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  1. OK, so apparantly February is Interantional Correspondance month - much like write a novel in a month - this is write a letter/postcard to someone for every day in Feb. An ideal thing for folk looking for excuse to use their fountain pens. Here's a link to what the fuss is all about. http://incowrimo.org/2017/01/sbre-brown-endorses-incowrimo/
  2. Aurora 88 Sole's release is nearly here! As you may know the new Aurora 88 Sole will be released during this summer, specifically, this piece will be available by the end of July. As we have had the chance to have it in our hands, we would like to share some pictures with you all! The fountain pen will be available in EF, F, M, B, BB. In order to get to know more details about this novelty please click here. Remember you can already pre-order this spectacular pen in our website. Furthremore, if you would like to know more information do not hesitate to contact us through info@iguanasell.com
  3. Hello, I'm 18 years old an I've been trying to fix my handwriting since 8th grade. Before 8th grade, I use to write in cursive, which was the font that I was first taught. I then tried to write in print and managed to write better, well sort of, at least the letter were more lisible. Gradually, I changed my font for better handwriting and in 2014, when I was in 10th grade, my writing was quite nice, especially with traditionnal Pilot Frixion Ball and a Staedler Triplus Fineliner But then, 11th grade came, taking notes becamed a hassle as the teacher read extremely fast and now, my writing rhythm is so fast that I can't write normally anymore. I'ved tried to beautify my font during Summer but entering this year in 12th grade, it hasn't helped much either. Please tell me what is my problem now and what I should do to make my writing more appreciable.
  4. Iguana Sell

