Bungubox Sailor Canneberge Review

Instagram is an instrument of Satan! Bungubox (or Bung-box, both seem to apply at different stages) is a speciality shop in Japan selling fountain pens and inks including unique pens like this Canneberge. Bungbox has an Instagram page. I saw this pen there. A direct message followed (quickly responded to by them) and… here we are.  

As for the name “Bungbox” – not sure it translates all that well! 

The (not so Bung) box my pen arrived in.

Where I come from, “Bung” means broken.  But I like the irony here; as the only thing this pen may break is your frown into a smile. :-)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Love it! Little specks of glitter scattered like stars deep amongst an almost jelly-like deep maroon acrylic; the rose gold accents of the setting sun – this is not my usual type of pen, but … :)

8/10

Its so hard to get the colour right in my iPhone pics!

APPEARANCE AND DESIGN

First comes the packaging. No one can criticise the Japanese for their packaging. They know how to make the customer feel special.

From the box, ribbons and paper to the lovely message and little oragami addition on the note, Bungubox presents well. (the message is in a photograph at the end of this blog).

The Canneberge is based on the Sailor full size 1911 series; so its foundations are already positive. Add to its excellent embryonic state, the colour (which is clearly the differentiator here) and you are presented with a wonderful example of limited edition playfulness.

I am a sucker for fountain pens that are made with materials and colours that have a certain depth and je ne sais crois !  It is what I think leads me to the Omas Celluloids. In the Canneberge, (French for Cranberry) that look is there in spades!

The danger with materials like this can be that they can be a little gauche, over-the-top, gaudy, too much (was that too much?). Surprisingly this pen is not. The rose gold accessories nicely understate (where I think that yellow gold would have drowned the pen).

The Standard Sailor clip is subtle, sophisticated and simple. Sailor nibs are always attractive in my view, and the rose gold here again, is a lovely match to the Canneberge body. Similarly, the gentle touch of the single gold ring above the threads contrasts beautifully with its surroundings.

The Canneberge is a limited edition. Limited, I think, to 38 pens; although I have scanned my pen and can’t see a number.

Posted or unposted (a choice I am always happy to have, and this pen is happy to oblige) the Canneberge is an attractive fountain pen that sets itself apart as a little different without being so unique that you couldn’t take it to the office unless you wanted to make a point. 

8.5/10

WEIGHT AND DIMENSIONS

For comparison the Canneberge is on the right, a Pelikan Streseman 805 in the centre and a Conklin Wordguage on the Left.

The Canneberge is a standard, full-size Sailor 1911.That means it’s 14cm capped (5 ½ inch), 12cm uncapped and about 15 ½ cm posted. The body tapers from 1cm wide at the top and base, to just under 1 ½ cm in the centre.

For me, I prefer the length posted as I hold my pens reasonably far up the section. Without the cap, I find the length a little short for my preference.

The pen is a good weight. What does that mean? Well it’s comfortable to hold, not too heavy for long sessions and not too light to make it feel insubstantial.

8/10

NIB AND PERFORMANCE

Sailor make brilliant, and consistently high quality nibs. This one is a Medium Stub (marked “M S” on the side of the nib) which lays down a great broadish line but with nice variation too.  The pen wrote perfectly out of the box, has been filled thrice (once with Herbin Violette Pensee, once with Herbin Ocean blue and once - current - with Pelikan Edelstein Amethyst) and no hard-starts, no problems. 

I think that for me, the stub is broader than my preference; but that’s a “me” issue, not the pen.

8/10

FILLING SYSTEM

Cartridge Converter. I prefer piston. With the width of the MS nib especially. The wide nib means that this pen churns through ink like a V12 burns through petrol: 2 miles to the gallon if I’m lucky! The converter works well enough; but you have to keep re-filling pretty frequently if you keep a broader nib like I have.

