Diamine 30ml sample bottles are brilliant; a huge range of good-quality inks, at very reasonable prices, and they’re even British too. There’s just one catch – those bottles. The plastic is fairly robust, but so many pens just can’t get their sections through that tiny neck – and the bottom seems such a long way down. That’s fine if you’re filling an eye-dropper, but there’s more to nibbage than that filling system, after all.
There is another way and that’s to buy one of Diamine’s remarkable box sets; both flowers and composers come in rather nice glass cubes with a sufficiently wide neck to accommodate most pens. But they don’t sell them individually!So we needed another other way and our newest United Inkdom member has found it. Rob has explored the arcane websites of various pharmaceutical and catering suppliers and assembled a fascinating test-pack of alternative glass and plastic bottles along with the pipettes to fill them up. Scribble and Ian have been trying them out too – and you can win one of these experimenting kits as well (see below)!The results are impressive; for just a few pennies you can get all sorts of hardy alternatives. Admittedly one of the ‘biological sample’ bottles acquired a rather suspicious crack in the post, but all the glass bottles survived and Ian tested the full set for leakage without any tell-tale dribbles appearing. Our team consensus is that alternative glassware is probably the way forward. For further details and links to suppliers, see Rob’s extensive blog article.
These alternative bottles make for handy mixing kits too – all you need is a syringe or pipette and you’re ready to roll. There’s even likely to be a new purple on the scene soon as a result…You can win one of these kits too, along with a fine 30ml Diamine sample to decant into the bottle of your choice and a dip pen for testing your inky cocktail creations. Just leave a comment below telling us which colour you’d like to be able to dip a big fat nib into – we’ll pick a winner at random but we’re genuinely curious to know! NB this competition has now closed and the kit is winging its way over the Atlantic, but comments are still welcome!
A little bit of history Around in 1136, or thereabouts, Geoffrey of Monmouth – who couldn’t use a fountain pen due to the woeful misfortune of being born eight centuries too early – picked up a quill and wrote a wildly imaginative ‘history’ of the kings of Britain. This slightly rambling narrative included much detail about the headquarters of King Arthur “located in a delightful spot in Glamorgan, on the River Usk, not far from the Severn Sea. Abounding in wealth more than other cities, it was suited for such a ceremony. For the noble river I have named flows along it on one side, upon which the kings and princes who would be coming from overseas could be carried by ship. But on the other side, protected by meadow and woods, it was remarkable for royal palaces, so that it imitated Rome in the golden roofs of its buildings…” So from golden roofs to golden nibs now, for a couple of miles down the river stands the new headquarters not of Arthur and his court, but Ross and his colleagues at Pure Pens (incorporating the fiefdoms of Niche Pens and Pelikan Pens UK). We caught up with Ross by telephone before he escaped for some ski therapy…
Fast flows the Usk…
So how did you get started in the fountain pen retail world? Well, that’s a bit of a tale, it’s true! When I was still at school I saw a well-known fountain pen shown-off in an episode of an American sit-com and liked the look of it, so I was given one for doing well in my exams, but it really wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. So I and my family did some research on-line and found that another German fountain pen brand, Pelikan, came far more highly recommended by the experts. But it was so hard to get hold of Pelikans in those days that when we got in touch with the company and suggested we become their UK retailer, they were up for it – we’ve owned the pelikanpens.co.uk URL ever since. This was before ready-to-roll retail sites were available, so we were using email and cheques at first, but we soon evolved.
What really grabs you about Pelikans? Well the Pelikan quality control is much better than average, for a start, and the adaptability of the screw-in nib units is great. We offer nib exchanges on all the higher-spec Pelikan fountain pens we sell and, because we can keep all the spare nibs in stock, customers do make use of the option too. It’s one of the things which makes the brand so popular; using our advice writers can be sure of getting a fountain pen which they can really live with. The other really nice thing is that Pelikan do listen to the customer feedback we’re able to take to them; for instance, so many people wanted a silver version of their Toledo special edition that they starting making them!
Camelot?
What led you to start grinding your own Pelikan italic nibs? People asked for them. Pelikan didn’t want to start providing them directly, so we started experimenting with grinding them ourselves. My father was a toolmaker and metal-turner, which helped a lot, and we learnt by trial and error at first – although we took a bit of time to get really fluent at it with steel nibs before letting loose on the gold! Our customers seem to love them.