    New Visconti Pininfarina Iridium

    Visconti has just introduced the latest addition to their Pininfarina collection, Visconti Pininfarina Iridium. After Visconti Pininfarina Carbongraphite and Nanotech, Visconti has decided to pair up again with the Italian car design firm in order to create this masterpiece.This time, the key material is Iridium. Iridiscence is a physical phenomena that, in different materials and depending on the visible spectrum and corner of view changes colour. This effect, that you may have noticed before in the rainbow, bubbles or a butterfly's wings is present on this fountain pen's body. Furthermore avional iridium has been protected by metal making the piece ultra resistant to scratches. Available in fountain pen or rollerball the edition is limited to 388 pieces. Want to be even more surprised? Technology goes further, Visconti has created and patented a new nib called Tobular Smarttouch that is made out of chrome 18 and retractible, available in EF-F-M-B-STUB. Fountain pen: https://www.iguanasell.com/products/visconti-pininfarina-iridium-fountain-pen-multicolour-limited-edition Should you need additional information please do not hesitate but contact us through info@iguanasell.com Below you may enjoy some pictures of this truly amazing piece!
  5. I have to confess I got bogged down in the collected letters of both John Steinbeck and Jane Austen, and so decided that maybe reading other people's letters was not for me. I tried it again with the letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, but again gave up after a while. Then, in 2015, two books got me into reading other people's mail: The first os Letters of Note, compiled by Shaun Usher. It is an eclectic collection, and it frequently contains reproductions of the actual letters. Most of the letters are very interesting, many beautiful, but my absolute favourite is a standard form letter from a Bureau of Etiquette in China, AD 856. "I was ready to sink into the earth with shame." Indeed. Wonderfull stuff. The second one is Simon Garfield's To the Letter, an ode to (or obituary for) the letter, which covers the history of the letter from ancient Greece to now, the history of the postal system, various famous letter writers, and some letters from Chris Barker and Bessie Moore, who wrote to each other while he was stationed in North Africa during WWII, fell in love, carried on their romance by mail, and finally got married. (Garfield has since edited a collection of their letters, My Dear Bessie.) I heartily recommend both books, and I plan to give collected letters another go. Maybe Kurt Vonnegut or Mark Twain will be the thing. We'll see. Whose letters do you read?
  6. Hi guys, it has been a long time that I am struggling for legible and good handwriting, I went through different types of handwriting, first I wrote in cursive but never became fluent with it then I tried separate words but were looking kind of childish writing, then I wrote on middle of the line then again I jumped back on the line with different techniques of writing, so I came to this form so that you good people can help me improve my handwriting. My one more problem is that I can write in more than 20 styles (2 of which are attached in the photo) this has became problem for me because which one style should I finalize and choose. My handwriting attached in this photo are 2 writings, open photo it will be named "1" and "2" in other photo attached (written in red colour on the photo) so you people can distinguish between two different handwritings of mine, my both handwritings in both pics are legible means I can write it fast and fluent but tell me by looking at the photo that is such writing acceptable or not and which one should I choose, thanks.
  7. A short while ago, the very nice people at Cult Pens suggested I'd like to have some new inks to play with. Who am I to refuse an offer like that? http://writerlywitterings.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/dsc_0001.jpg?w=640 Lots of inks side-by-sideA year ago I started to use Cult Pens' own Deep Dark Blue ink. This was a colour they designed to match their own logo, and it was made by Diamine in the UK (a brilliant firm with the best range of fountain pen inks, I think). I love Deep Dark Blue, and in fact it took over as my mainstay. I tend to have two or three pens with me while working, and the one I use daily (the Visconti, because it's bullet-proof and will never scratch), is generally filled with this ink now. Well, last month the nice people at Cult Pens gave me some more ink to try, and it was so good, I had to buy some more. The inks I have tested are the Deep Dark range, including green, brown, red and purple. For comparison purposes I've also mentioned the blue again (which I'll need to replenish soon, since the tide's going out in my old bottle). All the inks performed well in my pens. I used a pair of Cross pens, mostly my fine nibbed one, and my three Conway Stewarts, which include medium, B and italic medium. http://writerlywitterings.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/dsc_0002.jpg?w=191 Ignore the doctor's prescription at the bottom!First observation: it is clear to me that these inks deserve a fat nib. With the fine Cross the ink works well, but it's not so effective as using my standard, Diamine Passion Red, for marking up and editing. The main thing I use this pen for is putting in corrections on my MSs, and for this the Deep Dark Red fails utterly! It's so dark that (for my eyesight) when it is put on paper, it's impossible to tell an inserted comma from blank toner on the page. And it makes my writing look like a drunken spider's … (bottom para). However, as with other inks, when it's used in a fatter nib (middle para) it suddenly takes on a gorgeous life of its own. The thicker lines start paler and go dark as the nib moves with my italic nib. The variation of line thickness and ink colour is quite noticeable on my Rhodia paper – I just hope that comes across in the photo. I think it's a very good alternative to Oxblood. The brown ink in the top paragraph shows the colour depth with thicker lines even more distinctly, I think. The brown is a good colour that oddly seems to come out more pale than, say, Diamine's Saddle Brown, but that's no bad thing. I think I prefer this. It'll almost certainly be a regular ink in my Kaweco with the italic nib. I thought it would be useful to look at a standard Prussian Blue in comparison with the Deep Dark inks. On the photo at the top you can see how the Deep Dark Blue compares. http://writerlywitterings.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/dsc_0003.jpg?w=191 I like the purple in the middle!The odd thing is, the purple comes over as darker than the Blue - and yet it's got a slight reddish hue that shows up very pleasantly even with my Visconti medium nib (both were written using this pen). Once, when talking to another author, he scathingly mentioned fountain pen users who were so – well, let's just paraphrase – weird that they used green inks. I surreptitiously concealed my pen (Diamine Kelly Green at the time). This, for me, is the one colour I probably won't use. I do like greens (as the above anecdote confirms), but this is, for me, either not quite dark enough or too dark. If it were a little more concentrated, so that the hints of the colour came through in the same way as with the purple, I'd like it more. It does show good depth – look at the last couple of lines, where I say "Diamine's Emerald", for example. You can see an almost black shade with the overlapped strokes. However, for my money it could be deeper black so that the greenish tint only shows on occasion. But that is the only one I won't be using regularly. I really love these new colours. The brown is a bit of an oddity, but I like the way the colour works. As for the others, they give hints of their base pigments which are not apparent at first sight. When I put down a page in Deep Dark Blue, for example, at first glance it could be a Mont Blanc black; the Deep Dark Purple could be anything. However, set the purple against the blue or the red, and all of them take on their own individuality. For me, working with several colours at the same time in multiple pens, this gives me a subtle variation in style that really appeals. And for now, the only real problem I have is whether to refill my Visconti with Deep Dark Blue or Purple. Decisions, decisions … My thanks to Cult Pens for the Deep Dark Blue, Deep Dark Brown and Deep Dark Green – but I bought the other inks for myself. This review was not biased by bribery! http://writerlywitterings.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/dsc_00011.jpg?w=640
  8. This is a video I made a while back that I thought this community would enjoy. The video is a demonstration on the Pilot Custom Heritage 92 in smoke, with a broad nib. The ink is Noodler's Ottoman Rose which I got as an ink sample. Enjoy! I have more videos like this on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6pAl06Dx2E1WqWof7JnnvA
  9. a.zy.lee

