Sorry in advance -- no pictures. I don't have good light, but if I can get some decent pictures, I'll upload them tomorrow.
Yeah, I caved. The shape and the tortoiseshell resin just spoke to me. I have one of the initial run with OHIO misspelled as HOIO on the barrel engraving. But despite that, this is a chunky, nice-feeling, handsome pen with a great rocker-style clip. In eyeglasses jargon, this would be a "Tokyo" tortoise resin, predominantly yellow-brown, with darker brown inclusions and orange flecks throughout. It screamed "Vintage!" to me, and I didn't have a pen like it in my collection. And, remembering the quality of my dad's Duragraph and how much he loves it, I went ahead and got it.
It's a nice size, reminiscent of the MB 149. In my opinion, the section could be just a tad longer, but it sits in the hand comfortably. The threads, however, aren't as perfect as I'm used to, and I find that odd. Screwing and unscrewing a pen cap is something we do without thinking about it, usually because the threads work as they should 99.9% of the time. I can only guess that this model was rushed out the door, because we have the "OHIO" misprint in most of the pens in the first production run, and now the threads on my pen that don't engage smoothly. I don't know. A QC problem, I guess.
And I wish those were the only problems. Mine also has a finicky nib. I got the medium, which is finer than even a Platinum 3776 Century Medium. I don't mind that, but the nib has problems. I loaded it with Sailor Jentle Black, a very reliable and smooth ink. The sweet spot is very small, and even then, it skips on some up- and down-strokes. It's a bit scratchy on cross-strokes, too. I tested it on Rhodia, Tomoe River, Life Noble Note, Tsubame, and Midori MD paper and it was only smooth half the time. I guess this is a nib I'll have to do a bit of work on. Inkflow, however, is fine. It's a nice, wet pen...right where I like it. If only the nib were 100%, I'd love it.
I can only conclude that Yafa rushed these out the door. For $76, you expect better quality control. The engraving could've been forgiven as a funny quirk, but the nib shouldn't be this dodgy. That said, my $300 Pelikan M600 wrote worse out of the box than this does, so price means nothing sometimes.
It is nice to look at and hold, though....
Yeah, I caved. The shape and the tortoiseshell resin just spoke to me. I have one of the initial run with OHIO misspelled as HOIO on the barrel engraving. But despite that, this is a chunky, nice-feeling, handsome pen with a great rocker-style clip. In eyeglasses jargon, this would be a "Tokyo" tortoise resin, predominantly yellow-brown, with darker brown inclusions and orange flecks throughout. It screamed "Vintage!" to me, and I didn't have a pen like it in my collection. And, remembering the quality of my dad's Duragraph and how much he loves it, I went ahead and got it.
It's a nice size, reminiscent of the MB 149. In my opinion, the section could be just a tad longer, but it sits in the hand comfortably. The threads, however, aren't as perfect as I'm used to, and I find that odd. Screwing and unscrewing a pen cap is something we do without thinking about it, usually because the threads work as they should 99.9% of the time. I can only guess that this model was rushed out the door, because we have the "OHIO" misprint in most of the pens in the first production run, and now the threads on my pen that don't engage smoothly. I don't know. A QC problem, I guess.
And I wish those were the only problems. Mine also has a finicky nib. I got the medium, which is finer than even a Platinum 3776 Century Medium. I don't mind that, but the nib has problems. I loaded it with Sailor Jentle Black, a very reliable and smooth ink. The sweet spot is very small, and even then, it skips on some up- and down-strokes. It's a bit scratchy on cross-strokes, too. I tested it on Rhodia, Tomoe River, Life Noble Note, Tsubame, and Midori MD paper and it was only smooth half the time. I guess this is a nib I'll have to do a bit of work on. Inkflow, however, is fine. It's a nice, wet pen...right where I like it. If only the nib were 100%, I'd love it.
I can only conclude that Yafa rushed these out the door. For $76, you expect better quality control. The engraving could've been forgiven as a funny quirk, but the nib shouldn't be this dodgy. That said, my $300 Pelikan M600 wrote worse out of the box than this does, so price means nothing sometimes.
It is nice to look at and hold, though....
