I canโt fault Venvstasโs persistence. After I heavily criticised the first Magna piston, this fiery Italian brand took my comments on the chin and came back stronger with the Magna CC, which I really liked: it had much better fit and finish, and the use of the converter both improved serviceability and filling, and fixed โฆ Continue reading Venvstas hits 2.0 with the carbon fiber Magnaย piston
Ticking all the boxes Iโll say this right off the bat: Iโve discovered that Iโve become pretty fond of Aurora. In my time Iโve owned a grey flex Optima, a Duocart, a Talentum Black Ops, an 88 Black Mamba, a Pacifico, an 88 Minerali Amethyst, and my favourite of all, an 88 Nettuno. My experiences โฆ Continue reading Auroraโs Matera and Deserto are gorgeous and (nearly)ย flawless
by Feng @Onoto First, I wish Anthony all the best for his new job and enjoy his family life. I would also like to thank him for all his contributions over the last five years. We just canโt deny how much we have gaind from his reviews! I am sure he might want to come โฆ Continue reading A new jouney began with UKfountainpens.com
After my last post, I received dozens of messages asking me to keep ukfountainpens.com live as a resource for the community. For a variety of reasons, I couldnโt commit to doing that. But Iโm excited to announce something even better. Feng Li of Onoto will be taking the reins of UKFP. Iโve known Feng for โฆ Continue reading An exciting new start for ukfountainpens.com
Today is as good a day as any to wind up ukfountainpens.com. Unlike my previous end-of-year writeups and other similar posts, Iโm not going to indulge myself in a lengthy review of what Iโve achieved or learned over the past five years. Donโt worry: I have a wonderful tray of pens, I enjoy writing with โฆ Continue reading Goodbye: for real thisย time
Regular readers will know that I spend a lot of my collecting energy trying to spot patterns in my own behaviour, interrogating why I buy, keep and sell the pens I do. Itโs resulted in scoring methodologies and taxonomies aplenty. I have a new one for you today, one that has been nagging at me โฆ Continue reading Icon, maker orย lux?
UPDATE: The Scholar is live on the Onoto website to order. Iโve been singing the praises of the Onoto Magna for at least three or four years now (Flanders, Shakespeare, Sequoyah, Mammothโฆ), and still I find that people donโt see the value proposition until theyโve held one. A plastic converter filler with steel nib for โฆ Continue reading The Onoto Scholar was worth theย wait
The first thing I should tell you about this three-pen fountain pen case from Orange Leatherworks is that it costs 649 CAD, or about ยฃ390. Thatโs before shipping and import duties. This is unashamedly a luxury item, but a luxury item by the purest and least vulgar definition: an item thatโs made with no expense โฆ Continue reading Orange Leatherworks: flawless craft for a premiumย price
Culling the grails My last state of the collection post was in December, and this is what my main tray looked like then. From that tray Iโve sold the Nakaya 17mm, Namiki Urushi 20, Radius, ASC arco, Graf Classic and Aurora 88. Six of 18. Some really really good pens there! Honestly I probably wouldnโt โฆ Continue reading State of the collection: Marchย 2022
I dunno about you, but my Facebook feed is absolutely swamped with people pouring epoxy resin on to pieces of wood. Often itโs a coffee table. But you can also get phone cases and myrid other objects, large and small, made using this technique. While this โhybridโ effect is on the verge of being overdone, โฆ Continue reading Silverburl hybrid pens: creative, but withย quirks