    Parker 45 Demonstration (Video)

    Here's a video I made a while ago demonstrating a Parker 45. It's the midnight blue model with a medium nib. I have it inked with Noodler's Navy which matches it almost perfectly. The bit-rate in the video is kinda low due to editing with Windows Movie Maker. Enjoy! I have more videos like this on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6pAl06Dx2E1WqWof7JnnvA
  10. Greetings, I was looking to buy a copy of Edward Johnston's famous book, and stumbled across this piece of information: it would seem that copies printed prior to the 1940s have 499 pages, whereas those published after the 1940s only have 434 pages. Does anyone know which of the pages might be missing in the shorter version? Could the text be more condensed? I am also aware that there are a couple of recent reprints, but from what I understand, these books are printed after photocopies of the original version. Has anyone compared the old with the new? Cheers!
  11. I've noticed that it is nearly impossible to write slowly on paper that has even a tiny bit of texture. As in, the resistance created by the 'peaks' and 'valleys' on the paper surface can only be overcome if one writes at a particular speed. Only then the curves are smooth, and the handwriting flowing. Does that mean my handwriting will be 'bound' to the type of paper I use for practice? A smoother texture would mean more slippage, while a rougher texture would be even worse. Is there a 'control' in this experiment I can use? Nib? Flow? Something that helps me adjust as I encounter variation in paper quality? This has become a point of distress.
  12. Curious what Fountain Pen friendly envelopes fellow pensters use when writing their pen-pals. Tell the rest of us what envelope you use, why and where you get them and what they cost. If possible, post links and pictures of the envelopes, but unused and perhaps with writing on them. Looking forward to seeing what others use when writing their pen pals and where they get them.
  13. Good evening, I have just finished my last sheet of G Lalo writing paper and am looking to replace it with something a bit different. In an ideal world I'd find a nice cream, light grey or mid blue paper available in quarto sizes with a nice watermark but I am a realist! Smythson is just too expensive, Clairefontaine as far as I can see only do white and G Lalo (at least the blue) just isn't terribly interesting. I usually just print the address on at home so I'm not looking to acquire reams of personalised paper. So can anyone recommend a good paper that can easily be acquired in England?! Many thanks and happy 2016!
  14. good morning everyone, i have a nakaya portable (cigar) with a broad stub nib (customized by john mottishaw). beside the yama-budo ink from pilot i also use the kiwaguro nano carbon black. but i have a few problems with it: as it is a thicker ink, it tends to stick in the back part of the converter and i therefore have to give it a shake before writing or even push the filling mechanism in order to get the ink to the feed. do some of you have the same problem? do you have a solution for this? i also have a problem with the filling, especially with the ink bottle. as instructed i turn it upside down and back to get the ink into the mold, but i have to do this multiple times as the mold hardly gets filled enough in order to cover the whole nib (and a small part of the grip section). therefore not enough ink is sucked into the converter. do you use seringes to avoid this problem? thank you in advance for your answers. cheers, nils
  15. eugene_krabs

    Lets Snail Mail Xmas Cards

    I'm kinda new to this forum but who likes to exchange xmas cards trough snail mail just let me know you can e-mail me at "damian13899@outlook.com" feel free to send me an message any time ill reply asap
  16. Hello, I would like to invite all Reddit users to, on November 6th, Fountain Pen Day, go to /r/WritingPrompts, and respond to a prompt by writing a story or poem with a fountain pen, scanning that writing, uploading it, and sharing it. This will help to spread the spirit of Fountain Pen Day! Important: More info here.
  17. What is some good paper for both printing and writing? I have found worksheets online which will help me practice my handwriting but I want it to be good to write on. I've heard Tomoe River paper is kind of good for printing and amazing for writing so... Is that what I should go with? What should I do? Thank you!
  18. moylek

    Show Us Your To-Do List

    In the spirit of the engaging and inspiring "show us pics of your desk" thread, I thought we might play show-and-tell with our to-do lists. I'll start, I guess ... http://ms.mcmaster.ca/~moylek/pub/fpn/djtu20150623.JPG The different shaped checkboxes indicate tasks for different client groups (with a circle for personal tasks). I use two pages per week, and all undone tasks are either carried forward each Monday, scratched off, or moved to a page of "things I should come back to (but rarely ever do :\ )".
  19. Fahrney's Pens in Washington, DC is hosting a Cursive Handwriting for Kids workshop on Saturday, 25 April 2015. http://www.fahrneyspens.com/pdf/cursive_handwriting_shop.pdf
  20. Beth Treadway Author

