An old college roommate of mine called me a while back asking me to make him a custom fountain pen that had a regal look and feel. He also wanted a stub nib (that is a flat chisel like tip, see photos below) that would compare somewhat to his Lamy stub nib fountain pen. This was a new one for me! I rarely get requests for fountain pens let alone a custom tip like a stub nib which got me pretty excited. So I got to searching around for suppliers and choices for a regal looking stub nib fountain pen supplies.
Material & Finish
I first sent him some material options I’d used in the past including dyed woods, mosaic acrylics, and alternate ivory/antler, and lastly a photo of some Olivewood. He said he really liked the texture of the wood options and quickly chose Olivewood as his material of choice. Little did he or I know how that Olivewood would end up looking exactly since every piece is unique and different. I’ve never seen an ugly piece of Olivewood though, and in fact, I’m always delightfully surprised at the striking character I find inside Olivewood after its turned. As you can see in the photos below you would be hard pressed to find a more Regal looking piece of Olivewood!
Nib & Ink
As I mentioned earlier, this pen called for a particular type of pen tip, a stub nib. I wasn’t sure if any of my suppliers carried this specific type of nib, but a quick glance over at Meister Nibs revealed a beautiful 1.4mm wide Ruthenium steel nib which perfectly matched the Black Titanium grip, clip, and trim pieces we had selected for this pen. Besides looking cool, Ruthenium is also used to plate the nib and to add more wear resistance. Ruthenium plating was made popular I found out, by the old Parker 51 fountain pen nibs from the 1940’s.
Size & Weight
Currently I don’t have a good enough scale to weigh my pens, but this is a weighty pen due to all the metal parts that are included. That said it is not the heaviest pen I have ever written with and the extra weight in my opinion merely serves to give the pen a meaningful heft that adds to the premium and regal feel of the pen. The pen is approximately 6″ when capped and longer when posted. If you prefer not to post your pens this pen is still long enough without a cap to write comfortable with. The diameter of the pen is 3/8″ to 1/2″ wide making it wider than most common gel or ballpoint pens, but not my widest pen that I make. In my opinion, this pen has a very balanced feel to it being not too heavy and not too wide and not too long or short.
Putting Pen to Paper
As I have alluded to earlier, this pen has a nice weight to it that when combined with the stub nib allow for a nicely unique writing experience. After a very slight tuning, the ink started flowing nicely through the stub nib needing very little pressure to start writing. Since the nib is a steel titanium nib there is not a lot of flex to work with, but with the weight of the pen and slight pressure extended to your writing the nib gave nicely and provided a very cool near calligraphic writing experience that definitely spiced up my handwriting. When combined with Rhodia paper, this pen and any other fountain pen will instantly seem to be smoother and more responsive as the tip literally glides across the smooth surface of the paper. The pen will write perfectly well in a normal Moleskine or Field Notes notebooks as well, but this Rhodia paper is quickly becoming my personal favorite for using with fountain pens. And No, in case your wondering, I’m not being payed to promote Rhodia, it is just my personal favorite right now.
I had to share the thank you note that I received from my friend as I thought it was one of the coolest thank you notes I’ve ever received, and is a nice view of the pen in action!
PEN STATS
Body Material: Olivewood with Black Titanium trim
Nib: Ruthenium Steel 1.4 Stub Nib
Cap Type: Screw on
Post-able: Yes, screw on
Filling Mechanism: Converter/Cartridge
Thanks for looking,
Ben
Ben's Pens 