Considering Conklin All American Ebony Wood

[Maurizio]

I'm considering a Conklin All American Ebony Wood pen buy. I'm a sucker for wooden pens and this pen scratches that itch. I've previously owned a tortoise shell All American with a medium nib. It was a so-so writer but I liked it anyway because it was a big hunk of pen with an attractive finish, so I have no illusions about this pen being a great writer, just average, but it would be an addition to my small but growing collection of wooden pens. I dropped the pen and it cracked beyond repair, but I salvaged the nib and put it into a Noodler's Ahab where it is still writing ok.

 

My concern is with drying out. I briefly considered getting one of those nice-looking Moonman wooden pens with the zebra wood and other wood finishes available, but after reading about experiences here that the pen was not airtight I quickly forgot about it. Now, I had no problems with drying out with my broken All Americanan, I'm just concerned that, this pen being wood-bodied, there might be an issue. Has anyone gotten one of these? Any issue with dry-out?

Edited October 25, 2020 by Maurizio

[Estycollector]

There is ebony and there is ebony.The real stuff is for finger boards on musical instruments and is metallically durable.

Edited October 25, 2020 by Estycollector

[BaronWulfraed]

Ebony isn't all "black" wood either. Only a few ebony trees have a dark core -- as Taylor Guitars discovered when they visited Africa: the native harvesters were cutting down multiple trees and only bringing back those with dark "ebony" cores. Taylor contracted for all of them -- dark or light, to reduce the eco-footprint of guitar making.

[langere]

I find modern Conklins to be mediocre pens, though I understand they have gotten better over the past few years. Certainly the pens themselves have gotten prettier, but I don't know if sturdier.

 

You have many choices beyond Conklin for really good wooden pens. Some tend to be more expensive. Check out the Moonman M6, and also pens by Platinum, Stipula and Sailor.

 

Erick

[sansenri]

The All American is quite a nice pen though. I love mine in orange resin.

 

I have not seen the ebony versions so do not know.

Check with the vendor as Conklin is switching to Jowo nibs which are supposedly MUCH better that the previous nibs, so this may turn out to be a nice writer too...

[Maurizio]

I find modern Conklins to be mediocre pens, though I understand they have gotten better over the past few years. Certainly the pens themselves have gotten prettier, but I don't know if sturdier.

 

You have many choices beyond Conklin for really good wooden pens. Some tend to be more expensive. Check out the Moonman M6, and also pens by Platinum, Stipula and Sailor.

 

Erick

Yes I know. It's the Moonman M6, I believe, which I read about here; a beautiful looking pen but with which several people here experienced significant dry-out issues.

 

I have 2 Pilot Custom Kaedes, one in M and one in F. Absolutely love them.

My next will be a Platinum briarwood, but I think I’ll be pulling the trigger on this Conklin first just because it's more affordable.

 

Someday, I want a Sailor King Of Pen briarwood. That and a Pilot Yukari Royale are my grail pens.

[Maurizio]

The All American is quite a nice pen though. I love mine in orange resin.

 

I have not seen the ebony versions so do not know.

Check with the vendor as Conklin is switching to Jowo nibs which are supposedly MUCH better that the previous nibs, so this may turn out to be a nice writer too...

I decided to pull the trigger and just go for it. As I mentioned in my OP, the All American which I dropped and cracked beyond hope was a mediocre writer though a handsome pen. Goulet is now offering these pens with Jowo nibs. I ordered mine with a Jowo omniflex nib. I don’t intend to do flex writing, but sketching with it. Hoping it will be decent but I’m not expecting miracles.

[A Smug Dill]

Yes I know. It's the Moonman M6, I believe, which I read about here; a beautiful looking pen but with which several people here experienced significant dry-out issues.

 

I have 2 Pilot Custom Kaedes, one in M and one in F. Absolutely love them.

My next will be a Platinum briarwood, but I think I’ll be pulling the trigger on this Conklin first just because it's more affordable.

