Another Faber Castell Ambition Review

[sannidh]

I kind of felt like writing a review of a pen which many adore for its immaculate design. I do adore it , one of my finest steel nibs

Below is a link to the same on my blog. If there is some problem with the shared pictures below, I would request you to please go to the below link:

http://iwonder-thecartographer.blogspot.in/2014/10/faber-castell-design-ambition-review.html

Long ago , back in school days, I had used inexpensive Faber-Castell ball point pens, pencils, highlighters, rulers, mechanical pencils and geometry sets. They used to be elitist then, as they came with the ‘Made in Germany’ tag. Though there was little or no price difference with Indian brands such as Camlin or Omega , they were not widely available. One fine day, while randomly searching on fountain pens made by Faber-Castell, I came across the Ambition/Ondoro/e-motion fountain pens in premium segment with Graf-Von Faber Castell Anello/Intuition placed in luxury segment. In India, a few models were available in Shoppers Stop and some of the e-com sites such as flipkart, pensavenue and makoba. I finally ordered an Ambition from Pensavenue, as they were running a discount sale on all Faber-Castell products then. I added a converter since it was clearly stated that FCD converter is not included.

The available nib sizes featured an F, M and B though an EF was made available later. I went for an M sized nib.

Within 3 days, the pen along with a converter arrived in a grassy-green packaging. The colour reminds me of cricket fields and Australian Baggy Green Caps.

 

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Once held in hand, the pen feels somewhat heavy with a relatively lighter brushed barrel body made of black coloured resin (Faber Castell calls it ‘precious resin’) . And a high polish chrome steel cap etched with Faber-Castell logo (two jousting knights) with the statement (actually, the entire thing that is on the green box), along with the barrel end-cap made with the same finish, bestows the pen with a rather minimalist yet efficient look.

The Pen

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Once you open the pen, you would notice a rather tiny chrome metal grip and a steel nib with a perforated pattern of dots running over it.

 

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The pen and it’s parts.. Converter is additional and does come with a Faber Castell Germany imprint.

 

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The nib has a perforated pattern of dots imprinted across, covering more than a third of its surface area. Had these been real perforations there would have been plenty of breather holes . As you can see, there is no breather hole in the nib. It mentions the nib-size just above the two jousting knights logo embossed near its tail end. Nib section is screw-fit and thus easily removable from the steel grip for cleaning or replacement.

 

http://s25.postimg.org/j6tgvqckv/DSC_0998.jpg

 

Without the cap, the pen measures around 12 cm, which might not be comfortable for people with medium to large hands. A perspective would be a Pelikan m400/Pilot Custom 74 when posted feels very comfortable to me. Posting the cap is easy and can be secured with a click-lock at the barrel end-cap. Although the posted pen exceeds a total length of 15 cm, the steel cap makes it pretty heavy at the top. In addition to weight, the cap freely rotates once it’s click-posted. It has a beautifully arched spring-loaded clip (it’s heavy too) which later becomes the pen’s arch-nemesis for top weight imbalance, as the clip (with the cap) can freely rotate towards the direction of incline while writing.

 

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The design is pretty alluring but functionality is a little inhibited when weight is not evenly distributed for a pen.

 

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The nib performance can be termed superlative. A wet and even flow with an ultra-smooth performance, which could make even the 14k/18k s’ shy.

 

http://s25.postimg.org/56rf3laun/DSC_1022.jpg

 

Ratings

FCD Ambition - Feature

Length

Capped ~ 14 cm

Posted ~ 15.8 cm
Unposted ~ 12.2 cm
Nib Leverage ~ 1.9 cm

Rating - 8

Comments

- Posted length is preferable but not too comfortable for a top heavy structure

Weight

Posted ~ 28 g

Cap wt ~ 16 g

Rating - 6

Comments

- Balancing is a problem for large hands

- The cap when posted rotates freely along with heavy clip affecting the direction of weight of a top-heavy structure

Design/Look

- Silver Accents

- Black ‘precious’ resin barrel

- Chromed clip, barrel end-cap and grip

Rating - 10

Comments

- Chrome plated furniture with black resin (called precious resin) encompasses the minimalistic design

