12 Friday Aug 2022
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Since Kenro Industries bought the reincarnated Esterbrook they have been doing some good work bringing the brand in to the 21st century while also keeping links to the original company’s past. Late 2018 a new model was brought to the range, the Phaeton 300R, playing homage to the Phaeton 300 pen which was released back in 1964.
Continue reading29 Friday Jul 2022
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Let’s be blunt. China has a bad reputation in the pen world for supplying little but cheap blatant clones. It is not the only country to do this, but it is the main offender. This is what spurred me to write my articles on UK sold fountain pens for under a fiver and the follow up post. Recently Ania over at Penchantink has reviewed three Chinese originals, each costing under a fiver. She has now leant me these pens, so here are my views.
Continue reading22 Friday Jul 2022
This is not the first Stipula I have tried, after all I reviewed my personal Etruria Faceted a couple of years back. Their lack of presence is noticeable, not only in the UK, but do a search and you will struggle to find any of their present range of pens available to buy in Europe as well. So what has happened to this Italian pen maker and why am I reviewing one of their present models of fountain pen.
Continue reading15 Friday Jul 2022
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OK, let’s be honest. Most of us have pens in our collection that we know we should really get rid of, but which visually appeal too much. The works of art, the bright coloured ones, fountain pens with glitter and glow. We are all guilty of this, so when I grabbed a number of pens I keep out but use little, little did I realise quite how many pens I have that can fall in to this bracket.
Continue reading08 Friday Jul 2022
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The era of the high end Sheaffer fountain pen being supported by the white dot mark of excellence are long gone. These days, having been sold then sold again, the brand now produces a range of solid low and mid level priced writing implements with even the most expensive barely exceeding $100. At the entry point you have two models. The cheap plastic Pop and for the same price the metal VFM. Thing is for just £18/$18 is this a bargain pen or something for the waste basket. Note this model was launched under BIC ownership, before the brand was sold (in 2014) to Cross.
Continue reading01 Friday Jul 2022
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No one can accuse BENU of producing boring pens. From the start they showed you can add sparkle and glitter in ways that can appeal to those who like subtlety as well as the ‘bling brigade’. Bright strong colours and bold designs help their produce stand out in a world of repetition. BENU was started in 2016, however it was not until 2020 that they finally produced a pen with a #6 nib. The Euphoria is the third model in their range to come with this sized nib, following on from the Grand Sceptre and Supreme.
Continue reading24 Friday Jun 2022
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Just a quick post this Friday. I do have a number of ink reviews already written (for the last 3 ScriBo inks and the first of the Cult Pens Flower Series), however I want to keep those for Wednesdays. I also have a completed review on a pen I was selling. Alas the buyer also had to sell a pen to be able to afford mine and as he was unable to do so at the time the deal went on hold. I’m not going to post it yet else it might seem like a sales pitch (plus it would need re-writing).
Continue reading17 Friday Jun 2022
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British Made, british pens, onoto, Onoto Hurricane, Onoto Provenance Collection, TBM Art Metal, The Aviator Collection
In 2020 Onoto once more teamed up with TMB Art Metal to work on a pen part made from metal recovered from a Battle of Britain fighter plane. Previously we had the Spitfire, made of Duralumin from a wing spare removed from P7350, a surviving MK2 that required the part to be replaced to remain airworthy. For this pen less metal has been used, coming from P2725 TM-B, the Hawker Hurricane Mk1 flown by Sergeant Ray Holmes and famous for being crashed through the tail of a Dornier Do17 bomber which looked like it was flying at Buckingham Palace. The incident was made famous as the German plane was filmed falling out of the sky and crashing on to Victoria Station. Alas P2725 faired no better and Holmes had to bail out. He not only survived the Battle of Britain, but also the war, dying in 2005 at the age of 90.
Continue reading27 Friday May 2022
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This review will really focus on the nib and gloss over on the pen. Until I started to put pen to paper (sounds better than key press to WordPress) I did not realise I am yet to review the ScriBo Write Here, despite it being the first mainstream offering from Scrittura Bologenese, and despite me buying one of the first editions just after this store exclusive arrived off the flight from Italy at the October 2017 London Pen Show. A more in depth review will follow, meanwhile this piece is all about the nib. A ScriBo stub. 1.4mm width of tipping on a rhodium plated nib with its heritage going back to the old OMAS days and made on the same machines.
Continue reading20 Friday May 2022
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A month back I wrote my review of the Kilk Novo Baroque, and during that piece I did refer a few times to the emotive reasons partly behind my purchase. At one point I mentioned how the white barrel variant reminded me almost of meerschaum clay, as used in pipes, and which my late father used to collect and smoke. I mentioned I might add some photos of the pen alongside some of those pipes if I got a chance, but instead of adding them to the original article I decided to create this short piece.
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