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HASKOSON celluloid


DvdRiet

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A couple of months ago, I discovered this pen for sale on a German pen forum and loved the look of it so much that I had to get it. I really like the weight and balance of this pen and the feel of the ultra-smooth finish, so I wanted to share my thoughts on it here in the forum. I’m not a professional pen reviewer, so please forgive my amateur descriptions and photos!

 

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This was my first time buying a pen from a pen turner rather than one of the bigger pen manufacturers, so I was a tiny bit nervous about what that would be like. Especially because this was a purely online purchase based on photos and messages and not at something like a pen show where I could test it out first. And the ‘forum special’ price of 200 euros for a pen is not exactly an everyday purchase for me. Luckily, I was not disappointed!

 

The man behind HASKOSON Schreibgeräte Manufaktur is pen turner Gerrit de Boer. After a pleasant exchange on the German forum, he packaged it up for me in a leather pen sleeve and sent it promptly on its way to the Netherlands.

 

The pen is made of dark orange and blue celluloid and fitted with a black ebonite section and cap, all of which are highly polished to an extreme mirror-smooth perfection.

 

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The threads on the pen are very precise and everything seals up neat and tight. I have left the pen unused for several weeks with absolutely zero drying out.

 

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This pen was originally fitted with a removable (twist-in) Schmidt #5 c/c unit with rollerball pen point, which I naturally replaced with a fountain pen nib unit. (I have fitted it with a Schmidt nib unit temporarily while I decide what kind of nib I would like to have permanently on this pen.)

 

It’s a smooth, well-made pen with a lot of attention to precision and detail, and it feels very light and perfectly balanced in my hand. The cap does not post, but at about 124 mm, the pen is long enough to use comfortably unposted. I usually only post my tiny vintage pens that are too small to write with comfortably anyway, so I don’t mind that the cap cannot be posted. But I do have to be careful where I put the cap down when writing, as it doesn’t have a clip, although Gerrit can place a roll-stop on request.

 

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All-in-all I really like this pen and I’m glad I decided to take a chance on something different with a hand-turned pen for a change. It’s a very nice addition to my growing pen collection.

 

The measurements:
Capped 134mm
Uncapped 124mm
Barrel diameter 12,8mm
Section diameter 10,7mm

 

Thanks for reading my post! If you want to know more about my experience with this pen, I would be glad to answer any questions I can. You can also find out more about Gerrit’s pens and contact him on Instagram @ Haskoson. (I have no affiliation with HASKOSON/Gerrit de Boer, just a satisfied customer.)

 

 

 

Co-founded the Netherlands Pen Club. DM me if you would like to know about our meetups and join our Discord!

 

Currently attempting to collect the history of Diplomat pens.

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  • sansenri

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  • DvdRiet

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  • SpecTP

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That's really lovely, DvdRiet!

The celluloid is beautiful and the contrast of it's rounded body vs the flat top ebonite dark cap is striking but very attractive.

I actually love clipless pens (several of my ebonite pens are without clip) and like you, I never post my pens except the very tiny ones...

Thank you for the very nice review.

 

I was already thinking where you might trace a replacement nib for it, but if I recall, Schmidt nibs are proprietary size, so it might be that you can only swap with another Schmidt nib. Besides schmidtpenparts.com that comes to my mind, you may get better advise on the German forum...

:)

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Thanks, @sansenriand @SpecTP

 

I think Gerrit said that it's an old celluloid. And I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was about the design that intrigued me, other than that blue and orange together, but I think it was indeed that juxtaposition of the round end and flat top. (Leave it to an Italian to see it immediately! ;) )

 

I am getting used to the clipless, but I'm also thinking of asking a very talented local jewellery-maker that is known for beautiful pieces that look like ancient artefacts to fashion some kind of wrap-around roll stop for it. I think that could be a gorgeous addition to the pen if done tastefully.

 

As for the #5 Schmidt, this screw-in nib unit is a standard size, but the threads of the housing are quite specific. I had originally thought I could use this pen for an 18k JoWo nib that I had harvested from a clunky kit pen, but the #5 JoWo housing will not screw in because the threads are cut to a different width. The JoWo nib and #5 feed do fit inside the Schmidt housing and I had successfully swapped them out. But then it turned out that the JoWo I harvested seems to have been modified to fit the kit pen and is too wide to fit inside the cap (of this pen or any other pen I have tried). My suspicion, due to the width at the shoulders, is that it is a #6 that has been squeezed down to fit a #5 feed. Long story short, I ended up putting the Schimdt #5 back in this pen for now until I decide what I want, but I have to admit that I am actually quite impressed with how smooth the Schmidt is and how nicely it performs for a standard steel nib that only cost me about 7 euros!

Co-founded the Netherlands Pen Club. DM me if you would like to know about our meetups and join our Discord!

 

Currently attempting to collect the history of Diplomat pens.

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Well if ordinary #5 nibs fit, as long as you use the same feed, then you have time to search around.

I own a rather pretty Conklin Symetric pen that unfortunately was let down by an awful Conklin #5 nib. With patience, when opportunity came round, I bought a used #5 Visconti gold nib, which has completely changed the pen's performance for the better.

 

Check carefully though because if I understand Schmidt nibs have a V shaped end that goes inside the collar with the feed, and the feed has some sort of protrusion which catches on the V shaped end and holds the nib in place. It might be that you need to file the feed down to fit another size 5 nib inside the collar.

Perhaps someone else can give better advice, I'm really not experienced with Schmidt nibs.

 

My understanding also is that Schmidt nibs are actually made by Jowo (despite being a different design) and generally they are smooth and perform well.

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