Aurora - 88 Demonstrator Nera (LTD)

It's even more beautiful in person and and feels like an engineering marvel.. The nib is sublime. I've been writing with this regularly and have not come close to needing to refill. Kudos to Ben Walsh for creating this!

I forgot how much I enjoyed this ink. account describe it except that I can use it for work and then admire it in my journal.

I'm so happy I purchased a bottle of this as well as cartridges. It makes me happy and it behaves well. again something slightly unusual from Diamine.

It's an unusual blue black and absolutely stunning on light cream paper. Of course it's suitable for serious work related projects but it's also just a joy to see in my journal.

It's become a classic... I purchased this at as a replacement after I had given away my half bottle to a friend who's a writer. He was overjoyed and now I am as well..

Just a lovely shading color... I put it in a wood pen

This is my first Caran d'Ache and certainly not my last. I feel a collection coming on :) The nib is amazing...smooth...perfectly tuned. This pen is what all pen brands can take an example from. I'm very happy! Thank you Pen Venture!

As beautiful as you imagine it to be. Clearly not a pen to carry around in your pocket every day, but well-made and with proper care, I imagine it will last forever. Pen Venture sent a nice note and the delivery shipping was excellent. Would glady buy from this store again.

Brass was actually one of the earliest alternatives to Ebonite when fountain pens were the only game in town. As a matter of fact, many modern fountain pens (and Biro pens) still have a brass body, but they hide it under paint or lacquer. Brass is an ideal metal for pen makers, because it has a relatively low melting point, is easy to shape, and relatively corrosion resistant. But...copper has a strong smell when it comes into contact with fingers. Brass is 80%-90% copper, so you get that smell with brass, as well. The good news is that you may not care much for the smell of copper, but many microbes find the presence of copper to be absolutely fatal. And after a couple of weeks to a couple of months, depending on how frequently you use the pen, the smell will be almost completely gone. The microbe-killing part will still be there, without the smell. As far as writing with this microbe killing weapon of mass decontamination, it's nearly perfect. The Gravitas produced nib is very smooth, and it's as good as, or even better than, an equivalent sized JoWo (or Bock) steel nib. I have several Sentry pens, and the feeds on all of them are nice and juicy. If you find that your pen is too juicy, try using Pelikan 4001 Königsblau ink, which is rather dry. The metal body is free of blemishes and scuffs, but that won't stay like that for long, especially if your pen comes into contact with other metallic objects. So, if you want to keep your pens looking like new, make sure to store them in the provided carrying case when you're not actively writing with them. For me, I don't mind that scuffs and scratches, because they all add to the "lived-in" look of objects and that are not only treasured, and loved, but used daily!
Would definitely buy again.

Let me begin by saying that this pen is nearly perfect. The Gravitas produced #6 steel nib is very smooth, and the plastic feed provides for excellent ink flow. The pen is massive; the body (of the very similar brass version) weighs 58.4 g, the whole pen weighs 88.5 g. HOWEVER...don't let that weight scare you, when writing with this pen, most of the weight will rest on the web of your hand (between index finger and thumb), and the inertia combined with the smoothness of the nib makes this a very pleasant writing experience. The grip section is relatively girthy, 11.5mm at its most narrow point. I find small diameter grip sections to be much more fatigue inducing than sheer weight of the pens.
Correction on the cap threads: they are double-start, not triple starts, are Acme threads, and the cap is released in 3/4 of a turn.
There are no O-rings to act as seals, or friction brakes for parts that randomly want to disassociate themselves from the rest of the pen. Also, there is no Delrin liner inside the cap, meaning that you might want to avoid posting the cap on the back of the pen to avoid scratching the pen body.
Last item: appearance. The pen is flawless when it arrives, but it will start to accumulate scratches and scuffs as time goes on. Also, it will take longer for a patina to form on this pen than regular brass or copper pens. That's to be expected. Unless you get run over by a herd of Velociraptors, or you drop the (uncapped) pen on its nib, this pen is unlikely to be so damaged as to be non-repairable. You can replace the nib unit, you could even replace it with a JoWo produced nib unit, although the Gravitas nib units are as good as any JoWo #6 Steel nib. NOTE: make sure that you check clearance between your non-Gravitas nib and the inside of the cap. Not all JoWo produced nibs are identical; and you assume the risk for nib damage due to lack of internal clearance.
Would definitely buy again.

