Finally made a visit to a pen store here in the Twin Cities called Ink. Three words... Completely Blown Away! Proprietor Barry Rubin has created, what has to be, one of the most amazing pen shopping experiences I have ever had. If you live in the Mpls/St. Paul area, make an appointment as soon as possible (visits are by appointment only). You will not be disappointed

The big purchase I made while there today was a Taccia Staccato in Lunar Blue

Click to view attachment

Words simply can't explain what a big beautiful pen this is. This is not a pen for small hands. The thing is a full 7.25 inches when posted. If you want a big showy pen, this just may be your ticket.

The nib is extremely smooth. It is German made and if you are familiar with the smoothness of a Lamy you will appreciate how smooth this is. It is effortless to write with. I almost feel at times that the pen is barely touching the paper.

I am kind of a pen noob so not sure what else to write but if you have any further questions about this baby, well, post them here and I will do my best to answer them.

Nice call, Patrick. That's a fantastic pen, speaking as a fellow Lunar Blue owner.

What'd you ink it up with first?

Noodlers Ottoman Azure. Seemed like the perfect match for the pen.

It's beautiful! Your pic really shows off the nice resin.

I have one in 'Starry Nights' . . . blue with some streaks of red. It's gotta be the best looking pen I own. I love writing with it.

Gack! I'd just recently talked myself out of a Staccato because it's too large for my hand. Your photo of the Lunar Blue has re-awakened the pen-lust for the Staccato. Not only that, but now I want the black and red ebonite and the Lunar Blue.

Don

Did you see the green and black ebonite Staccato at Swisher? Beautiful. I'd like this material in a smaller pen (M6xx size).

Stephen

I have to say, the more I use this pen the more it almost seems like I am writing with a brush. If you like the feeling of the nib on the paper then this pen is probably not for you. The nib glides so effortlessly across the paper. Now, having done a side by side comparison, I can say that this nib is more smooth than the Lamy.

And here is the thing, this is an affordable pen. This is easily attainable and feels like you are getting real value for a small sum.

I have uploaded some additional photos to my Flickr account if any of you need further temptation. I don't know why the comments already made about this pen would not be enough.

Your new pen looks great. I have a new Staccato, and it is a great writer, too. I agree with your description.

ht

Very pretty!

I've just bought one from the Market place in my old Squadron colours.

Now I'm really looking forward to it.

I have two Staccatos, one in Honey Bee, and the other in Emerald Green (with red swirls, looks very Christmassy). I've inked the Honey Bee with Walnut. It writes extremely well. BIG pen but lightweight enough for me to use without posting and enjoy the experience. The nib does glide along very effortlessly. I still prefer my Bexley BX701s, but I'm not at all disappointed in the Staccato.

You seem to have the newer Lunar blue. It looks swirlier than the older one which looked a little more speckled.

wow.. that looks stunning!!! congrats on a beautiful pen! I'd love to pick one of those up, but no one carries those up here in Vancouver. Might have to order one online after seeing the picture though! Just a some questions though..

Does the cap screw on?

Is there any line variation at all?

and it's a c/c filler, right?

thanks!

As a fellow Lunar Blue owner (a most unexpected gift from a dear friend), I'll field this one. It does have a screw-on cap, and it is a c/c filler. There's really not much line variation from my (F) nibbed version, although judging from the ( version of a very similar nib (another Bock #6 that I have), there's some variation in that one. It would, however, be a terrific candidate for a custom grind on the nib.

Or, if you're lucky enough to have a Bexley 18K stub, I believe that they're a direct swap.

I gave in and bought a Taccia Staccato in Vanilla Latte, haven't even had a chance to ink it yet.

patrick---What a nice pen. Thanks for the photo. Which nib did you get? Gold or Steel? I have one with a Medium steel nib and it is wonderfully smooth but perhaps a bit too heavy on the flow for me. By any chance did you get a steel fine nib? Anyone, a steel fine nib? Looking for feedback.......uhhh, that would be from you, not the nib. Also, someone mentioned a red and black ebonite one? Any web photos of this one? j

It's arrived and by the Lord Harry is it a thing of beauty...

Is a picture available?

With my old flying jacket and LXX Squadron Badge.



The memories come flooding back...

Gorgeous.


The pen, too.

Sweet!

