Visconti Homo Sapiens Elegance: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

The Visconti Homo Sapiens Elegance is an over-sized pen made of black resin with silver trim. It is meant as a less-expensive option for those who like the Visconti Homo Sapiens style. Thus, the pen is made of resin instead of lava or special acriloid and it utilizes a screw-in converter rather than Visconti’s high-capacity power filler.

The Homo Sapiens Elegance comes in a standard Visconti clamshell box with cream interior.

The pen is trimmed with shiny silver rings on the cap and barrel, a silver Visconti finial, and Visconti’s signature arched clip.

However, the large ring on the barrel sports a matte look with “Homo Sapiens” engraved in shiny silver.

The cap uses Visconti’s hook safe lock system which makes it easy to get on and off and makes the cap secure.

Over-sized means that this is an extra large pen, measuring 145mm capped, 170mm posted, and 132mm unposted. At 43 grams, the Elegance is just as heavy as the Homo Sapiens Bronze Age which surprised me considering that one pen is made of lava and the other of resin.

The converter is a nice screw-in model with metal trim. It holds 1.03 ml of ink and is much easier to clean than the power filler pens.

My loaner pen came with the 1.3mm 23k Palladium stub nib. It’s a beautiful nib with Visconti’s classic scroll work.

Unfortunately, this nib is not a smooth writer. There’s a small sweet spot, but even when you’ve got the pen positioned correctly, you can hear it scratch the paper as you write (and not in a pleasant way). I found myself having to hold the pen at an awkward angle in order to maintain some semblance of consistent writing.

My experience with Visconti nibs is not positive. Out of all the Viscontis I’ve owned (and I’ve owned at least eight), only two wrote well out of the box. My Homo Sapiens Bronze Age with a 1.3mm stub had to go to two different nibmeisters before it started writing reasonably well.

The nib on this pen is inconsistent and skips often. As I wrote with it over the past three weeks, I had hard starts that required pushing ink into the nib using the converter. For my handwritten review, I refilled the converter and started fresh. Even with that, I experienced lots of skipping and rough writing.

Although I like the resin version of the Visconti Homo Sapiens Elegance, I think it is still priced too high at $595.00 retail. And, at this price you should get a perfect nib right out of the box. Honestly, if you want a Visconti, I’d suggest saving up for a Bronze Age (which is $200 more) or one of the more colorful versions. And I would make sure that your retailer tests the nib before shipping it to you.

Left to right: Visconti London Fog, Homo Sapiens Bronze Age, Homo Sapiens Elegance, and Divina Elegance

You can purchase the Visconti Homo Sapiens Elegance from Goldspot Pens. Their retail price is $595, but if you log in and add the pen to your cart you’ll see a significantly reduced price.

Pros

• The Visconti Homo Sapiens Elegance is a nice alternative for anyone who finds the Homo Sapiens Bronze Age to be too expensive at $795 retail.
• The Elegance uses a cartridge/converter filling system that is much easier to use and clean than the power filler system used by more expensive Visconti models. Even though the power-fillers hold more ink, I like the convenience of a converter filling system.
• Visconti offers their premium 23k Palladium nib with this pen.

Cons

• Although the Homo Sapiens Elegance is $200 less than the Bronze Age, it is still an expensive pen.
• The nib on my loaner pen was finicky and an unpleasant, scratchy writer. Unfortunately, this is typical of my experiences with Visconti nibs, and I always think very hard before purchasing this brand because of it. I recommend asking your retailer to check your nib before shipping.

(Goldspot provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Karas Kustoms Decograph Fountain Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

Karas Kustoms, renowned machinist of metal pens that can withstand nearly apocalyptic conditions, has decided to explore their softer side with a line of thermoplastic and acrylic pens called the Decograph. The design fuses the ultramodern aesthetic of Karas with the sleek Art Deco look of vintage pens. It's a perfect blend, a very attractive pen, and the super light thermoplastic makes it a tool I can write with for hours.

Right now, the pen comes in two standard colors: black and almost-black-but-actually-wait-it's-green. The green pen is shown here. In low light and at first glance, it appears to be shiny black, but once the light hits it, it's a dazzling beetle green. The effect is downright magical. If Voldemort had need of a pen, he couldn't choose better than this one. There are also regular special editions of this model, so keep your eyes peeled for a color that speaks to you.

The pen arrives in a swanky aluminum tube. It feels like a time capsule from outer space. There is no doubt, from the first moment, that there's something special inside. The pen is cushioned securely in the tube with a foam insert, and the whole setup makes for an attractive pen stand.

The pen is equipped with a standard #6 Bock nib and a Schmidt K5 piston converter. Gold, black, and Titanium nibs are available at additional cost. The nib performed well--standard and as expected for a Bock nib, though with a little more feedback than I personally prefer. It writes with a good flow and starts right up even after sitting for a day. The nib unit screws out and can be switched and swapped as you fancy.

