I love items that crossover my interests and the Hermès Ostrich GM notebook/agenda cover is just such an item. It combines my interest in stationery with my interest in fine leather craftsmanship.
The agenda is Hermès’ GM size which stands for “Grand Modèle” and is their second smallest agenda. The cover measures 9 cm wide x just over 13 cm long.
The cover is made out of a beautiful natural color ostrich skin (the pictures look much more orange). Ostrich is a bit of an obnoxious looking exotic leather but once you get past that it really is an excellent and long lasting skin. Hermès puts blind stamps in all of their products which allows me to date this cover to 1997 and at 17 years old it doesn’t look too bad.
The saddle stitch is done by hand and is of the highest quality. The benefits of a saddle stitch is strength and repairability. If a stitch becomes loose it can be easily repaired by an Hermès craftsman.
Hermès uses very high quality stationery grade paper in every notebook and agenda that I have seen and this is no exception. The GM size comes in a number formats to choose from. There are two agenda styles as well as a blank notebook and a lined notebook.
I normally prefer the lined version but they were out of it so I ended up with the blank version. The paper is very thin with a gilded edge but it holds fountain pen ink like a champion. The only bleeding I saw was with the Pilot Hi-Tecpoint V10 which is a fat juicy 1.0mm roller ball.
There is minimal ghosting which is impressive for a paper so thin. The corners of the pages are perforated so that you can quickly jump to where you left off. The binding is ring bound with a split in the middle that allows you to bend the notebook into the clips of the agenda cover.
The blank and lined notebooks are $30 each and the agenda refills are $100+. As for the agenda cover the last time I checked it was right around $1,000. There is no denying that this is a luxury product; nobody needs a small notebook cover that is this expensive.
You can find these notebooks second hand for around $100-$200 depending on condition but be warned that there are fakes; Hermès wont sell anything with sloppy workmanship so check for tight saddle stitching a clean Hermès imprint. If you go used I recommend Japanese sellers as Japan has very strict laws on selling fakes.
I recently had the cover serviced by the Hermès craftsman in San Francisco and it cost $125 to spruce it up which is something Hermès recommends every three years.
My Romillo Essential No. 9 has finally arrived. While I take some time to get to know the pen I thought I would share some pictures and some first impressions.
Left to right: Aurora Afrika, Nakaya Naka-ai Negoro Shiro-tamenuri, Romillo Essential No. 9, Montblanc 149 (early 70s), Soennecken 1 Extra
Since this pen has the biggest nib I have ever used I put it up next to some other big nib fountain pens for comparison.
This italic 0.7mm nib feels like no other nib I have ever used. It’s very soft and produces nice line variation without feeling sharp; this is a bit weird because there definitely is a sweet spot and it’s not small but without the normal feedback it isn’t as easy to find.
The pen is very comfortable in hand, and is not overly fat like a 149. The threading that attaches the barrel to the section is all brass and as a result the pen is nose heavy. The Essential has a very long section which is a feature that I love but seldom see.
The threading on the cap isn’t very smooth and I worry about twisting the cap too far. The shape of the pen is beautiful but subtle in its design.
The ebonite body is nicely polished and feels warm to the touch. I requested to have the nib coated with rhodium and I had them add a rhodium coated solid silver lentil/roll stopper added.
The packaging and presentation was really nice:
Warrant information, certificate with all the pens information, and two nib test pages.A beautiful wood box containing the pen, eye dropper and instructions, as well as a bottle of ink (which leaked a bit), and a nice pen wrap.
So far I am loving the pen…I will give a full review once I have more time with it.
I received this pen as gift and while it was a lovely gesture, I didn’t like the pen. Touching a perfectly polished piece of sterling silver was unpleasant for me. I tried using it but found that I was spending more time polishing it with the robin’s egg blue Tiffany sleeve than actually writing with it.
Recently, upon cleaning out some drawers I found the pen again and started using it. This time I told myself I wouldn’t endlessly try to polish the pen I would just use it.
The pen is a very simple straight sterling silver cylinder with a clip that has been engraved “T & CO”, “925” (92.5% silver), “1837” (Tiffany’s founding year). Around the bottom of the cap reads “Tiffany & Co. 925” and “Germany”.
The pen weighs 27.4 grams and measures 14cm long and 1cm wide. This is a pretty thin pen but I have found it comfortable enough to write with for a longer period of time.
I believe that this pen is manufactured for Tiffany & Co. by Waldmann of Germany. The grip section is a seamless resin with a stainless steel (?) point that does not match the sterling silver on the cap and barrel. It is quite noticeable to me that these two silver colored metals do not match.
The Tiffany branded Schmidt rollerball refill writes well but it’s nothing noteworthy. I am going to see if I can find a fineliner refill for this pen.
The more I use the pen the more I like sterling silver as a pen material. Sterling silver evolves sort of like a urushi lacquer and I like that.