    Published Romance Authors Only - Us Contest Open

    NERFA Contest Announcement PERMISSION TO FORWARD The National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award (NERFA) is now open! Wouldn't this look great next to your book title: National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award finalist! The First Coast Romance Writers contest for books published in 2014 is now open for entries. This is one of the fastest growing romance writing contests out there and entries are capped, so you don’t want to miss out! First round judges are enthusiastic readers of romance, and final judges are bloggers, librarians, and booksellers. NERFA is open to Independent press, self-published, and digital first or digital only entries, as well as traditionally published books. All entries must have an original copyright date of 2014 and must have been available for purchase in the United States in 2014. Finalists receive a certificate, and winners receive a digital badge for their websites and a certificate. For more information and to enter, please visit the contest page on the First Coast Romance Writers website: http://www.firstcoastromancewriters.com/nerfa-contest-rules/ Full disclosure - this is sponsored by my writing chapter, a chapter of Romance Writers of America
  21. Good article with advice on writing during our creative time. http://blog.theliteracysite.com/health-creativity/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twc&utm_campaign=health-creativity&utm_term=20150220
  22. I got an old waterman's ideal #2 wetnoodle nib out of a fountain pen found on Ebay and put into mi Faber Castell E-Motion pearwood fountain pen! http://s26.postimg.org/yza9l4zex/10848813_10205690042309519_6753319126576676301_o.jpg Here's a video:
  23. a.zy.lee

    Lamy 2000 Video (Review?)

