Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 139

Last month, I got an email from Stuart telling me about his new fountain pen from Namisu, a pen company located in Fife, Scotland.  The company was selling some deeply-discounted prototypes online, so Stuart ordered one of them for himself:

Stuart: "My Namisu Nova prototype arrived yesterday! The company is selling prototype models at 50% off, they may still have some if you’re interested. I like the pen, it’s nicely balanced in hand and the Medium Bock nib is very smooth."

(all photos courtesy of Stuart ~ please click on images to enlarge)

He continues: "Unpacking it was a bit messy - the package arrived with the box badly crushed and wrapped in one of those apologetic “this is how we received it” wrappers from Canada Post.  When I opened it, I found the pen, which is aluminum and stainless steel, was in a sturdy clear plastic tube, so it and the separate converter were OK.  When I opened up the pen to flush it out, I got blue ink on my hands!  I looked in the barrel and there was an open, loose ink cartridge rattling around inside - it must have been knocked loose during the package’s travels.

I removed the cartridge and chucked it and flushed out the barrel and cap, and then the nib unit, which I also soaked in water to wash out more ink residue.  When I filled it it wrote fine, so all’s well.  I don’t know if they ink cartridge was left in the pen by mistake or supposed to be in there - as the pen is a prototype, it was being tested at the factory."

"It looks like the difference between the Nova prototype and the production version is that the Satin Black, which I have, is all black in the production version, while mine has a stainless-steel section.  I like the colour contrast, and it’s a good-looking pen in the company’s minimalist style.  

It was DHL who carried the package across the Atlantic, so they may be responsible for the squashed box.  It’s lucky it was only the box that was damaged, although with the pen made of such robust metals it would take a lot to damage it.  In the end the condition of the packaging was not a big deal, it just looked scary at first glance!"

"You might want to check Namisu’s site and see if anything appeals to you. They make a good pen. They now offer Bock titanium nibs as an upgrade, but they’re $86.00 CDN, which is steep in this case as the pen is so much less."

The company sold out of their prototypes very quickly, but I'm glad Stuart managed to snag one in time! It's a cool-looking pen with the kind of minimalist design that Namisu are well-known for. Many thanks for sharing your new pen with us, Stuart :)