During this period of lockdown, I have been looking back over my fountain pen accumulation. This now spans a period of some 50 years. A number of my pen purchases have been part of a recurring pattern, of wanting a new special, or “best” pen, as a trusty companion for life that would be a step up from what I had at the time.
This would generally be a black pen with a gold nib. Hence, certain milestone purchases have been a Parker 75 Laque, a Sheaffer Connoisseur, a Cross Apogee, a Lamy 2000, a Pelikan M800 (in this case, blue stripe with black cap) a Montblanc Meisterstuck 145 Classique and an Aurora 88 (black with a gold plated cap).
With hindsight, it is obvious that none of these signalled the end of my journey of pen buying. Rather, they were like waymarks along the path, some leading to dead ends and others to a seemingly endless onward journey. Sometimes, when you are on a walk up a hill, it is useful to meet someone who is coming down who can tell you how far it is to the top and what you will find when you get there.
I recently got out my Cross Apogee. I remember buying it, in around 2006 or 2007 with a slightly dizzy excitement at spending as much as £100.00 (which is what it cost then, rather more now). The pen looked very handsome in the glass topped counter of the department store.
This Apogee is a metal bodied pen, with a gleaming black laquer finish. It is supposedly superior to the Bailey, as it has an 18k gold nib. There is a sprung metal pocket clip, with a sharp point, like an arrowhead. The cap is snap-on, secured by a raised rim at the base of the section. The broad cap ring, reads on the back, “CROSS, EST 1846”
The pen is comfortable to hold, by virtue of the wide girth and the absence of any cap threads or step between barrel and section. Uncapped, the pen measures around 127mm. The cap can be posted deeply and securely, to increase the length to 144mm. It weighs around 44g capped, or 26g uncapped.
The barrel tapers to finish in a shiny plated metal finial. Removing the barrel, the cartridge or converter metal housing is imprinted with a date code, in my case 0805, being manufactured in August 2005. I particularly enjoy having a date on my pens. The Apogee takes Cross proprietary cartridges, or else the screw-in converters.
The nib is attractively decorated with CROSS, 18k 750 and with lines running down each side, perhaps to suggest the vanes of a feather, which ties in with the arrowhead style of the pocket clip. The nib grade of M for medium is found on one side of the nib, rather like on a Sailor or a Pilot nib.
In the event, I did not take to this pen, which was disappointing. First, I recall being troubled about the degree of lateral wobble in the pocket clip. I appreciated that it was designed to rock up and down but the side to side movement was, I felt, possibly a defect. However this issue does not bother me at all now.
The greater problem was one of ink flow. Once filled from a bottle, it seemed that the pen might not always make it to the end of a page of A4 paper without suffering from ink starvation. I never discovered the reason for this. I lost patience with the pen and put it away. Getting it out again a few years ago, armed with a little more experience in nib-wrangling, I examined the nib and feed under a loupe but all looked normal to me and I could not work out why it would not keep writing. The nib and feed are friction fit.
Recently, (after some success in tuning the nib of my Lamy 2000 to my liking) I got out the Apogee and cleaned the nib and feed. Under a loupe, all certainly looked well. The nib has a tiny gap between the tines, right down to the tipping which usually indicates a good flow. I filled it with the nicely behaved Waterman Serenity blue. The pen did keep going for a full page of A4, but then after being stood for just a few minutes in a pen cup, it exhibited hard-starts. I tried inking it with Pelikan Edelstein Smoky Quartz, an “Extra Soft Ink” to see if this might help. Trying again for the full-page-of-A4 test, the pen kept going but after then standing the capped pen upright in a pen cup for 20 minutes, it hard-started again and needed several good shakes. This pen does not like to be stood up. It seems that the ink all drains away from the nib. My inexpensive Cross Bailey Light pens never have this problem.
I looked on Amazon and read some of the varied reviews of the Apogee. It seemed that others had also encountered problems with ink flow on this pen. If any readers know the reason for this and how to solve it, I would be interested to hear from them in the comments below please!
It is not realistic to expect that every pen we buy will be fantastic. For anyone wanting a high end Cross pen, I would recommend perhaps trying a Townsend over the Apogee. Also, although quite a bit more expensive, there is the flagship Peerless, of which I have read good reports, although I have not owned one.
I can conclude, at least for me, that the Cross Apogee was not to be the pen purchase of a lifetime. As to where my pen journey leads, I am beginning to suspect that it will eventually bring me back to where I first started, with a simple pen that works well, like a Cross Bailey Light, for example. This has become my office pen over recent months and which I have found more dependable than the costly Apogee.
