Now its time for oranges...
Lets start with a review of the most known Delta fountain pen. The Dolcevita. I have reviewed the three I have over here, the Oversize, the Medium, both well known and there is an extra one, the Slim, which is not as known as the two before mentioned. I hope that you find the report useful and enjoy it, including the mention to the problems found and solved, just in case somebody else gets the same...
Delta DOLCEVITA (Oversize, Medium and Slim) Reviews

Thanks for another wonderful review Jopen!

Nice review. Jopen, you certainly love those Deltas, eh?

Excellent review. Very helpful to read about the silicone issue and with a picture to help me understand. The OS is on my wish list. Thanks! - Michele

Thanks for your nice feedback... and yes, I love most Deltas, there are a few which are not quite on my side and there are also others out of my reach or already sold out Other I like a lot are Pompei and J Caesar (1KS) but those are not easy to find at reasonable prices, or when they are offered somewhere I'm not in condition to bid...
Next ones will be 20th Anniversary and 365, one on the high end and the other on the user level, both very nice and different pens...

Thank you for the very interesting and informative review. The pictures are especially helpful. I recently acquired a Delta Dolcevita Oversized, and I have been wondering about the rubber gasket seal which I have read about but didn't find on my specimen. With the picture you provided, I'm going back to my dealer to ask him about it. (They also forgot to give me the pipette the first time round, and the feeder was damaged.)

Aha! Nimrud... nice to know it has been of some help for you. Sometimes Gremlins crawl into pen boxes and have fun with us... The gasket is only needed in case you want to use the pen as an eyedropper filler and should be smeared with a tiny ammount of silicone. The feed problem is another story, does not look very well. Your dealer should help here, if not, Delta uses to be very kind to customers and helps very well, at least they did for me. In the picture of the feed block you can see that the left border of the channel is not smooth. This cannot be assesed from bare eye and magnification is needed. In the cleaning process I did, I also machined (remachined) the slit by hand with very good results, while I got a replacement for it. The replacement still sits in my drawer as the repair was succesfull.

My dealer has been very helpful so far, he has replaced the nib with the damaged feed and has installed the rubber gasket for me as well.

I was so happy with my Delta purchase, that I bought another one, this time the Delta La Citta Reale LE silver. My dealer even agreed to match the lower Internet price of another shop.

Now you feel a happy man!! yes, you have two incredible pens to enjoy in every way. La Città Reale is something very special which seems to be less frequent to see in years to come. I found silver trim very nice and price helps too in this case. Congratulations ...

I have bought one Delta Dolce Vita Oversized and have used it everyday for about one month. Very nice pen indeed and very elegant color. While I found that when using it as an eyedropper the color of ink makes the orange color of barrel less beautiful. Do you have the same feeling? Thanks.

Since now I have avoided using it as an eyedropper, just to prevent potential ink stains sticking to the resin (I do not want to experiment with it). When using it with the converter, the light has it easier to reflect and to refract in the surface and thus gives a much more rich colour which I agree is absolutely enjoyable. With my F nib, the converter gives more than enough autonomy for my needs and this is also a reason for opting in not using it as an eyedropper on my side... As an eyedropper it would be able to carry almost three times the converter volume and that is a bit too much for me. I would justify it only if using extensively a BB nib and would select very carefully the ink type and colour in order to minimize stain risks (reds and violets absolutely prohibited!!)

My Dolcevita OS arrived today. Same problem -- no worky! Thanks to your review, I checked the feed against a bright light & found plastic debris in there that obviously wasn't cleaned out after the feed left the mould. I just took a can of compressed air to it, and 2 or 3 minutes later (luckily, it there wasn't anything lodged in the feed inside the pen), the ink was flowing -- and how! This sucker lays down a wet line like nothing I've ever seen outside of a Conway Stewart, and smooth as silk. I'll definately be looking at Delta again!

For me using the eyedropper filler caused the pen to leak around where the section and body connect so there was a brown stain around a crack in the material. As this was the second DV that I have purchased with material issues I've crossed that line off my list.

K

Say, what do you guys carry your OS' in?

Well my Genkai is a bit bigger than the OS and doesn't have a clip so I carry it in a pen sleeve that Winedoc sent with the pen. My OS DV usually stayed on my desk.

K

What a marvelous review, thank you!

I use to carry it in a 2-pen pouch, by Makinaro (a mark closely related to Delta, I think). I find it very well designed, with two independent compartments and will take without problems both, the DV and the 20th aniversary. I even tried it with two DV OS, they fitted inside perfectly and safe...

Thanks for the suggestions. Hopefully, I can find something like that.

This is just one of the many links to the pen cases mentioned. The name was wrong, actually it is MARKIARO.

markiaro 2 pen case

They are made out of rigid leather but sides are soft and pliable and allow to "clip" the pen to them without harm to the cap clip so that they stay in place without any unexpected movement.

Thank you for the link!

By slim, do you mean Undersize, Mini or Stout? Coz there isn't a slim DV...

Hi Maia...
All what I can tell you is that it is not the Mini and not the Stout. The designation on the box is stamped as Slim. As you can see from the pictures, if compared to the Standard one, its length is almost the same but diameter is much smaller... Now I'm a bit lost... I have no idea now about the Undersize...

If you check Delta's website there's no slim listed. The one you are refering to slim would fit me because it's almost the same length as the medium. The problem is... there is no slim. Or is there?

There are quite a few Delta pens not listed in Delta's site and this one seems to be one of them. It will be interesting to investigate about this specific one, I was also puzzled about it when I first had it in my hands...

Do you reckon the slim is bigger than the Undersize/Mini/Stout? In the middle of them? What's the correct order (size-wise) for the DV line?

I can find Soiree Undersize, but not Dolcevita Undersize. I had in my hands Dolcevita Mini and Stout, being Mini the smallest and thinnest, and Stout very fat but only slightly longer than Mini (not absolutely sure now...) I think we would have to ask Delta directly to solve what appears to be a Dolcevita mistery, or perhaps Susanna Buffo will come to our help and throw some light here??

Delta should put a bigger effort into their website. Besides, most manufacturers actually. Many of their pens aren't listed, pictures are lame... There's no complete info about nib grades, etc.
Regards,
maia