Clairefontaine - Les Cakes De Bertrand

[raibtoffoletto]

Wondering by the La Couronne du Comte's website I found this pen made by Clairefontaine. Soon I laid my eyes on it I was attracted to its style and, because I was also looking for a gift to my mother, I decided to buy it, even not knowing how the pen would perform. It turned out to be a very nice pen for its price (under 30€) and I will sharing with you guys my impressions on it.

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Clairefontaine has this collection called Les Cakes de Bertrand, a griffe founded by Didier Bertran, a frenchman that started selling cakes in 1998 in the market Port-Royal in Paris, latter he opened a fancy tea house and some time ago launched this fashion collection.

The pen comes in a nice paperboard box, decorated by two patters: one cotton like and other leopard like. In the lid is stamped a Eiffel tower picture in a sort of cameo design. Inside you find written Les Cakes de Bertrand Paris and the pen itself, nothing more. The package, although paperboard, seems firm and durable, in the lid also there are some magnets to keep it safely closed.

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The pen is not heavy, around 20g, and its body is made of brass on the extremities and a 'rubberish' plastic. It mesures 14cm closed, 12,5cm without the cap and 15,2cm posted.

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In the cap there is the same Eiffel tower picture as in the box's lid and again it is written Les Cakes de Bertrand in small dark gold letters. The clip is very firm and no so much flexible, what I find difficult to use if you need to use it on your shirt or other softer material as a pen pouch leather. It is a screw type of cap, one and a half revolution, and it seems to seal very nicely the pen.

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Pen pen did not came with a converter, just with two small international standard cartridges.I have putted in it a Visconti converter, that seems to fit very easily, but it seems that is not held in place very tight, although I have not had any problem so far. The feed works fine and did not dried out in long writing sections nor I have experienced starting issues. The nib is a medium size, iridium point made in Germany, and performs very well on paper. It is smooth with some feedback, but nothing that bothers me, and the metal is somehow soft enough to allow some line variation (it is NOT a semi-flex nib, though).

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My overall experience so far is good, I just have one issue with it: the cap when it is posted. It stays a bit loose and gets off very easily, what annoys me quite a lot! But I enjoy very much the writing experience and the whole look and texture/materials of the pen. It is certainly a nice acquisition and a nice gift to give away! (Below my comparison with my Lamy Vista)

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I did also a video review of it and you can find it on youtube (in portuguese) with subtitles. I have also started a blog to review stuff in portuguese if you guys are interested, there are the links:

http://tintasepenas.raibtoffoletto.com/

Cheers,