Desirable Pelikan fountain pens, cunningly guarded by untouchable ballpoints.
What are the other ‘brand successes’ for you? Diamine has a really great British brand story and is always popular. We enjoyed visiting the factory in Merseyside, and timed it just right to see the Shimmertastic range in development – and it has to be said those inks have been flying off the shelves ever since.
So what are you writing with at the moment, Ross? My guilty pleasure is an M800 Grand Place – which Pelikan actually declined to sell in the UK, but I just couldn’t resist. My TWSBIs are looking great with Blue Lightning in the barrel, and the Pelikan-made Porsche fountain pen is still doing heavy duty too. I love my Visconti Homo Sapiens as well, and if it isn’t getting so much use just yet that’s probably because it’s got a bit more flex than I’m used to…
There we had to leave it, as Ross needed to escape to the slopes – but we’ll be reviewing some of the more intriguing products that Pure Pens stock over the next few weeks!
What’s all this about, then? Well, when you have notes strewn hickledy-pickledy all over different parts of a notebook and you want to re-arrange them, generally speaking you can’t – unless, that is, you have a flexible binding system which allows you to pop pages in and out as you jolly well please. The trouble is, most of the binding systems commonly available destroy the paper quite quickly and make a fearful mess, and that wretched two-hole system which is almost ubiquitous on the high street is the worst offender of the lot. Surely previous, pre-computer generations must have wrestled with this problem too? Well of course they did, and they came up with an ingenious solution too, using a row of little holes shaped like mushrooms and simple discs to hold them all together.
Rhodiatoma in Roterfaden
Hang about, when did all this happen? About a century ago, or thereabouts. The exact moment of inspiration is hard to pin down, but the main claimants to fame are André Thomas and Andre Martin, who devised the concept for Papeteries Georges Mottart some time between when the company formed in 1923, and when the patent changed hands in 1948. The names of the inventors supposedly formed the handy brand Atoma, and the company of the same name still sells about a million notebooks a year in its native Belgium – with the rest of the world getting a modest 20% of its output.
Many A5 Atomised notebooks (and one A6)
So, that patent must have expired by now? It certainly has, whatever date you start counting from. That hasn’t prevented a little flurry of claims, counter-claims and litigation in the US (check out Levenger vs. Feldman if you want the grisly details), but these days it’s open season. Atoma itself is still going strong, and also produces the Adoc presentation-binding system; Atoma notebooks are available in the UK via Cult Pens and the occasional Adoc product reaches Amazon. Clairefontaine in neighbouring France (known to us all for Rhodia paper) makes the Clairing notebooks, which are also sporadically available in Britain. A kibbutz in Israel made Flic notebooks using the system until the mid-1990s but threw in the towel, citing far eastern competition and the reluctance of German customers to accept non-biodegradable plastics – but not before significantly muddying the waters for US disc-binding suppliers Rollabind and Levenger (see court case above), who both still seem to do thriving business selling the system to the north American market. Staples have exploited the patent expiry to produce a budget disc-binding system in China, and Filofax has recently started marketing a similar system employing less robust wire loops rather than solid discs (as also produced by Miraclebind, who rather unnecessarily miss one of the holes in the row). Finally, this open season has sparked some serious custom loveliness right here in Blighty, but we’ll save the best for last.
Enough already! How do I try this out? Essentially there are two choices; go DIY or buy a ready-made disc-bound notebook. In practice, you’ll probably find yourself buying a ready-bound notebook and then tinkering with it, like all of us have – but then again, that’s part of the fun. By ‘fun’, we mean rigorously efficient and productive use of the stationery budget, obviously. We’ll tell you a little about each of the main options available in the UK as we go…
Atoma’s smallest disc and Arc’s biggest (show-offs)
Atoma notebooks are available in the popular A5 and A4 sizes as well as a fairly handy pocket A6 version (NB for quite large pockets!). Although their basic offering uses plastic discs in a pleasing range of colours, it doesn’t cost much to trade up to tough and shiny aluminium alternatives, available in three rising sizes to accommodate the ever-bulging fruits of one’s feverish scribblings. As Ian discovered, there is nothing to prevent the cheeky insertion of Atoma’s nice metal discs into disc-punched paper provided by competitors, so there is ample room for customisation. We find the standard cream paper (which is a bit wider than standard A5/A4 sizes) to be fairly good, albeit with a bit more texture than is perhaps ideal; not the most hostile to fountain pens, but not actually the most FP-friendly either.
