Black and White

I realized, once again, how stuck I am on black and white, or silver and black pens.  This photo is actually several years old and I have added a number of pens since then, most of which are black and white or black and silver.  Recently, I was about to purchase another pen, which was black carbon fiber and silver.  I paused and wondered why I would buy another pen of the same color combo as most of my others?  The answer was simple, I still like that color (less) combo!  (Although, I did not buy that pen due to marginal reviews.) No surprise, my favorite ink is basic black - though I note that they are not all equal.  For example, Pearl Noire from J. Herbin is the blackest of blacks, I love that ink.  My pens seem to like Pilot black the best:" it doesn't clog or dry out very easily.  While I would never wear a tuxedo that is not basic black, I do have some pens in other colors, which I enjoy and use often.  But in the end my first choice is always basic black.  By the way, one of the best and most affordable basic black fountain pens is the Levenger Truewriter Obsidian.  It is one of my basic work pens, filled with Noodler's Polar Bulletproof black.  The TW Obsidian is always ready to write, even if I've not used it for several days.  No matter how beautiful a pen is, knowing that it will write the moment you touch it to paper is the best feature of any fountain pen.

True Writer Group Photo

I recently had my digital camera repaired and today is the first day of my vacation. Thus, it seemed like a good time to take stock of my fountain pens. I wasn't sure how many True Writers I had; so I gathered them up for a group photo. Even after I gathered them up I wasn't sure - I have this uneasy feeling that I have left one somewhere. At any rate here they all are - I hope: three demonstrators, one black, one True Blue (translucent), one Kyoto, one Starry Night, one pearl Metallist and one blue Illuminator.

Speaking of the camera repair: three tumbs up to Samsung who repaired my Samsung S85 without hesitation, according to their one year warranty. Customer Service was outstanding and the camera was repaired and returned to me within one week, and they paid the shipping. It did not cost me a penny.

Red Esterbrook - J Series

My curiosity about whether Steve Leveen may have used the Esterbrook J Series as his model for the Levenger True Writers, led me to purchase this red Esterbrook J with a 2668 nib. Placing the Esterbrook J next to a True Writer demonstrates how similar they are in appearance - especially, the silver bands, clip and end caps. They both have a screw out nib so that you can easily change nib sizes. The True Writer is larger and offers cartridge or converter fill. The Esterbrook is lever-bladder fill.

This model of the J series, with "Esterbrook" imprinted on the clip and the black end caps were produced in great numbers during the 1950s.

The ink sac on this one had deteriorated to fragments. So, this was my first pen restoration. The pen had to be taken apart, cleaned and a new sac installed. It reminded me of building models when I was a kid - restoring this pen was a joy. If you haven't attempted it yet, it is not as intimidating as it sounds. Between the instructions on Richard Bender's site and the availibility of parts from Pendemonium, it is really quite simple. This pen is currently filled with "Rattler Red" from Noodlers - to match the color of the pen - and writes extremely will for a steel nib. The 2668 nib is very firm and provides some feed back but not too much if you keep a light hand. The 2668 produces a medium-fine line and never fails to provide ink.

Kyoto True Writer

The Kyoto version of the True Writer was offered at the Levenger Outlet on eBay at a too-good-to-pass-up price. And, since this was a pen that I had my eye on for quite awhile, I picked it up.

Reading the description of the pen, it struck me that the pen must look better in person than the photos can relate. And, it was true. I think the photos make the pen look rather blah. In person, the pen is strikingly rich in color. Levenger catalog pictures of the Kyoto discs for the Circa system give a more accurate sense of the depth and variety of color.

Starry Night True Writer

Obviously, I am in a rut since here I am posting another True Writer review. Trust me, I have never even met Steve Leveen!

And let's face it, this is not much of a review because the True Writers all write the same - that's why I keep buying them!

The Starry Night is one of those pens that is just beautiful to look at and I think Levenger did a nice job of capturing the feel of Van Gogh's painting, with one exception: the punctuation of yellow is absent. The stars are not there. The range of blue is striking but it should have had a slight splattering of yellow to really capture the Starry Night motiff. Even so, I am glad I got it. This is my first multi-color resin pen from Levenger and I am pleased with the weight and depth of color. It has more presence than the demonstrators and solid color pens but not as heavy as the Medalist.

True Writer Heavy Weight

Originally I wasn't too excited about Levenger fountain pens because they appeared to be an uninteresting design and made of light weight materials, which I mistakenly equated with poor quality. As I have written previously, I have since purchased several True Writers and they have become my favorite fountain pens because of their reliability, comfort, line quality, ink colors and I have even come to really like the simple styling and light weight.

However, I recently discovered on eBay that Levenger has an outlet store with some great deals. There I found a pearl Truewriter Medalist at less than half of the new price. The Medalist has all of the writing qualities of the other True Writers - including interchangable nibs, like Pelikans - plus it has the heft of a brass barrel pen like the Cross ATF. Actually, it is heavier than the Cross.

The pearl finish looks much better in person than it does in the photo. It is an irradescent white, not the least bit silver, as in the photo.

Levenger's True Writers

When I first saw the True Writer fountain pens in Levenger's catalogue many months ago, I scoffed - yes, I scoffed. I did not imagine that these "Johnny-come-lately" fountain pens could be any good. How could they possibly compare to those who only make fountain pens and have been doing so for decades? However, since purchasing my first fireball red demonstrator a couple of months ago, I have become a True Writer sycophant - O.K. that's extreme but once you write with these, it is diffcult to let go of them. Now I have four True Writers featuring all of the different nib sizes that Levenger offers. Everyone of them writes as well as pens that cost two or three times the price. True Writers are very wet writers and their nib size produces a line that is broader than you expect - much like a Cross - the fine writes like a medium and the medium like a broad and the broad nib is like writing with a stub, and all of them are deliciously smooth. Levenger's ink colors are intense and offer you the option to have a pen body that is the same color as the ink it contains - a very nice option once you have more pens that you can easily keep track of. The cobalt blue is particularly brilliant and I was thrilled to discover it before it was discontinued. The luminescent blue is even better in person. Another reason why I like the True Writers is the size: they have fairly wide barrels so the pen is comfortable and balanced to write with even when the cap is not posted. As much as I like my two Pelikans, they are rather small for a man's hand. Surprisingly, the pen that I thought I was really going to enjoy writing with was the Sailor pocket pen with a 14kt white gold nib. However, that pen writes dry. It is just the opposite of the True Writer - I feel like I need to squeeze the ink out of it to get it to write. So, if you like a wet writer, get a True Writer.