Month: November 2023

Early thoughts on the Tibaldi Infrangible Black Gold fountain pen.

~ rupertarzeian ~ 13 Comments

This was an impulse buy when I visited Selfridges’ Fine Writing department fully intending just to have a look around. Having said that, I am very glad to have stumbled across this pen and have no “buyer’s remorse.”

Visitors to Selfridges’ pen area on the lower ground floor, will notice that it has diminished in size over the last few years, but still has an interesting range of high-end pens, including a good selection of Onoto for example, although the number of brands is reduced.

Having circled the island of attractive displays in the brightly lit glass counters, one looks along the row of displays in glass cabinets along the rear wall. Here I found a cabinet of Tibaldi pens, in various colours and moved in for a closer look. I might have moved on eventually, but the young lady assistant, Monshoor, timed her approach just right and asked if I needed any help. “Yes, help me to not buy any more pens” is what I might have said. Instead, something in my brain took over and said “Thank you, can I please have a look at that one?” and pointed to a fountain pen from the display of Tibaldi Infrangible (meaning “unbreakable”) pens. She unlocked the glass window and handed the pen to me.

Tibaldi Infrangible. Made in Italy.

Here I should point out that most photos of this pen do not do it justice. Even getting it home and photographing it in my light box, the multiple tiny LEDs did not show off the material at its best. It really needs sunlight or a bright spotlamp.

There are ten colour options with this model. This particular version is, I think, called the Black Gold. I say “I think” because I have since seen a similar pen for sale on eBay but described as the “Chrome Yellow Special Edition.” Certainly there is a Chrome Yellow version, but according to photos on the official Tibaldi website, it has the patterned resins in the cap only, whereas the barrel and section are all black. I am not aware of any special editions. The Black Gold, on the other hand, has swirls of yellow in the cap, AND barrel and grip section. I read that they are formed of gold dust in the resin.

Yes, this is the same pen, but from another side.

Anyway, whatever this version is called, I was smitten. Under the bright spotlamps in the shop, the coloured resins came alive with a brilliance as I turned the pen in my hands. Although it is the colours which initially catch your attention, the high quality of the resin in the hand is reassuring, polished and gleaming. The steel nib also looked immaculate. The nib is paired with an ebonite feed, a feature which I much appreciate, to improve ink flow and reduce hard-starts.

Steel nib, in a Medium.

Having confirmed to Monshoor that I wished to buy the pen, she offered to get me another one in a box. Here, some care is needed as the patterns in the coloured resins on every pen are unique. This is a pen that really is best bought in a bricks and mortar shop where you can look closely at what you are buying.

I enjoyed being able to compare the display model with a similar one, but concluded that I preferred the distribution of colours in the display model that I had seen first and so that was the one that I took.

I had not yet tried writing with the pen, nor checked the nib other than a brief visual. Under my loupe, the nib was even more pleasing than I first thought and looked to be tuned just the way I like, with the nib slit narrowing towards the tip but still with the smallest of gaps, showing light between the tines at the tipping. The tipping was nicely rounded, polished and symmetrical and the tines were well aligned.

Converter included.

The pen came with a converter and a packet containing one black and one blue cartridge, of the standard international size. I flushed the nib and section and pondered what ink to use. Although I try most new pens first with Waterman Serenity Blue, I decided instead, quite rightly as it turns out, that the pen would like an Italian ink and filled it with Campo Marzio Tabacco, a rich dark brown that flows and shades well.

And so to the writing experience. The grip area is of generous girth. There are cap threads and a step at the barrel, to enable the cap to close flush with the body. You do feel these but I do not find them uncomfortable. The nib, as expected, wrote smoothly and with an ink flow that was neither too wet nor too dry. It should be noted that the nib is very firm.

Capping the pen: The cap unscrews with about one and a quarter turns. A useful tip is that when you have a pen with patterns in the cap and the barrel, it is nice to line them up (if you can), the same way every time. This pen has three entry points for the cap threads, giving you three choices for the position of the cap, in relation to the barrel. The way to take advantage of this is to hold the cap horizontal, with the clip at the top, or 12 o’clock position and then insert the pen with the nib also at the 12 o’clock position, into the cap until it touches the threads. Then turn the cap slowly, the wrong way until you hear the first click and then tighten the cap in the correct direction. Repeat, but with two clicks and then with three clicks and remember which of these gives you the best result.

My notebook set-up.

The cap has a steel pocket clip, notable for its absence of any adornment. It is simply a straight, rectangular bar and appears to be chrome plated. It is very stiff to raise and so would grip a pocket securely but would be hard to operate. The cap can be posted, quite securely and covering the barrel to about one half of the cap’s length, but the pen then becomes about 160mm long. The uncapped pen measures a comfortable length of 130mm and so I find no need to post the cap.

In the unlikely event of any problems arising, all Tibaldi products have a 24 months’ guarantee, against any manufacturing defect. The pen comes in a sturdy black cardboard box with a slide out tray and a dark orange paper outer sleeve. It is a nice box if you wish to keep it, whilst at the same time being a box that you could recycle without missing too much.

I am delighted with the pen. Features that I particularly enjoy are:

  • beautiful autumn-leaf gold colours and distribution of contrasting colours in the resin;
  • a joy to have and to hold, as well as to write with;
  • comfortable to grip and of an ideal length unposted (for me);
  • well made steel nib: smooth, with good ink flow but very stiff;
  • three alignment options in capping the pen;
  • converter included (as well as two cartridges to get you started);
  • last but not least, an ebonite feed: a rare luxury for a pen at this price.
Ebonite feed.

All in all, this looks and feels like a pen that you could use happily for hours on end and then simply gaze upon for a few hours more.

