Pairings Party: Nahvalur Original Plus Powder Blue, Wearingeul Undine

Even if I’ve reviewed a product before, I like to return to it every few years if the company keeps it in the lineup. It doesn’t have to be changed much, if at all, but I do want to see if anything is different as the product matures. And let’s be clear, I’m a simple man. I see fun colors, I’m interested.

That’s the case with the Nahvalur Original Plus in Powder Blue. It caught me by surprise in 2023 with how nice it was, and it has continued to be one of the best mid-range, bang-for-your-buck, pens going.

In testing the Powder Blue Original Plus, it performs exactly as my first one in Matria White. That’s a good thing. The only difference is that I chose the 1.1 mm nib for the new model, as opposed to the Fine nib in the … original.

Outside of color and nib, the Original Plus is known for using a vacuum filling mechanism. That’s not something often seen at this price point, and it works great. Filling is easy, it seals off well when not in use, and cleaning is a breeze because you can unscrew the grip section and run water through the barrel.

Nahvalur releases new colors of the Original (Piston-filler,) and Original Plus two or three times a year, including the just launched full color Original in translucent and opaque barrel models at the Washington D.C. Fountain Pen SUPERSHOW this past weekend. I still prefer the clear barrel/color cap and finial style, but all of them look great.

When choosing an ink for Powder Blue, my default choice would normally be Pink, but I went more matchy-matchy with Wearingeul Undine. I’m not sure of the story behind the ink, and reading the product description I’m not sure I want to, but wow is this a nice color. It’s a bit of a dual shader, with a colorful Turquoise/Teal combo (is that a thing?) with a lot of Pink/Purple shading. It flows great from the 1.1 mm nib.

Recommending both of these products is easy. In thinking about the Original Plus, it is a $63 pen (with some sale options at $47,) and I think that is fair for what you get in this market. As I was thinking about it in the context of other pens in this price range, would I choose the Original Plus, or the Pilot Prera?

As a bonafide Pilot stan, I think it’s a coin flip. The Prera has a better nib, and the Original Plus has a better filling system. Both come in fun colors, and should hold up as well as plastic barrel pens can.

Where would you rank the Original Plus versus the Prera, or the TWSBI ECO or 580? It’s right there in the mix for me, and I’m glad to have another solid option in this range.

(These products were purchased from Dromgoole’s and Goldspot, respectively, at a discounted price.)

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Nahvalur Eclipse Retractable Fountain Pen Review

I love modern takes on classic fountain pen design challenges. Whether it is creating a better filling mechanism, modifying nibs to meet the needs of today's user, or trying make a better retractable fountain pen, I’m here for all of it.

Nahvalur decided to take on the latter challenge with the Eclipse, their version of a retractable fountain pen. We have seen several companies attempt to match what the great Pilot Vanishing Point brought to the market decades ago, but none have been able to equal it. Given that the VP is untouchable, how does the Eclipse stand up to the rest of the retractable pen market? Pretty well.

The main design element of the Eclipse that differentiates it is the nib deployment mechanism. Instead of a button knock on the end of the pen (Vanishing Point, Platinum Curidas,) or a twist (LAMY Dialog,) this pen is what I’m calling a barrel knock. To deploy or retract the nib, you grab both ends of the pen and push it towards the middle. You can see the gaps in the middle of the barrel that allow the alternating aluminum parts to slide together and engage the mechanism. At the end of the day it’s still a knock mechanism, but handled in a unique way.

Given this design, how do you get inside the barrel to access the nib unit and fill the pen? The rear of the pen twists, and in turn, unthreads the pen in the middle interior. The pen then slides into two halves where you can access the nib unit and ink converter. The pen fills by putting the removed nib unit into an ink bottle and using the supplied converter to draw in ink. Reverse the assembly process, and start to write!

I never used the launch version of the Eclipse, but there were reports of difficulty re-assembling the barrel once undone. Whatever the issue was seems to have been resolved in the current models, because I’ve had no troubles taking the barrel apart and putting it back together repeatedly.

From a writing perspective, I like the nib a lot. This one is a Fine Steel model (also available in Medium,) and both the line width and ink flow have been great. As someone who likes fine lines, I couldn’t ask for much more.

The Ecplise has many of the standard retractable fountain pen downsides, such as a long and wide barrel, and a clip in the grip area. It’s on the limit size-wise for me (my retractable preference lies with the Vanishing Point’s partner, the skinner barrel Pilot Decimo,) but still very usable. The bigger challenge with the Eclipse is the edginess of the aluminum parts in the middle of the barrel.

Close-up of the raised edges on the barrel.

