One Star Leather Goods - Leather Pen Sleeves - PART 1

My good friend Keegan over at One Star Leather Goods sent me a message a few weeks back that we was working on a simple pen sleeve to carry small pocket pens like the Kaweco Al Sport or the new craze going on with the Franklin-Christoph Model 40 (looks awesome).  He also decided to make an offering for a larger pen sleeve to fit your full sized pens.

Keegan was kind enough to send me one of each of these to put through their paces and I first wanted to post about my initial impressions BEFORE use.  Hence, Part 1 of the series.  There will be a Part 2 in the future once they've been shown some good use and breaking in.  These are very simple in design, but feel great and are extremely functional.  They were designed to be thrown in your pocket (with keys?!) or bag without worrying about scratching up your pens.

Larger Sleeve

Smaller Sleeve

First of all, the leather that Keegan from One Star uses on all his wares is excellent.  He didn't go cheap-o on the leather used for these sleeves and it is nice and thick.  His stitching is always so good and I know these will last for a very long time.

He sent me the Natural Chromexcel for the smaller one to match my Park Sloper Sr wallet/notebook holder and the larger one in a color he was excited about, Cognac.  Below is a shot I posted to Instagram of my small sleeve and Sloper Sr together holding a Kaweco AC Sport and Kaweco Liliput.  Breaking in nicely already!

Recent Instagram Post

My first impressions of these is really high and the quality is top notch.  For handmade leather goods, these are reasonably priced as well at only $25 for the smaller and $30 for the larger.  With the holidays coming up, I think small items like these would be a perfect stocking stuffer for the pen lover you know.

I'm excited to put these to good use and I'll make an update soon and discuss how they've worn, protected the pens, and what pens I've actually used them for.

Thanks, One Star Leather Goods!

Levenger Stealth L-Tech Fountain Pen - F Nib

About a month or so ago I received an email from Levenger asking if I'd be open to doing a review of one of their pens.  I had seen and been referred to Levenger products previously so I was excited about the idea and accepted.  Thank you Levenger for providing this sample for me to review.

I was given the choice of a couple of models, but decided upon the L-Tech Fountain Pen in the Stealth finish.  My love for this style of pen (metal with faceted barrel) added to my excitement to get my hands on it for review and I must admit that I've been pleased with it thus far.

The finish on this pen really is top notch.  The Stealth edition has a matte black barrel and cap, but a gloss black finish on the clip and ends of the pen.  Good show on this finish Levenger.  Usually with "stealth" type pens, everything is matte, but I really enjoy the contrast of the gloss against the matte.  It adds some visual "texture" so to speak to the pen.  The overall design has a very technical/engineering feel to it.

This pen is quite weighty coming in inked (with converter) at about 46 grams.  This isn't a "cheap feeling" weighty.  Coupled with the great finish, it adds a nice level of quality to the pen.  It is an all brass pen and feels solid and extremely sturdy in your hand and the barrel is about 1/2" in diameter.  The cap is threaded and has either triple or even quadruple threading which makes putting the cap on quick and easy.  One thing that is cool about the cap is that the threads, upon tightening, line up the facets of the barrel and cap pretty closely.  You can tighten it really tight which throws the alignment off a smidge, but an easy adjustment makes the pen look awesome just sitting on your desk or pad of paper.

From first glance you would think it was 6 sided, but the barrel actually has 7 sides meaning it is heptagonal.  New word of the day: heptagonal barreled pen.  This is an interesting choice.  One thing about it that is kind of nit picky on my part is that with an odd number of sides, the clip of the pen never sits parallel with your pad of paper if the pen is capped and at rest.  If laid on it's "back", the clip is always pointing in either the 2 o'clock or 11 o'clock position (depending on which side you set it on).  If you have tendencies to be OCD (as I sometimes do), this might bug you a bit.

Under the cap you'll find a knurled grip.  The knurling isn't very sharp so I wouldn't consider it to be extremely grippy.  Let's just say it looks grippier than it is, but I love the visual element it adds to the pen.  I'm pleased they went with this route rather than a smooth section as it pays homage to some earlier pen models (of which I am obsessed).

I requested an F nib on the pen and at first I was having trouble getting ink through it.  I initially tried inking it up by just popping in a cartridge, but wasn't getting ink to feed at all.  Even after a few good shakes, nothing.  I was starting to worry that the pen was going to have a problem (which technically this is).  After fussing with it for awhile, instead of trying to use the cartridge I decided to put in the converter.  I inked it up with the sample of Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki that Mr. Ed Jelley sent me to try.  (Thanks Ed!  Now I have to buy a bottle...)  Once inked up through the converter, it was an entirely new experience.  I've been writing with it for days with rarely a skip or feed issue.  The line width on the F is nice and not too small.