This pen is everything hoped for, and everything I had heard it would be. With a little bit of luck it will be a go to pen for many years to come. Minimalistic yet beautiful and sleek in its design. I love this nib (medium) as it is smooth and writes like glass. Well worth the price point in my mind and it shipped quickly to boot. It has been in my EVD carry bag since I filled all 7ml up. Long journal sessions are a joy with it as it is not too large for my hand and just feels perfect weight wise. You might get the sense I sort of am gushing a bit. I am. I haven’t found much about this pen so far I don’t like. Hope this helps! Happy writing!!

The fifty4t sl is a a smaller, but no means small pen from Fifty4t. Its about the size of a Pilot 823 ( just a tiny bit longer and wider). The grip section is made of stainless steel, but it's very grippy due to the textured finish. The writing experience is smooth and is a pleasure for long writing sessions. The filling mechanism is a fun change of pace. It's easy to use and packs a large ink capacity.

So, you want a pen that’s tough enough to handle all of your emotional write-ups at 03:30 GMT, is harder than woodpecker lips, has better corrosion resistance than stainless steel, while weighing significantly less? And you want it to write really well, for a long time, and you want to be able to do your own maintenance on it without breaking the bank?
Well, the Titanium Sentry will not disappoint. The nib unit is compatible with a JoWo #6 nib unit. The Gravitas nibs are very good, with a performance indistinguishable from a #6 European made nib. The fit and finish is excellent, there is no machining residue anywhere. The pen arrived with no scratches or marks of any kind. Don’t worry, it won’t stay that way for long, because life happens. But rest assured, short of gratuitous violence directed at this pen, there’s not much that would damage this pen to the point of unrecoverability.
Dependability, reliability, user serviceability, in a virtually bulletproof titanium shell. What’s not to love?

This pen is very unapologetic about itself. This pen, to me, is what the definition of the word “gravitas” should look like. This pen is medium large, long enough for a standard cartridge converter, the #6 nib is just the perfect size for this size pen, and the girth is just right. And best of all, it’s made from stainless steel! That pen will survive long enough to allow you to write the Chronicles of the Apocalypse, using Zombie Blood. But seriously, aside from minor scuffs and scratches, this pen, with proper care and cleaning, will be perfectly serviceable in another 100 years.
The Fine nib on my pen is very smooth, and nib unit has excellent ink flow. If you find that the ink flow is too wet, try changing to a “drier” ink, like Pelikan 4001 Königsblau.
Despite the weight of the pen, I find I can write with this pen for longer periods without fatigue. To me, grip diameter, especially a thin grip diameter, causes hand fatigue much more rapidly than writing with a pen that weighs 56 grams. The all that weight is sitting on the web of my hand between thumb and forefinger, right near the center of balance of the pen.
I’m very happy with the look, feel, and performance of this pen. Would definitely buy again!

This pen is nearly perfect!
The fit and finish of my pen is perfect, there are no gaps, chips, burrs, spurs or cowboy boots anywhere on this pen; the Ultem is polished to the point of looking like amber polycarbonate.
The filling mechanism is a vacuum filler system, but it has a secondary ink chamber between the primary ink chamber and the feed, similar to the system that an Italian pen company pioneered about 28 years ago.
The nib and feed are very smooth. I have a Fine nib, and I find the line to vary from Fine to Medium, depending on which ink and paper you use. The nib is relative wet, which makes it perfect for me, because I find Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue to be “dry” enough to cause hard starts and skips with most of my pens, but Gravitas pens seem to thrive on it. So, if you think this pen is too wet, try the Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue ink.
The cap threads…okay, yes, whenever you you force two dissimilar materials together, like an Ultem/plastic cap and metal threads, the softer material is going to wear out sooner. Oftentimes, that’s intentional; you sacrifice the cheaper/easier to replace part, but prolong the life of the more expensive/more difficult to replace part. It should be cheaper to replace a cap than the body of the pen, which is an assembly of various parts, glued together. You can minimize damage from cross threading when capping the pen by rotating the the pen and cap in an uncapping rotation, gently pushing the two parts together, until you feel the threads “snap”. Some pens may require a “double snap”. Then everything should be lined up correctly to allow you to cap the pen without damaging the pen.
On the plus side, the clear material lets you see how the precisely machined lip inside the cap meets the forward edge of the grip section, preventing the nib from drying out very quickly. Had the pen inked up, sitting on my desk, untouched, for over a week, and it started writing as soon as the nib touched paper.
Would definitely buy again if I lost this pen!