Visconti Opera Master Clear Demo

[PenEngineer]

This is a review of the Visconti Opera Master Clear Demo pen. I bought this pen from Bryant for $495 with an extra $15 for shipping.

 

First Impressions: 10/10

 

Although I do not have a picture of it, the pen was very nicely and securely placed in a cut-out slot in a white satin material in a large

burl wood box. First impressions are very important to me, and when it comes to pens, the way the pen does this is how it is boxed. I really

enjoyed pulling this box out of the standard white USPS box that came in the mail. Being a machinist and a wood worker myself, seeing this

box really impressed me, especially at the price I paid for the pen.

 

Design: 9/10

 

This is a very elegantly designed pen! It is slightly larger than the Wall Street Limited Edition, but it is significantly heavier.

It is a really comfortable pen to hold in my hand, and I have not had any problems with holding it for long periods of time, but it

will really have a challenge starting Monday when classes start at college. My one complaint about this is the balance of the pen.

It is very insignificant, but worth mentioning that the pen is very slightly top heavy. I do not post my pens, but it feels as if

this one is posted, but without the extra length of the cap. Again it's not much and it's not uncomfortable, but Visconti could

have designed it a little better. One area they did very well, however, was the Acryloid itself. I thought the leaf designs would

have been somehow just printed or silk-screened onto the surface. Nope. It is blue and green coloured plastic actually set inside

the material! It produces a remarkable 3D effect, as the way you hold it affects how you see it. For example, one way I have seen,

a piece of material appears flattened out and squarish. If I turn the pen ninety degrees, it ceases to be a square and becomes a dark

blue line!

 

 

Nib: 10/10

 

This is one of the best nibs I have ever used! I purchased this with a fine palladium DreamTouch nib. It really writes like a dream!

I put my finger on the pen's underside about half way up the barrel, and just drug it across the paper. It didn't even skip once.

I did adjust it to be a little bit wetter than it came to me. It wrote pretty dry out of the box, but I took care of that very quickly.

The ink in the writing sample is Private Reserve Sherwood Green. The actual content comes from "A Case of Identity" by Sir Arthur Conan

Doyle. It is one of the Sherlock Holmes short stories found in Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

 

 

Filling System: 10/10

 

This is the main reason I bought this pen. I am going to college to get a degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology, and this is

probably the most complicated filling system produced today. The only one that may have this one beat for all time is the Sheaffer

Snorkel. Visconti really did a great job making this into a demonstrator pen that was VERY polished on the inside and outside to

show of their achievement. I didn't take points off for this because it is an unavoidable side effect of the purpose of the filling

mechanism, and that is the plunger only draws in half the barrels worth of ink. It's just because the piston doesn't extend into the

primary reservoir closest to the nib. That said, it still takes in more ink than almost all of my pens. I do realise, though, I can

fill it completely with my Travelling Ink Pot, but it's a lot of trouble for me to go to if I'm not actually away from an ink bottle.

 

 

 

 

Service: 10/10

 

It's Bryant. What more do you need? Great prices, great attitude, great service! I started talking with him about purchasing this pen

from him while he was at the Washington D.C. SuperShow. Despite being busy all day, he still managed to return all of my emails in a

timely manner, and without showing any impatience or fatigue from the show. Due to me moving, I didn't have my new address until after

I had purchased the pen from him. He was very gracious and patient with me, and allowed me to buy the pen and to have him hold it until

I had the new address. When he received the address, he put it in the mail the next day, which was a Tuesday, and the pen arrived on

Thursday. Even after waiting to have it shipped, and then actual shipping, it still managed to beat other pens I have ordered in the

past! I will definitely be buying more from him in the near future!

 

Overall: 49/10

 

I love this pen. It is the best pen I have owned to date, bar none. I am glad I start classes soon so I can fully take advantage of

and enjoy my new pen!

 

 

I will be ordering only Visconti products for the foreseeable future. My next purchase will occur around Christmas hopefully, and will

be an Opera Master inkwell, and then early next summer, the Homo Sapiens pen. If I'm feeling lucky, I will get it with a 1.3 mm stub nib!

All from Bryant.