From what I can tell these pens cost about $200 which isn’t a terrible price for solid sterling silver though this isn’t something I would buy for myself but I like it nonetheless.
I think I see a sterling silver Yard-O-Led fountain pen in my future.
The Aurora Afrika is the first in Aurora’s Continents series of limited edition pens. Each pen is based on Aurora’s top-of-the-line Optima, which is one of my favorite modern fountain pens. Aurora produced 7,500 Afrika fountain pens and I have acquired No. 2486.
Appearance
The Afrika looks like an Optima but with some key improvements. The shiny black resin section and end caps have been replaced with matte black resin. The cap ring has been improved with a deeper and more intricate engraving that provides much more contrast.
The clip is engraved with the shape of Africa and the finial is engraved with the pen’s number and features a “precious deep-black Onyx”.
The body is made out of a marbled “Land of Afrika” resin that is a gorgeous orangish gold color with black swirls. This resin has a lot of depth, much more than an “Auroloide” Optima.
The large and beautiful 18kt gold nib shares the same design as the Optima and other high-end Auroras.
The design of the Optima is uniquely Aurora and while it looks like no other pen, I do have to admit that its stocky appearance has not always been my favorite. With some key enhancements the Afrika has more than just a great personality, it has a beautiful face as well.
Score: 4.5/5
Build Quality
Let’s start with a confession; I recently broke my Aurora Optima. The piston knob came off. I set the pen down with the piston unscrewed to attend to something else and when I came back to it I suspect that I turned it the wrong way without thinking and off it came. This is the first pen I have broken in very long time, ten years maybe. It is now on holiday in Italy for the time being.
It is possible that the glue failed but I am waiting to hear Aurora’s assessment before I make any judgements.
For all intents and purposes the Afrika is of the same build quality as the Optima. The engraving on the cap ring is the only thing that stands out to me as an improvement…the other differences I sighted in the appearance section are merely a more tasteful selection of materials and design choices.
Note the different African tribal shields.
Even though I broke my Optima I still believe that it is one of the highest quality fountain pens money can buy. Like the Optima, the Afrika has the smoothest piston mechanism I have used and the fit and finish are flawless. Aurora makes their own nibs in-house and uses solid ebonite feeds…I don’t think there is more that I can ask for.
Score: 5/5
Size & Weight
The Aurora Optima first appeared in the late 1930s as a competitor to my favorite vintage pen, the OMAS Extra Lucens.
One of the things that Aurora got right that almost all vintage Italian makers missed was girth. Aurora made fat pens. Anything other than the senior and oversized models from OMAS, Ancora, Montegrappa, Columbus and so on are too skinny for me to use comfortably but the medium and small Auroras are comfortable because they are fat.
The Afrika takes after the vintage Optima’s 1930s proportions. Measuring just 5.1” with a section diameter of 0.4”; that’s the same size my Nakaya Naka-ai and my OMAS Paragon which each measure almost 6” long.
Notice how much of the body is the section compared to the OMAS above.
The section is fat but unlike my Nakaya and OMAS the grip section is also very long which makes the Afrika (and Optima) one of the most comfortable pens on the market. The section is big enough to accommodate almost any grip style.
The Afrika is ever so slightly heavier than the Optima weighing in at 22.2 grams which still makes the Afrika a lightweight pen by any measure.
When it comes to size and weight the Optima is appropriately named….it gets everything right (as does its African sibling).
Score: 5/5
Performance
As I mentioned earlier, Aurora makes all of their nibs in-house and as such their nibs feel different than any other manufacturers. Aurora’s obliques, stubs and italics are sharper than any other big brands I have come across.
Aurora’s round pointed nibs have more feedback than most other quality brands as well. They are more or the less the opposite of the buttery smooth nibs Visconti is known for and as such Aurora’s nibs can be polarizing.
People love them or hate them. I for one like the feedback because it helps me slow down my cursive and really focus on properly forming my letters (don’t look at my writing sample)….if a Visconti nib is a rollerball (which slides all over the place) the Aurora is like a pencil…you feel in control.
My Optima has a 14kt gold nib and the Afrika has an 18kt gold nib and while the design and shape are all the same I have noticed some differences using a small sampling of each. Both nibs are nails…one isn’t more flexible than the other but the 18kt nibs seem to have a finer line width than the 14kt gold ones that I have tested.
The ebonite feed holds a lot of ink thanks to it’s many fins.
Another great thing about these nibs is that they can be easily swapped. The nib units unscrew out of the sections just like Pelikans do and with Aurora’s wide range of exotic nibs there is a lot to chose from. I should warn you though that their nibs are expensive. Street price for the 18kt gold nibs are $420 ($440 for italics, stubs and obliques). The 14kt gold nibs are $300 ($320 for italics, stubs and obliques).
