Battle of the IPG's

[Rufus]

I took delivery of a Taccia Imperial Portugese in Forest Marble with a medium nib yesterday and have spent several hours yesterday and today writing with it. This is an excellent pen and much better than I expected. I spent a considerable amount of time researching affordable pens and decided on the Imperial Portugese because of its rich, but not flashy looks, price and the good reports from owners. As soon as I opened its box I knew I had made the right decision: the Forest Marble acrylic and chrome furniture look very rich and make the pen look a lot dearer than it is. After handling the pen for two days I am very impressed with its feel and the quality of the materials used and how they are put together; nothing cheap or slipshod here. But what has impressed me the most is the way this beauty writes: I use all my pens unposted and I find the IP the ideal size for my hand and perfectly balanced. The one concern I had about the pen before I received it was the location of the threads for the cap on the section just above the nib rather than the usual location above the section; I thought they might interfere with my fingers when writing (a bit like the clip on the Vanishing Point as reported by some owners), but they aren't at all noticeable even after writing many pages. The nib is also a dream; it wrote first go out of the box filled with Waterman's Florida blue; it makes a nice true (IMO) medium line with good wetness; it is smooth, but not glassy, giving nice feedback. Being a steel nib it doesn't have the springiness of my Bexley 14k and 18k nibs, but this is not a criticism, just an observation. Shu-Jen Lin founded Taccia in the belief "that pens should be affordable, stylish and well-built." If my Imperial Portugese is indicative of Taccia's other pens Shu-Jen Lin has hit the bullseye on all counts. In sum, the Imperial Portugese is an honest, high-quality pen that punches well above its weight. I'd buy it again with absolutely no hesitation and I'd buy another Taccia pen in a flash; in fact I have been admiring the Staccato in Burgundy Ebonite.

 

I am afraid that I have to update parts of my comments, as I've experienced ink flow problems. This afternoon after writing half a page my pen stopped writing completely without prior warning; after giving it a gentle shake it started writing again, but soon stopped. I fiddled with the converter, drained and refilled the pen, but after a few pages of writing it stopped. I understand, from another thread on FPN, that owners of other Taccia's have experienced this problem as well. I contacted my local penmeister who has come across this problem with Taccias before and he tells me it's a relatively simple fix: the ink channels in the feed need to be widened with an Xacto knife to let air into the converter. Since I am not the only Taccia owner to have experienced this problem it seems to be an unfortunate QC issue. Nevertheless, I still think my Imperial Portugese is a great pen and I hope Shu-Jen Lin is on top of this problem, as it would unfortunate if such a relatively minor issue damaged Taccia's reputation.

[Deirdre]

What's the relative weight of these pens? I'm guessing they're heavier than average.

[Brian]

A good well considered review. Thank you for the guided tour.

[Rufus]

What's the relative weight of these pens? I'm guessing they're heavier than average.

 

Deirdre, that's difficult for me to say as I don't have scale. With the cap on it feels to be about the same weight as a Parker Duofold Centennial and a Sailor Naginata-Togi, but with the cap off it feels a bit lighter and closer to a Bexley America the Beautiful or Americana.

 

[Strang]

Noob question from a noob here: Are both the Laban and Taccia brands made in China?