Disc-bound scribblings for toomanypurples.blogspot.co.uk
Clairefontaine’s Clairing notebooks do much the same thing as Atoma’s cheaper plastic-disc notebooks, albeit with Clairefontaine paper, which by popular consensus is for most purposes is about the best there is. They come with handy subject dividers as standard, too. There are a few flies in the ointment, however; the plastic rings could do with a polish so that they turn easily, the enormous margins rather get in the way, and the peculiar decision to go much wider than standard A5 size means that the paper would have to be trimmed-down to fit other disc-bound notebooks. Bizarrely, the rear of the package proclaims a Patent Pending number (not a chance, sorry) – but hopefully Clairefontaine will read the material above and let that go. Thanks to the quality of the paper and the nice subject dividers, it has potential.
Clairefontaine’s Clairing notebook up close
Staples’ Arc notebooks are made in China, but on this occasion that shouldn’t necessarily put you off as a customer. The rings are cheap plastic, but available in enormous radii which make for affordable archiving at least – and the big surprise is the Arc paper, which is remarkably good quality; inexpensive, a good weight and non-feathering when attacked with a big wet nib.
The contents of approximately 3.5 Rhodia Webbies, stripped and bound cheaply with Arc components
William Hannah notebooks are made right here in Britain – well we did say we’d save the best for last! Their guiding genius felt the same frustration with notebooks which don’t come apart and go back together and, after a few kitchen experiments, realised the disc-binding system was the answer. Then he rebuilt the concept from scratch to make a notebook that justifiably claims to be ‘luxury’.
This is what a William Hannah notebook looks like…
Italian leathers sewn in Leicestershire, stainless steel discs engineered in Nottinghamshire (with a retaining pin to keep the whole thing together even without paper in it), and marketing from the centre of the country by a fountain pen enthusiast who has found a secret stash of good paper and will even print lines, dots or grids in a colour of your choice. Now, this sort of combination is never going to be cheap – it’s the other end of the price scale from a cheap basic Arc, obviously – but it looks and feels the part, and if you want to turn up to a meeting with a notebook which makes a fitting accompaniment to your posh new fountain pen, why not have one that’s properly British?
…and now you want one too. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
Hang on, you missed the DIY option! Big, cripplingly expensive and seemingly impregnable, it was never going to be any match for a moment’s onslaught from precision German engineering. But enough about the Maginot Line. Atoma also make a big Belgian punch for home use, which enables one to make up A4/5/6 binders with any paper that suits; Clairefontaine writing pads work very well, for instance. The twin catches of this arrangement are that it can only handle a few sheets at once (even thick card will flummox it), and it costs an eye-watering £139 at UK retail prices. On balance, the compatible Arc punch at £34 is probably a safer bet for now, although we think there is room for some competition at a better price than Atoma and greater sturdiness than Arc.
It works for A4 too, with Optik paper in the bottom example here, and Clairefontaine on top.
So your recommendation is? Check your piggy bank, see which of the above options fits, and go for it. It’s a great system and will put you satisfyingly in control of something, however daft the rest of the day may be.
Yes, gorgeous, isn’t it?
This meta-review draws upon:
Ruth’s full video review of the William Hannah notebook
A little bit ofhistoryWe’ve covered the affordable-but-quite-nice end of Indian fountain pen production in our previous Fountain Pen Revolution article, but Fosfor is quite a different proposition; the brand is essentially one man, Manoj, hand-making pens from scratch in Pune.How it looksLike a work of art, which is what it is – or, at the very least, the product of expert craftsmanship and painstaking care. The material (polyester, in this case) supports some wildly contrasting colours, and every one is essentially unique.How it feelsWarm, light… and large. This isn’t one for grabbing in a hurry to jot notes; for one thing, it takes a while to unscrew (somewhat to Ruth’s frustration!), and that big #6 nib lends itself to calm composed writing rather than hasty scribbles. Despite the generous proportions, it doesn’t feel overbalanced, and those who like their pens on the big side will find it handles very well.
