Pen Pit Stop : Edison Collier Burnished Gold

[namrehsnoom]

Pen Pit Stop : Edison Collier Burnished Gold

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 enters the pit stop today is the Edison Collier Burnished Gold. This is a production run pen from the Edison Pen Co, which is situated in Huron, Ohio. Edison is a small family business started in 2007 by Brian & Andrea Gray. They create beautiful acrylic pens that are top quality products. You really notice the love & care that these pens receive.

The Collier is one of the bigger fountain pens that Edison creates. Hefty pens, but still light-weight - very comfortable pens for long writing sessions. I bought my pen in September 2016, so it's been in use for some time now. Let's take a closer look at it.

Pen Look & Feel

The cigar-shaped Burnished Gold pen is made from a black acrylic with golden swirls in it. An unexpected characteristic of this particular acrylic is that the golden swirls appear and disappear depending on the viewing angle. A beautiful effect, that has to be experienced and that adds extra depth to the pen's body. On the barrel the words "Edison Pen Co – Collier" are engraved in a discrete manner. The only other branding is the company logo etched on the nib. The Collier pen has a sturdy golden clip ending in a ball. This comes in handy as a roll-stopper.

You use the pen by removing the screw-on cap. No posting with this pen though, which is not really a problem with a large pen like this. The pen has a decent size JoWo #6 two-toned steel nib, that works well with this large body pen. My Collier Burnished Gold came originally with an F-nib, that I recently replaced with a 1.1 stub. Brian makes sure that all nibs are tuned to perfection before shipping. And it shows - these are some of the smoothest writing nibs I have ever experienced. Simply perfect!

The Collier Burnished Gold is a beauty. I can only find one minor flaw, which is a result of the production process. As can be seen in the above picture, the cap's end is a separate piece of acrylic - probably due to the way the clip is added to the cap. This clearly shows because the colours don't match up, but it's not disturbing at all.

The pictures above illustrate the size of the Edison Collier in comparison with a standard Lamy AL-star. Capped and uncapped both pens are about the same size, but the Collier has a lot more girth to it. It looks and feels substantially larger than the Lamy, even though it's the lighter of both pens.

Pen Characteristics

• Build Quality : the pen is very well build, and polished to perfection. Mine is four years old by now, and still looks good as new. The acrylic used is definitely of high quality and retains its beauty without getting dull and losing its shine. This Burnished Gold pen has aged very well.


• Weight & Dimensions : a fairly large pen - almost 15cm capped and 13cm uncapped. The grip section is about 1cm in diameter. Aside from nib and clip, there are no metal parts to be found. This translates to a very light pen, that is really comfortable for long writing sessions.


• Filling System : this is a cartridge convertor pen, that uses standard international ink cartridges. To use bottled ink, I simply syringe-fill used cartridges.


• Nib & Performance : the Jowo #6 steel nib is well-proportioned for the size of this pen. On the nib, the Edison company logo is engraved. All Edison nibs are tuned to perfection before being shipped. And it shows! These are some of the smoothest nibs I've ever seen, and they are a real pleasure to write with. I also appreciate that the nib units are easily replaceable, and can be bought separately. The steel nib units cost about 24 EUR (taxed included), and come in sizes EF, F, M, B, 1.1 and 1.5.


• Price : the Edison Collier costs 165 EUR including taxes, which is quite acceptable for such a quality product. In my opinion: excellent value for money

Conclusion

Edison Pen Co produces high quality pens, and this Collier Burnished Gold is no exception. A very comfortable writer with an excellent nib - this pen is made for long writing sessions. And the Burnished Gold acrylic is really beautiful: a subtle combination of black & gold with a lot of depth to it. I'm glad to have this pen in my collection.

[silverlifter]

> The Collier Burnished Gold is a beauty. I can only find one minor flaw, which is a result of the production process. As can be seen in the above picture, the cap's end is a separate piece of acrylic - probably due to the way the clip is added to the cap.

 

Oddly, when I saw that in the close up of the cap (before I read the accompanying text), my first reaction was surprise, as it was not evident from the earlier photos, followed immediately after by a weird sense of delight. Far from being a flaw, I saw it as a grace note. A deliberate artistic choice that "crowned" the pen with a distinctive flair. The fact that it is fit so immaculately only reinforced that notion.

 

Beautfiul pen, and with it's own "derby"! Nice write up, too!

[langere]

Thanks for the writeup! I think it very important that pens that have been used for a while be reviewed. You do us an important service by doing reviews like this. In many ways, these are even more important than reviews of shiny new pens. By providing information on well used pens, we get to understand if there are any flaws that cannot be ascertained when pens are new.

 

I look forward to more reviews from you -

 

Erick

[XYZZY]

@namrehsnoom thanks for another great review!

Oddly, when I saw that in the close up of the cap (before I read the accompanying text), my first reaction was surprise, as it was not evident from the earlier photos, followed immediately after by a weird sense of delight. Far from being a flaw, I saw it as a grace note. A deliberate artistic choice that "crowned" the pen with a distinctive flair. The fact that it is fit so immaculately only reinforced that notion.

I agree with this. The picture of the cap is the most impressive picture of the review, because of the crown. I didn't think of it as a "crown" or an artistic touch, though. What I love about the picture is that I cannot see any seem in the material, the two parts appear to be perfect joined.

 

If they tried to make the finial from the same material as the body I expect that random nature of the swirls in the material would have prevented them from getting a perfect alignment across the two pieces. That would bug me.

[namrehsnoom]

@namrehsnoom thanks for another great review!

 

I agree with this. The picture of the cap is the most impressive picture of the review, because of the crown. I didn't think of it as a "crown" or an artistic touch, though. What I love about the picture is that I cannot see any seem in the material, the two parts appear to be perfect joined.

 

If they tried to make the finial from the same material as the body I expect that random nature of the swirls in the material would have prevented them from getting a perfect alignment across the two pieces. That would bug me.

 

The crown is of the same material as the rest of the cap. It just happens to be more black than gold in my particular pen. Doesn't bug me though. The seem between the two parts is polished perfectly - the join is perfect, and quasi unnoticeable.

[Gloucesterman]

Really like the idea of "experienced" pen reviews. It also says some positive things about the reviewer - imo.

Thank you for the informative and insightful review.

[amk]

Nice to see a review that's about how a pen does over the long term rather than the immediate appeal (or not) of a new pen.

 

My Persimmon Collier has been one of my regularly used pens since I bought it. It's now been joined by several other stablemates. For me as well, it's a pen that lasts the test of time, while other once-loved pens have ended up sitting in their boxes for too long. But this review gave me a chance to think about why I love it so much...

[Newton Pens]

The reason for the cap finial (that's the term) pattern aligning differently to the cap is the threads in between. The finial has male threads coming off of it, going into female threads at the top of the cap (exactly the same concept as the section going into the barrel). Short of trimming the top of every cap just enough so the colors line up perfectly, the way they line up will be different on every cap. And when you start trimming the top of caps, you run into clearance issues with the nib. Ever seen a nib hit the inside of a cap? It bends HARD. The couple of thousandths trimming probably wouldn't interfere with clearance, but it's time consuming, and on a production pen not financially feasible. Pens with patterned materials show this more.