Edited August 21, 2011 by PenEngineer

[Yuki Onitsura]

Nice review of a very nice pen. I have one of these but with the older 18k gold nibs and it's one of my favourite pens. There is a way to get a complete fill without a travelling ink pot (fill as per instructions, point pen nib up, push plunger until there is no more air in the barrel, hold plunger to stop it going back, dip nib back into bottle, press plunger rest of way) but as you said, even at half capacity you've probably got enough ink for at least a couple of days' worth of writing.

 

Yuki

[jandrese]

Thanks for the good review. Somehow I have been able to resist this pen, which is attractive and is built like a tank. Can someone comment on the differences between this filling mechanism and the one Pilot uses on the 823.

[PenEngineer]

This pen uses the double reservoir power filler, whereas the Pilot Custom 823 uses a modified plunger filler. I think the double reservoir is more reliable, and I do have both. Ink in this pen is always in contact with the feed, but in the Pilot, you need to unscrew the blind cap to use it. I have also experienced problems with the ink flow around the spike on the piston head in my 823, and I'm really not sure why.

[raging.dragon]

Thanks for the good review. Somehow I have been able to resist this pen, which is attractive and is built like a tank. Can someone comment on the differences between this filling mechanism and the one Pilot uses on the 823.

 

I don't have either, but based on reviews and descriptions from others they are very similar. The pilot plunger goes deeper into the pen, and thus can get closer to a full fill (but it still need to using the trick Yuni described above to get a full fill), and the Pilot also adds a feature to close off the ink flow (which can be use to prenvent ink gushing from nib when flying or when transporting the pen).

[Tennessee Dave]

Thanks for the review. Enjoy the pen and good luck in school.

[professionaldilettante]

So thats how a powerfiller looks like on the inside. I've always wondered how that works on the inside of my HS. Thanks for the pics.

[MadAmos]

I have the same pen and as desk pen it is great I find it a bit heavy for pocket Cary so it goes in my messenger bag in a case when I take it anywhere. If there was one complaint that I have unlike the OP, mine is so wet that it is unusable on poor paper. It is a fine and on the copy paper at work it is a feathery BBwith every ink I have tried. I am planning on going to the SF pen show and hope that one of the nib meisters can ease the flow back from a 9.5 to a 6-7.

[PenEngineer]

I've always wondered how that works on the inside of my HS. Thanks for the pics.

 

You are very welcome.

 

Enjoy the pen and good luck in school.

 

And thank you very much!

[genls]

Thanks for the great review!

 

Physically imposing pen. Great feel in the hand. The only beef I have with the design/build quality is that the metal parts wear and scratch with use. I have posted the cap on mine, and noticed that it has left scratch marks on the metal filler knob at the end of the pen. Also, and I believe Yuki said this earlier, the 'OPERA' engraved on the pen should be changed to an 'OPERA MASTER'. The attention to detail is pretty good, but it can be better.

 

The double chambered filling system is awesome. It's probably more complicated than necessary for everyday use, but it does make the pen more leak proof, and adds another level of sophistication to the design. There is a downside with this system (and the fact that the pen is a demonstrator) -- it's very hard to wash clean of all ink; I haven't been able to do it yet.

 

An Opera Master already, and you're still just in college.... I imagine you're going to get quite a few looks when you whip this pen out. Do I see some Tibaldis, or the Caran d'Ache diamond pen, coming up in your future?

Edited August 23, 2011 by genls

[comatose5519]

First of all, great review.

 

Second, and more importantly, I'm completely blown away by the coincidence of this post, for the following reasons.

 

I work at Bertrams Inkwell in Kensington, MD, and also am a college student. I'm counting down the days so that I can use all of my pens I've acquired from the generous Bert Oser. I am currently eyeing up the Opera Master Demo in amber, because I have a Homo Sapiens and what to see the filling action in full effect. I also put this filling system second to only Sheaffer's Snorkel, which I have a bunch of, and therefore must have it.

 

I've got the Aurora 88 Demo, and a few other demonstrators simply because I love seeing the mechanics.

 

 

Regardless of my rambling, where do you go to school? I'm floored to know other college students use real pens instead of their laptops for notetaking and such.

 

 

Tyler

[Yuki Onitsura]

...the Pilot also adds a feature to close off the ink flow (which can be use to prenvent ink gushing from nib when flying or when transporting the pen).