Still unscrewing!
How it fillsThis is a straightforward cartridge/converter model, and none the worse for that.
Crucially, how it writes…Of course that depends upon the nib, but the #6 JoWo steel nib which this test unit was fitted with was impressively smooth.
Pen! What is it good for?There’s no clip, and the vivid colour-schemes perhaps don’t naturally lend themselves to the office, so this is perhaps ideal for journalling, note-taking or doodling at home.
VFMIt’s not cheap, but it’s far from exorbitant either; prices compare well with hand-made pens from John Twiss or Edison, for example – and so does the quality, we think.
If this isn’t quite your cup of tea, but almost…Well, Manoj takes on personal commissions, if your budget will stretch to bespoke design. His triangular pen, for example, is quite something to behold.
Our overall recommendationIf large pens in vibrant hues are your thing, Fosfor pens are worth checking out.
Where to get hold of oneNow that’s a little tougher, but you could try Fosfor’s own site of course.
Give-away To enter, we asked readers for their ideas for what Manoj should consider having a crack at next – whether that was new colours, new shapes, or a return of something old but good. There’s more on that in the comments below…
A little bit ofhistoryThose unfamiliar with British cuisine (stop sniggering at the back!) may not have come across the strange substance that is Marmite – a ‘yeast extract’, (a brewing by-product, in other words) with a pungent flavour when spread on toast which divides opinion straight down the line; people either love it or hate it. Platinum, a Japanese brand whose attempts to bring affordable quality to the market have already met with our attention a couple of times, tried to produce a budget gold nibbed-pen, and it’s fair to say that the result is, well, a Marmite proposition.
How it looksThis is built down to a price, and the impression given is that looks were not a high priority. It’s boring and black, frankly – although those unassuming looks do mean that no-one’s likely to think there’s a gold nib worth pilfering hidden in there.
How it feels Light and small. Again, making a gold nib affordable was the overriding consideration so no more material has been expended on the body than the minimum required to make a functional pen. This is something of a disappointment when you’ve picked up a Plaisir and know that Platinum can make good metal bodies on a budget too, but if you like a slender pen which doesn’t take much effort to wield it should be ideal.
How it fillsPlatinum cartridges or their sturdy converter – no problems there.
Crucially, how it writes…Now this all depends on whether you like Marmite! If you’re an enthusiast for all things gold in the nib department and like a bit of tooth with a just a touch of springiness, you’ll love it. But if you’re used to the smoothness of a ‘premium’ Platinum nib and prefer nibs to be either definitely stiff or definitely flexy, you’ll possibly hate it. There really is no in-between; Scribble likes his so much that it’s become one of this ‘everyday carry’ pens, and Ian was so unimpressed that he tried to send it back whence it came.
Pen! What is it good for?Obviously this too depends upon your stance vis-a-vis the aforementioned yeast extract, but if you like it, it’s great for jotting notes when out and about. If you don’t like it, it’s probably not a lot of use for anything in particular, to be honest.
VFMAs this was the point of the exercise, value for money is rather good; there are, let’s be fair, no other ready-to-write pens with a gold nib which can be bought new for as little as £45. Whether it presents good value to you personally depends… well, we’re back to the Marmite thing again here.
If this isn’t quite your cup of tea, but almost…If you just want to experience a really good gold nib from Platinum, our advice is to save up a bit more cash and go for a #3776. If you desire a new Japanese pen with a gold nib and can stretch the budget to just £10 more, some of Pilot’s Capless and Custom 74 models can usually be picked up for about that sum via ‘grey import’ channels (you know the ones we mean).
Our overall recommendationWe think this has been designed and finished to fit a tight budget, and while that’s a fine example of what Japanese lean production methods can achieve, the limitations of the design (and perhaps some inconsistent quality control) mean that it won’t be everyone’s dream choice. So if you can, try one before you commit to buying it; there is just a chance, of course, that you’ll love it!
Where to get hold of oneThere are relatively few UK purveyors of this particular delicacy, and the only fountain pen specialist retailer we know who stocks it is Cult Pens; because of the risk of you loving it or hating it, we’d recommend a retailer with their good customer service if you do want to take the plunge.
