Taccia Doric

[TimButterfield]

Taccia Doric Review

 

http://www.timbutterfield.com/albums/PenTacciaDoric/aaa.sized.jpg

 

Appearance 4/5

I like the colors of the Atlantis Blue Doric. It has white and black streaks mixed with shades of blue. The overall finish of both the plastic and metal is quite good. The white pearl dot in the clip is a nice touch. My only wish is that the streaks on the body matched those on the cap. I guess on some pens, they might. On mine, they do not. There is a wide black streak on the body of mine, but only narrow black streaks on the cap. At the price, I do not consider this a major fault. It is just a nit I need to pick.

 

http://www.timbutterfield.com/albums/PenTacciaDoric/aab.sized.jpg

with steel medium nib

 

http://www.timbutterfield.com/albums/PenTacciaDoric/aag.sized.jpg

with gold fine nib

 

http://www.timbutterfield.com/albums/PenGroups/aab.sized.jpg

Size comparison - from the left: Waterman Carene, Sailor 1911 Professional Gear, Taccia Mother of Pearl, Taccia Doric, Pelikan Chicago, Bexley Submariner Grande, Namiki Vanishing Point

 

Design 4.5/5

The Doric is not a small pen. It has a sizable girth and a fair amount of length. With a metal section and thick plastic, it is also not a light weight pen. But, it is nicely balanced and does not feel overly heavy when writing. The clip has a good metal spring attaching it to the cap, fastened internally by a screw to the cap end logo.

 

The pattern on the metal section is attractive. The pattern grooves are about the same depth as the grooves on the nib. They feel smooth and do not interfere with the grip. The section is metal and the threads do wear a small amount on the plastic threads of the cap. So far, this has not caused a problem, although I am not sure if this will be a problem long term or not. At this price, I am more than willing to risk it.

 

http://www.timbutterfield.com/albums/PenTacciaDoric/aac.sized.jpg

 

http://www.timbutterfield.com/albums/PenTacciaDoric/aad.sized.jpg

 

http://www.timbutterfield.com/albums/PenTacciaDoric/aaf.sized.jpg

 

Nib 5/5

The nibs are screw in and thus easily changed. There are two available nibs, a steel Iridium Point Germany nib and a two-tone 18K gold nib. Both are attractive. As I purchased the pen from Richard Binder, who smooths the nibs before delivery, both write as smoothly as any of my other pens. Still, as the nibs come from Peter Bock in Germany and the unsmoothed Bock nib on my Bexley Sherezade writes nicely, I would expect these to also write nicely right out of the box.

 

Filling 5/5

The Doric uses a standard cartridge/converter system, which performs in the expected way. My preference is for a piston fill, but this does the job it is supposed to with no surprises.

 

http://www.timbutterfield.com/albums/PenTacciaDoric/aae.sized.jpg

 

http://www.timbutterfield.com/albums/PenTacciaDoric/aah.sized.jpg

 

Value 5/5

The is the best value pen in my collection. With the standard steel medium nib, I paid a price of $68 at the Ohio show. The gold nib added another $75. Taccia pens in general have a great value. This one is no exception. The inclusion of a nice leather-lined zippered case at this price makes it that much more of a bargain.

 

Summary 4.7/5

At this price point, the Doric is an incredible value, especially since it includes the case. If you really prefer a gold nib, that option is available. Taccia is a fairly new brand and the pens are priced competitively. I recommend taking a look at them or even taking one home as I did.

 

Larger and smaller pictures are available here.

[davyr]

that's a great review, tim. the colors of your taccia are striking, and your sharp pictures are very pleasing! wrt the stripes of the cap and body not lining up, try screwing on the cap at different positions wrt the body - depending on how the threads are engraved, it may line up at a certain position. good luck.

 

love your submariner btw, is that the aspen color?

Edited December 3, 2005 by davyr

[TimButterfield]

Thanks for the compliments, Dave.

 

There is no way the stripes can line up. The sizes and patterns are different. It is almost as if the cap and body came from two different pieces of plastic or that the cap and body were switched between two pens.

 

The Submariner Grande is the Aspen color.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

Great pen! If the price is right, I will give it as a recommendation to Slush.

 

Dillon

[Apollo]

Tim, outstanding review. I love that Atlantis Blue colour. What's the converter like?

[Slush99]

Great review! I just bought a Taccia! It probably has a converter like the Conklin, I think. I'm not too sure. I haven't got it yet.

[southpaw]

Tim, outstanding review. Fantastic pics. Had to get both nibs, didn't you? Can you comment on differences between the nibs?

[TimButterfield]

Thanks all.

 

Apollo and Slush99,

 

The convertor is a decent one with a plastic bead inside to help move the ink around. Here is a picture of it.

 

http://www.timbutterfield.com/albums/PenTacciaDoric/aai.sized.jpg

 

Southpaw,

 

I normally prefer gold for the looks and cachet, but the steel looks nice also. The nibs both write smoothly, as I would expect them to coming from Richard. Actually, since I bought it at the show, I also got a chance to verify that they wrote well, which they both did. If I remember correctly, the Aspen Submariner Grande Bexley needed an extra bit of smoothing to take out some scratchiness, but the Doric nibs were fine the first time. I think the real difference between the Doric nibs is just looks and size. I cannot really detect much else as my fingers and hand are not trained to sense that fine of a difference.

 

Since you are the one that convinced me to do this, I put together a writing sample for you. Please forgive the scratch. The results of my trying to learn italics are much better than my normal scrawl.

 

http://www.timbutterfield.com/albums/PenTacciaDoric/aaj.sized.jpg

[Apollo]

Tim, thanks for the converter pic.

 

I must say, that Taccia Doric is a beautiful pen especially in blue. I really like how the colour contrasts with the gun metal finish of the section, cap band and clip. Looks like I'm going to have to get my hands on one soon. Indeed, it looks like a great buy no matter if one gets a steel nib or a gold nib.

Edited December 4, 2005 by Apollo

[Maja]

Wonderful photos and a great review---thanks, Tim! Looks like the Taccia Doric line is a winner, from what I've read here. As for the cap and barrel stripes not matching in terms of widths, it may be more noticeable in person; I don't really see anything too jarring in your photos....but yeah, it might bother me, too. Glad to hear that the pen writes so well, though

[sp_maher]

Thanks for the great review Tim. How secure is the grip on that metal section? I'm always a bit wary of metal sections. Does the texturing help?

 

Regards,

 

Sean

[TimButterfield]

Maja,

 

The stripe size difference is not really a problem until you try to line things up and find you cannot. It does not hurt the looks any.

 

Sean,

 

The Bexley Submariner Grande in the size comparison picture has a smooth metal section. I do not have a problem with it being insecure to hold. The pattern in the Doric section provides just a bit of texture. I guess that would make it slightly more secure to hold than the Bexley. My fingers are normally dry and not at all slippery. Other than metal feeling cooler to the touch, I do not find much difference between plastic or metal sections.

[jakespeed]

I just received this pen in the Icarus Yellow color (I think it looks almost like a highly polished wood) and really enjoy it so far. It writes very smoothly, and the original review is correct that it is a very large pen, although that's one of the things that attracted me to it. The converter I received looks different than the one pictured, mostly in that it does not have a plastic ball inside to keep the ink moving around.

 

After receiving it I filled it up with Private Reserve Black Magic Blue and have been writing with it quite a bit at work and home. I am very pleased with this pen, and got a good deal on it from the clearance section of Fahrney's.