This Shouldn’t Have Worked - A Tale of Two Scribos

Once upon a time, about three years ago, I bought a Scribo Piuma, Altrove because (1) it was pretty, (2) it was on sale, and (3) it had a flex nib. Nib options were limited so the only flex option left was the 14kt gold Broad Flex. I clicked buy and anxiously waited for it to arrive. I inked it up right away with the best ink match I had and I was whelmed - not over-, not under-, just whelmed. I think part of it was the not-quite-as-perfect ink match as I had thought, but I just wasn’t loving writing with it. (Sorry, no picture of this first inking because I really didn’t enjoy the combination, despite using it for a few weeks.)

Everyone had been raving about the Scribo and their amazing nibs, especially their flex nibs and I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t raving about it too. I was so unexcited about it that I thought it had to be the ink. So I changed inks, and while I liked it better, it still wasn’t good enough. Mind you, it’s not the nib, it was a nice writer, it was smooth, it was juicy, it was flexy. So let me be very clear that it’s not because it was a bad nib. The main thing about flex nibs is line variation, and while there was line variation, the fact that it was a broad nib meant that it gives you a broad-to-broader line, instead of the thin-to-broad lines of traditional flex dip nibs, which was more what I wanted.

I didn’t want to turn this Broad into a Fine or Extra Fine, but thought maybe it could use a little slimming down. So I had Gena Salorino of Custom Nib Studio grind it down to a Medium Broad, while maintaining its current level of flexiness and feel (aka its smoothness on the paper). Gena did a great job, which made the nib feel a lot better, but I still didn’t love it. I eventually set the pen aside in the “last ditch pile”, a pen purgatory, if you will, where I would decide if I would keep it or sell it. It would remain in this pile for over a year while awaiting its fate.

Better with a different ink (Robert Oster’s Cosmic Swirl) and a slight nib reduction.

Fast forward to earlier this year, I decided to ink up the Piuma Altrove because it was decision time. The latest ink pairing was even better so I liked it more, and convinced myself to get another Piuma since there was another sale. This time I got the Piuma in the Levante Orange colorway. All the while, I kept asking myself why I would get another Piuma when I didn’t love the one I already had. On one hand, the price was too good to refuse, and on the other hand, maybe all I needed was a different nib size. I will admit that these were all terrible reasons/rationalizations and you know what’s coming up next: I bought it anyway. I was hoping to get an Extra Fine or Fine Flex, but ended up with my favorite/go-to nib size, Medium.

I inked up the Levante Orange 18kt gold Medium with Kobe #8 Arima Amber, a favorite orangey brown ink, and, sigh, it was fine. I mean, it wrote well, but once again I wasn't wowed. It was a great ink match, it had good flow but it just didn’t excite me. Admit it, you knew this was coming, right? Like there was no way this was going to work out. But wait, there’s more…

Knowing that it shouldn’t make a difference, I decided to swap the nibs. The nib/feed was a tight fit for one of the Piumas so I had Gena pull both nibs and feeds and swap them at the Pacific Northwest Show earlier this summer. No tuning, no grinds, no nib work, just a simple nib/feed swap. And holy moly, Batman, it worked! With the 18kt gold Medium nib now in the Altrove Piuma, it now sparked some serious joy! And the 14kt gold Medium Broad Flex in the Levante Orange Piuma was just the perfect amount of “oomph” that this pen needed!

I can’t explain it but I love this “regular” Medium nib in the Altrove so much more now!

And the juicy flex nib just feels right in the Levante!

Both the Kobe #8 in the Levante Orange and Van Dieman’s Spotted Sun Orchid in the Altrove were in the pens before and after the nib swap, so it’s not the ink that made the difference. From a nib standpoint, they felt the same in both pens (pulling the nib/feed in this case didn’t change how they wrote), but they didn’t “feel right” in their original setup.

Moral(s) of the story:

• Buy all the pens so you can do nib swaps if you don’t like one of them? No, no, no, but if you happen to have a compatible nib from another pen, try a nib swap, you might like them both even better.
• If that’s not an option, and frankly, it was definitely an expensive gamble, clean out the pen and try it with different inks and papers. I already use a variety of papers with my pens, but preferring to matchy matchy my inks and pens can be a bit more limiting. Still, I had quite a few ink choices and some of them definitely made me enjoy the pen a lot more than its initial inking.
• Try a nib grind - I knew pretty quickly that a Broad flex was just too broad for me, so why not experiment with a slight nib reduction? I might have gone for a cursive italic too. Sometimes a nib grind, or even adding (or removing) some feedback is just what the nib needs to feel amazing.
• Set it aside and really think about why you’re keeping the pen if you don’t love it. I loved the material of the Altrove and I just had a gut feeling that the nib should feel enjoyable, but I also know that we don’t all like the same things, so maybe the nib wasn’t for me. And keeping a pen that’s pretty, that I don’t want to ink up, is a terrible reason for me to own a pen.

So happy together!

In summary, don’t be afraid to try something, even if it doesn’t make sense. By all accounts, swapping the nibs shouldn’t have made a difference, but it did. Obviously this wasn’t a dramatic change, nor was changing inks, or getting a nib reduction, and sometimes doing all of these things (and more) still won’t rescue a purchase that just doesn’t jive with you. But for me, all of those things put together, especially the nib swap, resulted in two pens that I LOVE instead of two pens that I was thinking about selling. Maybe two wrongs really do make a write ;-) And they wrote happily ever after.

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Scribo Blue Capri and Arancio di Sicilia Inks: A Review

Today I'm reviewing two summery Scribo inks: Blue Capri and Arancio di Sicilia.

