Two Giants, Separated At Birth

July 2, 2016

I make no secret about liking large pens. (Not only do I like large pens, I am also a sucker for big nibs.) I have also been collecting Bexley pens for a little while. So the natural pen for me to search for was the Bexley Giant. Made in 1994 in 4 standard colors, the pens were one of the first models issued by Bexley. The Giant was issued in Blue, Woodgrain, and White with 100 of each color authorized. A Platinum, with two-tone nib, was also issued but limited to 50 pens. A large #12 nib was an extra cost option at the time of release. Most of the pens I have seen include the larger nib.

I tried to buy a few of the prototype colors off the bay of evill last year but never seemed willing to go up high enough in my bids. Finally when I was tired of losing out after 3 tries I was ready to bid up. And, of course, no more of the pens showed up for sale. But the hunt was on. Eventually I was able to find a Platinum Gray pen with the more limited (and to me more desireable) two-tone nib. Here are some of the pertinent details on the pen:

- Length barrel to tip of nib (uncapped but with cap not posted) 5-1/2 inches
- Cap diameter about 0.775 inches

- Barrel diameter about 0.665 inches
- Grip area just below cap/barrel threads about 0.528 inches
- Aerometric filled with a squeeze converter holding maybe 2 ML of ink
- Top of caps stamped "Made in USA" with an old English "B"

- Bottoms of body has a gold disc with the limitation number
- The clip is 10K

Besides the official colors, I have seen several prototype colors including lime green, honey gold, and burgundy. I have also seen a version of the Giant made for an Italian pen company that has a blue cap and white body with the company imprint. I heard from a long time friend of Bexley's founder (Howard Levy) that there were more barrels and caps made than pens assembled. Apparently these excess parts were sold off to a very limited extent. I do not have information on numbers of parts or if the parts may have been from incompleted pens in the authorized series colors. I also heard that you could not buy the clips or the large #12 nibs in order to assemble a Bexley Giant of your own.

Not too long ago, I found a pen listed as being from Only One Creations - the pen company of the late Scott Meyer. Looking at the pen, however, it looked like a Bexley Giant. The pen has a titanium section, clip, and a #6 Bock titanium nib. The acrylic material looked an awful lot like the Platinum Gray Giant pen I already had, though maybe not as pearlescent. So I jumped on the pen and had it sent to me. It turned out to be a match for the Platinum Giant I already had, though with the much smaller nib. It does have a nice grooved Ti section that is both comfortable and grippy during use. It was a happy find for me.

Without further ado, here are pictures of the two Giants, separated at birth.

If you have a Giant (and I know at least a few out there do as I have seen them in photos), please post a picture of yours and share the story.

January 9, 2017

Ooh, these are both stunning!

Do you happen to know who made the nib and feed for the Bexley #12 nib? How do you like the writing characteristics?

January 9, 2017

Welcome back rpsyed! Happy new year.

I have no idea who made the nib. I'll see if I can find out and post it here. I think the feed was made by Bexley themselves.

The Giants I have with the #12 nib were both tuned by Masuyama before I bought them so they write well. The former owner said they were not great writers out of the box.

Funny timing as I had just pulled out one of the pens in this post last night after not touching it for many months.

January 10, 2017

Welcome back rpsyed! Happy new year.

I have no idea who made the nib. I'll see if I can find out and post it here. I think the feed was made by Bexley themselves.

The Giants I have with the #12 nib were both tuned by Masuyama before I bought them so they write well. The former owner said they were not great writers out of the box.

Funny timing as I had just pulled out one of the pens in this post last night after not touching it for many months.

Thank you! =] Happy new year to you as well!

Hmm ... I know Chris Thompson used to do replicas of Waterman 58s and I think he did replicas of the Parker Ultra Giant as well. I believe the nibs in those replica pens were commissioned from a jeweler. I wonder if that's the route Bexley took. The nib certainly looks too big to be a Bock or JoWo #8.