Delta Italiana

[Sam119911]

Hi everyone! This is my first review, and my first modern pen! I'm still getting the hang of photography so bear with me! I've tried to be unbiased, but, well, you judge if I was or wasn't

 

Last year was my 20th birthday (in November) and since, apparently, I'm hard to shop for, I was given some money to buy myself a gift. Well, a problem came up where my hard drive on my laptop malfunctioned so I had to buy a new one along with an external hard drive, so that used up most of what was going towards a gift to myself. Anyway, I still had some left, and wanted to purchase a pen for myself. I'd just come back from Italy and I thought of looking into some of the Italian made pens, which is exactly what I did. After looking at all the brands, I chose Delta as the brand I was going to buy a pen from. But which? It was between the Delta Vintage and the Delta Italiana. This was to be the first modern pen I've ever bought so I had to make the right choice. I was swaying towards the Vintage, until I was convinced (by the person I visited in Italy) that I should go for the Italiana. A week or so ago I made some calls, and found a shop that was able to supply me with the Italiana, and yesterday the order was placed, and today the pen arrived.

 

Appearance and Design (10/10)

The pen comes in a an outer cardboard sleeve with the model name splashed across the front (hard to miss!) Removing this you come to the actual pen box. I find it a bit weird, I'm used to the boxes you get with vintage pens. However... Strapped to the box are two bits of info. One's a "Made in Italy certificate" which says how it's 100% made in Italy, and the other is instructions on filling. This is written in Italian, with a little bit of English. I'm studying Italian, but don't know enough to translate it all.

 

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To open the box you rotate the cover, and the pen is nested in a hole in the shape of a bow tie. Interesting! The lid is secured by an elastic band The material the pen is nested in a sort of dense foam.

 

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/7702/003nw.jpg

 

Removing the pen, you can't help but admire it. It's beautiful! The way the resin swirls is great to admire. These pens are hand turned from blocks of resin, and each pen is unique. It's avalible in black, brown, or ivory, and with either gold or white metal trim and nib. I chose brown white white metal. You can also get it in a polished or matte finish.

 

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Construction and Quality (9/10)

The pen has a very modern and sleek design. It's very streamlined. It's a light pen, but you can feel it's a high quality pen. It's been beautifully polished, and there are no seams of any sort. The cap screws on and takes one full revolution to remove. It screws on tightly and securely. The clip is strong and would hold onto thinner fabrics easily. You could clip it over thicker material, but I haven't tried that yet. On the back of the cap it is marked "DELTA ITALY" and "Italiana". The tassie at the top of the cap is stamped with Delta's two-nib logo. The bottom of the barrel has a plain white metal tassie. There is a step between the section and barrel which is a new thing for me, but it still feels comfortable to hold. The step allows the pen to have smooth lines when capped. The clip could be a little more flexible, hence the 9.

 

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Weight and Dimensions (10/10)

The pen is light, being made from resin, but it doesn't feel cheap. One of the reasons I haven't bought a modern pen before is because most tend to be heavy and I much prefer a lightweight pen, like my vintage pens. Capped the pen is 5 1/2 inches long, 4 7/8 inches unposted, and 6 inches posted. The cap posts securely and I, personally, wouldn't fear it coming off. The balance of the pen is great, both posted and unposted, so I think it would be suitable to posters and unposters alike.

 

Nib and Performance (9/10)

The nib! This surprised me. I thought the nibs were stainless steel which were then plated in either white metal or gold. However, looking at the nib I noticed it said "14kt - 585" Not bad! I believe the feed is plastic. I originally worried that the nib might be too small on the pen, but I think it looks fine, and certainly not too small. The options were F, M, and B. I chose F.

 

I've tested the nib with J. Herbin Café Des Îles,and the nib is very smooth, and has an element of softness which makes writing rather pleasant. I like this nib!

 

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/6259/008dai.jpg

 

Filling System and Maintenance (9/10)

The pen fills with either a cartridge or converter. What else can you say here? Pretty easy to fill and maintain. The converter supplied fits nice and snug into the section.

 

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Cost and Value (10/10)

This pen was £98 and I think it's a good cost for what you get. The RRP was £108, and what I paid included VAT and shipping. I could have gotten it cheaper other places, but would have had to pay import fees, and I liked the friendliness and service of where I purchased it from. For this price for such a quality pen with a gold nib, I give it a 10.

 

Conclusion (9/10)

Overall, I think the Delta Italiana is a great pen. It certainly met the expectations I had for it. It even exceeded them! This will certainly be a daily user, I think. Given the chance, I would buy this pen again. I highly recommened the Delta Italiana.

 

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Una penna bellissima!

 

Edit: This isn't my FIRST modern pen, I have a Sheaffer Legacy from the 1990s, but this is the first modern pen I have bought myself. The Legacy was a gift for my 19th birthday.

Edited January 31, 2012 by Sam119911

[Easterner]

Nice review! I was looking at this pen on the net and this review helped me to decide to buy it.

Thanks for posting the review.

[jandrese]

Good review, thanks for sharing. What do you think of the plastic? As I recall it has a soft feel, and a matte look. Seems like you have a very good start on your pen collection. Good choice on the Delta.

[Sam119911]

Easterner: You won't be disappointed! I found very few reviews for the Italiana, but loved the look so much I had to buy it!

 

Jandrese: I find the plastic has a really nice feel. It feels... inviting... You can get thebody and cap finished in either a gloss or matte finish, but I opted for gloss. I love my pens to have a nice shine to them. My other choice was going to be a Pelikan, but I'm glad I went for the Delta!

[Sam119911]

Update!

 

Having been using this pen since I got it, it's been behaving wonderfully. However, I did slightly widen the gap in the tines to make a little wetter for my preferences. I also found it worked nicer with different inks. Cafe des Iles was a little troublesome, but maybe it's my certain bottle? With Lierre Sauvage it's working perfectly! It has really become my favourite pen.

 

I notice I didn't include a photo of the pen with the cap posted. Here's one!

 

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/3311/posted.jpg

[trurl]

Update!

 

Having been using this pen since I got it, it's been behaving wonderfully. However, I did slightly widen the gap in the tines to make a little wetter for my preferences. I also found it worked nicer with different inks. Cafe des Iles was a little troublesome, but maybe it's my certain bottle?

 

 

Maybe it's the ink. I had the same problem with Cafe des Iles, or even worse: it clogged every pen I filled with. A Delta Dolce Vita, a Sailor 1911, a Pelikan M151 and a Lamy Joy.

 

And I was forced to disassemble and clean them thoroughly. Needless to say I'm not using it anymore.

[Sam119911]

Ah, so maybe it's a problem with Cafe des Iles specifically? That's a shame, because it's a nice colour. maybe it should be used in pens with larger channels in the feed. I put a drop of the ink into some water and I noticed that as it dispersed through the water there were sort of "clumps" of the ink. What's causing the clogging etc?

[ArchiMark]

Thanks for your review of this handsome pen. Think it has a very nice classic look for a modern pen.

 

Have fun with it!

 

[FrankvK]

Thanks for the review, great looking pen, will be considering this for a next purchase

[Toolattack]

This is a fantastic looking pen.

Thanks for the review this is going on my 'I want that' list!

[Uncle Red]

A very classy and streamlined pen. I hadn't seen much about this models o thank you.

[writewright]

You've convinced me to add this pen to my list.