The pen body is beautifully designed, with an elegant taper and well-fitted machined aluminum finials. The top finial is slightly pointed at the center and the bottom shows the Karas logo--all very understated and elegant. The clip is a machined aluminum piece with classic Art Deco chiseled shaping, secured with a piece of spring steel under the top finial. It feels sturdy but flexes enough to perform well.

The cap screws on with all plastic threads that are tucked high enough inside the cap that they should prevent the thin lip of plastic at the cap edge from cracking. The threads are smooth and secure and don't interfere with the pen's grip. The grip section is hourglass shaped and tapers quite narrowly. It fits perfectly in my hand, which means some may find it to be too narrow.

It's one of the more comfortable pens I've held. The shaped grip, light weight and balance, and the way the plastic warms in my hand all make for a really pleasant writing experience. It's a pen that makes me want to pick it up and write for hours.

At a start price of $165, it's considerably more expensive than Karas's other models, but is priced in line with similar pens from other companies and seems more than fair. I'll be watching the limited edition releases and hoping for more color choices from this line in the future.

(Karas Kustoms provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Lamy Aion Fountain Pen Review

(This is a guest post by Y. Amit. He is a freelance writer, living and working in Tel Aviv, Israel.)

There is something strange about Lamy. In fact, it seems like there are two different Lamys: One is the groundbreaking-design-firm, that designs pens that are both minimalist and sophisticated (Lamy 2000), That is not afraid of bold and crazy colors (The Safari and Al Star lineup); The other Lamy is a company that seems a bit, how should I put it… non-evolving: sure, one can definitely recognize a Lamy pen when one sees it, but is that a good thing? Do pen lovers really not want to be surprised by pen companies?

Case in Point: the new Lamy Aion, the latest addition to the Lamy lineup. The pen is made of Aluminum, and comes in either Olivesilver or Black, and with a stainless steel nib, that while interchangeable with regular Lamy nibs (such as the Safari ones), is different in design. As always with Lamy pens, the designer was named, so let's give him the credit: Jasper Morrison, a renowned industrial designer, is the person behind the design. Lamy marked it "Simply Modern", and they claim it to be in direct linkage to the famous Lamy 2000, maybe that's why over 50% of their marketing material regarding the Aion refer to the 2000 instead.

I bought my Aion from Cult Pens, which charges about GBP 40 (USD 54) without the tax, and GBP 47.50 including tax. On American websites the Aion sells for about USD 70, give or take. The first drawback for me was the fact that the pen did not ship with a converter. Now, I use cartridges sometimes, mostly with my Kaweco Sports; I don't like to use cartridges on pens I use for work, as I find the ink flow to be much better with a converter. I think that a pen at this price, should come with a converter. Now, I understand that in the US market, a converter is included, which is fine.

The pen itself is well built: there is nothing new or exciting in the design, and if you're looking for a gimmiky-type pen, that's not it. However, it is a good, solid pen, suited for the office and for the boardroom alike. Compared to the Studio, which is approximately in the same price range, the Aion is a heftier pen: its diameter is slightly larger, and it is a bit higher, so for people with larger hands, this may be better and more comfortable to write with.

The pen is not very heavy, but does have some gravitas to it, and it is well balanced. The cap posts comfortably, without throwing off the balance.

The main novelty of this pen is the nib. Lamy are famous for their uniform nibs, using for most of their pens (except for the 2000 line). The nib on the Aion is somewhat different: it is more round on the tines, and while you can replace it with any other standard Lamy nib (if you want to upgrade to gold nibs, or if you prefer calligraphy nibs), the use of this new design is a statement. Is it a good statement? I have to admit, I'm not sure. One of Lamy's strong suits has always been in my mind the fantastic stainless steel nibs they make. The nibs on the Al Star or the Safari are, generally, so good, they give you a smooth, silent writing experience. In fact, trying the Lamy gold nibs have proven almost no different to me than use of the stainless steel ones.

The new, rounded nib is different. While not scratchy per-se, it does make a distinctive sound on the paper. Some may like it: the tactile sense of a nib running on paper is one of the positive effects of writing with a fountain pen, so for some of you, this may not be an issue, but this is by no means a smooth writing experience. I have tried the pen on many types of paper: from Rhodia pads to the horrible laser-printer pages, and while the sound was more distinctive on some papers than on others, it was present on all papers, smooth or toothy.

The ink flow, as expected from Lamy, is very good: the nib is neither too wet nor too dry, and using a Visconti Blue ink on it gave great results. So, is the Lamy Aion a good buy? I've been writing with it for about a week now as my main writing instrument. It is, like most Lamy pens, a workhorse. Lamy was right to place it in the medium price range. At this range, it is a decent pen, worth having in your pen case.

(DISCLAIMER: The writer purchased the pen with his hard-earned money.)