All of my Aurora pens have been flawless performers out of the box and the Afrika is no exception.
Score: 5/5
Filling System
The Afrika is a piston filler that holds 1.1ml of ink which is more than most converters but less than many full sized piston fountain pens. The Afrika also features Aurora’s “reserve tank” technology. When the pen runs out of ink you twist the piston knob all the way and the “reserve tank” is activated, allowing you to write for a couple more pages.
Personally I find the reserve tank annoying. It makes it difficult to clean the pen and change ink colors because with the piston fully depressed there is still water or ink left in the pen by design.
Score: 1.5/5
Value
Aurora recently raised their prices and the Afrika now retails for $1,075 but these pens can be found new in box on that auction site for around $350-$400. I picked up mine used for about $250 which is oddly less than you can get a used Optima for (these pens seem to be under the radar for the time being).
The authorized dealer street price is about $860 which when compared to a Montblanc 149 doesn’t seem crazy but the 149’s $935 price is only justified by people who view it as a status symbol and that’s something the Aurora cannot offer.
Also I should point out that the Afrika is a limited edition of 7,500 pieces and even though this pen has been out for more than 5 years Aurora dealers still have brand new inventory to sell. It seems as though Aurora made too many and is asking too much.
Score: 3/5
Bottom Line
The Afrika is truly sublime and presents a tremendous value on the secondhand market.
Here is the top secret outer cover of Field Notes’ most recent limited edition….plain black and nondescript.
I opened the package and MY EYES! So bold! So intense! They are all color wheel near opposites.
The interiors feature a reverse color scheme which is even harder on my eyes to look at than the covers. My first impression is negative…the covers are just too bright.
2013 marked the 100th year that Kokuyo has produced western style notebooks and to celebrate they have released a limited edition notebook called the Century Edition which I picked up in the A5 format. The notebook features 70 sheets of 100g paper with a 6mm rule.
The look of this notebook is exceptional. The black cover is textured to feel like cloth. The combination of the black “cloth” with gold print and diagonal text block pattern (they also do a woven pattern text block version) creates a luxurious retro look.
The the pastedown and free endpaper is made from a single piece of thick red paper.
The luxury ruled ivory “Kokuyo Ledger paper” is designed to be used with fountain pens and is ultra smooth.
It handles fountain ink without any bleeding or showthrough. The dry time is surprisingly fast (for a smooth paper). This isn’t an absorbent paper but I have been using this notebook as a journal and upon review I am not seeing any of the usual smearing I see when compared to my Tomoe River and Rhodia journals.
The Century Edition has tiny little signatures and the binding is so good that I cannot for the life of me find the stitching with the book open. The binding lays quite flat on it’s own and improves with use.
I haven’t been wowed by Kokuyo products in the past but this is the finest notebook I have ever had the pleasure of owning. The cost? 1,000 YEN (about $10 USD)! It’s not expensive and it makes a Midori notebook look like a sloppy first attempt (okay that might be a bit of an exaggeration). I highly recommend the Kokuyo Century Edition notebook. I know I will be buying more in the future.
The Visconti Van Gogh was one of the very first gold nib fountain pens I owned. I purchased this pen new from World Lux in 2002 for just under $200. I should note that this is the original Visconti Van Gogh and it differs from the newer versions in a variety of ways. First off it only came in the “Maxi” size at a 14.5 cm capped and was simply called the “Van Gogh”. Other differences include a solid 14kt two-tone nib (instead of steel) and a “3 K” locking mechanism on the cap (instead of being magnetic) and a round (instead of faceted) body.
Appearance
The Visconti Van Gogh is a stunning pen, especially in the vanilla resin; it works beautifully with the two-tone nib and the silver trim. This is a large and shapely pen that attracts attention.
The pen is somewhat translucent allowing you to see into the barrel and the cap. I picked this one over a couple of other vanillas because this had an unusual “crystalized” part on the top of the cap.
One of the things I dislike about this pen’s design is the screw on the back of the cap…I cannot think of any other pen in this price range with an exposed screw. To me it’s a bit of an odd choice.
Score: 3/5
Build Quality
The Van Gogh is not a cheaply made pen; the fit and finish on the pen (including that exposed screw) are very well done. Visconti built the Van Gogh with high quality materials and used a large highly modified ( read expensive) Bock nib. In the last 12 years the silver trim has aged a bit and is in need of a good cleaning.
The “3K” locking system was developed by the automotive industry and it allows you to secure the cap with a short twist. You can take off the cap with one hand; something you wouldn’t be able to do on a normal threaded cap. To my knowledge Visconti discontinued the use of this locking system because it put too much stress resin causing the caps to crack. This is an oversight that Visconti rightly corrected though I am sure proper testing would have avoided this whole debacle.