 

I have a Moonman M6 in 'green' (and, yes, I think its body is really sandalwood, which you can smell once the varnish is removed), and because of its ineffectiveness in preventing ink evaporation when capped, it's been sitting uninked and unused for a long while now. It's a complete write-off for me.

 

The Delike Shepherd Boy line is no good for that either. Nor is the rather expensive Delta Seawood Iroko pen any better.

 

The Pilot Custom Kaede is the only pen with a wooden body that I know resists dry-out when capped as effectively as is typical of other gold-nibbed models of the same brand, although I suspect the Pilot Custom Enjyu would be too, since in both models the wood is 'resin-impregnated'. I had high hopes for the Pilot Custom Ichii, in which the wood is pressure-treated instead, but my order last year was cancelled by the retailer on account of the model being discontinued and it had none in stock to sell (in spite of still listing it at the time), so I never got to find out.

 

I have two of the Platinum #3776 briar models, and neither of them fare as well as its entry-level (or even Kanazawa-haku) Platinum #3776 Century siblings, when it comes to resisting dry-out. I have the Yakusugi as well, that so far it has never been inked, so I don't know for sure; but I suspect it wouldn't do any better than the briar models.

 

My wife has one of the models in the Sailor 'Precious Wood of the World' line, but I'm not sure how it compares to, say, the Profit Standard or Promenade in that regard.

[sharonspens]

Just himinginhere to say that I can't speak for the Conklin, but I would recommend taking a look at Ryan Krusac's work. I own a coffee wood and a buckeye burl currently, and I suspect there is a third one in my future (I am pretty sure he has some ebony - - - ).

 

I own a number of wood pens, and have not found drying out to be a particular issue.

 

Sharon in indiana

[A Smug Dill]

I own a number of wood pens, and have not found drying out to be a particular issue.

 

Do you — intentionally, or just through slow consumption in practice — keep the same fill of ink in a pen for two, three, or even six months though?

 

My personal frame of reference as a user is one fill of the converter (or other refillable ink reservoir, although I predominantly own and use c/c-filled pens) lasting three months, without being all lost to evaporation irrespective of how much or little I use a pen, is acceptable and "good enough", four months is competent, and six months is commendable; and, even so, I know that the ink would become more concentrated over that time and whatever remains would probably not be a "true" reflection of what a fresh fill looks like, in terms of colour, saturation, flow and sheen. If a full converter of ink that's hardly used could be lost to evaporation in two months, it's worrying; and in five weeks or less is just poor, to my way of thinking.

 

Edit: Just to be clear, I'm not trying to dictate to you or anyone else what the subjective frame of reference or list of benchmarks ought to be. However, based not only on my personal usage patterns, as well as having in excess of 200 pens as data points, I'd say losing a converter's worth of ink to evaporation in five weeks would put the pen in the bottom N% of the pens I own, and I try not to be "forgiving" in my initial product selection to begin with.

 

Platinum, Sailor, Pilot, Pelikan and Aurora top the cap seal performance as far as brands go, in my experience; but, even so, the reasonably high-end Platinum #3776 models with wooden barrels have been disappointing in that regard.

Edited October 26, 2020 by A Smug Dill

[Maurizio]

Thanks for your insight Mr. Dill. It's both enlightening and disconcerting. As I noted above I just submitted to the temptation and ordered the pen. Based on what you’ve experienced with the Platinum briarwood, I’m not optimistic that this Conklin will resist the drying-out syndrome. I'll have to see and I may have to do what I've read about and attempt to seal it by dripping Crazy Glue into the cap and hope that engineering hack works.

 

The Platinum briar was the next on my acquisition list of wooden pens. I’m saddened to learn you've experienced the dreaded dry-out with that pen also. I may have to change my plans. And boy, you've got a Platinum Yakusugi that hasn’t even been inked yet? Wow.