7/10

COST AND VALUE

The Bungubox Canneberge is a limited edition pen with a small run so you would expect it to be up there for cost! The Sailor full size 1911s that forms its base are great quality pens and not cheap in themselves (around US$240 on Nibs.com). The premium over the base price was therefore actually not too bad at all.  Value for money? Yes, I think so.

8/10

CONCLUSION

The Canneberge is a playful but serious fountain pen that is different enough to set it apart, but practical enough to keep it in rotation. The colour is clearly it’s strength  - if you’re colour-blind, don’t bother!

79/100

A nice message that came with the package

0-50          = to be avoided at all costs

51-60        = if it’s cheap and you don’t really care….

61-70        = a nice pen with the makings of something better (just don’t spend too much)

71-80        = A better than average pen with just a few flaws that stop it from being really good

81-90        = A good pen, a keeper only a few minor places off being great

91-95        = Now THIS is a pen! If you can get it: keep it, love it, cherish it, and keep it away from the dog

96-100       = Grail

Pen Review - Newton Preston in Seven Seas Acrylic

Some nine months ago, a fountain pen not dissimilar to this beauty appeared on an Instagram feed. Some six months ago, this pen appeared on MY Instagram feed:

THE NEWTON PENS PRESTON

BACKGROUND

I don’t usually start my reviews with a background, but not everyone knows about Shawn Newton – and if you like fountain pens – you should!

According to his web web site, Shawn started making pens in 2011. His motivation was extraordinarily altruistic: to give school students who worked well, were going through hard times, performed above-and-beyond, an expression of appreciation. This concept has evolved so that he now raffles pens to raise money to assist students with college expenses. He raised his first money to make pens by selling his own pens and then trying a kickstart campaign that exceeded his ambitions and set him up. Now he’s out there on the pen scene and showing his pens to the world!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The Newton Pen comes in this nifty cylinder with a very cool pen cleaning cloth...groovy!!

Just look at that Seven Seas Acrylic!!  Wow! It’s bigger than I expected too. Not sure about the look of the long cap on top of the body; but I’m pretty impressed!

8/10

APPEARANCE AND DESIGN

I was drawn to Newton Pens via Instagram (that evil program that keeps inspiring me to find more!). When I saw one of his student pens in this acrylic, I just had to get it!

This colour is just fabulous! The gold clip contrasts beautifully on the pen to subtly break up the very blue of its blueness ! (does that really work?)

Shawn has a series of different designs, each called after different buildings. This one is the Preston. I wanted a look that would show off the colour – and I like largish pens. This one delivers.

While you can post this pen, it’s not really designed for it, and if you do, there is not much space to do it so the cap tends to over-balance the pen in your hand. As a poster (I hate having to put the lid somewhere and try to remember it), this is marginally inconvenient, but not a major issue.

This Photo by Newton Pens

Like I said earlier, the jury is out on the length of the cap. The cap takes up exactly half the length of the pen, and sits over the body of the pen (so naturally the cap is wider than the section). This creates a little leap in the middle of the pen that interrupts the continuity of its design.

This Photo also by Newton Pens.

The cap is also straight; whereas you can see that the body of the pen is tapered (more slender at the nib section and tapering out to the width of the cap about three-quarters of the length down, and then slender again at the tail). 

Uncapped, the body is attractive (if a smidge pudgy). 

Newton Pens Image

Capped however, something isn’t quite right to my eye. To a degree it looks like a cap from a different pen has been added to the body so that the colours match.

One other item to not here is the clip. I really like the look of this gold clip. Length, design (more tapering), colour, all work with this pen. Unfortunately it’s not that robust. The clip is rather thin. This works nicely on the pen, as a thicker clip I think would have been too chunky. But the delicate nature of the clip means that it will bend with use; and it won’t bend back. I have had the pen now for 6 months and the clip is now a touch further away from the body of the pen than where it started.  