Score: 3/5
Size & Weight
The Van Gogh is what I would consider an oversize pen, measuring a whopping 14.5 cm capped and 13.75 cm uncapped. At it’s widest point it is 1.5cm and it weighs 31.5 grams. This pen has a heavy cap and for me it is most comfortable to use uncapped. Uncapped the pen is a bit nose heavy but I have found it comfortable to use for long writing sessions.
Score: 2/5
Performance
The 14kt gold nib has been a strong and reliable performer for me. The nib has been prone to “singing” which some people will find annoying. The medium point is quite fat, even for a European pen. The ink flow is wet and definitely not suited to cheap papers.
Score: 3/5
Filling System
The Van Gogh uses a standard size cartridges and converters, though the converter does need to be threaded. Somewhere along the way I lost the Visconti one and have replaced it with a threaded Waterman converter.
Score: 3/5
Value
When I bought this pen in 2002 for under $200 it was an excellent value as you got a beautiful large Italian fountain pen with excellent fit and finish in addition to a large 14kt gold nib. I am not sure I could recommend anyone buy one of the original Van Goghs because of the cracking issue…mine has lasted but other’s have not.
Score: 2/5
Bottom Line
The Van Gogh is a big an beautiful Italian pen but a design flaw in the cap’s locking system makes it hard to recommend.
This year’s Montblanc Writer’s Edition celebrates Robinson Crusoe author, Daniel Defoe, with an unfortunately ugly pen. The good news is that the limited edition Daniel Defoe Palm Green ink is beautiful.
Notice how much the color of this ink changes from the very wet Geha to the very dry Lamy Stub.
Palm Green is a dark yellowy green ink with great shading. The flow is about average and overall it is a well behaved ink. Dry time is on the longer side (though I was using a wetter pen than normal) and the ink is not waterproof.
I couldn’t find an ink that I had that was quite like it…its like a darker more green Alt Goldgrün.
This is my favorite limited edition ink Montblanc has come out with in the last few years. It’s not cheap at $19 per 35ml bottle but it’s such a nice color I think it’s worth it.
Side note: loved the label on the bottle as well as the packaging
Rhodia (and Clairefontaine) products have been a staple at my desk since middle school and there are not many formats I haven’t tried but the Rhodia DotPad # 38 and the Rhodia Clic Bloc mouse pad (review to come) fit the “new-to-me” criterion.
The #38 DotPad is the largest format top staple bound pad that Rhodia offers. It measures 16 ½” x 12 ½ “ and contains 80 sheets of Rhodia’s classic 80 g paper.
I purchased the #38 because I am currently using the end of my dining room table as a makeshift desk while I am in the process of remodeling and I was getting tired of juggling my Rhodia Reverse pad with my keyboard. Now I just sit the keyboard right on the #38 so that I don’t have to move my keyboard when I want to write a quick note.
#38 DotPad on my makeshift desk (dining room table) with keyboard and Aurora Optima.
The dot grid is the standard 5mm interval and Rhodia calls the dots “pale violet” in color but on the Black version that I have they look grey to me and are clearly different than the light purple color I see on my orange cover Reverse pads. The paper is micro perforated so it is very easy to tear out a page.
Using Rhodia’s standard 80 g weight paper, this pad does very well with fountain pen ink. Dry times are slower but tolerable and I use both sides of the paper without problem. I have been using the pad for a while now and I really like it. With a retail price of $16 and a street price closer to $13 it’s an affordable notepad that I plan to make a staple in my new office.
Every buy ink just for the bottle? I can now say that I have. P.W. Akkerman’s bottle is both beautiful and highly functional. The small reservoir at the top of the bottle is narrow and deep allowing even large nibs to utilize a near empty bottle. There is a glass marble inside the reservoir that when turned on its side allows ink to flow into the neck of the bottle. This is without a doubt the best ink bottle design I have seen. The Montblanc shoe and the old American-made Sheaffer Skrip bottles are good but the Akkerman bottle is great.
The most interesting color out of the 30 different Akkerman inks is #24 Zuiderpark Blauw-Groen which is a nice dark blue green ink with good shading and flow. My first thought was that it looks a lot like Private Reserve Ebony Blue, which in my opinion is one of the best looking inks around.
The ink isn’t waterproof but it did resist the water better than many other non-waterproof inks and that makes me a little bit concerned about leaving this ink in a pen beyond a couple of weeks; that said, I was able to clean this ink out of my Aurora Optima without problem.
#24 Zuiderpark Blauw-Groen (excluding VAT) costs 12.4 EURO or about $16.35 USD which is a reasonable price for this great 60ml bottle of ink BUT the shipping is quiet expensive. 20 EURO or about $26 USD shipped to the United States. Because of the high shipping cost I ended up buying three bottles. Is it worth the price? I think that depends on how much trouble you have filling your pens with large nibs. For me not having to buy two bottles of the same sink so that I can top off one with the other is valuable.
