1000 Year Old Olive Tree Wood used to make my Pen

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair...

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.

Well that was basically how I felt in coming weeks whilst my Visconti nib was not up to par.

It was during that time to sooth my despair that I stumbled upon the internet on Duncan Ross fine work from Xzotic Pens.

A particular pen design caught my eye and I WhatsApp him my queries and on a bright sunny Saturday at about 10am, 6 March 2021, we had a pleasant casual conversation on a pen I fancied.

Unfortunately, the design I wanted he was unable to make it into a fountain pen, so I had to settle for a ballpoint type style. The design was so cool, I thought what the heck. Go for it. We agreed on a price, I choose the type of wood and finishing.

Once payments was made, Duncan proceeded and it was delivered super fast by Grab delivery. This was the fastest delivery on record time. Once Duncan informed me that he had passed it to grab, I received it within the hour. Talk about express service.

The wood I chose was from a 1000 year old tree from South Africa. I wanted the finished wood to be all natural with no varnish or any artificial finishing. 

The trim of the pens were brass coated in bronze.

The end product was pure art. Not one bit disappointed. It was beyond my expectations. 

The product arrived in a very simple yet elegant packaging. Although simple, the overall feel, built quality and magnetic features, would have cost Duncan a pretty penny. The Ang Pow packet was my refund for excess payments made via cash deposit machine at the ATM.

I would not mind repurposing this package for a pencil box

You can see Duncan took the time to provide explanation on the makings of the pen

I stressed to Duncan on the importance of wood grains to me and he did not disappoint 

Look how the grains pop after applying beeswax

Before (right) and after (left) the application of beeswax 

The pen is rightly names Knights Armour. The Knights armored helmet and sword  is the finial and clip for the pen.

  

Pen Storage Case

Greetings.

21 April 2021, 10.44am. It is such a bright, hot and humid day.

The sun is burning as I type this blog. I am 10 feet away from the window, yet, I can feel the heat of the blazing sun. 

I was recently shopping for a place to store my pens. I had options from Lazada, Ikea and other websites.

Lazada has some nice wood pen storage holders but they were bulky 

Ikea has the Alex drawer. This is the same holder used by Brian Goulet in his office room and also David Parker, better known as Figboot. The smaller drawers are used to store pens and larger ones are suitable for inks. Mind you, that you will need to get pen trays as it is not provided

The net had lots of other wooden options and I was flabbergasted but it suddenly dawned on me that it would be hard to conceal in my drawers. I certainly could not have the wooden storage left out in the open or displayed openly.

So I ended up settling for this. A Monteverde 36 slots nylon pen case. It may not be luxurious like a leather case but it is cheap and does it job to store pens well. AND being small in stature, it is concealable in my cabinet.

Measuring 12 inches by 10 inches

Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age

This exquisite pen was purchased in the first weeks of March 2021. But why am I only writing about it now? Well, because other than the looks it had nothing going for it. It was a terrible writer. I was utterly disappointed. I have been eyeing the pen for some time and at the time of purchase I paid more (extra RM300) as it was a new stock and the international price of gold had increased, further infuriating me. But, I just needed it in my collection. I had goosebumps all over just waiting for it’s arrival. 

When it arrived, the box was rather simple. Different from the overseas packaging I saw being reviewed widely on the internet. The overseas packaging was more rubbery inline with the packaging for my Lamy 2000. Disappointed?, in a way yes but packaging did not really matter as it will just end up in storage and not being used for anything. So I consoled myself by mentally thinking that I might have ended up paying more had the packaging been the ones I saw on the internet. 

This is the packaging the pen came in

The inside of the box housing the pen

The promotional materials that came with the pen. Enclosed is a lint free cloth to keep your pen always sparkling 

This is the packing generally being reviewed on the internet by many users, NOW see what I mean? My expectations were high because of the hype even from the packaging 

Snuggle fit of the pen inside the velvet lining 

Ok. Enough about the packaging. 

The looks, feel and overall ecstatics did not disappoint one bit. I was truly ecstatic and flushed by it. Stunning and a beauty from every angle. Solid built and carved out from the heavens. I was wowed! 

The pen cap utilizes a hook safe lock. The caping system prevents accidental unscrewing of the cap in your pocket, thereby preventing unwanted leaks. The cap is so easy to hook and unhook that it can be done in one hand. I have a video on this but unfortunately it is not compatible with IOS videos to download here   

 

The pen is made from basaltic lava  (from Mount Etna, Sicily, Italy) mixed with resin. Matt dark grey in finish with a ebonite rubbery look. But if far from rubbery. Don’t be deceived by its looks. It is virtually unbreakable and heatproof to over 100 degrees celsius. Rock solid in your hands. 

Slightly hygroscopic. It absorbs moisture in your hands. Using this pen for long hours will not make the grip section slippery. Warm to your touch and surprisingly soft, although it is built like a tank

Solid bronze trims. The clip is bridge shaped inspired by the ancient Ponte Vecchio bridge in Italy 

Picture from the net. Pointe Vecchio bridge, Florence, Italy

Vacuum power filler system made from titanium to resist ink corrosion 

18K gold nib. A beauty and a dream to look at. But that was about it. 

The writing was a major screw up, scratchy and skipped constantly. So much so I was so disheartened. I kept thinking I paid so much for a something that will end up a paperweight. I tried various inks but none was the wiser. The problem persisted. I used pressure to write (which I nave never done so with any of my other pens), yet it still skipped endlessly. 

Writing sample. I was so disheartened, that I chucked the pen somewhere and refused to use it or even see it. I wanted it to be a distant memory

The piss poor writing. 

My writing took a toll for the worst from the frequent skipping

Another thing that I was not happy was that the print Homo sapiens was facing the feeder

So much was not going for me with this pen. A pen was supposed to write on a its own weight effortlessly. 

More than a month went by. 

It was just in storage and I completely forgotten about the pen as I had managed to successfully block it out of my mind. 

Until one day, I followed up with Mr. Lai from PenGallery on another purchase and HE enquired about the Homo Sapiens Bronze Age. I informed him of my predicament and he assured me not to worry and to come by to get it sorted out. 

I did so in mid April. He tinkered with it for less than 2 minutes and it was sorted. He had a special tool to remove the nib and align the face of the nib to the word home sapiens. Another tool was used to separate the nib a litter making a gap to allow better ink flow from the breather hole.        

The problem was solved. It now wrote so smooth with the gentlest touch and I had used this as my daily writer since.

It is now not only beautiful to look at but a delight to use.

I wrote fast on purpose and not even a single skip. It is now a juicy wet writer. I purposely took a Fine nib as reviews from the net, the Medium on Visconti are like Broad on some other pens, due to its wetness. 

Thanks to Mr. Lai or should I say nib master

Visconti was founded in 1998 by Dante Del Vecchio and crafted in a 15th century villa in Florence, Italy.

Picture from internet, Villa II Chiuso