Blue Capri

Blue Capri is a bright, turquoise-blue ink with good shading and a bit of magenta sheen.

On Rhodia Dot Grid paper the ink offers good saturation, some shading (especially in broader nibs), and a fast dry time. It is not waterproof.

Chromatography reveals slight variations in tone from light turquoise to medium turquoise.

I did a longer writing sample using the Fenestro EF fountain pen (reviewed here) on Tomoe River Paper. The ink flowed well and is bright and readable. Even with an EF nib, some shading is noticeable if you look closely.

On MD Cotton Paper with a ruling pen, the ink dazzles. It's nicely saturated, with shading, lovely pooling, and that magenta sheen.

Compared with my other turquoise inks, Blue Capri is closest to TWSBI Sky Blue, although Blue Capri is slightly more saturated. Iroshizuku Ama Iro is a cooler turquoise. Robert Oster Tranquility is greener and Fire & Ice is darker.

Blue Capri is a beautiful turquoise ink, reminiscent of sparkling Italian waters.

Arancio di Sicilia

Arancio di Sicilia is a vivid orange ink with excellent shading and some pink sheen.

The ink is saturated with deep reddish-orange tones and good shading (especially in flex nibs). The ink took some time to dry, but that's likely because I tested it with my flex nib. It is not waterproof.

The Chromatography displayed pale pink, peach, and deeper orange tones.

The Ruling Pen brought out the best of this ink on MD Cotton Paper. It is bright orange ranging from deep sunset tones to lighter pink-orange. The shading is excellent and pink sheen shows up where the ink pools.

For my longer writing test, I used Cosmo Air Light paper. The pink tones of the ink are enhanced on this paper. Shading is also good. It's an orange that is deep enough to read easily, but complex enough that it doesn't jar your eyes.

Although I have several orange inks, none of them are as beautiful as Arancio di Sicilia, in my opinion. TWSBI Orange is closest in terms of hue, but it is more of a burnt orange whereas Arancio is brighter.

Arancio di Sicilia just became my favorite orange ink. It looks like how a fresh, juicy orange tastes. I'm definitely going to order a full bottle of this color.

You can purchase both inks from Vanness Pens. Blue Capri is $3.50 for a 4ml sample and $35.00 for a 90ml bottle. Arancio di Sicilia is priced the same.

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

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Scribo Feel A Riveder Le Stelle Fountain Pen: 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.)

After I reviewed the Scribo Feel Amarena several months ago, I was smitten with the flex nib Italian pen. I discovered a special edition, available only from Scrittura Bolognese, called A Riveder Le Stelle ("to see again the stars"). Midnight blue with a sprinkling of white like the Milky Way, the pen called to me and I answered.

The pen comes in the usual grey-blue box associated with Scribo pens. There's a cotton and leather two-pen roll-up case inside, along with information about the pen and a warranty card.

In addition I received a hand-written card from Scribo and a complementary bottle of ink.

There's also a commemorative book included that features the Cineteca of Bologna.

La Riveder Le Stelle is a line from Dante's Divine Comedy. Dante and Virgil, emerging from Hell, observe the starry sky and exult in being able to see the stars again. After our year of Hell (i.e. 2020) Scribo created this pen with the hope that soon we will all be free to observe the stars, both literal and figurative. La Riveder Le Stelle is, therefore, a tribute to the stars of the cinema. 10% of the revenue from the pen is donated to Cineteca of Bologna to assist with the recovery and restoration projects of Immagine Ritrovata.

The pen features handmade midnight blue resin speckled with white. Trims are platinum and the 14k flex nib is white gold. Scribo Feel pens have a distinctive dodecagonal shape with curves that taper towards the mid-section of the pen.

This is a large pen, measuring 148mm/5.83 inches capped and 136mm/5.35 inches uncapped. The cap does not post. Capped and filled with ink, the pen weighs 39.15 grams. Uncapped and filled with ink it weighs 21.3 grams. The grip is a comfortable 11.28mm. A piston filler, the Scribo can hold 1.42ml of ink.

The screw-on cap features a finial etched with a quill, a rather tight clip, and a cap ring inscribed with "Scribo Feel the Writing."

There's a sharp drop from the barrel of the pen to the grip, but the grip is lengthy, so your fingers never come in contact with the drop or the barrel threads. The rounded shape of the barrel fits snugly between your thumb and forefinger. The pen is well-balanced in the hand and extremely comfortable for writing.

I opted for the 14k fine flex nib. The nib has a tiny bit of plain scrollwork and the words "Feel the Flex Scribo," along with the gold content. The fine nib is smooth and arrived perfectly tuned.

To assist with the ink demands of flex, the nib is fitted with an ebonite feed with two capillaries. I've not experienced any ink starvation or railroading when writing with this nib even when flexing.

Although no modern nib can really compete with vintage flex nibs, the Scribo Feel nib is very good. It's a smooth, trouble-free writer unflexed. Flexed, it provides excellent line variation, up to 2mm wide.

Unfortunately, I've managed to knock the tines a bit out of alignment. Clearly, I pushed the nib too far while experimenting, so I suspect a nibmeister is in my future.

The Scribo A Riveder Le Stelle is limited to 100 pieces, and you can only find it at Scrittura Bolognese. It costs €581.97 (approximately $709, depending on exchange rates). That's a pretty penny for a resin fountain pen, but this pen is so solid in the hand, so beautifully made, and such a great writer that I believe it's worth it.

(I purchased the Scribo A Riveder Le Stelle from Scrittura Bolognese with my own funds.)

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