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Delta Piston Fill Dolcevita


greencobra

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This review is of the Delta Dolcevita piston fill fountain pen.

 

There has been a few good reviews to date regarding the different variants of the Dolcevita pen but instead of doing another complete review, I’d like to just touch on the parts of the pen that make it different from the regular size or I guess what they are calling the medium Dolcevita.

 

I do own a medium Dolcevita which is a converter fill pen and like everyone else, I think it’s a beautiful looking pen. They all have that orange terra cotta resin that’s stunning along side the black resin blind cap, cap, and section. This has the same 18k gold nib that’s masked in platinum and the silver trim as well as a sterling silver trim ring going around the lower end of the cap that the other variations have. Excepting the oversize which has the millennium two tone nib.

 

The first thing you notice when you open the box is it’s longer than the medium pen. Almost ¼” longer. That’s because the ink view window is inserted between the section and the orange pen body. My measurements have the window close to ¼” or exactly 7/32” long. There’s about 3/32” of this window peaking out from underneath the cap which is the second thing you notice when it’s sitting in the box. So the pen capped is 5 ½” and 7” posted compared to the standard version which is 5 ¼” capped and 6 3/8” posted. This pen is plenty balanced to write with without posting the cap. It’s a very long pen with the cap posted.

 

This ink view window is a lightly tinted orange color. I don’t think it matches the orange resin of the body very well. It is a big window and since the tint is so light there’s no way anyone is not going to see the amount of ink in this pen. I’m rolling mine around as I’m writing this and I clearly see the ink sloshing around. I can even see what color it is.

 

The piston fill knob is under the blind cap. Unscrew the cap and there is a huge knurled knob in proportion to the size of the pen. Screw it counter clockwise and the piston lowers, screw clockwise and the piston retracts and draws up the ink. The threads inside the blind cap have a metal sleeve around them so when the cap is screwed on/off it’s metal on metal. A nice detail. When you are drawing up ink, when you run out of threads, instead of an abrupt stop, the piston stops and the knob continues to twist with audible clicks. Another nice detail, this time so you can’t force the piston and break the mechanism.

 

This pen takes in a whole lot of ink. I have no way of measuring the amount but what I can see of the diameter of the ink reservoir, its 3/8” round, and it’s huge. I sometimes count droplets as I expel them from the pen to give myself an indication of volume and I stopped counting after a while. This holds maybe close to twice as much as the Pelikan 805 I got the week after this pen.

 

I wanted to mention the nib here for a minute. As I said, the same as the other models, but this one was different for me. This Dolcevita nib and feed had to be the best pen I’ve ever gotten out of the box, period. It’s a fine as are most of my pens and so is, or was, my other C/C Dolcevita. (That’s now ground to 0.7 italic.) But this nib is super smooth and the ink flow set perfect from the factory. I use Diamine WES Imperial Blue in the pen and the combo is super.

 

The one bit of bad news is there is debris to be seen in the view window. It looks scratched in places on the inside and I see what might be air bubbles in the resin. Stuff like this bothers me so I contacted Yafa, the Delta representative here in the United States to see what we could do about it. To their credit, they said I should send the pen to them for evaluation so they could determine if it should be repaired or replaced or sent back to Italy. I didn’t want to give up the nib on this pen so until I find out if they’d swap it into a new pen body I’m keeping and using the pen for now.

 

I bought this piston Dolcevita from Pam Braun for $349 plus shipping. I thought that was a good value for this pen. I waited for a piston fill version of this pen for a long time and overall, we have a winner. Considering the appearance of “stuff” in the ink view window for which I dropped the rating a point, I’m giving this pen 9/10.

 

Edited to add picture: My photos are horrible, this is a photo I had on my computer that is a good representation of the ink window and piston knob. I can't remember where I got it from to give credit.

post-2407-1241219080_thumb.jpg

Edited by greencobra

JELL-O, IT'S WHATS FOR DINNER!

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Your review answers many of the questions I had about this pen. I really wish it came in the black "Soiree" version of the Dolce Vita as well.

 

Sorry to hear about the quality issues with debris in the window and air bubbles in the resin. Please update regarding how that goes.

 

Oh, and just one more thing... Pictures please! it would be wonderful if you could post some comparison shots of your C/C and piston pens!

 

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Oh, and just one more thing... Pictures please! it would be wonderful if you could post some comparison shots of your C/C and piston pens!

 

I will try to get up a photo or two of the pen. My C/C DV is up at Richard Binders getting an issue of skipping taken care of and is not expected back until June.

