There are two primary repeat offenders here. One inexpensive pen (Noodler's Aerometric/Eyedropper — see my review) and one rather pricey one (Cross Apogee). When other pens misbehave similarly, I tend to blame my rough handling of their storage cases. But these two are such consistent offenders (the Cross especially, which has exhibited this behavior with a range of inks), that I think there must be poorly designed, defective, or damaged nibs to blame.
I tend to forgive the Noodler's a little more, because it gets handled more roughly day to day, stored in a pencil case inside my briefcase, which gets slung around quite a bit (though that doesn't seem to bother the Lamy 2000, Pelikano, or Platinum Preppy that are also in the case). But the Cross lacks such an excuse. It is typically stored nib up inside my portable letter-writing kit, which gets handled with much greater care. I must have a tissue handy every time I open it so I can wipe it down before gripping it to write.
Am I just being too rough on my poor pens? Or is this simply physics at work, perhaps with some nib problem?