    I made a short video for the Lamy 2000 just for fun and I thought I'd share it with you guys. The video and editing style is obviously a blatant rip-off of theimmovablemovers' viral Namiki Falcon and Nakaya videos. I prefer the term 'inspired,' but yes, it's a rip-off. The dark background comes off really grainy and awful, so I apologise for that. It looked fine on my camera's display. I hope you enjoy the video.
  24. Hope more States will follow. http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/27986804/cursive-coming-back-to-tn-classrooms
  25. I first heard of the Visconti pen some months ago when I was working hard on my last book. It is the normal way of things for a writer. You would not believe the inventive ways by which an author can avoid writing. There is research, there is reading other people’s books to get a flavour for what is being read by other people, there is fetching a coffee, chatting to the postman, calling parents, friends, brothers, and irritating them with the fact that you’re desperately seeking any displacement activity that will save you from writing the next book. This day, I was looking at Cult Pens’ website, and found the Visconti. Now, I am an author. I have little in the way of decent expenses and equipment, but one thing I can claim for is things to be used for writing. And I like that. There is nothing, nothing whatsoever, as appealing to me as sitting with a blank sheet of paper and writing. With a few outline sketches and scrawls, I can plan out a book, and it’s much more enjoyable than bashing keys on a keyboard. Some years ago I went to Conway Stewart and proposed to them that they should design a new collection, perhaps to call it the Detection Collection, and work in collaboration with crime writers to create new pens. It was a success, and the Michael Jecks Pen was the result. Soon there will be more. I love the Michael Jecks pen, but I dare not take it out with me too often. It could be damaged, it could get lost, and that would mortify me because my Author's Prototype is literally irreplaceable, so generally I always used my first Conway Stewart pen, a Churchill. It’s a great pen. It writes well, and I like the size and weight, but there are some problems with it. The first issue for me is, after using it a lot in recent years, it has grown a little scratched. Nothing massive, but where I have carried it in my pocket, the edges have been rubbed and marked. I work two days each week at Exeter University for the Royal Literary Fund, helping students to write more effectively, and I do need to carry a pen with me all the time (I hate biros and won't use them). I have to travel to give talks and sign books, and doing this scratches my poor old pen. I can, I know, get it repolished, but then it would only get scratched again. Why bother? There is, however, another, more serious problem. Over the years I have used my Churchill a lot. Recently, I was researching a new character in the Devon and Exeter Institution, and had to write ten pages of A4. To do that, I had to refill the pen twice. Fortunately I had my travelling inkwell from Visconti with me, and that was enough to keep me going, but it caused a certain amount of frustration. There should, I felt, be a better way of working. I ought to be able to find a pen with a larger capacity. Not an eyedropper, because that is a surefire way to acquire smudges and stained fingers, but a pen with significantly more capacity than a standard piston or converter pen. For me, as a serious writer, such a pen was essential. That was why I began to look for a pen that would fulfil my requirements, and because I was looking at Cult Pen’s site, idly looking at the newer versions of my Visconti Travelling Inkwell, I found myself staring at their Homo Sapiens. I should state here that my version is the Bronze model. This is different to the Steel model, which has a different filling mechanism (please see the Note at the bottom of this review). The Homo Sapiens is a good size. For me, it fits the hand perfectly. I don’t like to cap my pens - mainly because I always worry that capping will scratch the barrel - and without the cap, the Homo Sapiens sits comfortably on the web between thumb and forefinger. Its weight is well balanced. It is nothing like as heavy as, say, my Michael Jecks Conway Stewart, but it’s a little more than my old Churchill, which is a little over light for my taste. And here I should mention the material it is made of. The adverts make a lot of this. It’s composed of a mixture of lava and, I have read, some form of resin or rubber. Some say it is basaltic lave from Etna, some say it is 50% lava. I don’t know and I care even less. I would imagine that lava alone would make for a cold and highly brittle material. This isn’t. Whatever it is that bonds the lava in this pen, it is lovely. It is instantly warm to the touch, and has a rock-hard feel. However, after carrying it in my shirt pocket, I was appalled to see scratches all over the cap. And not small ones, either, but large, silvery blotches smeared all over it. Mortified to have damaged my beautiful new pen, I rubbed the marks and was delighted to see them disappear. Later I realised that the shirt I’d been wearing had a hidden zip-pocket inside the main pocket, and it was the metal zip that had made those marks - not because the metal had marked the pen, but because the pen had rubbed and eroded the metal zip! The feel is good, the robustness is a delight. The adverts say that it won’t be affected by heat up to too hot to touch, and it is certainly rock-hard. This pen will not be damaged in normal use. I will never have to worry about scratches. However, some people may not like the matte effect. I do. There is one other aspect which I adore. Under very bright lamps or in sunlight, the pen glitters. There are tiny flecks of mica, so it seems, within it. When you first look at the pen, the material appears bland. It is not black, but more a kind of very deep grey. Depending upon the light, it can appear to be a tinted with blue or brown - it reminds me a little of the deep black of my old Bernese Mountain Dog, an almost black, but with hints of brown. Either way, it most certainly is not pure black. Even with the matte appearance of the lava mix, the pen itself is not a dull-looker. With two bands of bronze on the cap, a third, larger band on the barrel, which holds the words “Homo Sapiens”, and a spacer at the end, this pen looks glorious. The clip too is made of bronze, and has the distinctive Visconti curve. Apparently this is made to emulate the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, where Visconti is based. I've never been there (sadly), so I can't vouch for that. It does look, I think, elegant - but that's not the point. My only concern with a clip is, that it’s strongly sprung to guarantee that I won’t lose the pen (as I did with a Graf von Faber Castell Perfect Pencil some months ago, which slipped from my pocket). I was pleased to find that the spring behind the clip is certainly strong enough to hold this pen in the pocket. I have worn it in my pocket every day for about the last six weeks and have never had a concern about it falling out, even with thin shirt pocket material. I should just