As this is my first post, let me introduce myself.
A sailor in my past life, I rekindled my passion for fountain pens about two years back.
I saw myself collecting big branded western pens and Chinese ones for fun... And then I discovered a fun WhatsApp group of like-minded individuals and with them several Indian manufacturers.
From what I understood reading the reviews, Ranga and Gama seemed to be the hot shots, and ASA the young turk bringing web based marketing and end user inputs to pen design.
Due to my career as an engineer and machinist, I became attracted to pens with unique designs... With sweeping curves (ASA Nauka) and near- perfect symmetry( Ranga Bamboo).
When Vaibhav Mehendiratta announced a group buy of the Bamboo, I took the plunge. But sadly , I was informed by the manufacturer that my desired specs ( viz. with clip) is not included in the group buy but can be processed as a special order with a negligible premium in pricing.
Nib: Bock fine. Zero feedback or line variation. Not too wet... as all my pens are for pocket carry and I use them to write on a myriad quality of (usually (bleep)) papers, this suits me just fine.
Body: Near perfect machining...turning marks visible but after extreme scrutiny .
Finally the pen is able to perform even with difficult and temperamental inks like Krishna After Dark.
Pen comes with a Schmidt converter...but the tight Ebonite threads just scream for use as an eyedropper.
Can be posted but the pen becomes too long. On the plus side, the cap comes off the barrel with a very satisfying *POP*.(you know the sound)
The pen cost me $67, but I can vouch that the manufacturer has put in every cent of effort in the process. If anything, buying this pen has made me richer.
Cheers.