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I think lots of us pen people have some pens that didn’t quite work out. I have been recently quite taken with the Twsbi Eco in the same way you are with the Bailey. The journey is always an interesting one.
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Thanks for an interesting review. I laughed when I read the reference to pen collectors’ advice as resembling the situation “Sometimes, when you are on a walk up a hill, it is useful to meet someone who is coming down who can tell you how far it is to the top and what you will find when you get there.” Very true! I find that one of the best aspects of a pen club is the opportunity to test other people’s pens to decide whether they are something I’d like to have as well.
It is odd how some pens never seem to work properly. I have a Mont Blanc Classique with a medium nib which I received as a present years ago. It has remained my only Mont Blanc pen as I find it never reliably performs, with skips and starts, lack of constant flow etc. I’ve tried to adjust it but without reliable success. And as it is over 20 years old, it is out of warranty (even if I could find the original warranty papers). So I stick to my beloved Pelikans, Sailors and Viscontis…
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Thank you for reading! It does sometimes feel like the pen hobby is a kind of journey, but I suppose everyone’s journey is different and there are no short cuts!
Sorry to hear that your Montblanc Classique did not perform well. I don’t know what the problem might be but it could be sometime simple. Even though the pen might be out of warranty, it may be worth taking it to a Montblanc boutique to ask if it can be serviced and this should get it back running again. It would probably go back to Germany for some TLC.
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On the chance of being ridiculed… did you ever try to put Cross cartridges in it? Not an Apogee but a slender Century Classic I have can be stood nib up for ages. Uncap it and it writes. A Century II does the same loaded with Platinum Carbon Black.
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That’s a good idea. I have been using a converter and I don’t think there is a reason why ink from cartridges may flow better, other than perhspd being a different formula or viscosity. I do not have carbon black but have Sailor Kiwa Guro which is similar. I shall continue my experiments.
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Love the pen but I have had the same starting problem, however I have damaged the nib so I need a replacement, I routinely use the converter that requires internal threads for the converter. Does if anyone know if a Century II nib is interchangeable? they seem to be more readily available.
Thanks all
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Both the Apogee and the Century II use the threaded converters but this is not relevant to the nib size.
The nib and feed on my Apogee are friction fit and can be pulled out easily. I also have a Century II but I have not been able to remove the nib and so I have not checked whether it is the same size as the Apogee nib. I would recommend that you contact Cross with your query on whether these nibs are compatible.
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Thank you
I was also concerned that the Century II nib assembly, which looks to be smaller in diameter than the Apogee, would not fit/ be compatible with the Apogee cap ??
I have an online request in to the Cross repair service to ask the same question – no reply yet.
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Good luck. I hope this can be resolved for you.
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What is an extra soft ink?
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I believe it to mean that the ink is thinner, or more runny than average. This would imply to me that it might flow better. The opposite would be an ink which feels thick and syrupy.
One disadvantage of a soft ink is that it may be more likely to bleed through some papers.
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i am looking to buy nib and feed for my cross pen. can anyone tell me where i can get the same.
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I have one of these. I came to the conclusion — with some regret — that it’s just a bad pen. I had (still have) exactly the same problems as you with ink flow, and for me it makes the Apogee too frustrating to use for any length of time, even though I do like the look and feel of it. I tried all kinds of cartridges and inks and got nowhere. If it hadn’t been a present from my parents to mark a special occasion in my life, I’d certainly have got rid of it by now. As it is, I get it out every so often to write notes in birthday cards, then back in its case it goes.
There’s obviously a certain romance associated with fountain pens, and we often choose to tolerate some quirks in the same way that we might smile fondly at a classic car that struggles to get going on a cold morning, but I can’t bring myself to use a pen, especially an expensive one, which is outperformed so comprehensively by any number of much humbler alternatives. All the design and attention to detail in the world is useless if the thing can’t perform its core function properly!
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Thank you for your comments. I am sorry to hear that your Cross Apogee did not work as it should. I agree entirely with your comments and share your frustration.
I never did get to the bottom of why my Apogee would not write for more than a page or so. It could perhaps be a problem with air flow, (with air being unable to get up to the reservoir or cartridge to fill the space vacated by used ink). However, being unable to resolve it myself, I put the pen away and used another pen instead.
It is true that expensive pens are often outperformed by humbler alternatives. A case in point is that I received a Stabilo Grow this week, in which the steel medium nib wrote perfectly, out of the box.
In case you have not already tried one, I can recommend the Cross Bailey Light fountain pen, available in various colours, which I find very comfortable and reliable.
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