and I’ll have a physically sound, functional pen back in hand at some point.
My sense is that the Opera Gold wasn’t the most popular or talked about of Visconti’s pens in the last few years, and there still isn’t much to find online about people’s experience with them. So, I’ll ask here for whatever it’s worth — has anyone else experienced anything similar with this model?