 

JELL-O, IT'S WHATS FOR DINNER!

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I have used my Delta Dolcevita piston fill pen for about six months. There have been no problems and the pen is absolutely beautiful.

 

AMP

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I was delighted/disappointed to see this model released since I love piston fillers, but bought a Dolcevita c/c filler about three months before the piston release. Glad to hear it's not just a captive converter. Based upon the width of the pen, I'm sure you could hold a ton of ink in there. I hope your problems with the pen will be resolved quickly and easily.

"Instant gratification takes too long."-Carrie Fisher

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Tried two of these and was very disappointed by the nibs which are too short in length and too rigid, however the piston filling system is intelligently build.

Pens are like watches , once you start a collection, you can hardly go back. And pens like all fine luxury items do improve with time

 

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Tried two of these and was very disappointed by the nibs which are too short in length and too rigid, however the piston filling system is intelligently build.

 

I can't say I agree with the nib being too short, I feel it's in proportion to this pen. But an interesting observation nonetheless. Good thing though they went with an oversize for the Oversize. I do agree the Delta nibs are stiff. When my C/C variant was ground to an italic a couple of years ago, Deb Kinney did it. She put a little flex in the nib and as she said in the note I got back with the pen, it made it a bit more expressive. And it's a super nib.

 

As for the, what I call "debris" in the ink window, I'll only get it exchanged if they will swap my nib and feed out into the new body. If not, I'll bite the bullet so to speak. I've decided this pen writes too good out of the box to chance loosing this nib. Man, with me it's one thing or another. :roflmho: I'm just waiting for Monday to get a reply from my last email to Yafa.

 

And a quick nod to Kate for putting up the Italian pen contact post, you made my life easier.

 

JELL-O, IT'S WHATS FOR DINNER!

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I just picked up mine from Chicago Pen show yesterday.

I have been looking into what nib it supposed to have.

Some web site says 18 Kt nib while showing 14 Kt on the nib

I thought this was a OS, but may be it is not, or it is not the "Limited" as the seller told me

 

I will ink it this week, but not right away..

Wanting to stare and adore this beauty for a bit to work up my expectation..

 

What a beauty..

I am glad that I picked it up as I have been missing this orange bomb in my collection.

I was having second thought about letting go my Doce Vita medium last summer

 

Now getting back to work up my expectation.. :thumbup:

 

Alan

 

Tried two of these and was very disappointed by the nibs which are too short in length and too rigid, however the piston filling system is intelligently build.

 

I can't say I agree with the nib being too short, I feel it's in proportion to this pen. But an interesting observation nonetheless. Good thing though they went with an oversize for the Oversize. I do agree the Delta nibs are stiff. When my C/C variant was ground to an italic a couple of years ago, Deb Kinney did it. She put a little flex in the nib and as she said in the note I got back with the pen, it made it a bit more expressive. And it's a super nib.

 

As for the, what I call "debris" in the ink window, I'll only get it exchanged if they will swap my nib and feed out into the new body. If not, I'll bite the bullet so to speak. I've decided this pen writes too good out of the box to chance loosing this nib. Man, with me it's one thing or another. :roflmho: I'm just waiting for Monday to get a reply from my last email to Yafa.

 

And a quick nod to Kate for putting up the Italian pen contact post, you made my life easier.

 

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Interesting...mine is clearly marked 14ct. I never noticed the printed ads but now that you mentioned it and started to look, they all so far have said 18ct. Hmmm. I'm not sure now what my regular sized version has now, it's out for repair.

 

THe yafa website says 18 also. Maybe I'll call and see what they say.

 

This is not a limited ed as far as I know.

JELL-O, IT'S WHATS FOR DINNER!

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I just called Yafa, the US distributer in the US for Delta. Customer service said that's a typo, on their site anyway, regarding the 18ct nibs on the Dolcevita line. The pen is suppose to have a 14ct nib. They said they would correct it to reflect the proper designated nib on their site.

 

But in a quick look around at maybe 6 other sites, I saw 18ct written too. Some typo, could cause a problem later maybe.

Edited by greencobra

JELL-O, IT'S WHATS FOR DINNER!

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I found the nib to be excellent out of the box as well. The other thing I noted was the girth of the pen. It is the widest pen I own and it took a while to get used to it.

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  • 8 months later...

This was a great review! Thanks very much.

 

Would it be possible to see a photo of your m805 lined up against the Dolcevita piston? I have an 805, and would like to compare sizes (particularly diameter).

 

Thanks very much.

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