 

I’m curious to learn if the Yakusugi is better able to behave normally. And I’d be very interested to learn about the Sailor as well. The Sailor Precious Wood series wasn’t on my list only because I don’t like that particular design. But, the Sailor Kabazaiku Cherry Bark Pen IS. I'm hoping Sailor will continue producing this pen and the King of Pen in briarwood even if it is sold until such time as I can afford them.

 

I really enjoy my Pilot Custom Kaede's and it never even occurred to me that they would behave any differently than any other decent Pilot pen and I thought the resin-impregnated body was simply to ensure that the pen be durable and not crack over time, not also to prevent the dry-out phenomena.

[A Smug Dill]

you've got a Platinum Yakusugi that hasn’t even been inked yet? Wow.

It wasn't a pen that I intended to buy, and it wasn't the pen I ordered. At the time, I didn't know (and didn't want to believe the early indications) that the Platinum #3776 briar models are, well, disappointing and deficient in that regard, and when a good price for the last of the three different models came up on closeout sale, I ordered it. To my surprise, I was sent a Yakusugi instead — and that retailer never even listed the Yakusugi in its catalogue! It was delisting all the briar models from its range, thus the closeout sale, and so the 'best' outcome was to just call it square, it got rid of the last unit of the Platinum #3776 wooden pens in its inventory, and I got a more expensive pen than I paid for. However, given I never intended to order one of those, I'm thinking perhaps I'll just sell it off as new and never-inked. Then came COVID-19...

 

I’m curious to learn if the Yakusugi is better able to behave normally.

Sorry, but I'm not about to find out.

 

And I’d be very interested to learn about the Sailor as well. The Sailor Precious Wood series wasn’t on my list only because I don’t like that particular design.

Its barrel is way, way too slender for my tastes (but I can deal with the Lamy cp1 just fine, and in fact love it so much I bought four of them), and that's how it ended up in my wife's fleet of pens. Originally I'd ordered two of those, in different types of wood from different sellers, but one of them just never eventuated; and, given how quickly (within two hours of my raising a dispute) that Japanese seller offered me a full refund after six weeks of non-delivery (prior to COVID-19) in spite of having supplied me a tracking number, I suspect he/she just never sent it in the first place, but I'm glad I never got the second/ebony model.

 

But, the Sailor Kabazaiku Cherry Bark Pen IS.

I have one of those too. It took four orders — three of which were cancelled by the respective sellers and retailers because they were unable to get stock, and the last one took over six months of waiting from the placement of the order — and some eighteen months before I finally got my hands on mine. Given its body is just cherry bark over the same metal core used in the koshu-inden models, I think it's not subject to the dry-out issues that plague models with genuinely, ~100% caps and barrels. However, because it only comes with an M nib, it's a pen I tolerate (well enough) but don't ink often, so I actually don't know whether a converter's full fill would stand up to three, four or six months of the pen being filled but unused.

[jchch1950]

Omas made some wood pens that are very nice to look at but they are prone to cracks . They were more expensive that the Conklin pens and they write beautiful.

[OmegaMountain]

It seems you already made the purchase, but I would have suggested you take a look at the Wancher World Tree pen in ebony. The price seems right and Wancher's products tend to be pretty good. I've only one Conklin and I have to say I was far from impressed by it quality vs. price wise. Either way - all that matters is that you're happy with the Conklin and I hope it is a great pen for you!

[Honeybadgers]

There is ebony and there is ebony.The real stuff is for finger boards on musical instruments and is metallically durable.

 

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooope.

 

I've worked with so much ebony over the years, and I hate it.

 

The real difference is that there is ebony that is kiln dried and then allowed to rest for 3-6 MONTHS at the place it's going to be carved/shaped/worked, and kiln dried ebony that is worked too soon.

 

Ebony is an unbelievably dense wood, and as a result, takes a VERY long time for moisture to move in and out. So if you work ebony that is fresh out of the kiln, it's not done restructuring, so while it cuts and shapes nicely, it will warp and potentially split with changes in humidity. But if you allow ebony to properly rest (and generally speaking, it's not a wood that likes particularly humid or dry weather at the best of times) and reach equilibrium with the ambient humidity, it will then be quite resistant to cracking as long as you don't put it somewhere intensely dry or wet (unless it was made while it was in a place with a similar humidity, so a pen made in Arizona from ebony should probably stay in the southwestern USA.)