A few indulgences. Tibaldi pen, Stalogy notebook and a freshly-baked oatmeal cookie with cranberries.

The Benu Euphoria Bourbon fountain pen: early thoughts 7th blogiversary post.

~ rupertarzeian ~ 8 Comments

In my recent post about my pen show haul, I mentioned my Benu Euphoria Bourbon and the fact that it deserved a post of its own. Well, here it is.

I first laid eyes on this pen at the London Pen Show in October 2023, on Derek Bambrough’s Stonecott Fine Writing table. The pen just calls to be picked up and looked at. Also on the same table were inks from Diamine’s Shimmering Fountain Pen Inks range, including Caramel Sparkle and it did not take me long to imagine them together.

The Benu Euphoria, Bourbon edition.

All of this surprised me, because I was not previously drawn to fountain pens that are sparkly, nor had I any urge to use glittering inks. I thought that I would have no use for them and that they would clog my pens. As recently as 31 July 2023 in my post on the 21 plus 5 pen questions, I had been dismissive of sparkly pens and inks, although mentioning that if I were to buy a sparkly pen, it would be a Benu Euphoria. This name-dropping suggested a knowledge of sparkly pens which was a little disingenuous, as I had been shown a Benu only the day before, at a pen club meet.

I later read on Cult Pens’ site, that Benu was created in 2016 and that the Euphoria range celebrates life and things that bring us joy. This particular model celebrates Bourbon, a whisky (or whiskey in the USA) distilled from maize and rye and named, according to The Concise Oxford Dictionary, after Bourbon County in Kentucky where it was first made. I have not found any suggestion that the pen celebrates the Bourbon chocolate biscuit, named after the French or Spanish House of Bourbon. Details of this pen range as well as some special editions and the other lines can be seen at http://www.benupen.com.

Ten facets on the cap and barrel.

Handling this pen at the pen show, the material did not suggest whiskey to me, but rather a woodland carpeted with sun-lit autumn leaves. As you turn the pen in the hand, areas of red appear, like pools of blood at a crime scene. Not exactly a joyful image I agree, and I do not mean to spoil the pen for anyone, but I thought of Armenia and its troubled history. Benu pens are hand-made in Yerevan, Armenia. I found the pen both poignant and beautiful and, having some Armenian ancestry myself, of course I had to buy it. And a bottle of Caramel Sparkle.

Diamine’s Caramel Sparkle, shimmering ink.

The pen appears to be made of a transparent acrylic, generously infused with fragments of glitter which catch the light and give the pen its richly golden-brown depth, with areas of red in the cap and the barrel. It was really the patches of red that sold it for me. The grip section and cap threads are black, as is the broad cap band, on which the name BENU appears. The pen is faceted (although not the grip section) with ten polished sides. The facets of the cap align perfectly with those of the barrel, which is both impressive and very pleasing.

There is no separate finial at either end, just slightly convex or domed acrylic ends which, like the rest of the pen, are beautifully smooth and polished.

The nib is a number 6 sized Schmidt, in stainless steel. Mine is a Broad, marked with an ornate “B” in the centre of the imprint. It writes beautifully smooth and wet but not too wet. The pocket clip is also stainless steel and sprung, to lift when the top end is squeezed, to enable the clip to slide easily over a pocket.

Faceted barrel. Broad nib writing sample.

Uncapped, the pen is a very good length, around 137mm, being well above my preferred minimum of 130mm. The grip area is also of a good length offering plenty of space for different grips. If, like me, you grip the pen quite high up, then you may find your thumb resting on the cap threads but these are heavy duty and not sharp. Further up the section, there is a step where the coloured material begins which allows the cap to be more flush with the barrel, although not completely. The cap takes about two and half rotations to remove although I had not even noticed this before now. The cap can also be posted although the pen becomes ridiculously long and back-weighted.

The pen came with a Schmidt converter but can also take standard international cartridges and could be eye-droppered, although I have not tried.

Schmidt nib and converter too.

Naturally, I was eager to try out the pen and also the Caramel Sparkle ink. I was delighted with both! The ink makes for an excellent combination with the Bourbon. The ink is a joy in itself. Gold glitter settles at the bottom of the bottle like sediment in a wine and the bottle needs shaking before filling the pen. Then it is entertaining just to watch the glittery ink swirling in the bottle. At our recent pen club meet, the ink drew much interest and I gave samples to five of our group.

I have not had any trouble with ink clogging the pen or causing hard starts. I give the pen a little shake before writing to wake up the glitter although I am not sure that this is necessary. The ink is a lovely golden brown and dries with a gold sheen. It is marvellous to watch fresh ink on paper via an illuminated loupe, as the tiny glitter particles swim around like pond life, until the ink dries and the sheen appears.

Woooh, sheeny!

I am very glad to have found this pen and to have made the purchase. Coincidentally, like Benu, this blog also started in 2016. As I write this, on 5 November, it is the seventh blogiversary. I take this opportunity to thank everyone for reading, liking and commenting over the years. I love the interaction that the blog brings, in this wonderful, global community. Special thanks also to those who have been kind enough often to include my blog in their own weekly lists of links, notably The Gentleman Stationer in his Sunday Reading posts, the Pen Addict in Sunday’s Misfill posts and The Well-Appointed Desk in their Link-Love posts. Recognition from these far larger blogs across the pond, is very gratifying.

Today’s post is my 248th of this blog. The blog has drawn 546,000 views to date and the number of new subscribers has roughly kept pace with the number of posts. Am I losing interest in the pen hobby, after seven years? Not at all. As my latest venture into sparkling pens and inks shows, I am still discovering new things.

When pen, ink – and facets – are perfectly aligned.