Very little talk of Aurora in here

[amin]

Who here enjoys Aurora pens? I used to have an 88 roller, currently have a Talentum roller, and am contemplating buying a Mare fountain. Anyone have anything good or bad to say about Aurora FPs?

[Macuser]

The Aurora Ipsilon is on my Christmas list. If I find it under the tree, I'll be doing a lot of posting about it!

[Titivillus]

Who here enjoys Aurora pens?  I used to have an 88 roller, currently have a Talentum roller, and am contemplating buying a Mare fountain.  Anyone have anything good or bad to say about Aurora FPs?

I guess that Aurora is just another Italian pen company. They have a tendency to slightly tweak their standard line and call it an LE charging premium Besides that I have had a few Optimas and now have a Talentum that I'm trying to sell.

 

 

 

Kurt H

[RyanL27]

I love my Aurora 88. It was one of the first 'nice' pens I bought and is still probably my favorite.

 

IMO, Aurora's quality control is top notch, which isn't always the case for Italian makers.

[Stylo]

I don't own any, but the Optima Auroloid line has certainly captured my attention

[FJC]

I have both a Talentum (medium nib) and an 88 (factory italic) and they are both great writers. They start right up when they hit paper and they never, ever skip. While the nibs are firm they are smooth. By far they are two of my very best pens.

[saintsimon]

I have an Aurora Optima 'Sole' FP with a F nib and a BP, yes it is just another colour, but this swirly and juicy 'orange-yellow' appealed to me when I first saw it in 1996 and did not know it was an LE. Last year I got it as new/inked once. The yellow-gold-black make-up is harmonic. I am absolutely not into yellow things, so this is an exception.

I hardly inked it although it is nice to hold, a medium sized FP.

 

(my image hardly does it justice)

My Aurora Optima 'Sole' LE BP and FP, accompanied by a Caran D'Ache Hexagonal 'Fleur de Lys' FP

[Viseguy]

I have an Optima Black Ice with chrome trim. I bought it with an F nib, which was very smooth out of the box. Nowadays, though, I use it with a B nib tweaked by John Mottishaw to my flow specs. It is, hands down, my single favorite pen, and the one that gets the most use. Aurora nibs are quite firm (which I like), and smooth; some are known to have some slight "tooth". The black/chrome Optima is a very attractive pen, elegant but not ostentatious. I love it! :)9

[Blade Runner]

I love the Optima.

It's short but wide. Very comfortable, because my hands aren't large.

In my limited experience (but corroborated by others), their mediums write like fines and their broads also run a tad narrower than most broads.

Their fit and finish is unsurpassed. Uncapping the pen is an aesthetic experience in itself.

Nibs are stiff and smooth. They can have a little tooth which I think varies with the kind of ink you use.

Piston holds a good amount of ink.

Style: the basic Optima isn't fancy; more utilitarian, no nonsense, just the way I like it.

Reliability: I haven't had it long enough to comment but haven't heard complaints.

I think it's a great value if you don't buy the LE.

 

Regards,

J

[davyr]

i have a modern 88 w/italic nib. i think its a great pen for the money. very classic form and styling. the ink window and piston fill w/reservoir are icing on the cake.

 

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/182/dsc008717fp.jpg

[Michael Wright]

Hmm, I must get out my blue Auraloide Optima and use it some more. I had some money from a birthday, and went to the good penstore (Auckland had one, then) and worked my way through all the pens in the price range and chose the Aurora. They didn't have a big 88 in stock, else that could have been a possibility.

 

Nib is nice, with a little tooth, which seems to be an Aurora characteristic.

 

Plastic is beautiful, with depth to the pattern. Pen seems to be very well made.

 

No individual can really know about reliability, but Aurora have a reputation for better QC than other Italian makers of beautiful pens (OMAS), and I haven't seen that reputation questioned.

 

Nice pens.

 

Michael

[emrecan]

Hi Dave,

Nice shot and great pen.How is it writes?Is it drt writer?I heard they're on the dry side.

 

Thanks

Emrecan

[Betty]

You're right, but the Aurora ink sure gets talked about quite often here.

[John Cullen]

HI

 

I really like Aurora pens and have several of them.

 

I would agree with some things that have been said.

 

Yes, the nibs are a little dry and on the fine side. So a Fine aurora is a pretty thin fine nib.

 

Yes, the nibs are a tad toothy. I have never had an Aurora nib out of the box that was silky smooth like writing with butter. I have had a few smoothed by a professional and then they were very very nice.

