Graf von Faber Castell Walden Woods Fountain Pen 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.)

I don't typically order super expensive, limited edition pens that come in boxes that are fancier than the pens they house. But Chatterly Luxuries had a good price on the Walden Woods pen, and because I'm working on an MA in English in Creative Writing (I totally need another "practical" degree), this pen appealed to me. I love the fact that the barrel has Thoreau's handwriting etched on it. I appreciate that the ash wood used for the pen is reclaimed from naturally-fallen trees at Walden Pond. I am pleased that my purchase of this pen means a new tree will be planted at Walden Pond by the American Forests organization. All these factors combined with the great price led me to purchase the pen. I bought it for $395 (retail $750), which is still quite expensive.

I waited to open this pen until I turned in my grades for Summer II. It was my reward for surviving the term (and it was a doozy). The packaging was impeccable. A thick, outer cardboard box protected the beautiful wooden box within. The lid of the wooden box is unadorned except for a small logo and the Graf von Faber Castell name.

The box opens smoothly and silently–I mean look at that hinge mechanism! And this is just the box!

A cream-colored, molded insert houses the pen and information about it. A well-designed booklet gives a brief history of Henry David Thoreau's two-year experiment at Walden Pond which became the basis for his book, Walden, or A Life in the Woods. The Walden Woods Project, which formed in 1990 to protect Walden Pond from development, is also discussed, as well as the partnership with the American Forests organization. A card with warranty information is enclosed and there's a small cloth for cleaning. The insert that houses the pen and information comes out, so with a pen tray cut to size, the wooden box can be repurposed for pen storage.

The Walden Woods pen is a limited edition of 2006 pens, each individually numbered. Mine is number 1268.

Unlike Graf von Faber Castell's yearly limited edition pens, which can be quite ornate (and cost thousands of dollars), the Walden Pen is understated. It has a beautiful platinum-plated cap with a spring-loaded clip that is easy to operate.

The finial is concave and unadorned other than grooves etched around the edge.

The Faber Castell logo appears just above the top of the clip.

"Graf von Faber Castell Germany" is imprinted around the bottom of the cap, and just above that, in tiny letters, is a credit for the quote used on the pen.

The grip is made of the same platinum-plated metal, and so is the bottom of the barrel which is convex and sports the grooves around its base.

The ash-wood barrel feels smooth to the hand. It's hard to tell whether Thoreau's quote is actually etched into the wood or just painted on (the descriptions I've read use the word "etched," but the words don't look or feel like they are carved into the wood). The quote is written in black and stands out nicely against the light color of the wood.

The quote chosen for the pen is beautiful:

"So we saunter toward the Holy land; till one day the sun shall shine more brightly than ever he has done, shall perhance shine into our minds and hearts, and light up our whole lives with a great awakening light, so warm and serene and golden as on a bank-side in Autumn."

~Henry David Thoreau, Walking

The nib is a two-toned, 18K gold medium. It started up immediately after I inked the pen, and I've had no problems with skipping, hard starts, or scratchiness. I inked it with Iroshizuku Ina-Ho because I thought the golden color of that ink matched the ash wood nicely. The nib is smooth, but firm without any springiness.

Because the grip is metal, it becomes slippery under my sweaty fingers. It is small in diameter (I don't have a caliper, but it's less than 10mm at the thinnest point), and my hand cramps up while writing. I may eventually have the nib ground to an oblique italic so that I can rotate the pen into a more comfortable position. Plus, the medium nib lacks personality in my opinion.

The pen is a cartridge/converter filler, but no cartridges were supplied, an oversight for such an expensive pen. I use the converter anyway, but I think cartridges should have been included for those who don't use the converter. The converter works smoothly and draws up ink without any difficulty.

At 135mm (5.31 inches) capped, 130mm (5.11 inches) uncapped, this is a medium length pen, just a little longer than a Pelikan M600 capped. The pen is fairly heavy due to the metal construction. I could not find a specific weight in any of the literature or online. In spite of this, it feels balanced in the hand unposted. Posted it is 173mm (6.8 inches) in length and is unwieldy. The cap is simply too heavy and throws the balance off.

I am interested to see how the wooden barrel reacts with the natural oils in my hand. I don't know if the ash will darken over time, or if the wood has been coated to prevent that. My main concern about the light ash wood is what will happen if I accidentally get ink on it. Will the ink wipe off or will it stain the barrel? I am unwilling to test this, even for the sake of a Pen Addict review, sorry.

This is my first Graf von Faber Castell pen. I like many things about it, and it is definitely unique. But, it's not the most comfortable pen I've written with. My hand grew fatigued fairly quickly due to the small grip combined with the weight of the pen.

Nevertheless, I can't wait to take this pen to my English classes. I hope Thoreau's spirit channels itself through the pen to make my poetry better. I can always hope, but so far no poems have magically emerged from my Walden pen.

Pros

• Simple design with understated elegance
• Fans of Henry David Thoreau would probably love this pen
• The Walden Pond ash wood and Thoreau's writing on the barrel make this pen unique
• The nib is beautiful and well-made (though I don't like the medium point and will probably send it to a nibmeister)
• For every purchase of this pen a tree will be planted at Walden Pond
• The beautiful wooden box that houses the pen can be used as a pen box with the addition of a tray (but, honestly, I'd rather just have a simple cardboard box and a lower price)

Cons

• Expensive, even on sale
• Fairly heavy pen
• The grip is metal and narrow in diameter which may make it difficult for some people to write comfortably
• Cartridge/Converter filler, which can be a plus or minus depending on your perspective, but no cartridges are supplied with the pen which seems an odd oversight
• The pen is no longer being manufactured, and remaining units are limited

Paper Mate Flair Tropical Vacation Set Review

You know it's back to school time when new multi-color pen packs start hitting the shelf, and Paper Mate is just in time with its latest Flair colors. Appropriately named Tropical Vacation, this set will have you longing for the days of summer as your classes get underway for the 2015-2016 school year.