7.5/10

WEIGHT AND DIMENSIONS

The Preston is a long, wide pen (just the way I like it). Capped, it’s 14cm long and about 1 ½ centimetres wide (cap). The body tapers from 1cm wide at the top and base, to 1 ½ cm just before the base.  If you do try to post, you can do so for about 2cm until the body of the pen thickens. Not really sturdy in this position, but do-able.

Comparison with a MB 149

The acrylic is light. So the pen is light – but not too light. It’s very comfortable in the hand; and happily keeps me writing for long stints without creating fatigue.

8/10

NIB AND PERFORMANCE

Shawn prepares your nibs for you at your request and preference. I wanted a medium stub; and the one I received has been perfect (the real test: have I inked it more than once? Indeed!). The nib, which, by the way, is two-tone steel (JoWo I think; – but he seems to use Pilot nibs too) is nicely adorned with a touch of scrolling and a stylised “NP”.  Yes, it’s not gold. No, it doesn’t flex - although there is a touch of spring  (not bad given it’s Autumn – sorry, bad pun). But for a steel nib, this one is a cracker!

8/10

FILLING SYSTEM

Cartridge Converter.  Hey, it works. It’s not a piston; but it’s still smooth, effective, and has reasonable capacity.  Not a real eye-dropper guy here, so not sure about conversion; but I don’t know I’d want to try it.

8/10

COST AND VALUE

My Newton Preston is a bespoke pen. Bespoke pens aren’t cheap. But in the context of the love that goes into it, the individuality of the pen, the service, the after-sales service and the craftsmanship; this was a very inexpensive pen. In any case, the pen cost less than lower end, big brand pens; and delivered in quality and substance in excess of many of them!

9/10

CONCLUSION

I think Shawn does a brilliant job and I’m more than happy with this pen. It gets comments wherever I go for that extraordinary colour; and it is a joy to write with. This pen is a keeper. More power to Shawn, both for his motivation and his skills.

81/100

0-50 = to be avoided at all costs
51-60 = if it’s cheap and you don’t really care….
61-70 = a nice pen with the makings of something better (just don’t spend too much)
71-80 = A better than average pen with just a few flaws that stop it from being really good
81-90 = A good pen, a keeper only a few minor places off being great
91-95 = Now THIS is a pen! If you can get it: keep it, love it, cherish it, and keep it away from the dog
96-100 = Grail

Along side my Omas Lucens Ogiva. The NP was the blue writing - Iroshizuku Kon-Peki

This is a Picture on the Newton Pens site of one of hiss special orders. Does this man have skills????

Kenro Comp - Win a Green Lantern Pen!

Hello again Quillophiles!

Kenro Industries (distributors of many of my preferred Italian beauties) have a competition to win one of Montegrappa's DC Super heroes and villains pens - THE GREEN LANTERN.

The link is here: Green Lantern and Montegrappa!

It's not a difficult competition and open world-wide; so, if you're interested, check it out!

Competition closes on Tuesday, March 24th at 11:59 Central time (which I presume is the time in New York, USA)

Logo Comp Winner!!!

Congratulations to Michelle Suratos for designing the winning logo in my blog comp:

Here is her winning entry:

The Stipula Passaporto is on it's way to you (once you send your address to eclectidbits@icloud.com) :D

and here are a couple of her other entries (also excellent)

Honourable mention also to Chris Fink for his effort:

With Michelle's permission, I will be using her winning logo in a stamp and other bits and pieces. Thankyou Michelle and all who entered.

Until next tine...

A rant about pen retailers who don't know their stuff.

I guess every now and then, a blog provides a platform to rant. This is mine.

This is not going to be a total rant. I want to be objective. I don't want to just rattle off some rude words and get this off my chest (well I do; but I won't).

Followers of my Instagram posts will have seen me post an image recently of the brand of a well-known American Fountain pen Retailer with a red-cross through it.

The red cross represented my significant disappointment with the service I recently received from them.

My issue is that when a fountain pen retailer of some years standing sells a pen, I believe that it requires that all it's staff are fully informed about the product they sell. In my story this was clearly not the case.