A bit of history Diamine have been making a splendid range of inks in Liverpool since 1864, and as well as their own extensive branded range of fountain pen refuelling solutions, they occasionally make an ink or two specially for another company, pen manufacturer, or indeed anyone who asks nicely and stumps up the cash. Fine examples include the series they used to make for Conway Stewart, the handsome collection cooked-up for PW Akkerman, and indeed the eponymous SBRE Brown. You can hardly blame the mighty Cult Pens team for getting in on the act – and so, starting with a nice rich blue, they have gradually developed a striking collection of inks which do just what they say on the bottle; they’re deep, they’re dark, and, well, inky.
Deep Dark Blue kicked-off the collection, with the aim of getting a blue similar that in the Cult Pens logo. It looks a bit darker than that when it first goes on to the paper, but dries to a dark blue that is just on the blue side of blue-black. ‘Probably an ideal choice for writing with at work if you want something suitably sober but still more interesting than standard ‘school’ blue. It’s good stuff, which Stuart declares his favourite deep blue ever, and you can watch Ian put it through its paces here too.
Deep Dark Brown is as far as dark as brown can go without becoming black really, but Diamine have pulled it off. If you ever need to dash off a quick facsimile of the Magna Carta, then this is probably the ink for you – although if you can also write more legibly than those thirteenth-century scribes that would be greatly appreciated by constitutional law experts the world over.Deep Dark Red is almost a must-have ink, especially if you want a red ink which you can legitimately use at work without being mistaken for a very unimpressed teacher. It manages to stay red without fading into brownish hues, as Oxblood tends to, and rather surprisingly it’s Scribble’s favourite (purple fans may now need a little sit-down to recover). Ian loves this one too.Deep Dark Green provides seems a logical addition to the mix, although we’re struggling to think of many occasions when it would be the ideal choice. In the dusty corridors of Whitehall, writers of incendiary letters of complaint to ministers are traditionally known as missives from the ‘green ink brigade’, and rare as it is for governmental correspondence to be issued in any sort of fountain pen ink at all, this seems right for the job. Green ink is also still used by the chief of MI6, but it’s going to take C quite a while to get through the whole production run of this ink without some assistance…Deep Dark Purple has been one of the star turns in Scribble’s over-the-top Too Many Purples mega-review, and for good reason; purple ink obsessives need something which they can get away with using at work! This one has a special trick up its sleeve, too – if you really pour it onto the page you’ll notice a striking green sheen floating to the top, and it’s quite a sight.Deep Dark Orange seems like a tall order, and the risk of smudging into a light brown must have been a seat-of-the-pants ink-blending challenge, but they made it (in both senses). Somewhere between Pumpkin and Ancient Copper, if you know your Diamines, this ink has impressive shading in the right nib. A bit of a connoisseur of all things orange, even Ian was impressed.What next? Cult Pens are working on the understanding that this collection is now complete, and with six stonking inks who can blame them? But then again, if Deep Dark Orange is possible, surely Deep Dark Turquoise should be! Here’s a mock-up of how that could look, mixed from Havasu Turquoise and 1864 Blue-Black, but the boffins at Diamine could do it so much better. What do you think?Getting hold of a refill is a simple enough job since all three of the standard Diamine packages are available; pre-filled international cartridges, 30ml sample bottles or the classic 80ml glass flagons. Better still, until the end of March 2016 you can get a 10% discount by going to the website and using this code: CULT10 (remember to enter it in capitals).
A little bit ofhistoryOnce upon a time there was a little birdy, and it flew away. We refer of course to the Pilot Birdie fountain pen, which by all accounts positively flew off the shelves, and which has sadly now flapped off into oblivion. But that missing link in the fountain pen family tree has now been filled, thanks to a remarkable collaborative effort by Cult Pens and Kaweco. With two names we know and love already involved, we naturally had to check it out.
How it looksThe current version has a brushed grey aluminium finish which, as Ian points out, is more than faintly reminiscent of 1970s design, but in a good way. If it wouldn’t look out of place clipped into a boiler-suit pocket donned by one of Blake’s Seven, well who are we to complain?
