Pen Pit Stop : Kristiaan Brenard Handmade Wooden Pen

[namrehsnoom]

Pen Pit Stop : Kristiaan Brenard handmade wooden pen

Welcome to the Pen Pit Stop. Here you will find reviews of pens that already have some mileage on them. More specifically, these reviews are of pens that are in my personal collection, and that have been in use for at least a year. I thought it would be fun to do it this way - no new & shiny pens here, but battered vehicles that have been put to work for at least a year. Let's find out how they have withstood the ravages of time.

The fountain pen that arrives at the pit stop today is a handmade wooden pen by local Belgian woodworker "Kristiaan Brenard". Kristiaan is what I would call a semi-professional wood-working hobbyist. He creates amazing things in his workshop, like wooden jewelry, boxes... and the occasional fountain pen. I received this pen in July 2013 from my sister as a birthday present. After a chance rediscovery of my 20-year old Parker Sonnet rekindled my interest in fountain pens, this was the first pen that got added to my collection. From this moment on I was hooked! Shortly afterwards, I discovered bottled ink and became a full-blown pen&ink addict ;-)

The pen has been in regular use for over 5 years now. Let's take a closer look at it.

 

 

Pen Look & Feel

This pen is constructed starting from a general pen-building-kit - as is obvious from the nib designation "Iridium Point Germany". Kristiaan build a fine fountain pen out of it, with a nice wooden barrel and cap. I quite like the looks of this pen.

The pen has a screw-on cap, and can be posted using the same screw-on mechanism (similar to the way the Kaweco Liliput line does it). Unposted, the pen is on the small side - just a tiny bit larger than an unposted Kaweco Sport model. I have small hands, so I can still use the pen comfortably without posting it (in fact, I only just discovered that the cap can be posted by screwing it on the top of the barrel - in all these 5 years, I never used it posted). The grip section on this pen has a rather small diameter compared to the barrel, and is barely adequate. For me it is borderline comfortable - in diameter it is about the same size as the grip section on the Kaweco Liliput. The pen has a generic steel M-nib, that writes like a dream and leaves a wet line (out of the box, no tuning required).

The pictures above illustrate the size of the pen in comparison with a standard Lamy AL-star. Unposted, this is quite a small pen - only usable if you don't have large hands. Posted, it is about the same size as a posted Lamy Safari, and on the large side. When posting the cap, I noticed that the threads have multiple entry points, making it not so obvious to line up the clip with the nib (and for me personally, I can't stand it when things don't line up - it just gives me the creeps).

Pen Characteristics

• Build Quality : the pen is fairly well build, and still looks great after more than 5 years of use. It is constructed from a low-cost pen kit, so you can't expect miracles. I noticed a tiny bit of corrosion on the threads of the screw-on cap The pen also has some weight to it, owing to the metal parts used in its construction (parts of the cap, plus the threads where the barrel screws into place). Some ravages of time, but overall this pen has aged gracefully.
• Weight & Dimensions : a bit smaller that a Lamy Safari when capped. Uncapped and unposted it is definitely a small pen, but still very comfortable in my hand. If you have large hands, the pen should be used posted. The grip section is very small, and just borderline comfortable.
• Filling System : this is a cartridge convertor pen, that uses small standard international ink cartridges. To use bottled ink, I simply syringe-fill used cartridges.
• Nib & Performance : the gold-coloured generic steel nib is well-proportioned for the size of this pen. The M-nib on my unit writes like a dream, and produces a wet and well-saturated line. This generic nib was great right out-of-the-box, and writes as well or better than the nibs on some of my much more expensive pens. It just shows that nib performance has little correlation with pen price.
• Price : at the time, this pen could be bought for under 50 EUR, which is quite acceptable for a hand-made pen.

 

Conclusion

This Kristiaan Brenard hand-made wooden pen looks & feels very nice. The wooden finish makes for an elegant writing instrument. The pen has its flaws though - especially the grip section is too small in diameter for a pen of this size. Also: screw-on-posting : not a fan! It's almost impossible to line up clip and nib. The pen has aged well, showing only some erosion on the threads.

The big question: is this pen a keeper? To this, my answer is: YES, but that's because of the story behind it (a birthday present, and the first pen that got me started on this hobby). So it's a keeper because of its emotional value. Would I have bought this pen myself? NO - it's not really the type of pen that attracts my attention. But this specific pen with its history is definitely a keeper.

[TheDutchGuy]

My wife and I found a similar pen in Scotland earlier this year. It seems to be what folks call a "kit pen". My wife's pen was also marketed as "hand made", but basically that applies only to the barrel and the cap. The other parts seem to be bought in a kit and are then used to complete the pen and folks tend to regard these kit parts as rather generic and low-end. I'm not sure I'd agree with that. Over time I've found a few lower-end pens that somehow write extremely well, including another wooden pen. My wife's kit pen is not everyone's cup of tea, but it's a great writer.

Edited December 7, 2018 by TheDutchGuy