Review: Birmingham Pens Knox Avicenna Fountain Pen & Fred Rogers Cardigan Red Ink

[voidoid]

Full disclosure: I have no affiliation with Birmingham Pens beyond being a happy customer. Birmingham is a small Pittsburgh-based concern — apparently a one-man operation, in fact. Based on my dealings, all very positive, I would like to see the proprietor, Nick, get the support that he needs and deserves from our community to maintain and grow his business.

Back when Birmingham Pens was known as “XFountainPens,” I became a fan of their custom Chesterfield line of inks, and especially the “antique” colors. In truth, I wasn't initially interested in the new Birmingham ink line when it appeared. I had, however, ordered a TWSBI 580-AL turquoise from Nick, who was offering a bottle of his ink as a promotion. Based as much on its name as anything else, I selected Fred Rogers Cardigan Red — henceforth, fRED for short — as my freebie. Unfortunately, Nick quickly ran out of inventory on the TWSBI and was obliged to cancel my order. I think it speaks to his integrity that he nonetheless sent me a full 30 ml bottle of fRED.

My most recent purchase from Birmingham included two Knox Avicenna pens, one 'Slate Gray' with an oblique double-broad nib, and one 'Deep Red' with an EF nib. I prefer finer Japanese nibs, so for me the OBB was a novelty, and ordering it a caprice catalyzed by the pen's affordability — it being at the time on sale for $9.99.

I first tried out Birmingham fRED with a Delta Unica and greatly enjoyed it. So once I received my Avicenna in 'Deep Red,' the temptation to pair it with fRED proved irresistible.

The Avicenna belongs to a line of metal, cartridge-converter pens — all named after renowned men of learning*, and all sporting German-made Knox nibs. Avicenna is a fairly heavy pen, around 35 grams filled, of which 13.5 g resides in the cap. So, it is probably just as well that the pen does not post. Unposted, it is long enough (~125 mm) and light enough to fit most hands comfortably (size comparison photos, capped and uncapped, attached).

I've not used the other Knox pen models, but they seem to differ from the Avicenna, and from each other, merely stylistically. In fact, the Plato, Aristotle, Avicenna, and Galileo have perhaps more in common than do Platonism, Aristotelianism, or any four randomly chosen schools of philosophy. Available colors do vary by model, but all the Knox pens are about the same size and weight (though the Aristotle and especially the Plato are somewhat heavier), all come with a converter and a three-year warranty, all offer the same wide choice of nibs, and all (as of this writing) regularly sell for $14.99 at Birmingham.

My Avicenna seems very well constructed, with due attention given to the fit (good tolerances, a satisfying snap of the cap) and finish (a deeply rich and lustrous red). My only reservation has to do with the threads mating the metal barrel to the plastic section. This attachment feels loose as one assembles the pen, but becomes secure enough once fully tightened.

The Knox steel nib (photo attached) is gold plated and etched (possibly stamped?) with attractive scrollwork and a rampant lion logo. Both the EF and the OBB nibs proved smooth, wet, skip-free, and pleasant to write with. It appears to be a #5 nib, and it is more than good enough so that no one is likely to buy this pen with the intent of swapping in a better nib.

All told, the Avicenna is well worth its retail price, especially if you consider that you can get two of them, ready to write, roughly for the cost of one Lamy Safari, sans converter.

“Now let's talk ink, shall we?” As nearly as I can tell, red inks fall into two categories. (For the purposes of this review, I am excluding the 'light reds,' such as carmine, rouge, magenta, and pink. I am also leaving aside particulate inks such as J. Herbin's Rouge Hematite.)

On the one hand there are the 'pure reds,' which cannot be mistaken for any other color. While indubitably vivid, these inks tend to have the disadvantage of shading very little or not at all. When read back, many also assault the eyes with a near-thermonuclear intensity. In this category, I include inks such as Shaeffer Skrip Red, Diamine Wild Strawberry, Noodlers Dragon's Napalm, and De Atramentis Poppy Red. I happen on occasion to enjoy some of these inks, but let's face it: Their chief advantage is their ability to stand out, which best suits them for applications such as grading papers.

A second category includes the 'hybrid reds,' of which there are too many to shake a nib at. These are predominantly red admixtures with blue, black, orange, or brown. They include shades such as burgundy, crimson, maroon, brick, terracotta, burnt sienna, oxblood, and black cherry. These inks are often very lovely, and provide decent shading, but vary widely in the redness of their identities.

That's how I see it, anyway. If anyone does have experience with a 'pure red' that isn't in some measure a combination of flat, loud, and obvious, I would very much like to hear of it. Absent such a wunderkind schreibtint, if one wishes to choose a red ink for more than annotation, it seems that the practical question is not whether the chosen hue will shift away from some Platonic essence of red, but rather in what direction.

Now, this is a supremely subjective matter. But to my mind, Birmingham Fred Rogers Cardigan Red manages to walk the tightrope between 'pure' and 'hybrid' red as well as any ink I have used or known. And I believe the reason is that it is such an interesting hybrid.

On the one hand, I can see a slight overall leaning toward orange, though much less so than with, say, Noodler's Habanero. On the other hand, fRED is darker than most orange-reds, and shows strong traces of burgundy in more heavily inked strokes. And in its very lightest traces, there are hints of pink.

While it would not be confused with Skrip or the other pure reds, fRED manages overall to retain an unambiguous red identity. To my eye, it is as unshakeably red as is — say, Diamine Matador — but within that, offers much more in the way of richness and nuance.

In Fred Rogers, Birmingham has produced a red ink that is interesting, solid, versatile, and legible. Like its namesake, it is also calm and dignified, perhaps not quite to the point of being work appropriate, but at least to the point of being congenial and companionable. Indeed, whole pages written with this ink read back ..... wait for it ..... readily. (Writing sample attached.)

The ink's flow was perfect in both of the pens I tried it with. And, bucking the tendency of many reds to overstay their welcome, fRED cleaned up in a jiffy with no more than water.

I tend to be fickle and impatient with ink, usually itching after a few days to exhaust my pen's converter so that I can rotate in a new color from my collection. But I have to say, I was so enjoying this ink in my Delta Unica that I was genuinely sorry when it ran dry.

As I later wrote to Nick, my sole complaint about Fred Rogers Cardigan Red is that it comes exclusively in 30 ml bottles. As with my other favorite ink colors — J Herbin's Lie de Thé, for example — I would hate to run out of fRED now that I have so latched onto it. I'm hoping that eventually, Nick will see fit to, as J Herbin does with Lie de Thé, offer this color in 100 ml bottles as well.


[ * It is a fine thing naming a pen so as to honor erudition above political station, athletic achievement, or mere celebrity. But, though classical philosophy is not exactly replete with exemplars, one still hopes someday to see women among those so named.

Not to teeter overlong on this soapbox, but if there are any penmakers within the reach of my voice, how about Marie Curie or Emmy Noether, for starters? For that matter, wouldn't it be lovely for someone to craft a pen — assuming her family's consent in the matter — Wirthy to be named after our late friend Susan? ]

[voidoid]

Adding a more detailed writing sample, as the previous does not do justice.

- Bruce

[jchch1950]

Thank you for the review and your comments.

[amberleadavis]

Wonderful and detailed review.