As of Friday, I am the proud owner of a new Taccia Staccato in Lunar Blue also. I enjoyed the posts here about the pen and once I saw it in person and wrote with it, I was sold. Pictures do not really capture how pretty this pen is. The pen came with a steel medium nib that writes very smoothly and evenly. The first tank of ink is Noodler's Luxury Blue and it seems to like it quite nicely. This is a large pen. I also have a Taccia Doric, fine nib, in Turquoise that is heavier, but the Staccato is longer. Thanks I Am Not A Number for the recommendation. /Craig

I have a Taccia on backorder, but I can't recall which one I fell for at the last moment. It'll be a surprise!

craigR is your fine nibbed Taccia steel or gold? If steel, can you comment on the smoothness compared to the medium. thanks, jc

I bought one of these—my first fountain pen!—about a week ago now with a bottle of Ottoman Azure. I got the Starry Night version...it's a beautiful pen but I haven't had any chance to write extensively with it yet. What writing I have done has been quite pleasant, however.

My Doric is a fine steel nib. I have tried Pelikan Royal Blue ink and it flows nicely with very little scratchiness. When I tried Private Reserve Black Magic Blue, it was less fluid and a little scratchy. Certainly not a problem however. The new Staccato has a steel medium nib and seems be a lush, in that it drinks everything and loves what it drinks. /Craig

Thanks for your impressions of the Staccato, Patrick. At this point I have several Taccia FP's, including a Staccato, all with steel nibs. I find the Taccia pens I have to be an excellent value. They are well made and with their "Italian resin" appear to be much more expensive than they are.

My Staccato resembles I am not a number's. I think the color is so tutti frutti it is downright fun. I have a M steel nib on mine, and it writes a fairly true M line. It is smooth and reliable. The pen itself is a nice large handfull that is comfortable and well balanced. I do not doubt that I will get a second.

How many turns does it take to twist the cap off the barrel of these new Staccatos?

Thanks for the comments on the steel nibs. I got a steel M on mine and a gold M on my Binder edition. Both are a little wet for me but write smoothly. I have been thinking about trying a Fine steel nib. The nice thing is the steel nibs are not expensive. Swisher wrote me and told me they would order me an extra nib in a collar with the feed for about $24. So I guess I should just order a steel nib in Fine point and see how it is.

Jonro---If I hold the barrel in my left hand with the clip facing me and turn the cap off with my right hand, it takes one and one third turns of the cap for it to disengage from the barrel threads. I do not know if mine is an average pen, but that is what it takes.

In comparison, my Pelikan 800 cap takes about 4/5 ths of a turn to come off. My Pilot 823 cap takes almost as much of a turn as the Staccato. My Namiki Bamboo takes about one and 3/4 turns to unscrew. My Omas full sized Paragon takes a little less than the Bamboo. So in comparison to those pens, the Staccato does not take an excessive distance (Iguess that is a relative term) to unscrew.

The Binder LE takes a little more distance to screw on and off if I remember correctly, and if my Binder pen is average if you put your steel nib in the Binder pen the nib will end up with a crunch in the end. Don't ask. j

Got one in Green Ebonite and love it. My third Staccato! (I am a picture borrowing weasel. Credit to Swishers from whom I bought the pen)

One and a quarter turns on mine. For reference, on my Taccia Doric it is one complete turn. /Craig

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I am trying to decide between a Staccato and a BX701, cappucino (both are available in this finish). How does the Bexley compare in size to the Staccato, and in smoothness? Are they both F nibs? If not, what nib? Thanks. You can PM me if you don't want to risk a hijack of the thread. Thanks.

Donnie

I just got this one from Swisher. It is very nice, light weight but substantial.

I've finally gotten a chance to sit down and write something with my pen and I'm so disappointed. It was writing well for about quarter of a page and then it started putting down less and less ink until it died. I couldn't get it to start again until I opened it up and twisted the plunger down to force some ink into the feed. The same thing happened all over again, however, until I forced more ink into it. I decided to flush the whole thing out with warm soapy water. Right now I have it sitting apart to dry over night.

If it happens again after I put it back together what do I do?

Kakaze wrote:

" ... If it happens again after I put it back together what do I do?"

If it were me, I would try a different converter. It sounds as if the pen flows ink well as long as the converter is dispensing it. A different converter, or even a cartridge, might confirm that you do not have a problem with the pen itself.