How it feelsSolid, and well-screwed-together – but small. There’s no getting away from that issue; it is big enough for scribbling quick notes, but most people will find it just a bit too petite for extended writing sessions. That suits its function, though; this is a pocket back-up pen, and it does that supremely well.
How it fillsA small international cartridge is the most sensible option. In principle, the short Kaweco squeeze converter also fits, but we recommend syringe-filling cartridges rather than bothering with the latter option – the diminutive ink capacity doesn’t justify the inconvenience.
Crucially, how it writes…That depends upon the nib, and there’s quite a choice; all of the smaller Kaweco units screw in (or out) as suits your requirements. The wider italics have a habit of running rather dry, but the standard round nibs are usually pretty good. You could even go crazy and bolt on a gold nib, if you want to!
Pen! What is it good for?Keeping in the pocket as a back-up, of course. Oh, and looking cool – although of course that’s never a consideration for us deadly-serious fountain pen connoisseurs, ‘honest Guv.
VFM Pretty good. It’s not dirt-cheap, but the components are well-engineered and it will take a good bit of knocking-about – so decent value, in our view.
If this isn’t quite your cup of tea, but almost…One of Kaweco’s own small models may be worthy of consideration; this is somewhere between the Lilliput and the Sport in size.
Our overall recommendationIf you need a metal pocket pen and don’t want to spend a fortune, give this a try!
Where to get hold of oneCult Pens, obviously – and until the end of March, you can get 10% off with this code: CULT10 (make sure you enter it in capitals). Incidentally, that code also works for Cult Pens’ other ‘own-brand’ specials, including the Deep Dark inks which we’ll be turning our attention to next week.
Cult Pens are one of the best-known names in fountain pen retail (and various other goodies) in the UK – and, as it happens, one of the earliest supporters of this site, although we were all customers already. So when we decided to broaden the format of the United Inkdom to include the occasional company profile piece, they were a natural choice to get us started with that too. We caught up with one of the company’s founders, Simon Walker, for a very light grilling.
How did it all get started, and how has it changed?
Well that’s been pretty well covered elsewhere, but it was the classic evolution from a small shop to early e-merchandise, and on to today. Getting the software to work well is a lot easier these days, and it’s grown from a couple to eighteen people – and a dog, of course!
Herbie the Cult Pens despatch hound, hunting the famous Dartmoor tiger.
What brands have been the big hits – whether or not they were expected to be?
Kaweco stand out as fellow stationery fans, and they’ve been great to work with – their success has really come from listening to customers and shaping their offer accordingly, which fits well with works for us too. The other big brand that stands out is Platinum; they too have really listened to customer feedback and put time and effort into understanding what writers are looking for – when you see the chief executive of international big name like that making it all the way to Devon to meet us, you know they’re serious!
How is the humble fountain pen holding up against its competitors?
The biggest competitor these days isn’t really another writing device, but the smart phone and the tablet. It sometimes seems like hand-writing implements as a whole are a declining market, so enthusiast markets are the key. That’s fine by us though – the enthusiasts are really nice people to work with, and it all drives innovation.
So, what should we look out for next?
Oh, now there’s a trade secret! Actually the big new releases should be starting to crystallise fairly soon; it’s the big trade show coming up soon in Frankfurt where the latest models and designs start to get shared. We’re hearing rumours about some significant new products from some very well-known names, but ‘watch this space’, as they say.
What do you write with every day?
Honestly, I’m more of a mechanical pencil obsessive! But the rest of the team are all keen on putting the latest opens through their paces; the Decimo is putting in some miles at the moment, for instance.
How is your Cult Pens ‘own brand’ line developing?
The Deep Dark inks are going very well – Diamine did a really great job there, and the feedback has been very positive too; they sell almost as fast as the Shimmertastic range! The CP mini fountain pen has been a very successful project, designed for us by Kaweco and filling a need we saw for a small, affordable pocket pen. We’ll be interested to hear United Inkdom’s ideas for a ‘maxi’ pen but you haven’t quite persuaded us yet! Our own mechanical pencil is doing well too – I gather Ian was suitably impressed…
We had to leave Simon to get back to running the ship at this point, but not before setting up exactly the follow-on you’d expect – so look out next week for a United Inkdom meta-review of the Cult Pens mini fountain pen.
