(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. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)
First of all, I want to thank everyone who weighed in this past fall to help decide what pen I would use for NaNoWriMo this year. May I just say that you all have excellent taste. The Aurora 88 Unica Nera was perfect in every way. I also want to thank Kenro Industries for letting me borrow this exquisite pen even after they were warned that I was going to put it through the wringer. And I want to thank Brad for helping organize this fun exercise. He doesn't even (visibly) flinch when I say, "Hey, I have this wild idea..."
I normally have at least five pens in rotation, often as many as a dozen, so switching to just one pen for a month was a challenge! But with such a nice pen, it was also a pleasure. I did miss my other pens, of course, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with the Aurora.
The Aurora 88 Unica Nera is made from a matte finish black resin with shiny black accents and a black-coated gold nib. There is a smokey-clear acrylic ink window at the base of the grip section. It has a piston-fill system that holds a substantial amount of ink. The cap screws on, and it does post, though that might scratch the finish over time. The clip is very firm--I have to manually lift it to get it to slide over paper or a pen case. It's definitely not going to slide off easily.
The pen feels very substantial and strong. It weighs almost 20g and nothing about it feels light or cheap, though it also isn't heavy. It really feels like the luxury pen that it is. The piston and cap all thread very smoothly and all the joins are precise and seamless.
I confess, I was a little nervous about the nib. In the past, black-coated nibs that I've tried have felt too dry, or like they have a grippy texture that doesn't flow smoothly across the page. I had no such issue with this pen. The nib is smooth and perfectly tuned. This nib is an EF, though I noticed some subtle italic-ness to it. It definitely has a sweet spot where this effect is highlighted, but it writes well regardless of writing angle or speed. I did notice that the pen had some trouble keeping up with ink supply when I was writing very quickly for very long periods of time, but that's to be expected. If the pen needs a little break after speed-writing 2k words, I probably do, too.
Overall, this pen is elegant, luxurious, and a fantastic writer. It survived my NaNoWriMo adventure across 3 states, 4 airports, 3 hotels, 6 libraries, and 2 road trips. It stayed perfectly safe in my Musubi pen case and never leaked once. The only thing that makes me sad is that the adventure is over! Alas, at $585, it's outside my price range. I won't say it's not worth that price, though (as much as any pen is worth the price we Pen Addicts will pay for the right pen). An Aurora is definitely in my future, though, when the right time comes.
(Kenro Industries provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.
Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!
