Mentmore Diplomat review

[Armchop]

:meow:

Brief review of the Mentmore Diplomat (the new version Mentmore company).

:bonk:

Cannot be bothered to take the time to set up my digital macro, take the pics and post them. You can see pics on the Mentmore website.

Bought on ebay for £18. "Retails" for £39.

 

Build 4/5

Nice and solid metal. Good weight.

 

Comfort. 2/5

Not to my liking. I do not tend to hold my pens close to the nib. This pen is built with quite long nib section. Consequently I find I am holding onto the screw thread / lip where the nib section and main barrel marry up. This join is not smoothly contoured so it feels like holding onto a step. )On my other pens ehere this happens there is a much smoother transisition).

 

Nib 2/5

Sold as a medium. It is the gold-plated version, the cheapest of the three builds Mentmore supplies, the others being 14ct or 8ct solid gold. The nib does write suprisingly smoothly. You only need a light touch on the paper. HOWEVER - it is very dry and puts down so little ink that the line looks translucent compared to the same ink in another pen. The line is more "fine" than medium. Also, despite writing smoothly you can hear the nib on the paper and it is very annoying.

 

It will not be entering into my rotation.

 

(I used Waterman blue-black and my standard 80gsm exercise paper that I use for composing my teaching notes).

 

Armchop

[LapsangS]

These are actually made by the Chinese Duke pen company.

[auscan]

I just purchased a vintage Mentmore Diploma for $4 (AUD). Almost sounds like Diplomat. Im finding hard to find information on this company. Does anyone know when this company turned to china? I was suppised to look up mentmore.com and see 'Duke' Looking pens.

[kissing]

They are Duke pens, I'm afraid Only stamped and labelled differently. My information about this is limited, but I think that Mentmore was initially a fully European brand (British?) that made its own products in its own factories. However, the current Mentmore brand has contracted with Dukes to supply its pens, and sell it in Europe under the Mentmore name (and probably at inflated prices too )

[georges zaslavsky]

The older mentmore company was far more interesting.

[auscan]

They are Duke pens, I'm afraid Only stamped and labelled differently. My information about this is limited, but I think that Mentmore was initially a fully European brand (British?) that made its own products in its own factories. However, the current Mentmore brand has contracted with Dukes to supply its pens, and sell it in Europe under the Mentmore name (and probably at inflated prices too )

Yes, The pen I bought has Mentmore Diploma Made In England, scribed on the side, it looks to be a 1930s pen, Beutifull clip and lever, A real quality made, nice looking pen. Its too bad that they are nolonger around (English Company), and makes me wonder why.

[RichardS]

They are still around, they're just not making pens. Mentmore became Platignum in the late 1950s or 60s, and rode out the collapse of the UK fountain pen market by making inexpensive (and to be honest, not very nice) school cartridge pens.

 

The company is now a PLC and I think has a quote on the UK AIM stockmarket; it's in the booming business of self-storage. Interestingly, before it floated, it changed its name from Platignum to ... Mentmore!

 

Here's reminder of the glory days that I happened to choose for my avatar a few days ago: a genuine British-made Mentmore Diploma bought on Ebay for about £30. Note the attractive facets ground into the clip, reflecting the same design on the filler lever.

 

(PS Auscan - looks like you got an extremely good deal!)

 

http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/8767/dsc1538800qs1.jpg

Edited February 7, 2007 by RichardS

[auscan]

Thanks for the info, they realy did make wonderful looking pens. I think this will be the start of my mentmore collection!.