A little bit ofhistoryKaweco got the United Inkdom meta-reviews started last year with the brilliant brass version of their timeless Sport, an instant classic if ever there was one. So the temptation came upon several of us, one by one, to try out Kaweco’s ‘premium’ offering, the Elite – and although we all played with it at different points, we had sufficient comparable (and contrasting) views to make a fresh meta-review of a Kaweco a good way to start the year too.
Kaweco tell us that this design is based on the Kaweco Special of 1940, the designs for which had been kept in the company archive and then rejuvenated by Horst Gutberlet in 1996. The modern Kaweco range also includes a pen called the Special, which is a lot slimmer and less imposing although there continue to be some shared details, such as the milled end to the barrel. Materials are, it’s probably fair to say, available in more ready supply now than they would may have been in 1940, so the Elite is composed in a number of staged processes – but the nib and feed, being Bock, remain definitely German.
How it looksOctagonal, which is quite cool. With the chrome cap it has a passing resemblance to the Faber-Castell Ondoro (which came later than the Elite), although the Ondoro uses a much smaller nib. Unlike the minuscule nib employed by most Kawecos from Lilliput to Allrounder, the Elite sports a nice big #6 which really looks the part.
How it feelsA tiny bit like a TWSBI 580, and that’s a good thing; it’s ergonomically thought-through and very comfortable to wield, as long as you leave the cap on the table – posting is possible, but it rather knocks the balance off.
How it fillsThis is a fairly standard cartridge/converter number, although in a nice touch Kaweco supply not only a a good converter, but a spring to hold it firmly in place and stop any rattling-about in the pocket. We like those thoughtful details.
Crucially, how it writes…As ever, much depends upon which nib you go for. The standard Bock steel nib is perfectly decent, if not really special – competent, rather than elite. The gold nib is 14k so has plenty of spring to it, and it feels much more luxurious (if you like that sort of thing).
Pen! What is it good for?This has got to be one for flashing about in the office, hasn’t it? Certain other highly-prized (and highly-priced) German brands don’t look nearly as cool…
VFMNow this one’s a bit tougher. With the standard steel nib, it’s a fairly expensive proposition for what is a well-made and handsome but not exactly extraordinary pen. With the gold nib the overall package would comes to over £200 – and even for a pen as lovely as this is, that’s a somewhat challenging proposition.
If this isn’t quite your cup of tea, but almost…As noted above, the body does have some stylistic similarities with the Faber-Castell Ondoro, although that is fitted with a smaller nib. Alternatively, if you just want a well-made plastic pen with a good German steel nib, you could do a lot worse than a TWSBI 580AL; the current retail price of the Elite would cover two of those plus a couple of bottles of decent ink.
Our overall recommendationThis is a handsome, well-made pen which looks good on the desk and does the job competently with a steel nib, although we think the recommended retail price is a getting a bit high. With a gold nib, it’s a really lovely writer, but that’s harder to obtain at the moment, so our advice would be to buy one direct from the Kaweco-run direct-selling site Mostwanted (the one place where you can buy the Elite with a gold nib fitted, at the moment) or transplant a third-party #6 .
Where to get hold of oneSome of the UK specialist retailers, e.g. Cult Pens and Andy’s Pens, stock the Elite, although it’s certainly harder to find than the famous Sport. If you want the ‘official’ gold nib then Mostwanted is your only option at present, but suitable #6 alternatives are available from a number of sources.
This meta-review references:
Scribble Monboddo’s hand-written review of the steel and gold nibs
Thanks to Kaweco for getting some test samples to us – especially the gold nib, which we couldn’t have got hold of otherwise. Two of us liked the Elite so much we bought one!
A little bit ofhistoryIt’s Winter Solstice today, so Happy Saturnalia/Yule/etcetera to all our readers. One of the traditions on both solstices is to climb a tall hill in order to watch the sun come up, and if you were doing this in Japan the tallest available would be Mount Fuji, standing at 3776 metres high, which seems a perfectly reasonable excuse to review the Japanese pen named after it. They’ve been making a whole series of models named the #3776 since 1978, so it’s about time we got around to it!
There’s a nib and a half – or two and half tines, at least!
