Graf Von F-C's PoTY 2008 is on sale at US$3,000 a pen. It's made of Indian Satinwood. Details. I'm kind of disappointed, as I was expecting them to beat out their 2007 pen in terms of how exotic the material is. But oh well.

In addition, they have done a little tweaking to the Classic line by adding the "Classic Anello" which is essentially adding rings to the pen. Details.

No doubt the price will be as high as always.

neat herringbone parquet en miniature on the pen barrel. However, the overall impression is disappointing compared to the truly exotic materials that they've chosen for the past editions. Kind of expensive for what it is.

FC is fond of wood on its barrels, and I like it a lot, but I would not like to hold and write with something that was originally designed to be under my feet. If I remove the memory of parquet, and just look at the pen, I like it very much. I think that wood on barrels is probably the best material. Silver is also nice. Yellow gold is tacky. Pink gold would be nice, but I have never seen it on pens. White gold would be more expensive then silver, and look just as good, or may be not. The wear and tear on these materials just adds to their charm. Wear and tear on resin, plastic that is, is problematic; MontBlanc's attempt to solve the problem led to fragile barrels, so I expect the next serie of Meisterstucks to be better than the current one. Faber is still my favourite.

I don't agree that yellow gold is tacky. Not at all. In eastern countries like India or China yellow gold is highly prized and a sign of prestige and wealth. Pink gold is certainly tacky, and also very feminine (or gay). Wood is totally inadequate as a material because it does not stand up to wear and tear in the long term, and is prone to cracking, and staining from ink. Plastic is actually better, because a good quality hard plastic can tolerate a lot more than wood.

There's plenty of pens with rose gold, not the least of which is the Stipula DaVinci Infinity.
DaVinci review on Stylophiles.

The Montblanc 100th Anniversary pen (at least one model) has rose gold furniture.

I vehemently disagree with Pen Executive's statement that "Pink gold is certainly tacky, and also very feminine (or gay)."

I spotted the DaVinci too. Very nice colours, and very interesting pen.

I have a pink shirt that sends ladies to heaven... Very elegant.

I meant no offence by saying that yellow gold is tacky. The pen is certainly of quality, but like a yellow gold watch, it is not of my taste. Rose gold I like; it is not really "rose", of course, but a nice hint of it. Again, to my taste. On wood, there is no harm if the pen is a c/c, as in the case of Faber.

Luca

Some rose-gold male watches that would go along with Stipula's DaVinci...
(mind the gap)

http://www.watchluxus.com/search_watches?s...seed=1597027232

I love some of the watches! My grandfather's pocket watch was rose gold.

As a woodworker, I think the parquet of the Pen of the Year is marvelous. Overall, the pen is not something I'd buy, but I'd certainly admire it. Satinwood is very beautiful, and doesn't photograph well usually.

This particular pen, well, yellow gold wouldn't work with it because of the color of satinwood; white gold furniture is perfect.

Here's a picture of some satinwood.

Wood is good for my soul. I had a tree out the window of my office in London. I was at the third floor, the building had four, and the tree was taller than the roof. It must have been no less than 15mt. One day, the tree was gone. It was the only source of oxigen in the area. I was in low mood for months. I love tall trees as much as I love to see open water. In Sweden they have a very good system of preservation: they cut trees, but they plant new ones too, so that now they have more trees than ever before. In Brazil, on the other hand, the situation is critical. I can't stand people's stupidity with water pollution, air pollution, and forests devastation with unethical industry, not to mention the fires. I am against capital death, but people who pollute and destroy Nature are genocidals, criminals of the worst kind that deserve exemplar punishment with a life sentence spent cleaning after their mess. As you are in woodworking, I trust you share my feelings. And pens with wood barrels are so beautiful, aren't they? I love to carry a bit of precious wood with me, with its unique colours, that also writes!

Luca

I have to say that I like plastic the best. Even if it's the cheapest material, it's comfortable and light, and the good ones can resist scratching. Interesting design on the wood with this pen, but I'd say that my favorite Pen of the Year was the ebony and mammoth ivory one. Wait, Luca, how do you know that the people who cut down the tree outside of your window weren't doing it to make pens? Seems like if you really liked trees, you'd use a different material...

They needed space to make another building...

On cutting trees, I am in favour of it, provided they are in "tree farms", with "reproduction", as in Sweden. In the city, I am against, because cutting a tree takes away from people's quality of life (air, nice view on the green, recollection that there is such a thing called Nature, that trees are real and actually not those plastic things with stripes and balls at Christmas time, and so on...). I really love trees.

Luca

Tell that to OMAS who has multiple pen series made of wood. Or for that matter chinese brushes or wooden chops, ancient sutras carved of wood, wooden printing plates and letters

And realize that the parts that contact ink are most likely plastic anyways. Heck even the Pelikan M800 has an inner and outer plastic sleeve as well as the Visconti Manhattan.


What I'd love to see is some green gold on a pen. Only place I have seen it is on some Faberge items.


Kurt

It depends on how intense the colour is. I usually think the same thing, as I disliked the MB 145 in pictures with gold trim. When I got to handle the pen, it was much better.
I also like GVFC choice in materials. Wood makes them stand out in a world of resins and plastics. I quite like the 2007 POY. The current one looks a bit too toned down when compared to previous years.

PRAG (Darn spell checker keeps telling me I spelled "colour" wrong!)

I agree with you, it depends on the quality of the gold, but also on the design. This Parker is certainly a stunner, but what can I say, wood is more valuable to me.

I always thought that the Pen of the year were piston fillers? hence the 'window'?

The piston mechanism can be covered with wood and so the ink never comes in contact with it.

Kurt

For me, the 2004 Pen of the Year was the absolute pinnacle of this series.... and, unfortunately, that means the subsequent four designs have been a bit disappointing by comparison.