I don't have anything useful to add, but I thought I'd stop for a moment and admire your correct usage of the subjunctive.

The Bexley is slightly smaller and lighter, though still a nice sized pen. The Staccato is by far the longest pen I own. I have the Cappuccino BX701. I love it. It is my daily journal writer. I also have the BX701 Blue Shimmer, which is the Staccato Starry Night. Again, I like it very much. I prefer the Bexley's because they fit my hands better. The Staccato is a bit heavier, and posted would rock me about I little, so I don't post it. I do post the Bexley. Both my models BX701 and Staccatos have medium nibs. They are very free flowing on both pens. I'd like to try fine nibs in them. I used to be a medium line lover, but since my collection of pens has grown, I've grown to like fine nibs better.

If I could get the finish I wanted in the BX701, that is where I would go. However, there were a couple of finishes in the Staccato that Bexley did not have that I really wanted. The style is sweet in both pens. I'd like to convince Bexley to add a few more finishes to the BX701.

I sent an email to Todd at isellpens.com—where I bought it—and he replied back that he emailed Taccia and that they're going to send me a new nib. Unfortunately I don't have any cartridges or another converter to use, however, if the same thing happens after receiving the new nib I think I will pick up a new converter at the very least.

donwinn---

Both are nice. I found that the medium on the Taccia was a little smoother and a little more tolerant of the angle at which it was held than was the medium on the Bexley. The Taccia nib was wetter and so a little more broad than the Bexley so that may be part of the experience. I prefer the Taccia but the comments above make a good point that the Taccia is a bit larger and heavier. Of course, these are my subjective observations. As I said, both are nice pens, IMO.

The second nib exhibited the same behaviour as the first nib. Todd was kind enough to send me a new converter—this one with a small plastic ball inside. The same problem happened again with the new converter; each nib dried up completely.

When they get ink into them they write well but it seems that if just a little bit of air gets near the intake the ink just stops moving. I even tried dipping the end of a toothpick into dish soap and then sticking that into the converter...immediately the ink became more fluid inside the converter but it still doesn't flow through the nib well. I'm using Noodler's Ottoman Azure.

The only things left to try, that I can tell, are a bottle of a different colour and/or brand of ink, a cartridge—does anyone know a place that sells samplers? If I'm going to get cartridges it'd be nice not to have to buy a bunch of one colour—or some of the Tryphon InkSafe Additive that I've seen people talking about.

I don't want to keep bothering Todd because he doesn't have any control over any of this, nor do I want to send it to Taccia except as a last resort.

Any suggestions?

I've had issues with my Taccia and Dupont Ellipsis stopping on me in the middle of long note-taking/lecture sessions and it's exceedingly frustrating. What's more, I LOVE my Staccato and would be terribly bummed if I found my section and nib drying up like that (a quick shake or even a turn of the converter seems to work best with mine). For me, it's just keeping the nib out in the air and then writing, stopping, writing, stopping that seems to stop the flow...

I don't know about you, but my money is hard to part with, regardless of the product or value! I think it would be entirely reasonable to expect a replacement from the seller if the pen is clearly defective, given what little time you've actually written with it! Why should you bear the risk and time waiting when he could just as easily return it to Taccia for credit or refund?

Kakaze,

I was in a nearly identical situation to you with my Taccia Staccato . . . I tried a new converter and a new feed to no avail, then finally sent mine in to Taccia to see if they could fix it. They returned it with a new nib, new feed, and new converter . . . and unfortunately, the same problem. It was better -- wrote for about three pages before drying up -- but it still dried up eventually. Would only restart by twisting the converter, or sometimes by giving it a good 'shake'.

In the end, I think it must be something to do with the converter. I ended up buying some silicon grease and turning my Staccato into an eyedrop filler (it sealed nicely, and the only possibly exposed metal was at the end of the barrel which I don't think is exposed to the ink). Since I've done this, it's worked flawlessly. It writes and writes, and does not ever even hint at drying out.

I guess I'm not suggesting you turn it into an eyedropper (though I certainly wouldn't recommend against it), but it does seem to support the idea that the converter may be at the root of the problem.

Aside from the flow problem, my Starry Night Staccato is one of my alltime favorites. I was terribly disappointed when I could not seem to fix the flow problem, and now I'm so happy that I am seriously considering buying another one (perhaps in ebonite).

