Arbutus Artemis

[wobbuffet]

I bought this pen on Ebay for about $50 AU (40 + 10 shipping fee). It was originally selling for $60 +10 shipping fee on buy out but I the managed to best offer it down to $40 saving 33% off the price of the pen. I had bought a pen from them already so perhaps they cut me a discount.

 

First Impressions

Unlike the Harlequin that I bought, this came in a hard leather gift box like the one the Monteverdes and Parkers come in. It would make a perfect gift but I really wish this one came with the leather pouch. As I’ll say later, this is a very portable and flashy pen that I would recommend to others.

 

Appearance and Design

The pen lid is heavy. It has a magnetic lid so it’ll basically stick to the pen. It’s a fun pen… and that’s only because I spent hours seeing if I can drag the pen lid across my desk with the lid (yeah, I know I’m silly  ) It’s plated in platinum and it’s ridiculously shiny and dirty once you touch it. As it was with the Harlequinn, once you took off the pen lid, the rest of the pen was really light. Really really light.

 

Nib & Performance

The Schmidt fountain pen nib is very smooth. For some reason, the Artemis fountain pen is the only one that has a Schmidt nib. It’s about a medium broad and can blot paper. I noticed some ink flow problems with this one even when using cartridges. There’s sometimes an annoying air bubble inside that you have to poke out.

 

Filling

Takes what they call a delta ink cartridge but I haven’t found a proper converter for it. My Monteverde converter is too long to fit inside the pen. And please do not try to put two small cartridges inside. It gets stuck… 

 

Value

The pen is sweet, the nib is sweet. I really wish that they provided a converter for these. The price was reasonable.

 

Conclusions

I would recommend this to other people who are looking for a light shiny portable pen that’s not plasticky. I give this pen a 8/10.

 

I'll mount some really poor personal shots for the pen but you should really search it on Ebay to see some really nice shots. I can't seem to download the images from Auctiva.

 

[MYU]

Thanks for bringing attention to yet another obscure pen brand. I've seen it only once before, in your other review on the Harlequin... but apparently Arbutus is into other items like watches (I spotted a few on Amazon). The city "New York" is appended beneath the name on the box, but I highly doubt it is a New York brand... perhaps they're another entrant from China that has one small sales office in New York.

 

Anyway, Schmidt nibs are a dime a dozen, but they are generally good performers. What really goes into pens of this class is the body design. As for the converter, Delta does sell converters but they're pricey. Maybe someone here has experience with another brand converter that is compatible?

 

Here are some images from the eBay auction:

 

http://216.70.83.118/ebay/pens/p4bac55f_5.jpg

 

http://216.70.83.118/ebay/pens/p4bac55f_3.jpg

 

http://216.70.83.118/ebay/pens/p4bac55f_6.jpg

 

In general, a very nice looking pen that looks like it's more expensive than $60. You did well nabbing it for just $40.

Edited February 28, 2009 by MYU

[wobbuffet]

I went to a specialist pen store and found only one converter that would fit it mainly because of the shortness of the Artemis barrel. They called it a Retro 51 small converter. The blessed thing was very very small....

But that was reserved for another customer. Oh dear, now I have to wait for a month before they restock that...

Yeah, the Schmidt nib is really smooth. A bit inky but really smooth. I wish the Harlequin had the same nib...