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The magnificent seven: week five

My poor pen collection has had a very disruptive week. Two of the pens in my week four selection (the Pineider and Diplomat) went into the ‘for sale‘ pile, so I took them out of rotation. But I wrote the Lamy 2000 dry, and had good runs with the 149 and Optima.

And then today my first Conid arrived: the Minimalistica Monarch with fine steel nib. So naturally that’s going into the rotation (and probably FOREVER, given the ink capacity). But I’m getting ahead of myself.

It’s not quite all-change this week — with so many pens sold or for-sale, and my continuing effort to reduce my number of inked pens, I`m actually running out of choice! Shock horror.

So here goes.

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Leonardo Momento Zero, Sailor Chu Shu

I’m so pleased to have a fully functional Leonardo again, complete with clip. This pen is great: the fine nib is springy and flows well. I dug Sailor Chu Shu out of the ink drawer for this week: its black/grey/brown colour fits with the horn resin of the pen, and its usual Sailor smoothness makes for a quick writer.

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Visconti Homo Sapiens, KWZ Azure #5

I haven’t had the Steel Age Homo Sapiens inked for quite some time. And nor have I used Azure #5 recently. Together they’re a fantastic combination. The KWZ intensity of colour and lubrication really fits the true fine nib of the Visconti. It’s smudgy (which is really why I stopped using it so much) but I’m glad to have this combo back in rotation.

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Aurora Optima Flex, Montblanc Encre du Desert

My leftover from last week. The Aurora still has tons of ink left — guess the piston fill and fine nib aren’t a good combo for a quick colour change. The long section and long, thin nib make for a really precise writer. This’ll continue to get plenty of use at work.

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Montblanc 1912, Herbin Poussiere de Lune

The Herbin ink is really a very similar colour to the Montblanc I have in the Aurora. But the 1912 couldn’t be more different as a writer. It’s soft, flows generously, and the pen itself has real heft in the hand.

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Pelikan M400, R&K Alt-Goldgrun

To be honest I’m thinking of selling the M400, no matter how beautiful the tortoiseshell stripes are. It’s just a very tiny pen. So I thought I’d give it another week’s chance.

I guess my tastes have changed in inks, too. I can’t get enthused about greens any more. Hmmm.

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Visconti London Fog, Edelstein Topaz

After a week on the bench, the Visconti is in rotation again. Its huge demonstrator barrel is thoroughly full of the only ink it’s ever known, Topaz. But it may have some competition…

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Conid Minimalistica Monarch, Montblanc UNICEF

…in the form of this new Conid. Already I can see some things that really impress me about this pen, and other things that may infuriate me over time. On the plus side, the size and shape: it’s like a Lamy 2000 on steroids. This is a big pen. The Conid-tuned steel nib is lovely. The packaging is unique. And the bulkfiller mechanism pushed my engineering-geek button immediately.

On the negatives, the o-ring cap closure just seems bizarre to me. It takes real effort to operate, and I haven’t figured out a way to close the pen both completely and quickly. And the orange ebonite finials that mark the Monarch edition are pale and milky — I like my orange much more vibrant. We’ll see how things go in the next week.

 

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2 Comments

  1. Kamil Klapka

    Looking forward to your review of Conid. It is one of pens I am most interested in.

    Regarding suggestions for content I would be interested in more of your thoughts/opinions on inks. I have only few bottles so far. My favorites are Sailor Blue-Black and KWZ Walk over Vistula. Sailor because it is such well behaving ink. KWZ because it’s charming color. However as you pointed KWZ is very smudgy, sometimes even after weeks when I verify something in journal I got it all over my hand, which is annoying. Pilots although well behaving are quite boring for me, I have tried Ku Jaku – which is OK but not exciting. Some green which I simply dislike and I come to conclusion, that greens are not for me. Only I quite liked was orange.

    Overal I like sheen and shading in inks and thus would be interested in some advice on inks which do have these properties and are well behaving.

    Thank you for your blog

    • Anthony

      Ok, a roundup of my favourite inks is in order I think 🙂

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