**UPDATE - Upon further investigation I found that Levenger actually recommends "priming" the pen by slightly squeezing the cartridge once installed until ink starts to flow through the nib.  This likely would resolve the concern I initially had with the pen not writing.**

The cap posts nice and snug on the end, but adds too much length and weight for comfortable writing in my opinion.

The Design Inspiration:

Now, I have a thing for the rOtring brand; a lot.  There actually is a bit of history between Levenger and rOtring that I thought I'd share along with the review.  Back during the production of the rOtring 600, Levenger contracted to have some "Levenger" branded pens made.  I found this great image on fountainpennetwork.com posted by member FLJeepGuy of some branded 600s (I wish that I had this set!):

Eventually, either rOtring stopped making these for Levenger during the merger with Newell-Rubbermaid, at the discontinuation of the 600, or when Levenger decided to start making their own pens instead.  I'm not so sure of all the history, but would love to be educated further!

The L-Tech pays obvious homage to the rOtring line from whence it sprang which I think is awesome.  The rOtring brand is no longer making pens of this kind on their own and I'm glad someone is carrying the torch.  The fact that there is history between the two companies makes it even more comforting I suppose.  The L-Tech actually shares some of the design elements of both the 600 and Newton (first version) pens.  They maintained a knurled grip similar to the 600, but took the gloss black accents off of the Newton.  

The L-Tech is quite a bit larger than the 600 and Newton which some consider to be hefty pens, but I think Levenger did a good job on the sizing.  The pen is large, iconically striking, well made, and hefty in a good way.

At $80 I would say the L-Tech is a great choice.  The slow starting nib with the cartridge is a pretty strong concern (see update above), but the pen feels solid in your hand.  If you are a fan of vintage rOtrings then this pen is a great choice under the current pen market offerings to give you a similar experience.  Even without it's famous history, the L-Tech would hold its own as what I would consider to be a great pen.

Thanks again, Levenger, for the opportunity to review the L-Tech! 

 

Kaweco Student Blue Fountain Pen - F Nib

I, like a few other bloggers, was given the pleasure of receiving some sample goods from Sebastian and Sabine directly from Kaweco for review on the blog, so I will likely have a lot to say about the brand over the coming months!  I'm excited about this as Kaweco is one of my favorite brands so this should be a treat.  Thanks again, Kaweco, for providing some samples for me to review on The Clicky Post.

My first round of these Kaweco reviews rest on the Student model fountain pen.  The Student is one of Kaweco's larger models closer to your average full-sized fountain pen.  It is a bit above your entry level fountain pen price coming in at about $50-60 depending on where you buy from, but based on my experience with the pen it seems reasonable.

The barrel of the pen is made from molded acrylic so the pen overall isn't extremely weighty.  The grip section is made of chromed brass and is the heaviest part of the pen and when unposted it is heavier on the front end.  Due to the added length with the cap posted, I've found myself writing without it but with it didn't seem a terrible bother.  This is primarily due to the light weight acrylic.  If the barrel was metal I could see it running a bit top heavy.  

The cap posts securely with a good push, but doesn't go on very far at maybe only an inch.

This particular pen was loaded up with an F nib which started up quick and smooth as is the usual experience with Kaweco.  I've been using an EF in my blue AL Sport and thought I was sold on it, but using the F might have just swayed my sweet spot...  Although, I've got a few nibs to get through still before I can set that in stone.  I loaded it up with the the standard Kaweco blue cartridge and it writes beautifully.  The Kaweco nibs are so pleasant to work with.

The color of the barrel is advertised as "blue", but in some lighting could be observed as being a bit on the violet side.  Not purple by any means though.  For me, this is kind of a distraction as violet pens aren't really my forte, but perhaps a deeper blue composition would change the look of the pen completely?  

If you are familiar with the Allrounder, the Student is kind of like it's little brother.  It carries primarily the same shape, but is slightly shorter and is acrylic rather than aluminum.  They share the same clip, but have different decorative chrome bands around the cap.  At half the price, you get a similar feel, but with less weight.

Like the Allrounder, despite being a larger pen it shares the smaller nib of the Sport line.  Some of the other bloggers that have done reviews of the Allrounder found this to be a bit disappointing, but I don't really mind it.  Perhaps I just need more time with larger nibs to feel differently.  I'm most concerned about how the pen will write and as mentioned, the Kaweco nibs (even the smaller ones) write awesome. 

All in all, I really like the Student and I think it is a pretty good value.  I enjoyed the writing experience particularly with the F nib.