Levenger Plumpster

May 18, 2009

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Initial Impression

Upon opening the box I was surprised by the size of this pen...HUGE!....and I thought a pen of this size will be pretty heavy, which turns out to be true but not to the extreme. The swirling pattern on the pen looks really good, it seemed that it has some depth in it, and not just a simple pattern.

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Built

Unscrewing the pen from the cap gives no problem nor any strange creaking sound and likewise when unscrewing the section from the barrel. The picture above was taken with the converter to give a rough idea of the diameter of the pen. Notice that Levenger did not scrimp on the amount of material used to make the barrel......my ruler tells me its 3mm thick. The cap however, is slightly thinner but still very solid. Overall the pen is well built and looks like it would last a long time and would resist cracking with the thickness of the barrel.

Hold & Feel

While using the pen unposted, the large diameter of the barrel, as well as the way that it is shaped like a double-convex makes the hold and feel top notch. However the failure comes in when posting the cap, as the pen will be top heavy. Personally I think that there is no need for the cap to be posted, as the pen itself is enough to be used comfortably.

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Filling System

International converter and cartridge. I was surprised by how smooth the piston of the converter is.

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The nib

I have two purpose for purchasing this pen, one of which was to find out how well the steel nib of Levenger would write. The pen comes with a huge Fine nib. I intend to use the pen with Polar Brown, but I guess the lubricating properties might just give me wrong conclusion about the nib, hence I dipped it into Pelikan 4001 black. To my surprise this steel nib glides smoothly accross the paper, on par with much of the Gold nibs I have. I have a small collection but to me, a steel nib that writes this well is awesome, it writes far better than my experience with Safaris and Vectors. This Plumpster gives me the confidence to purchase Bexley's simplicity, which is a stainless steel nib.

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Size Comparison

Ever since I sold my Custom 74, The 1911M remains as the largest pen in my humble collection. The picture clearly shows that it dwarfs the 1911m whether or not in diameter or length. I have handled the large 1911 before and if my memory serves me correctly it should be the same length as the plumpster uncapped, but plumpster will have a larger diameter.

Closing thoughts

This is my first Levenger and I must say I will be back for more, especially with the vibrant colours of other pens such as the truewriters. The nib makes this pen totally worth it as it writes as good as a gold nib but cheaper, especially when I purchased it as a sale item from levenger ebay. One strange thing was that I purchased a medium nib but Levenger sent me a Fine nib instead, but that's even better as I wanted a Fine nib initially - Levenger's mistake is my joy! :roflmho:

May 18, 2009

Nice job on the review. It is huge. I came across this pen at a pen show, pre-owned, and loved the size. I dipped it, played around with it, but passed on it. I made a pass around the show and decided to go back and pick it up. You guessed it...gone.

After you've used it for a time maybe you can come back and give us some feedback. That means let me know what I missed.

Enjoy.

May 18, 2009

Thanks for your review and detailed photographs. You can really get a sense of the pen thickness. No wonder why it is called "Plumpster"!

Incidentally, how does the pen's performance compare with your Sailor 1911M? And... I'm curious to know what it was about the Custom 74 that led you to sell it (and if you miss it at all).

May 18, 2009

Nice review. I picked this up at Levenger ebay outlet after seeing the review rroossinck did. I love it. It was my daily writer for months until I bought so many new (to me) vintage pens it just fell out of rotation. But it will always be in my collection, thats for sure.

May 19, 2009

Nice job on the review. It is huge. I came across this pen at a pen show, pre-owned, and loved the size. I dipped it, played around with it, but passed on it. I made a pass around the show and decided to go back and pick it up. You guessed it...gone.

After you've used it for a time maybe you can come back and give us some feedback. That means let me know what I missed.

Enjoy.

So far I am very happy with it but I will try to take it for a spin on paper and post some afterthoughts

Thanks for your review and detailed photographs. You can really get a sense of the pen thickness. No wonder why it is called "Plumpster"!

Incidentally, how does the pen's performance compare with your Sailor 1911M? And... I'm curious to know what it was about the Custom 74 that led you to sell it (and if you miss it at all).

I am very happy with my 1911m, which is a fine nib. Not surprisingly the plumpster is much more smoother. The 1911m however was smooth enough..I paired it up with Sailor's Jentle for my examinations and it works flawlessly on the low quality paper with minimal bleedthrough.

The custom 74 remains as the smoothest nib I had. I had it sold because it was a rather thick medium nib and superbly wet....a bit too wet and thick for my already large handwriting. I used it for a while until I discovered it wasn't been used for a long time since the purchase of my 1911m....now that you mentioned....I do miss the smooth nib!

Interestingly a Pilot Size 3 Medium (from my Grance) is slightly less smoother than the Size 5 medium on the custom 74. Perhaps the size of the nib does helps.

May 20, 2009

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In case my handwriting is not legible, this is what I have written:

Ink: Noodler's Polar Brown

Paper: Kokuyo's Loose Leaf

"The plumpster glides smoothly over the paper. Well it's the only good paper I have other than printing paper. The fine nib, although big in size appears to be a true fine and not overly wet. The pen is great written unposted and I think it would be a good companion for users with large hands that need to write long essays. I tried using the pen posted, couldn't get used to the extra weight and it seemed to affect the control of the pen during writing. Other than the posting problem, this pen is totally awesome for the price."

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A close up shot of the words written by the plumpster. Notice that the strokes at the end of the strokes are thicker and tend to form a "ball". I am not sure if its the ink or the nib that is wet, the ink will continue to flow out of the nib when in contact with the paper. Perhaps not so good for users that pause and think with their pen touching the paper during writing. To me this is a user-dependent issue (not exactly a problem as the wet nib delivers the smooth-ness)

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Some comparisons here with some other pens I have. As you can see the width of the strokes are very similar to the fine nib sheaffer and the medium nib Grance (which is supposed to equate to a western fine nib). It is still thicker than the Japanese Fine nib as shown.

I wrote it on the Kokuyo paper without any backing (single piece of paper on table) and with my own writing strength (I tend to apply slightly more pressure, but not until it will split the tines)

Inks that I have used here in the comparison:

Plumpster - Noodler's Polar Brown

Sentinel Deluxe - Sailor's Jentle Black

Pilot's Grance - Noodler's Tiananmen

Sailor's 1911m - Sailor Jentle Black

To be fair, Other than the Sentinel deluxe which is a touchdown filler, the rest of the pens are inked with their respective converters. I believe that ink cartridges will show a slightly thinner line than when using converter.

Hope this small add-on will help

Pardon for the bad english

May 25, 2009

Thank you for a great review and some really nice photos.

I also picked up a plumpster on Levenger's eBay outlet. If I am being honest, I purchased the pen because:

1. It was a bargain

2. It is pretty

3. Wanted to try a Levenger fountain pen

4. It is pretty

5. Wanted to try a "thick" pen

6. It is pretty

Much to my very pleasant surprise, it is a great writer. I agree that it is a bit top heavy when posted but I really like the size, the weight, the flow of the ink, and the smoothness of the nib. I constantly rotate out my fountain pens but tend to leave this pen on my desk at the office for frequent use.