Visconti Wall Street standard edition review

November 13, 2009

Visconti Wall Street

Standard C/C Edition

The Visconti Wall Street is a stunning pen, both to behold and to use. I've had mine in rotation for about four months now, which is long enough for me to get to know the good and the bad aspects of this pen.

First Impressions: The Visconti Wall Street I own was given to me by a fellow FPNer. He invited me to his home, opened his pen cabinet, and said "pick out a pen or two." The Wall Street stood out to me from literally hundreds of other pens. It is the most gorgeous pen I own! Which leads us to...

Appearance and Design: I hope that every pen aficionado has the opportunity to own a celluloid pen. The Wall Street in green is wonderful. It is both striking and subdued: I could stare at it for hours, yet from a distance it doesn't scream "look at me!"

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3421/3865941069_91aeaf3896_o.jpg

Wall Street is part of the "squaring the circle" line. I think it is a bit of a gimmick, but your estimation may be different. The grip section and threads are round, so at least the faceted cut doesn't affect my use of the pen. The facets on the cap, when it is closed snugly, do not exactly line up with the facets on the body. Likewise, the screw-in grip section/nib unit does not align with the "top" of the pen when you set it down for glamour shots. For the price of this pen, I'd expect more attention be paid to these finishing details.

The standard edition Visconti has a metal grip section. It is not as long as the Lamy Studio's section, and doesn't appear to be as long as the Visconti Van Gogh, either. I don't like the Studio section, but the Wall Street is fine. The LE version has a celluloid section which I would prefer, alas!

The trim work is tasteful--a sterling silver cap band, the clip, and the Visconti logo at the top of the cap are the only ornamentation. Some folks don't care for the Visconti clip; I'm indifferent. If nothing else, it has a nice mechanism that keeps the clip secured to even the thickest of materials *cough* blue jeans *cough*.

Score: 8/10 (high marks for the celluloid and tasteful ornamentation, but take a few away for poor finishing details)

Weight and dimensions:

Length closed: 136mm or 5 3/8 in

Length uncapped: 128mm or ~5in

Length posted: 162mm or 6 7/16 in

The celluloid is a light material, but the metal grip section is heavy. It is not an especially well balanced pen, but that is not to say it is awkward. On the contrary, I find it to be quite comfortable to use for long stretches of writing. The length, uncapped, is nearly perfect for my hand; it is about as long as a Pelikan M805. The girth of the grip section is comparable to the smaller Pelikan M600.

Closed and open compared to Pelikan M605, Lamy 2000, and Lamy Al-Star

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3428/3991629840_b296b34fbc.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3509/3990874435_ca719fc6a9.jpg

I do not post my pens, generally, but even if I did I don't think I'd post the Wall Street. The cap adds substantial weight and really throws off the balance.

I have to say the Wall Street is just about the most comfortable fountain pen I own. I really like the length and girth of it. They allow me to use the pen for long stretches of writing without any sort of (hand) fatigue.

Score: 7/10 (nice weight, length, and girth, but awkward balance)

Nib performance: My Wall Street has a 14k gold nib. It is the same size as a Pelikan M800 nib, which is to say, big. It is firm, smooth, and wet. The imprint is approaching gaudy, in my opinion. I've had the nib customized to a fine stub which is just fantastic. Greg Minuskin did a fabulous job with it.

Score: omitted on account of customization

Filling system: The Wall Street standard edition uses international cartridges and international converters. Unfortunately, the converter that came with this pen is something of a cuss. It certainly *looks* nice, but for whatever reason it likes to develop air bubbles that prevent ink from being delivered to the feed and nib. I would chalk this up to a fluke defect, but I've read similar accounts of trouble on FPN. Sounds like a design flaw and not a defect. Darn. Also, and this may seem silly, the converter makes an annoying rattling sound--not always, but often enough to be a bother. Hmmm.

As soon as I switched to carts (in this case, Waterman Blue-Black long international carts) the skipping/feed problem went away.

Score: 10/10 for carts, 4/10 for converter, 7/10 average

Cost and Value: As mentioned above, this was a very generous gift given by a fellow FPN member. Therefore, I won't comment on cost. To me, this pen is priceless!

Score: omitted

Conclusion: The Visconti Wall Street standard edition is a luxurious fountain pen. It has a few imperfections, but these are not fatal flaws. The nib is one of my favorites, and the celluloid is drop dead gorgeous. This is one of my prize pens!

Final score: 22/30

By the way, Idiopathos has a nice review with a different take on the same pen. See that here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=52454

Thanks for reading!

Brandon

November 14, 2009

Lovely pen Brandon.

I just bought the WS LE model and just like you I love my pen, its a bliss to use or to look at.

Thank you for the interesting review.

November 14, 2009

You're welcome goodguy. It was my pleasure and I'm glad you liked the review. On second reading it looks like I'm being very critical of this pen, but I adore it. I know that you and I like piston fillers and integrated fillers, but there's something to be said about a quality, beautiful c/c pen, too. Which color did you get?

November 14, 2009

You're welcome goodguy. It was my pleasure and I'm glad you liked the review. On second reading it looks like I'm being very critical of this pen, but I adore it. I know that you and I like piston fillers and integrated fillers, but there's something to be said about a quality, beautiful c/c pen, too. Which color did you get?

I can live with a CC filler if the pen is worth it and your pen is defenetly worth it

My WS is the Red colour.

Here is the review I just wrote of it

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=130346