- Spring loaded arched clip

Filling System

Faber Castell Design Converter

Rating - 10

Comments

- Does hold a lot of ink ~ 1 mL

Nib

Steel Nib
Balancing Length ~ 1.9 cm

Rating - 10

Comments

- Wet Flow

- Butter Smooth

- Screw Fit - Removable

Grip

Ideally fingers would rest somewhere between the metallic grip and the barrel-end resin as support

- Length (steel end) ~ 0.8 cm

Rating - 8

Comments

- Grip is kind of ‘okay’

- Short ~ 0.8 cm

- Steel will be slippery with sweat

Economic Value

- Retails around USD 70

- Good Value for money

Rating - 9.5

Comments

- Given the pen’s performance the steel nib outperforms many gold ones

Accessories

- None other than the green cardboard gift box

- You have to buy the converter separately for around USD 6

Rating - 7

Comments

- Can use standard international cartridges

- Other standard international converters (waterman, rotring) may not fit properly

• Overall Rating 8.56

Edited October 5, 2014 by soniknitr

[visvamitra]

Nice pen. I Have a version in coconut wood and I enjoy it a lot.

[sannidh]

Nice pen. I Have a version in coconut wood and I enjoy it a lot.

Great! What's the nib size? do you post it while writing?

[maverink]

@soniknitr nice review i have the FC basic carbon pen which i feel is fat and heavy

this pen seems to be a better bet.

[visvamitra]

I have F nib. I never post pens

[hari317]

I have no FC pens, just one GvFC. It is quite good.

 

The nib unit on your pen looks like the Bock #5 housing... Who in India do you recommend I buy the FC pens from?

[sannidh]

@soniknitr nice review i have the FC basic carbon pen which i feel is fat and heavy

this pen seems to be a better bet.

Thanks maverink. Yes it is , & cap is the revolving elephant.

 

I have F nib. I never post pens

Then the cap weight would not be an issue at all

 

I have no FC pens, just one GvFC. It is quite good.

 

The nib unit on your pen looks like the Bock #5 housing... Who in India do you recommend I buy the FC pens from?

 

I love the GvFC designs (both the 2-tone-nib and the pen). Which one do you have? (I had 2 pens from faber-castell, sold off the ondoro as it was completely new)

 

Feel pensavenue offers good prices in Feb-Mar (upto 25% off on MRP), when they start their stock clearance (it will be real cheap then). Otherwise it would be a bit cheaper to buy it from outside India.

The other online stores like makoba have pretty hefty price tags on these. I haven't found pen shops keeping ambition/ondoro/e-motion fps here in Mumbai.

 

Yes it's a #5 nib. I am not sure whether it's a Bock or Jowo but Bock has certainly referenced Faber-Castell in his website.

http://www.peter-bock.com/content/e417/e506/index_eng.html

Edited October 5, 2014 by soniknitr

[hari317]

I love the GvFC designs (both the 2-tone-nib and the pen). Which one do you have? (I had 2 pens from faber-castell, sold off the ondoro as it was completely new)

 

Feel pensavenue offers good prices in Feb-Mar (upto 25% off on MRP), when they start their stock clearance (it will be real cheap then). Otherwise it would be a bit cheaper to buy it from outside India.

The other online stores like makoba have pretty hefty price tags on these. I haven't found pen shops keeping ambition/ondoro/e-motion fps here in Mumbai.

 

 

Thank you, I think i can wait till next year. I have linked the review to my GvFC pen in post no 6.

 

best

Hari

[hsianloon]

I have the Pearwood Ambition and concur with the points in this review.

 

Personally I like the odd weight after posting the pen

[FPfencer]

I've also got the pearwood ambition. Both me and a friend do have a slight leakage problem. I often find the cap filled with ink. However, still a great pen for not too high a price.

[sannidh]

I have the Pearwood Ambition and concur with the points in this review.

 

Personally I like the odd weight after posting the pen

 

Thank you. I did like the weight of the pen initially but after getting used to the weights of relatively lighter pens (pelikans), guess I felt a bit of effort on posting it.

I've also got the pearwood ambition. Both me and a friend do have a slight leakage problem. I often find the cap filled with ink. However, still a great pen for not too high a price.

Second your opinion on price~value thing. Thankfully, I never faced had an ink leakage problem with this. (After removing the nib section, does pushing the nib a bit in the black sleeve help ?)