I liked mine a lot, but I got it in extra fine which was a real mistake. It's like scratching which makes inky marks, not writing. I should have gone with a fine or even medium nib.
I now use a Pilot Custom 823 which is always going to be less sturdy than the Vanishing Point and my guess is it's always living on borrowed time. I'll replace it with a fine/medium VP when I eventually break it somehow.
Ah, yea I had a similar experience with Extra Fine. Now I buy them through Nibs.com which does some custom grinding, also they take into account my Leftyness, which makes for an extremely smooth and wet write.
The Moonman A2 is my current favorite pen. Though it's a knock-off, the out-of-box nib smoothness was better than that of the Vanishing Point that I ended up returning.
The fact that it's only $15 on AliExpress makes it a steal. No pun intended.
I agree for the opposite reason. I have one of them that I've used for daily journaling and note taking for ten years with no maintenance other than rinsing the guts twice a year.
That's awesome and really impressive. The pen is a real workhorse. I will say the Vanishing Point LS or something, the more expensive variant, is not as reliable, as my twist mechanism on that gradually got stuck.
I now use a Pilot Custom 823 which is always going to be less sturdy than the Vanishing Point and my guess is it's always living on borrowed time. I'll replace it with a fine/medium VP when I eventually break it somehow.