The Company in question had a deal on the Omas Alba (a deal that Goulet Pens recently also announced ). I already have a purple Alba I purchased with no problems from Novelli pens in Rome (thankyou).

- but after reading a number of great reviews on FPGeeks, Ed Jelley and elsewhere, I had been craving the orange. Then I saw an advertisement on my email for a good deal on the Omas Alba. The stars were aligned. I set about making the purchase. 

One of the tyrannies of distance is that fountain pens are very expensive in Australia, so that even after postage (and even considering that the company in question charges more than any other I have dealt with for postage) the Alba was still a deal! So I began my e-order. The only issue was that the "extra flessible"* nib I wanted did not seem to be there *(the spelling is deliberate - don't forget, Omas is Italian :D). 

The "Extra Flessible" nib by Omas is, in my view, one of the best modern attempts at achieving the nib flexibility of vintage nibs. It is not as good as a vintage nib (more delicate) but, with care, it is an outstanding nib that delivers great line variation.

So I wrote to the Company saying: "I am after an Extra flessible nib and not and extra fine nib. Is this what you are inserting?" After no response for 1 week, I wrote again and asked for an answer. I received a response apologising for the delay and saying: "The nib on the Omas Ltd Ed Ogiva Alba Fountain Pen is extremely flexible." 

I hope you are starting to see my issue. If someone not selling Omas pens were to respond this way, I would understand. I would have no expectation that they should know what Omas calls their nibs or what sort of nibs they carry. This Company sells Omas pens. It is a Company that has been selling pens for over 80 years. Is it unreasonable for me to expect that it understood the product it is selling?

I tried, in subsequent emails to explain what I was looking for; only to be advised again that: "Omas confirmed that the nib on the Omas Ltd Ed Ogiva Alba Fountain Pen is extremely flexible. "!!!

I tried again, saying I would not confirm the sale until they would confirm the pen was "extra flessible" - and yes, I included the inverted commas and asked that they check with another salesperson as the one corresponding with me was not answering my question.

I finally received a response saying: "We spoke directly to the manufacturer and the nib is extra flessible (flexible)"; and providing me with a phone number of the distributor in the U.S. if I needed to check.

"Hooray", I thought (still probably too driven by desire for the deal on this pen rather than wary of the nature of the correspondence), and concluded the order.

When it arrived, I received the Orange Alba (as beautiful as I expected) with an Extra Fine nib!

Yes, more emails, an offer that I send it back for refund if unhappy and advice that the extra flessible nib is sold out.

So what is the lesson here? 

There are clearly a broad range of fountain pen dealers that we all deal with. I have found that the service of the overwhelming bulk of those that I have bought from has been excellent. Mostly that excellence has been based in a knowledge and enjoyment of the product they sell. Goulet Pens, Fountainpen Hospital, PenChalet, Chatterley Pens, Fontoplumo, Novelli Pens, Appelboom pennan (love all those extra letters!) are all retailers I have dealt with who, time and time again, have demonstrated their knowledge of their product and care of their customer.

My lessons?:

1. don't always fall for the deal 
2. if in doubt, ask 
3. and ask 
4. and ask

and if they still can't really answer you straight, walk away.

Eighty Pages Notebook - follow up review.

It arrived today, my limited edition, eponymously named "Eighty Pages" notebook so I can now give you a quick review.

Nicely wrapped in this little reminder, numbered sleeve, you can see I didn't pay for this but was given it as a sample to review. The numbering is a nice touch. The first number indicates the volume number, and the second the production number - cool. It also came with a little (about 9.5cm long) "Eighty Pages" pencil with eraser attached - see bottom picture - nice.

I really don't do a lot of notebook reviews (in fact I've only done one other). Nevertheless, I like notebooks, they're handy; and often a little fun; so while this review will be a little less professional than some you'll see out there, you should still get the drift.

If you want all the general information, I covered that a couple of blogs ago - you can find that here .This review is just a quick "touch and feel" review; so you get the idea of what is really on offer here.