The questions here are two-fold: 1. can you pinch your fingers when engaging the mechanism, and 2. just how sharp are those aluminum parts? To answer the second part, they obviously aren’t sharp, but each strip of aluminum has a raised lip along the edges. Given the number of them, you can really feel them on the barrel. Not so much when writing, but they are there. For the first question, I haven’t pinched myself yet, and I’ve used both single-hand and two-handed deployment options. If I didn’t pay attention, I do wager that I could get caught out.

Retractable pen comparison, top to bottom: Platinum Curidas, Nahvalur Eclipse, Pilot Vanishing Point, Pilot Decimo.

At $99, I think the Nahvalur Eclipse is a great option, if you can deal with the considerations listed above. Those considerations are what makes retractable fountain pens a secondary or specialty pen for many users, as for some people they just don’t fit their hand. For others, it offers something different than the Platinum Curidas in the same price bracket, and is much cheaper to try than the Pilot Vanishing Point and Decimo, both of which use 14k nibs. Overall, Nahvalur has made something interesting with this pen, and I look forward to continuing to use it.

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

Nahvalur Original Plus Matira Quartz Fountain Pen Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

The Original Plus from Nahvalur is a fountain pen that offers a large ink reservoir since it uses a vacuum filler mechanism. Vacuum fillers seem to be one of the more rare type of ink filling mechanism used in fountain pens today, so it's always exciting to see other options pop up, especially when they're also fairly affordable compared to other options.

For me, my first vacuum filling fountain pen was a Pilot 823, but that's not an accessible place to start. TWSBI has long offered a more affordable vacuum filler with the giant Vac 700 and later the pocket-friendly Vac Mini. Until recently, vacuum fillers could be hard to come by. Luckily, that's changed over the past few years.

I reviewed a PenBBS vacuum filler back in 2022 that only cost around $60 at the time and also worked beautifully. It's definitely possible to make a sub-100 vacuum filler that works well, and Nahvalur has another great example of this in their Original Plus.

The Original Plus is a standard-sized pen (similar in length and diameter to the Lamy Safari or AL Star) that features an enormous ink reservoir and vacuum filling system. Plus, the barrel of the pen is transparent so you can see the ink and filling system in full view.

The colorway I chose is called Matira Quartz, named after the Matira Beach in Tahiti. Aside from the transparent barrel, the other material used by the grip, cap, and blind cap (or finial) all use a translucent white with reflective gold particles suspended in the acrylic. It's a beautiful material, and the rose gold trim goes nicely with it.

As far as build quality goes, this pen is on par with every other Nahvalur pen I've used in the past. It's well-made and feels like it will last me a lifetime if I take care of it properly. All of the tolerances are tight without being difficult to use, and all the various threads have a satisfying feel that leave me sure that they're tightened properly. No one likes loose or ambiguous threads!

The clip on the cap of the pen is substantial and has a lot of gripping power. Despite being so strong, it's still really easy to use. Clipping it onto something or removing it are easy tasks, but I don't have to worry about it coming loose on its own.

The nib on this pen is a #6 steel nib made by Nahvalur. The fine point on this unit was buttery smooth right out of the box. I'm really happy with how this pen writes from the factory. The nib has the same rose gold plate finish as the other trim parts on the pen, but be aware that it's just rose gold colored plating, not actual gold. In my book, that's a great trade-off because it affords a better price!

Writing with this pen has been such a pleasure. The nib and feed provide great ink flow, and the pen feels well-balanced in my hand. I prefer writing without the cap posted, but you can post the cap if you like. I haven't measured to be sure, but you can easily fill more than 1 ml of ink on the first pump of the vacuum system. With this much ink, the reservoir looks about 60% full. There are ways to fill vacuum filler pens all the way, but I don't need that much ink at one time and don't want to risk spilling is spraying ink. Even 60% full is a more ink than I can fit in a piston filler or cartridge-converter pen, so I'm happy with the easy route.

Keep in mind that you have to back the blind cap out a few turns to allow ink to flow properly when writing. When the blind cap is tightened down, the ink supply is shut off from the feed. This is great for transporting the pen, and you can even write a couple of sentences before running out of the ink that was already in the feeds Just remember to open the reservoir a bit and you'll have all the ink you can need!

The Nahvalur Original Plus is just $55 in most cases (there are a couple of models with more expensive material/trim options), which is a fantastic value. Nib size options can vary a bit depending on stock, but in general you can pick from F-B and 1.1mm stub.

There are several interesting colorways to choose from, and they all use the same great nib and large ink reservoir. The price and level of quality are fantastic, and I can easily recommend this pen to anyone interested in vacuum filling mechanisms. It's a great way to it out and compare it to piston and cartridge/converter systems. Good luck picking a color!

(Goldspot provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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