Hello everyone,

This is my second review, the first of an equally infrequently seen pen (a Nettuno Trident). This is a Cleo Skribant Blue Ebonite pen, which I bought off a picture and a recommendation from Christian Fricke of Comoveo in Germany. These are first impressions having just opened the pen and filled it.



First Impressions. (4/5)

There is a sleeve over a box over an octagonal box, and the pen lies in Satin. These boxes are hardly heavy duty (this is no Conway Stewart sarcophagus) but the light weight made for slightly cheaper shipping from overseas. Inside there is a sheet of paper with a few illustrations of the blind cap and German instructions.



I wouldn't describe the pen as "impressive". Its a nice size, 5 3/4 capped and a thinner than a CS Churchill or a Duofold. The "woodgrains" in the blue aren't easily seen (unless you take a closeup photo), and the blue is muted in color. I'd describe this as a very nice, low key business pen. The clip is a little unusual and interesting (the pictures will do much better justice than my words could ever). The two-tone nib is largely silver color, with a simple attractive pattern.







Filling mechanism (4.5/5)

The pen uses a piston under a blind cap, and actually there's something about the blind cap I like (I bet you didn't know someone could think things about a blind cap). The piston turned smoothly and the pen drew ink without a problem.



The half point deficit comes from the fact that when I filled it an flushed it a few times, I wasn't too impressed with the amount of ink it was holding. Idunno, maybe I'll have a better sense of it after I use it for a while

Writing (5/5)

Wow, this is smooooooooooooth. There is a touch of feedback, which I like (not Aurora feedback) but this broad nib (and this nib is b r o a d) puts down a nice full not too wet line. I really like how this pen feels. Its a little heavy (the ebonite) but comfortable. The cap posts nicely on the back, but I don't typically post so its hard to compare with other pens.



After a few hours sitting inverted in my pocket, I gave it another go... wow, even better a little wetter. I'd imagine the feed got fully saturated in that time. I LIKE this pen.

Overall (4.5/5)
This pen has the nice basic looks to be an everyday writer, but not the stunning "wow, where did you get that?" looks. It won't mesmerize like the Tibaldi celluloids, and it doesn't have that certain... well whatever the Mont Blanc has. However I expect that this will be a regular pen of mine for a while.

Off to get the broad nib stubbed!

Thanks for the review. I've been curious about this model for a while. Any idea if the piston is a true piston filler or if it is merely a captive converter? I'm surprised by your comment on the weight. My guess would be that the weight comes from either the trim, the piston system (perhaps a barrel sleeve inside), or a combination of the two and not the ebonite. Looking forward to the pictures! THANKS again for the good review!

You may be very right about the piston - although the lower section does not twist off. If it is a converter, at least at the top its a very good one.

On the weight, it just seemed heavier than it looks like it should. Its heavier than the Churchill for example. Not unpleasent though.

That is one pretty pen and a very good review! Thanks.

Edited to add: that is a seriously cool looking clip, too.

The clip is a typical Cleo higher end clip. BTW, the correct spelling is Cleo ScribEnt (Lat. scribere).
I assume it is a true piston filler. They said somewhere this kind of piston mechanism is no longer covered by patents any more and they use it now the second time. Their first was the elegant lower end piston filler Chiffre 05, which works the same way and has ink view window.

http://www.cleo-skribent.com/index_e.html

I got the impression from their web site that this may be a blue material over ebonite, rather than ebonite all the way through. They say "Composed of a navy blue-black colouring and a base of vulcanized rubber".

Anyone know if this is a completely ebonite pen?

-- Jeff

It's a "lost in translation" thing. In German they talk about the "night-blue & black pattern of the hard rubber". So it is completely made of ebonite (on the outside, of course).

I've just seen: now there's also a green ebonite version:


Pic from http://www.fuellhalter.de/index.php?list=KAT146

hi marc

nice review. I don't know anything about this company. Any details? JC

Hi,

Here's some info: http://penhero.com/PenGallery/Cleo/CleoSkribent.htm

Nice pen, by the way!

Cheers,

Jon

Wow, thanks for the link. The Penhero article is very thorough and suggests these are well made pens. I love ebonite and will have to put one of these on the shopping list for down the road. jc

The first I have heard of these pens was at Penhero quite some time ago. As Mr Cullen stated, they seem to be very well made pens and your review reinforces my thoughts about this brand of pens.

This particular pen reminds me of the Stipula Novecento, especially with the wood grain ebonite design.

TNS

I have a Chiffre 05, and it is an amazingly good pen for the money I spent.

Okay, while I'm on a Jonesing for Ebonite kick, where can I buy one of these hummers in blue? Swisher has them in green in broad only (per their site, anyway).

Swisher sold out on the green ones too, though they do have other Cleo Skribent lines in stock.

They're hoping Cleo Skribent gets a U.S. Distributor.

Me too.

Update: passion4pens.com carries them. I received mine yesterday. I haven't filled it yet, in part because I haven't yet decided which color to fill it with.

It seems like Swisher is clearing out the brand. It's really too bad, because the only other U.S. distributor that seems to be selling their FPs is selling them for much higher prices. Given the relatively unknown status of the brand in the U.S. and the high prices of passion4pens, I doubt Cleo Skribent will get much success here. Perhaps the very low dollar has made U.S. market penetration for this brand a very difficult task, and perhaps that is why Swisher seems to be liquidating the brand.

I wrote Swisher about it and they said they were discontinuing carrying the brand until such time as Cleo Skribent had a U.S. distributor. There are definitely issues with shipping costs and import duties. If the status changes, it'll be announced in their newsletter.

Even so, passion4pens is only ordering quarterly, probably for the same reasons.