Good luck and I hope this works out for you . . .

Kakaza wrote"

"I don't want to keep bothering Todd because he doesn't have any control over any of this, nor do I want to send it to Taccia except as a last resort."

I understand the impulse. I am sorry you are having so much trouble with your Staccato.

One thing I do with some hard starting new pens is to fill them with ink, then let them stand upright, nib down, in a cup or pen holder. I allow them to stand overnight and then try them the next day. For the very hard starting ones, I use my favorite "initializing" ink, Waterman South Sea Blue, which acts like an Exlax. This method takes some patience.

If that also doesn't work, it just might be a trip to Taccia customer service. Although it will be inconvenient, I have found the Taccia customer service folks to be very good. They seem to be a young, very enthusiastic lot who are working hard to make a good name for their product.

Good luck, compadre.

I also had the same problem of ink drying up - seems to be too coincidental to be anything other that a serious design flaw. Also had he same problem with the Taccia Doric. I sold both and will never buy another Taccia.

Can't help but notice that Richard Binder stopped selling the Taccia line - can't help but theorize that their lack of writing ability had something to do with it!!!!!!

Kakaze -

I've had really good service from Taccia. I bought a pen with a little ding in it. I mailed the pen to Taccia, and called the day it arrived at their office. They fished the box out of the mail bin, looked at it, and solved the issue right there.

- Yumbo

Thanks everyone. I do love the pen, it's beautiful. I've decided to try another ink with it so I've ordered Tanzanite, which I've read on the forums seems to be a very free flowing ink. If the Tanzanite works then I might buy some inksafe and see if that fixes the Ottoman Azure.

If the Tanzanite doesn't work then I guess I'm going to have to send it to Taccia and see what they say.

ArPharazon, how does one go about converting their pen?

First, you can search the forums for +eyedropper +conversion and find several threads on the subject. Here is a link to a thread I started discussing my experiences starting out with ED conversions. What I personally did was . . .

1) Buy some pure silicone grease (got a 1/4 oz tub at a scuba shop for about $4)
2) Unscrew the barrel from the section
3) Remove the converter / cartridge
4) Apply a liberal amount of grease to the threads between the section and barrel
5) Fill the barrel with ink (not too full . . . keep it below the threads), using an eyedropper (hence the name)
6) Screw the section onto the barrel and make sure it's snug
7) Wipe off the excess grease, and hope for the best

But seriously, after 7) be careful with the pen for a while, checking it to make sure it's not leaking from the threads (I wipe it down with a white Kleenex and check for any ink) or anywhere else. Don't carry it in your pocket right away until you're sure it stands up OK. Note also that if the nib unit unscrews, you can also add some silicone grease to those threads to insure a good seal there, too.

I've done five pens like this already . . . Taccia Staccato, Tacia Portuguese, Bexley Americana, and two Krone THINKs. All have worked beautifully, and the Portuguese and THINKs have also really benefitted because they all used those tiny, tiny plunger converters. From my readings of other threads, the important features a pen should have for this type of conversion are no exposed metal in the barrel or section (ink corrodes metal; this rules out my Taccia Doric and a few others), and a solid (i.e., non leaky) barrel. I check my barrels for leaks by puckering up and blowing in them. If they don't leak air through any holes, then I assume they won't leak ink.

Some people have recommended using a small o-ring between the section and barrel, but I haven't found that necessary. The grease works just fine.

If I had (or when I get) any more pens that meet the criteria, I will definitely convert them.

I don't use converters because I usually experience the same problem with the pen failing to write. I have two Taccia Swisher Exclusive Pens and one Taccia Staccato. I purchased the Stacatto from isellpens. I use cartridges and refill them. I have not had any problems with my Taccia pens. They are my best pens for not drying up or skipping. I have gone over a week without using the Taccia pens and they will write wet without having to prime them.

ht

Ah, so the whole pen becomes a cartridge.

I might have to try that if nothing else works.

Thanks, ArPharazon

I read this thread with a bit of amazement because I have a Staccato that has written flawlessly from the day I bought it. But I have used it as an eyedropper exclusively. In fact, I bought it for that purpose. It is an ideal "ED conversion pen." I followed the same steps as ArPharazon. Let me tell you, it takes a good, long bit of writing to drain that pen body of ink. I'd suggest trying it as an eydropper.