 

I have found that the Fine nibs were toothy and a bit sharp on bad paper. I always get mediums from Aurora.

 

There service at Kenro in the US has always been really good for me. Their pistons work smoothly and you can always unscrew the nib.

 

If you unscrew the nib, be careful! Once I turned the nib right off the feed and could not bet it right. I had to send it out to someone. I admit I am a klutz, but I would tell those new to this procedure to be very careful.

 

jc

[FrankB]

I have just four Auroras - an OS 88, two Optimas, and a Talentum, but I can say I like them a great deal and have no intention of parting with any of them. My impressions of the pens are pretty much restatements of what others have said. The pens are oddly short, but have a really nice diameter. I like to write with my pens unposted, and I can do that with relative comfort with the 88 and the Optimas, although they are obviously intended to be posted. The Talentum has a long enough barrel that not posting is no big issue. The fit and finish on all four of my pens is outstanding. The piston filling systems on the 88 and Optimas have worked flawlessly for several years.

 

The nibs are nice flowing writers. Once again, as a stub/italic fanatic, I can only speak to the character of the Aurora italic nib. I think mine are all technically M italics, and all four write a really nice F/M line with the faintest hint of tooth.

 

It is true that the basic Optima is reiterated in various colors, but I think it is a nice pen that can bear some repeating. One of my Optimas is in the LE "Primavera" color that is lovely. I looked for that pen for quite a while. I am so glad "saintsimon" posted a pic of his "Sole." I LOVE that color and I am still looking for mine.

[davyr]

Nice shot and great pen.How is it writes?Is it drt writer?I heard they're on the dry side.

 

Thanks

Emrecan

 

hi emrecan: the italic nib edges are very sharp and thus provide for great line variation. being an italic, there is some inherent bite. i'd say the flow is minimally on the dry side c/w others. my 88 is somewhat of a frankenpen in that the regular 14k nib was graciously upgraded to an 18k italic when i purchased it from bertram's inkwell...

[pvdiamon]

I'm surprised too at how little is said of Aurora pens. My "best" fountain pen is an Aurora Ipsilon Deluxe. I paid a premium for it, as I was at a pen store and spent a lot of time trying out pens. I didn't want to spend much more, but they charged list price and I felt obligated to buy it there because they turned me on to it. I love writing with it. It is a good size, not too thin or thick, and capped, is light to medium weight for me.

 

My surprise is that others describe Aurora as having nibs on the fine side. I am using an EF nib, and I think it writes like a F, and almost like a medium. It is very smooth, only scratchy if I'm angled wrong.

[randyholhut]

Only Aurora I have is a solid black Idea, one of their low-end C/C pens that I bought from Levenger about six years ago -- long before I got truly obsessed with pens. It's about the size of a Phileas, but much plainer with a rubberized barrel.

 

It has a medium steel nib that writes more like a broad, lays down a thick wet line. Maybe it's only their school pens that write wet. It's a nice enough pen that I kept around because of how smooth it writes and how well it fits in my hand.

 

I've never been interested in getting more Auroras though. Too much of a Parker/Sheaffer/Esterbrook guy, I suppose. But an Aurora Idea is a pretty good pen and worth seeking out if you come across a NOS pen (don't know if they still make them).

[Mannenhitsu]

I really like Aurora pens very much! Sadly, I agree that too little is said about them here on the FPN. That being said, my experiences with them have been very positive.

 

My only pet peeve about them is that they tend to write a little fine and dry for my tastes. However, I may replace the medium nib on my Mare to a broad and let Richard Binder fine tweak it for me. However, when I will say that they are smooth starters.

 

I had not used my Mare for over two months and it was filled with Aurora Blue, and I put the pen to paper thinking that it would not write and away she went, never skipping a stroke. This says a lot about their nibs and feed sections they use. Very good craftsmanship. Also, they are nice and light, not too heavy.

 

Someday, I am going to have to buy an Optima to go with my Mare, so it won't be too lonley for a friend that can speak Italian.

[Titivillus]

I really like Aurora pens very much!  Sadly, I agree that too little is said about them here on the FPN.  That being said, my experiences with them have been very positive.

FPN is a board who's content is totally created by the members. It's up to every member to step forward and post about what they want to hear about. There is no secret cabal of people deciding what get's posted.

 

Well maybe there's one secret cabal but it's only got one member and he doesn't tell anyone what to post.:ph34r:

 

 

Kurt H

Edited December 17, 2005 by Tytyvyllus