How it looksThat all depends upon what edition you opt for! The original version had one of those sci-fi style ribbed bodies supposedly intended to avoid sweat building up on your hand as you write, but we haven’t managed to bag one of those yet. More recent versions, labelled as part of the ‘Century’ series, have an inner slip cap to prevent the feed drying out but also have much more visible differences in the colour and transparency of the plastic (and, more recently the trim). But all of them look professionally-executed and are certainly not going to shame a posh fountain pen collection – we’re a bit split over which looks most gorgeous, but one of the Francophone Chartres or Bourgogne numbers is probably going to claim the prize.
Chartres in gold trim
How it feelsNot enormous, but not too small either- this is just about the right size of pen for everyday writing, for most of us. As a mostly plastic pen it’s not too heavy, and what weight there is pulls down where you want it to, at the business end.
Writing sample with Soft Fine nib
How it fillsEither Platinum’s own cartridges (also available with pigment ink, which you can use fairly safely in the Century versions), or a simple and reliable converter.
Writing with the Fine nib
Crucially, how it writes…That all depends on which nib you aim for – and there’s quite a range. The standard F, M and B gold nibs are all pretty good as long as your luck holds; it is not completely unknown for a scratchy one to get past quality control, but as long as you buy from a Platinum-recognised dealer replacements are usually handled swiftly. If you have a taste for the more exotic, the SF and SM nibs are nicely springy (and offer a little bit of line variation too), and the #3776 offers what is by common consent the best Music nib there is, its three tines supplying enough ink to scribble all over the place with – or even compose that symphony you’ve been meaning to get around to if only you could find the right pen, presumably.
The internal cap is spring-loaded to provide an airtight seal around the nib and feed.
Pen! What is it good for?The nib and trim options are so extensive that the uses range all the way from artistic accoutrements to business-friendly ‘daily drivers’. Despite looking positively dainty in some guises, the #3776 is quite robust and will survive the travails of popping in and out of the briefcase if you want something a bit fun at work.
Have you really not started lusting after the music nib yet?
VFMReasonable, given the interesting range of nibs and thoughtful execution of the cap and body. These are not the cheapest pens out there, and declining to provide any non-gold nib options does limit the potential to provide a more affordable way in – but then again, at least one major Japanese manufacturer will try to charge you twice as much for a pen of the same quality when it comes to putting nib to paper.
Are you feeling composed?
If this isn’t quite your cup of tea, but almost…Then it may be worth a look at the #3776’s slightly bigger sibling, the President, which offers the same robust quality, even if the nib range appears more limited at present. Or, if you like this size and just want to consider other Japanese pens, you could do a lot worse to consider the Pilot Custom 74.
Now that’s just showing off really, isn’t it?
Our overall recommendationIf you’re a fairly serious fountain pen enthusiast, your collection is arguably incomplete without one of these (although four is a bit excessive, naming no names!). Explore the range of nib options carefully and then go for it; we’ve got seven or eight of them between us… that ought to give you a clue.
Writing sample with the SM nib
Where to get hold of oneThere are some decent discounts from Japanese direct sellers, but if you’re unlucky and get one of the scratchy nibs you may not have much recourse. The Platinum officially-recognised retailer in the UK is Cult Pens, and on this occasion we’d honestly advise starting your search with them.
So we needed another other way and our newest United Inkdom member has found it. Rob has explored the arcane websites of various pharmaceutical and catering suppliers and assembled a fascinating test-pack of alternative glass and plastic bottles along with the pipettes to fill them up. Scribble and Ian have been trying them out too – and you can win one of these experimenting kits as well (see below)!
The results are impressive; for just a few pennies you can get all sorts of hardy alternatives. Admittedly one of the ‘biological sample’ bottles acquired a rather suspicious crack in the post, but all the glass bottles survived and Ian tested the full set for leakage without any tell-tale dribbles appearing. Our team consensus is that alternative glassware is probably the way forward. For further details and links to suppliers, see Rob’s extensive blog article.
You can win one of these kits too, along with a fine 30ml Diamine sample to decant into the bottle of your choice and a dip pen for testing your inky cocktail creations. Just leave a comment below telling us which colour you’d like to be able to dip a big fat nib into – we’ll pick a winner at random but we’re genuinely curious to know! NB this competition has now closed and the kit is winging its way over the Atlantic, but comments are still welcome!
