Visconti Traveling Ink Well Thoughts And Demonstration

[sketchstack]

I recently purchased a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age and decided to also procure the Visconti Traveling Ink Well to accompany it. I will be discussing the latter product here.

 

My overall thoughts are conflicted: It's a very, very pricey little gadget and it's not even that complex of a design. However, I also thought immediately that it would be a crucial piece of my daily travel kit, particularly when I'm bringing my Homo Sapiens.

 

It really is just a little tube, mostly. There's a plug at the top that operates just like a wine cork. Inside the plug is a little blotter pad, which is nice.

 

What elevates this above being a mere tube is that it has a rubber semi-cone on the end where you insert a pen. When you jam a pen in there, the rubber helps seal it off. Then you draw up ink using whatever mechanism the pen is equipped with.

 

Obviously, it works really well with the Homo Sapiens, and they say it will work with many other pens. I wanted to try my Conid King Size and while technically it fit, I believe the nib shoulders were digging into the rubber a little. That made me nervous as I couldn't tell if it was being seriously impacted or just barely contacting the rubber. So moral of that story is don't expect this product to play well with large nibs (bigger than #6).

 

One issue I had: The branding is stamped on there with paint or something and it's not very well executed. Or it smudged in some places. Also some of the black parts are not actually black plastic --instead it's painted, and yes some of those areas were scraped. I don't really care much about those things, but for a premium brand asking a premium price for a fancy tube, it's kind of an insult that this left the factory...thought to be fair, maybe it was damaged after leaving the factory. In which case it's merely poor design. (Engrave the logo if it's that important!)

 

Bottom line: It's awesome and expensive.

 

I made a little video showing it in action:

 

https://youtu.be/d8-NjSGuUVI

[Oranges and Apples]

I loved the video and nice demonstration. Thank you.

[dms525]

I like the Visconti Traveling Inkwell. I used mine for a few years before I ever got my first Visconti pen. It's price is mildly outrageous, but it works very well and is (IMO) the best way to carry a few refills when traveling. I now travel with two of them, each with a different ink. I also find a syringe a better device for filling the inkwell than an eyedropper.

 

I have used mine to fill Pelikan pens (M600 and M800's) and other pens with Pistons and other pens that fill with converters.

 

Visconti used to make and sell traveling inkwells designed for specific makes of pens, but now it seems the "universal" model is being sold.

 

Thanks for your review.

 

David

[sketchstack]

This reminds me: One thing I didn't mention is I really like that it's modeled to be compatible with fountain pen cases. Whereas the TWSBI 'portable ink well' is more bulbous. (The TWSBI inkwell isn't very similar to the Visconti but it makes the point ...)

 

 

 

...It's price is mildly outrageous, but it works very well and is (IMO) the best way to carry a few refills when traveling. I now travel with two of them, each with a different ink...

[dms525]

This reminds me: One thing I didn't mention is I really like that it's modeled to be compatible with fountain pen cases. Whereas the TWSBI 'portable ink well' is more bulbous. (The TWSBI inkwell isn't very similar to the Visconti but it makes the point ...)

 

 

 

 

Yes! An excellent point, although I don't know whether or not that was a conscious design decision. In any case (No pun intended!), when traveling, I carry two Visconti Traveling Inkwells and one syringe in a 3-pen Nock case. Currently, I am using Nock's "Sinclair Zip" case. It has a slot meant for a notebook, which I use for some paper shop rags and a sheet of blotter paper in a Ziploc sandwich bag.

 

David

Edited February 8, 2017 by dms525

[Polanova]

I wish I had more than one - ideally one for every favourite ink

It`s a very simple but fantastic design. One really has to wonder why only Visconti came up with this idea???!!!

I do believe that I`ve seen pictures once of similarly looking Celluloid Inkwells from the 30ies.

If true they must be very rare!

[mmg122]

Really excellent video demo, sketch stack. I've had a traveling inkwell since they were first introduced and also carry mine in a Nock Sinclair. I haven't found anything better for traveling with ink. And...like both of you, I use a syringe to fill.

 

Mary

[jmccarty3]

Thanks for the nice demo. A dealer gave me a free traveling inkwell when I bought a Visconti Watermark. It's a neat concept, but I don' have much use for it, since I travel very little and don't go through ink that fast.

[Diderot]

Thanks for the video clip.

I bought one of these on a whim many years ago and found that I was using it frequently, particularly as I travel a lot.

As a side note, I only bought my first and only Visconti last year in Florence.