 

The problem is that ebony is just too hard. This makes it a superb wood for a hand plane, a fretboard, etc. But for very small pieces made from very thin segments like a pen, it becomes a little iffy.

 

And drying out is just an inherent thing with wooden pens. Wood is porous, and unless the pen is coated in lacquer after finishing, it'll just inherently draw the moisture from the nib into the cap and through the walls. So it's just an effect that needs to be lived with, and understand they're going to need to be used regularly and refilled more often.

 

I would generally avoid an ebony pen, no matter the manufacturer, IMO. I'd honestly stick with stabilized woods like many burls and spalted woods, which have enough resin impregnated into them that they are stable, but they still look/fee/smell like wood. And some woods are just better than others, softwoods will generally do a better job. Thuya burle, madrone burl, afzelia xlay are three of my favorites that I've seen stand the test of time and temperature. Thuya burl in particular is my favorite, because I have an old pen I made from it over 10 years ago, and even today, still smells EXACTLY like a freshly sharpened pencil. All the time. It's outrageous.

 

Stuff is nightmarishly expensive though. A high grade, highly figured pen size blank of thuya is now upwards of $90 for the wood alone, and it's highly regulated or illegal to harvest most of the time.

[Estycollector]

 

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooope.

 

I've worked with so much ebony over the years, and I hate it.

 

The real difference is that there is ebony that is kiln dried and then allowed to rest for 3-6 MONTHS at the place it's going to be carved/shaped/worked, and kiln dried ebony that is worked too soon.

 

Ebony is an unbelievably dense wood, and as a result, takes a VERY long time for moisture to move in and out. So if you work ebony that is fresh out of the kiln, it's not done restructuring, so while it cuts and shapes nicely, it will warp and potentially split with changes in humidity. But if you allow ebony to properly rest (and generally speaking, it's not a wood that likes particularly humid or dry weather at the best of times) and reach equilibrium with the ambient humidity, it will then be quite resistant to cracking as long as you don't put it somewhere intensely dry or wet (unless it was made while it was in a place with a similar humidity, so a pen made in Arizona from ebony should probably stay in the southwestern USA.)

 

The problem is that ebony is just too hard. This makes it a superb wood for a hand plane, a fretboard, etc. But for very small pieces made from very thin segments like a pen, it becomes a little iffy.

 

And drying out is just an inherent thing with wooden pens. Wood is porous, and unless the pen is coated in lacquer after finishing, it'll just inherently draw the moisture from the nib into the cap and through the walls. So it's just an effect that needs to be lived with, and understand they're going to need to be used regularly and refilled more often.

 

I would generally avoid an ebony pen, no matter the manufacturer, IMO. I'd honestly stick with stabilized woods like many burls and spalted woods, which have enough resin impregnated into them that they are stable, but they still look/fee/smell like wood. And some woods are just better than others, softwoods will generally do a better job. Thuya burle, madrone burl, afzelia xlay are three of my favorites that I've seen stand the test of time and temperature. Thuya burl in particular is my favorite, because I have an old pen I made from it over 10 years ago, and even today, still smells EXACTLY like a freshly sharpened pencil. All the time. It's outrageous.

 

Stuff is nightmarishly expensive though. A high grade, highly figured pen size blank of thuya is now upwards of $90 for the wood alone, and it's highly regulated or illegal to harvest most of the time.

Try being a musician. Im not a novice.

[Maurizio]

[quote name=

 

 

I have one of those too. It took four orders three of which were cancelled by the respective sellers and retailers because they were unable to get stock, and the last one took over six months of waiting from the placement of the order and some eighteen months before I finally got my hands on mine. Given its body is just cherry bark over the same metal core used in the koshu-inden models, I think it's not subject to the dry-out issues that plague models with genuinely, ~100% caps and barrels. However, because it only comes with an M nib, it's a pen I tolerate (well enough) but don't ink often, so I actually don't know whether a converter's full fill would stand up to three, four or six months of the pen being filled but unused.

