I wrote a piece a short while ago on the Tactile Turn Pen, something that had been designed with a certain feel to it. I got one of my Christmas presents yesterday and found myself thinking about the nature of the materials that we use in fountain pens. This particular one is something I'd never had considered getting myself, but luckily I have the best of friends and they have a more adventurous palette than I do.
This is a Peninsula Barron fountain pen.
Wood isn't a usual material for fountain pens, most modern ones being made from plastic or metal of various types, but there's a particular feel to wood that makes it interesting to use. With Plastic and Metal, the material is hard and unyielding, your hand adapts to the shape of the pen, with wood there's a more natural feel to it, the very tactile sensation that the Turn pen was looking for, but without having to engineer it. This feels soft and light even though when you weigh the pen, it's easily as heavy as anything else in my collection.
The cap can be posted, and there's a screw fitting at the top and the bottom to ensure that it's secure, the nib is Iridium, plated with gold, and writes a line equivalent to a European fine nib, there's a converter included with it, but it can take any size of international cartridge if that's your preference.
Took a little priming to get the nib flowing, but once flowing, no burps, no drops, just a good easy flow that can keep pace with whatever speed writing you're doing. the thin barrel leading into the wide wooden upper makes for an interesting feel, the thin barrel easy to grip, but with the wider upper resting in the hollow of the thumb comfortably.
And then the last thing, something that I've not encountered with any other pen...
The scent...
These pens are made from old whisky barrels, and while the scent is slightly taken away by the crafting process, there's still the warm smell of old whisky from the pen, and being one of the few spirits that I actually drink, that's quite pleasant. So there's a new pen in my every day carry, and I'm rediscovering the pleasure of writing with a wooden pen.
Available from www.peninsulapens.com