The Paper Mate Flair is a classic pen, and a long time favorite of mine and many, many others. It has a long lineage of excellent quality and performance at an excellent price. The basic black medium tip Paper Mate Flair would be considered on the first ballot of the Stationery Hall of Fame, if there were such a thing, and subsequent releases have been equally as good. The Ultra Fine is my personal favorite, but also one of the hardest to find.

Paper Mate has introduced various color variations over the years, but they leaned towards normal shades (lime green, orange, etc.). This is one of the first non-standard releases I can remember. Tropical Vacation offers up six colors: Guava, Orchid Lei, Papaya, Passion Fruit, Scuba Dive, and Surf's Up. The purple black color of Passion Fruit is the big winner in my book, followed by the bright blue of Scuba Dive. Orchid Lei is also a standout with its dark pink/magenta shade, but the three lighter colors aren't so great, with Papaya bringing up the rear.

One interesting thing I noticed is that the line width varied slightly between pens right out of the pack. For example, the Passion Fruit was wider and softer than Papaya, whose tip was firmer and finer than the rest of the bunch. It's not a big concern because these tips will break down with use regardless, but it was noticeable. The good thing is the Flair has moved to plastic tips as opposed to the really old felt tips that would end up stringy over time.

In the grand scheme of things, Paper Mate is not always on the tips of pen addicts tongues except for one pen: The Paper Mate Flair. It's a classic that works in many situations, and it is nice to see a refresh like Tropical Vacation hit the shelves from time to time.

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

If you have made it this far, treat yourself to a listen to 'Boxcar" by the band Jawbreaker. The video footage in the video above was lost for over 20 years before being found in 2013. And if that floats your boat, check out John Darnielle totally kill it in this cover version.

The Pilot Explorer, Revisited

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

The Pilot Explorer is one of those pens that we've probably all seen if we were of writing age through the 80s and 90s. From what I remember, it was an easy pen to find in the day. Any big box retailer that sold pens probably had the Explorer on the shelf, and probably also sold it in boxes of a dozen if that's the kind of thing they were into.

But today, alas, the Explorer is a dying breed. These pens are seriously difficult to come by. Unless you have a personal stash, know someone with a personal stash, or come across some at an auction or random store, you're pretty much out of luck. From what I've seen, there aren't any retailers that knowingly stock this pen.

That being said, why does it matter? Why should a discontinued pen be something we talk about? Well, it's a unique, quirky design for a pen, but it's also one heck of a writer. Yes, there are many, many pens that can out-perform, out-class, and appeal to larger groups, but this is acknowledging something that was a great product that vanished for unknown reasons. We're reliving the glory days, man! "I lived through the Explorer era — you know, before they were famous and celebrated." If that's you, you know exactly what we're talking about.

More importantly, this is one of those pens that excelled over the standard offerings in the retail stores at the time. This is pre-Signo 207, and I'm pretty sure pre-Pilot Precise days, so you can imagine what else you had to choose from at the stores. That's right — Bics and PaperMates. Ick.

Anyway, by today's standards, this pen doesn't win any awards, but it's still a well-performing pen that can keep up with the best of the retail offerings out there today.

Look and feel

This is probably the category that will polarize the most people. Two things: it has a grip style built into the body, so if you use a "non-standard" grip, it might be uncomfortable or unusable for you. Second, it has a unique look that people either love or dislike. I kind of lean toward the dislike fence, but view it more as an ugly duckling. This bad boy paved the way for other well-functioning but better looking pens.

The pen is fairly light, which makes it comfortable to use. Lucky for me, I use a fairly standard grip when writing, so this feels right at home. One thing I've noticed with this pen and refill is that you have to use a light touch when writing. If you start pressing down at all, it will dig into the page and get scratchy really quickly.

The knock has a really nice click sound when you click it down or release it with the integrated clip. For being a pretty cheap pen in the day, it's built really well. I don't know if they're refillable, but I'd feel pretty safe guessing that they're not. I'm sure some people could figure out a way to refill them, but it's not easy. I mean, Pilot put the pen together at some point, so it's only logical that you could take it apart without destroying it.

Writing

Like I said before, and like you can see in the pictures, this pen has a suggested grip for writing. If you use that grip, then that's great. If you don't, well...let's hope you can work around it. Just like Lamy, the Pilot Explorer is pretty opinionated on the grip topic. Once you get past that, you realize that this pen writes really well. The ink flow is great, but not too wet, and the lines are dark yet crisp. On different papers, I haven't noticed much (if any) feathering or show through.

The blue in this pen is extremely dark for a stock blue. It looks more like a blue-black to my eyes. The writing experience with this pen reminds me of using a Pilot Precise V5, which is a very good thing.

Conclusion

The Pilot Explorer is a fine pen. It writes really well, and it feels good in my hand. If I could buy these off the shelf today, they'd be high in my list of "best pens you can buy from big box retailers." Instead, it's now a treasure item that people stumble upon in random places, which has its own merits and rewards.

Growing up, it wasn't uncommon to find these pens lying around in a parking lot, at the bottom of a locker, or attached to a clipboard that someone gave you to fill out insurance paperwork at an office. It was ubiquitous. And then, for some unknown reason, Pilot decided enough was enough. It was an unwise decision, and one I hope they rectify at some point in the future. Great pen, great refill.