note here that the bronze is not lacquered or treated in any way. The bronze discolours or, as the salesmen like to say, “develops a patina over time”. In the past, I understand Visconti did provide a cleaning cloth with the early pens, but they don’t any more. However, I confess I rather like the discolouration. It makes the clip look distinctive, and I think makes the pen look more like the working tool it is. It isn’t a pretty Mont Blanc or Yard-o-Led: this is a functional writer’s workhorse. There is one thing that intrigues me, however, and that is that the clip and bands are supposed to be all bronze. Yet it is only the main pocket clip that tarnishes. All the bands on the cap and barrel seem to be unaffected. This could be because they are all handled more regularly, I suppose, but I'd have thought that the flat top surface of the clip would also be rubbed regularly and wear away the patina. I have no axe to grind here, but I thought it was interesting. Another thing I really, really like about the Homo Sapiens is the opening mechanism. Yes, most people will look at me like a twit for saying that, but this is just a delight to use. Most pens, obviously, use a simple screw thread or a push-fit. My Cross pens are all push-fit now. In the past, they used a strong spring to clip the cap to the body, but in recent years they have moved to a simple inner sheath of plastic that grabs the section. This seems fine, until you go to a black tie dinner and the pen falls out of its cap in your jacket, as I learned to my embarrassment. I don't trust plastic inner sleeves any more. A screw is safer, but it has the disadvantage of taking time to open. I know this is a small matter, but there are times when it’s an irritant to have to turn the barrel one and a half or two times just to remove the cap. The Visconti’s system is a kind of cross between a bayonet and an interrupted screw. In the cap is a spring-loaded cylinder. As you push the section of the pen inside, this cylinder pushes against the section. On the outside of the section you can see geometric slots cut at an angle. In the cap itself there are lugs that match them. Thus to close the pen, you push in the section, and twist 1/5th of a turn clockwise. To remove the cap, you push in and rotate it 1/5th of a turn anticlockwise. It’s quick, convenient, and a delight to use. I have seen one review that claimed this was a failing in the pen, because he found the pen kept uncapping itself in his pocket. I can only say this is not a problem I’ve experienced. So, getting down to the nitty gritty, how does it write? It is deliciously smooth and silky. I love my Conway Stewarts, and I would not say this is dramatically better, but the nib (a medium) is very soft to use, and lays down a reliable, clear line without ever skipping. It starts as soon as it is laid to the paper, and so far hasn’t failed once. Even when writing for extended periods, it just keeps on going. The nib is a curious one: it’s made of palladium, which is one of the few metals, like gold, which is valued in carats. Unlike gold, it is a slightly firmer metal, and for that reason the nibs are made of 23 carat palladium. That should mean that the nib will be even more resistant to corrosion than many gold nibs, apparently. Since I regularly clean my pens it won’t be a problem. The thing I really like most about the pen is that there is a great amount of variability in the thickness of the line. It's not a flex pen, but I do like to use inks that give shading, and I write (I guess) a little harder on the downstroke than sideways. This nib, without effort, gives me an almost stub-effect on my writing. It is purely because of this that I am writing a little more slowly than before. It is just a delight to use. The Conway Stewarts are good pens, with gorgeous nibs, but I do prefer this. However, as well as writing smoothly and beautifully, the best thing for me is, it keeps on writing. The bronze version has a wonderful “powerfiller” mechanism inside. This is an odd system to me. If I get the details wrong here, I apologise, but it's worth trying to explain. So, as far as I can make out from my researches: the barrel contains a cylinder with parallel sides. At the bottom, near the nib, these sides flare. Inside the cylinder is a piston, fully sealed, which slides up and down the cylinder. To fill it, you hold the nib in ink, and pull up on the end cap. It pulls on a titanium rod that draws the piston up. That does nothing to draw up ink, though. The ink is pulled in when you push the piston down. I know it’s counter-intuitive, but as you press the rod back into the pen’s barrel, the pistol is creating a vacuum behind it. As it reaches the flare in the cylinder, the vacuum is released, and sucks ink up into the void. Some people have got very confused with this. Personally, I love it. I will have to measure the precise quantity of ink that it draws, but it is a lot more than my old cartridge-converter pens - probably about double their capacity. Certainly I haven’t been able to run it dry yet while writing, and fortunately it works superbly well with my Visconti Travelling Inkwell. There is one last thing I must mention. When I received my pen, I was delighted to see that instead of the Visconti logo in the top of the cap, Cult Pens had taken the time to replace it with my initials. Visconti has a wonderful system called the “my pen” system, whereby the cap can be personalised to every owner in this way. You can have either initials, a semi-precious stone, or signs of the zodiac. It’s entirely up to you. That little touch for me, added to the appeal enormously. So, in short, it is a highly robust pen, constructed from material that is thoroughly scratch and heat resistant, strong and robust. The nib works beautifully - it is as near perfection as I have yet found. I find the appearance very attractive and interesting - there really is nothing quite like it. The ink reservoir is much larger capacity than others I have tried. I really like the system for removing the cap, the strength of the cap’s clip, and the overall weight and balance. For anyone who writes a lot and who is looking for a solid, reliable pen for everyday use, I would happily recommend the Homo Sapiens. You can see it here: http://www.cultpens.com/acatalog/Visconti-Homo-Sapiens.html I should add here that I am writing a weekly diary piece for Cult Pens over on their website at www.cultpens.com/blog and that they are sponsoring my writing. However, this review is based on my own use over six weeks and my own opinions. I hope the review is some help to others considering new pens. NOTE: All the comments above are specifically related to the Homo Sapiens oversized pen in bronze. The models in steel and the shorter pens do not use the wonderful powerfiller system, but instead use a simple piston filler. This will, I am sure, be plenty adequate for people who only want a pen for occasional note-taking or shorter writing, but for people like me who need more capacity, I’d recommend the bronze oversize every time. NOTE 2: Apologies for the lack of photographs. When uploading, none of the photos loaded. If I can figure out a cure, I will add them later!





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