 

Thanks for that interesting information. You've gone down pathways I intended to go. I think that cherry bark pen looks quite nice but now knowing its just a veneer over a metal body I can cross it off my list.

 

 

Re ebony wood. You woodworker guys no doubt have better knowledge than me about these things. I can only hope that the pen's wood has been treated or cured in some way to prevent cracking the way the maple wood from which the Pilot Custom Kaede is made is. Guess we'll have to see.

 

I really like the idea of a briarwood pen knowing how stubborn and durable that stuff is. Still have a few of my Dad's old pipes hanging around for sentimental reasons and even fired some up for a smoke years ago when they were already 20 years old, nary a crack in any of them. But, as Mr Dill's reported experience above relates, Platinum has apparently not figured out, or not bothered, to make their briarwood pen airtight and that's really too bad.

 

ORDER UPDATE

I have to give kudos to Goulet Pens. I added a note to my order to make sure that the pen came with the apparently new Jowo omniflex nib. Got an email from customer service this morning informing me that it does not, its the old omniflex and do I want to cancel my order? Sure did! These pens have been fitted with Jowo nibs in all the sizes except the omniflex, so I re-ordered with an extra fine Jowo nib instead. Happy for the decent service which avoided time-wasting emails and agita for both sides.

Edited October 26, 2020 by Maurizio

[A Smug Dill]

I think that cherry bark pen looks quite nice but now knowing its just a veneer over a metal body I can cross it off my list.

 

From Sailor's June 2013 press release (translated by Google):

A fountain pen in collaboration with "Kakunodate Denshiro" who continues to make high-quality birch work.The technique of "Kabazaiku", in which the bark of wild cherry blossoms is peeled off, shaved thinly, and pasted together, is incorporated into a fountain pen.

See also http://denshiro.jp/en/kabazaiku/.

 

But, as Mr Dill's reported experience above relates, Platinum has apparently not figured out, or not bothered, to make their briarwood pen airtight and that's really too bad.

In spite of the briar and Yakusugi models being designated "#3776 Century", I haven't found their inner caps to be spring-loaded like the Slip and Seal mechanism. It shouldn't be just a matter of these pens having snap-caps, either; the Platinum Plaisir also has a snap-cap, but it has a perfectly functional, spring-loaded inner cap. 

 

And drying out is just an inherent thing with wooden pens. Wood is porous, and unless the pen is coated in lacquer after finishing, it'll just inherently draw the moisture from the nib into the cap and through the walls. So it's just an effect that needs to be lived with, and understand they're going to need to be used regularly and refilled more often.

 

That's what the inner cap or lining is for, no? Failure to install such on the inside of the cap as part and parcel of the design cheapens a pen, in my opinion. Having an inner cap that doesn't seal the nib in an airtight manner when the pen is capped, on the other hand, is just incompetent.

[langere]

On the Sailor Kabazaiku pens - I have one and it's one of my favorites.

 

I guess it is good that it is bark on top of metal - still have the advantages of a wood body without the disadvantage of the drying out.

 

@Maurizio, you might want to consider one...

 

Erick

[Honeybadgers]

Try being a musician. Im not a novice.

 

Whoops, I'll go tell my cello, antique recorder collection, and custom Selmer Paris Tenor saxophone to get out of my house.

 

And I better stop working with the Piatigorsky Foundation. Paul and Linda Rosenthal are probably glad to be rid of me.

 

And I'll tell my marching and orchestral directors they should forget I ever existed.

 

Same goes for my state titles for Jazz.

 

And I'll go burn all that music I wrote in school.

 

Because I can't possibly also play an instrument as well.

 

If you happened to also be a luthier, I'd defer to your judgement however.

Edited October 27, 2020 by Honeybadgers