 

The Opera Master has this handy little feature as well. Just requires you to unscrew the knob, pull it back just a tiny bit, invert the pen to empty the 'feed' chamber and screw the knob back.

 

Yuki

[padams2359]

Great job on the review. It is impressive that you are able to afford high end pens before college. I remember those days, and I to had a great deal of disposable income at that time. I think you are investing your money well, compared to others your age, and with care, you will have a great collection by the time you are my age. It is a beautiful pen, and I to have fallen in love with Visconti pens. I have a midi now, and waiting on my new maxi to come it. I really like my MB 144, but prefer my midi. As far as the weight, I think they are designed for the cap to be placed on the back of the pen. We all know this will cause a scuff line on the pen, so none of us do this on a regular basis. I did put the cap on the back of my midi, for testing purposes, and that balances out the weight of the pen. That being said, the extra weight in the cap could be to balance out the metal of a large nib.

[PenEngineer]

where do you go to school?

 

I am a freshman at Oklahoma State University studying mechanical engineering technology. I did run into one other person that enjoys pens, but he doesn't have much money so he left his few pens at home.

 

Thank you to all the people who have wished me luck and for the kind thoughts! It is a really joy to read them throughout the day. Up to now, my most expensive pen was a Wall Street limited edition, which is a great pen by the way, and that one took me several months to save up for. Over the summer, I scored a temp position at Conoco Phillips for a couple of months, so I'm just riding on savings from that right now. Unfortunately, this has to be the last pen I purchase before the end of the school year, or I will run out of money!

[padams2359]

where do you go to school?

 

I am a freshman at Oklahoma State University studying mechanical engineering technology. I did run into one other person that enjoys pens, but he doesn't have much money so he left his few pens at home.

 

Thank you to all the people who have wished me luck and for the kind thoughts! It is a really joy to read them throughout the day. Up to now, my most expensive pen was a Wall Street limited edition, which is a great pen by the way, and that one took me several months to save up for. Over the summer, I scored a temp position at Conoco Phillips for a couple of months, so I'm just riding on savings from that right now. Unfortunately, this has to be the last pen I purchase before the end of the school year, or I will run out of money!

KEEP TO THAT!! You have a nice collection started. You don't want to have to start selling them off in order to pay for the credit card bills you will accumulate. Don’t know why, but you will get a million credit card apps. Job or not. My son started getting them when he was 9. Damn MENSA, lol. I should have waited to put him in. Just get a bottle of ink every now and then to change things up.

[PenEngineer]

I have only one card right now, and it is linked to my parents account for emergencies and gas ONLY. I am very strange for my age, but something in my near obsessive compulsive nature makes me just hate the idea of a credit card. I'm not sure if it is the interest that gets charged, or spending money that technically is not mine. Or both. Either way, I will only get one for myself if I need it. I don't even know what I would need it for.

[camoandconcrete]

Very nice pen! I've never been too fond of Viscontis (except for a Van Gogh I received as a present years ago) until I got the Homo Sapiens. Since then I have also added a Divina Black and I can see myself picking up another Visconti in the future.

[georges zaslavsky]

nice review of one of the nicest pens of the visconti line

[fabrimedeiros]

Thanks for the review! My OMDemo LE (clear too!) arrived last week! I'm also very delighted with this pen. It feels more sturdy and well made than I expected! And it's huge! Even a MB 149 seems a small pen next to it! When I look the barrel closely, I can see how thick are the walls. And, inside these body walls, I can see the leaf colored designs absolutely inlaid, as if they were within an ice cube. Gorgeous! Mine is now filled with Diamine Syrah! Thanks Bryant and Visconti for this great pen!

 

Edited: These pics are great indeed, but it's very hard to capture in photo the beauty of this pen. As PenEngineer said, it has a "remarkable 3D effect" on the inlaid colored leaves and, in my opinion, on the pen itself.

Edited October 12, 2011 by fabrimedeiros

[raging.dragon]

Since my previous post in this thread I've acquired one of these pens (in amber), and it has quickly become one of my favourites. With the amber the 3D effect of the coloured swirls is more subtle than it is in the clear. As others have said, it's a solidly built pen, made from thicker plastic than most. This is a large pen, and the metal section and blind cap make it rather heavy was well. This works well for me, though I'd prefere a plastic blind cap to move the centre of balace closer to the nib.