Duke Uranus 620 - Review

[dragon899]

DUKE URANUS 620

 

(Weight 21 kg - without ink)

 

 

 

 

I bought both of these pens recently as I pretty much fell in love with the red and white version at first sight. I cleaned both pens (like I normally do with all my new pens) in an ultrasonic cleaner with a little bit of hand soap mixed in and then let them air dry for a day or two.

 

Right from the start, the black and yellow copy wrote really well with a nice steady wet ink flow, but the nib felt just a touch on the scratchy side for my taste. Some of this is probably due to the fact that these nibs would be considered very fine. The red and white version tended to skip a little bit at the very beginning of letters, but otherwise had good flow and was just mildly scratchy for my taste. I ended up doing some very mild adjustments to the red and white copy (mainly gently inserting a very thin shim between the tines to open them up just a tad) and then did a small amount of sanding on both of the nibs with some 12000 grit sanding pads. My result was nibs that were so smooth I had to force myself to try and slow down the speed of my writing as it started to get really sloppy...writing seemed completley effortless.

 

 

The caps fit on these pens really well with a healhy snap, and posted to the back of the barrel really nicely with no slippage issues. All the pieces seemed to be of good quality and the barrel unscrews from the section very smoothly and the grooves feel really well machined and finished. The plastic inside the cap also comes down pretty far towards the opening, which helps give it more of a finished look and protects the nib from scratching any metal as it is inserted in the cap. The weight felt really good overall and it was pleasant to hold and write with. I had no issues with anything leaking, ink on my fingers or pooling on the inside of the cap, the section stayed well screwed down to the barrel during use, the cap never came off the back end of the barrel when I had it posted. Overall...very impressive.

 

 

 

 

In relation to things that I didn't like, there really weren't that many.

 

Like I mentioned above, the red and white version did tend to skip a little on the first strokes of the first letter in a word, but that was quickly fixed with about 3 minutes of work on the nib. Both pens were a tad scratchy, but they are definitely fine points and probably somewhat to be expected. I was able to get them to a really smooth consistency with about 10 minutes of work with a 12000 grit sanding pad.

 

The only real negatives that I had for these pens was some minor blemishes on the two I received.

 

The red and white version had a mild issue on the back of the cap where it looked like the red and white paint overlapped a small amount like the registration was ever so slightly off. The black and yellow version looked like it could have used a 2nd coat of paint on the cap to really make the yellow pop in contrast with the black (instead with just one coat, you could see the black color coming through ever so slightly). The black and yellow copy also had two light dings that chipped the light black paint and left a little shiny metal showing through. All in all I thought this was pretty minor in comparison to the beauty of these pens and how well I was able to get them to write with such minimal effort.

 

 

After studying the pens, I believe the normal finish on the barrell and cap is black. Hence, the black and yellow pen is more on the slick side and is very smooth. The red and white version has more coats of paint, so the corresponding red of that one tends to have a little bit of surface texture. (One of these aspects may be more attractive to someone trying to decide which of these versions to get). The black and yellow pen also felt a little cooler to my hands and the red and white one a little warmer (probably due to the fact that you are gripping closer to the metal barrel on the black and yellow model and not holding the barrel coated with a thicker layer of paint).

 

 

 

I would highly recommend both versions of this model to anyone and am really happy to have them in my collection. Some day I may purchased a backup copy of the red and white one just in case anything might happen to it along the way.

 

 

 

 

[c4bb0ose]

I think you have kg's confused with grams good sir! 21kgs is about 43 pounds.

[dragon899]

Thank you for alerting me to that. I'm guessing that something is amiss with the scale I started using to weigh the pens. I noticed that no one seems to describe the weigth of pens in ounces so I ventured into unknown territory and started using the grams setting on our little digital scale. I just checked again this morning and what I wrote for the weight is what the scale reads. I think I may have to just list the weight in ounces going forward since I'm familiar with that and let everyone do the math themselves possibly The scale is a food scale...unless food weights have some magic connection to kg...

[maximme]

thanks
Just the review i needed

[richardandtracy]

Thanks for such a comprehensive review of these pens.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

[eeyore]

Thanks for the review Dragon. I bought the red & white 620 recently, just for the looks.

[THRobinson]

Thanks for the review, just saw the red one on eBay randomly browsing and instantly loved the looks of it. Definitely looking to pick one up.

[Gloucesterman]

I have one from several years ago and still use it on occasion. it's a simple pen that writes smoothly, in my case, and has been dependable over the years.

 

it will be going up for sale at the Commonwealth Pen Show in Boston on September 20th.

 

I figure I can get a few bucks for it, maybe very few

 

BTW, if you want more information about the show check it out at http://commonwealthpenshow.richardspens.com/index.html

 

Definitely affiliated and a real fan of fountain pens in New England.

Edited August 24, 2015 by brgmarketing

[THRobinson]

700 miles is a bit far for me to drive.

 

Any chance you have a pic of the nib removed? feed? etc...?

 

I might buy 2 since only $10 and free ship... 1 to keep as-is and 1 to mess with. Not a whole lot of info about these online, but I'd really like to mod it with an M nib.

Edited August 24, 2015 by THRobinson

[Dedelen]

I own the 620 in red. Indeed, an effortless writer. A little scratchy, but the standard nib verges on EF and is even narrower than a Pilot F nib. Never had any flow issues with it, though. My only concern is how long the paint job will last before it wears through. I mean, China, so...