The New Postal Reservoir Pen, Senior Model

[Gobblecup]

Very interesting review Hari, but my immediate reaction was shock at the $340 price tag. I'm struggling to see how that is justified.....

 

I have to agree with this, the price tag was a bit surprising.

[slimnib]

To answer Hari's points...

 

The pen came with the 18K nib unit from JoWo. It is the generic 18K JoWo nib unit modified to attach the breather tube.

Actually, this is not the standard JoWo nib unit. We buy the nib without feed or sleeve, and install it into a different feed/sleeve set after adding the breather tube (and doing certain other modification).

 

 

While cleaning the cap, I observed a golden metallic ring inside, I think that the ID of the Standard Bexley roller clip's washer is smaller than the ID of the cap and hence is exposed to ink and ink condensate inside the cap. This might eventually corrode the clip washer.

That's not the clip washer, it is a threaded brass sleeve that we use to secure the two parts of the cap together strongly so that there's not a risk of breakage there.

 

 

I think major cost cutting might be acheived without compromising the quality by injection molding the parts...

We could do this if we expected to sell 10,000 pens or more, but injection molding has huge setup costs, and it'is not feasible for a production run totaling probably fewer than 250 pens. Also, injection molding is significantly more expensive for acrylic resins than for cellulosics or polystyrenes. We don't want to cheapen the product by using a polystyrene or cellulosic resin because these materials have problems that would cause a serious impact on the overall quality and longevity of the pen. We aren't in business to make a cheap pen, we want our pens to outlive our great grandchildren.

 

I wish this pen had a removable joint between the section and the barrel, this would have enabled me to shut/seal the blind cap and use it as an ED filled pen.

Why would you want to change it into an ED? The gain in ink capacity would be trivial, you would have emptying/filling problems with the"pocket" that the sealed blind cap would create, and you would lose the convenience of a self filler.

 

The problems with sac leakage occurred only on our very first production run. They've been addressed, and the sac is being cut shorter and secured in a different way.

 

Finally, the problem that Tonybelding had was not related to the sac; he didn't like the wetness of the flow, and we had actually done something wrong with his nib. His thread describes what we did to solve his problem, he's since said very positive things about his pen, and you'll forgive me if I believe now that he's an enthusiastic Postal owner.

 

 

Why use a plastic feed?

Edited June 26, 2011 by slimnib

[lewis]

Nice review. The clip reminds me of the ones on modern Delta's. Thanks hari!

[PenEngineer]

I can personally understand the large price tag on even the base model of the pen. I emailed Richard about how the pen was made, and he replied with something to the effect that it is turned out by an individual on a turret lathe. I took a machine shop class for two years, and because of my interest in pens, I made a bunch of different programs for our computer controlled lathe to make most major components of the Postal Pen. Even after getting all the kinks worked out, it still took four hours for me to turn out everything and get it polished adequately. Even then, it still wasn't perfect.

[tonybelding]

As I recall, tonybelding had issues with his Postal, too.

 

Mine developed a minor leak, or seepage, where the sac attaches. I returned it to Richard Binder and he repaired it pretty quickly. Of course it helps that I live in the USA and didn't have to ship it to the other side of the world. Even if the bulb had to be replaced, it should be a nearly trivial fix for anybody who does fountain pen repairs -- i.e. resaccing old lever fillers.

 

I have the Junior model, which is similar in size to a Pelikan M200 and quite convenient to carry everywhere.

[tonybelding]

I think the price on the gold nib is out of whack. It nearly doubles the price of the pen, whereas a gold nib option at Edison is just $100. Then again, I think the gold nibs are technically not a Gate City option -- they're an option Richard Binder (half of the ownership of Gate City as I understand it) offers. That may be the big difference price-wise.

 

I recommend and advocate steel nibs. Except for a few specialized purposes they're as good as gold -- or even, I might argue, better than 18K gold. I have a steel nib on my New Postal Junior, and it's a good writer. I also have steel nibs on both of my Edisons, and they are exceptionally good writers.

[georges zaslavsky]

pretty nice pen you got there hari thanks for the review

Edited August 2, 2011 by georges zaslavsky