PRICE
I can't do a price comparison on this one (I didn't pay); and they have just been successful on Kickstarter so I'm not sure what their price will be. Check out their web site in future if you need more on that front.

SIZE & APPEARANCE
It is what it purports to be: 3.5" x 5.5" (roughly 8.7cm by 14cm). So delivering on the promise there. That is the same size as a Field Notes notebook (even though my comparison makes it look bigger).

"Eighty Pages" doesn't have the rounded corners of the Field Notes - they're cut of instead. I'm fairly neutral about that; although I have a slight leaning to the rounder corners. (My apology too to for the look of the Field Notes book in this picture - this is a rather well used one).

The binding is waxed linen thread (as opposed to the staples of the Field Notes). Here I think I favour "Eighty Pages" which is also the same binding as my favourite notebook, Curnow's Backpocket journal (Tomoe River edition).

The cover is sturdy, simple, slightly patterned and the colour bold. All good there. 

Like Field Notes, the brand name is mildly indented; although not on the front, but modestly at the bottom of the back cover where it also proudly proclaims itself a product of New York City. In this way, the Eighty pages Notebook is similar to the Just Write Notebook I reviewed here. but not quite as sophisticated an offering.

the heart sticker for the paper loop was a nice touch.

THE PAPER 
Good stuff! Just look see:

 No feathering, no bleed through. The paper seems to handle fountain pens very well. My only criticism would be that the paper has a little "roughness" to it - especially with the finer nibs. Nothing to be worried about, just a little feedback; so not the smoothest of surfaces at all times. This compares well still to Fieldnotes; that are good with finer nibs, but definetly feather and bleed through with thicker pens.

Eighty Pages currently only offer plain paper but promise to offer grid and other varieties as they evolve; which I would be happy about too.

Finally...

PAGES
Yes, there are 80 pages here. That compares to the 48 pages of Field Notes and many others. Is that good? Well, yes and no. It certainly means more time with one notebook. If you like changing covers to suit moods, maybe that's a disadvantage - but not a big one I would have thought. The cover is sturdy (it feels a little thicker than a Field Notes cover) so it should cover (pardon the pun!) the journey - I haven't done the LTIBP test ( 'long-time-in-the-back-pocket') so I'm only guessing here. 

With all those lovely pages however, the 'Eighty Pages' has some problem staying flat; and that does tend to detract a little. Even when I placed my Eighty Pages in a Onestar leather Notebook cover I found the cover popping open (whereas there was no issue with Field Notes or Curnow Backpocket journal). This would suggest that Eighty Pages would benefit from a little elastic closure (a la Moleskine).

CONCLUSION
Finding a notebook that you can write in with your fountain pen on both sides of the paper is always a challenge - and you can do that with Eighty Pages: no problem. It's a rough paper though, and the writing is loud! The number of pages gives the notebook it's brand name; but that also seems to mean that you will need to be happy with a pop-open notebook (adding elastic may add to cost; but might be a good inclusion).
I have a few more editions of the Eighty Pages ordered via Kickstarter; and I look forward to seeing how they all look and perform. This is a great start! 

I need a Logo - you get a prize!

I need a logo for this blog. Here is one I've tried myself:

but I would love to see what other people can come up with!

To make it interesting, I'm even offering a prize: a black Stipula passporto !

They are tiny capped; and the cap screws onto the base to make it a reasonable size pen (a la Kaweco).

Here is a comparison for size with a Montblanc Heritage 1912:

This one has a stainless steel nib with what looks like a bold or stub nib (see photo) (it's marked on back as "6").

 These cute little pens can be either cartridge or eye-droppers.

So, after all this, what do you do? simply email your design to eclectidbits@icloud.com

As with my other competitions, this one is not random selection; I choose the one I like best. If I also choose to use it as my logo, I will be assuming your permission to use it.

Competition is open until February 28.

I look forward to seeing your efforts!