Whisky Wood Pens “The Highlander” B-Stock Review

[TheDutchGuy]

Whisky Wood Pens “The Highlander” B-stock review

 

If you are in Inverness, Scotland, and want to buy a fountain pen, then unless you’re willing to settle on a low-end Parker from W.H. Smith, you’ve got a problem. My wife and I were there for a week of Highland R&R. We had a really great time, but there was not a fountain pen in sight, nor any other decent pen. In contrast, good stationary could be obtained anywhere! Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Moleskine and some others could be found in even the tiniest W.H. Smith and Waterstones shops. One day we took a guided tour to the isle of Skye. On the way back to Inverness, the driver kept making stops at scenic locations. The last stop was at a place not far from Loch Ness where one could “feed the cows and get a cup of coffee”. The coffee place had just closed as our bus pulled in. By this time it was quite late in the day and since the prospect of feeding cows did not appeal to me, I stayed on the bus. My wife went out while I dozed off. Some time later she was the last one back on the bus and informed me she’d just bought…. a handmade fountain pen! Out in the boondocks in the Highlands. For all of £24! It turned out that the coffee joint had reopened and its owner also sold Scottish souvenirs, including ballpoints, rollerballs and fountain pens made from old whisky barrels. At first I was skeptical, as the clip was bent and the nib was not properly aligned with the feed. Back in the hotel, a bit of online searching quickly revealed that this is a Whisky Wood Pens “The Highlander”. They’re supposed to be sold with a certificate of authenticity which states from which barrel the pen was made as well as a converter. Both are missing from this pen. This leads me to conclude that this is a B-stock pen, which also explains its £24 price tag (if you order this pen online, the price is £55).

Back home after our week in Scotland, I cleaned and flushed the pen, put in a cartridge of Waterman Mysterious Blue and off we went. Here’s what I found.

Packaging 7/10

The pen is delivered in a black jewelry-style box with gold accents. The pen looks very pretty against this deep black background. The box looks nice and is sturdy enough to protect the pen, but is of average quality and will quickly show signs of wear and tear when put to rigorous daily use. This is also true of the boxes that many other brands of fountain pens are sold in, so I won’t hold it against the manufacturer. There is no written information whatsoever, nor a certificate of authenticity. This is part of why I consider this to be a B-stock pen.

Construction 6/10

To start with: the wood looks very nice indeed and the wood turning seems to have been done well. I won’t hold the bent clip against it, given the 50% price drop. Design-wise, this is an odd pen. It screams “home-made pen”. The filial is the kind of removable end cap that one often finds on mechanical pencils. Its diameter is about half that of the rest of the barrel and it is screwed on. At its base is some threading, on which the cap can be screwed when posted. However, this is a purely theoretical possibility because when the cap is screwed on, the clip is misaligned and prevents one from writing with the pen. Second, the cap alone is almost as heavy as the rest of the pen, so the pen becomes severely back-heavy when posted. The section is made of metal and feels very light and thin. It’s considerably thinner than the wooden part of the barrel so there is a significant step-down. The threading is unobtrusive and doesn’t get in the way when writing. The inner threading in the cap is metal, whereas the threading on the section is plastic. All the threading on this pen felt a bit rough, so I put touch of silicon grease to it. Some people will really, really dislike how this pen is constructed while others will love it. In terms of sturdiness, in normal use and when treated like a quality pen should be treated, this pen will last a long time. All things considered I’ll give it 6 points out of 10, but people who can live with the design quirks will probably rate it higher.

Nib 8/10

The whisky wood pen website promises a "German straight nib design with an iridium point". The nib certainly seems German-made and seems to be of good quality. It probably isn't, but it sure feels like a 14k nib. It is far, far removed from the hard, rigid "nail" feel of my steel-nibbed pens. It took me 10 seconds to solve the alignment issue. Before cleaning, flushing and flossing, the pen wrote dry and intermittent. After cleaning, flushing and flossing, it writes beautifully (more on that later). It’s smooth, pleasantly wet and has some give to it. There are no ink flow issues whatsoever.

Filling system 8/10

The pen should’ve been sold with a converter, which was missing on this B-stock pen and, considering the price drop, is forgiven . The pen holds normal or long standard international cartridges or any standard converter. A long cartridge should last a nice, long time.

Writing 8/10

The writing characteristics are somewhat similar to my ‘80s Sheaffer Targa 14k, which is not a bad reference at all! It really feels like a 14k pen. I prefer my two gold-nibbed Sailors over this pen, but that’s a matter of personal preference. Compared to the Sheaffer and the two Sailors, the nib is at least as smooth and wet, but has slightly less character. In other words, there is less feedback. But overall this pen writes surprisingly well. The step-down from barrel to section is less bothersome then I’d expected, though the section can be slippery. The section doesn’t feel cold, a notable difference with my Visconti van Gogh.

Final score and concluding remarks 7/10

I had my doubts about this pen, but the inevitable conclusion is that my wife scored a fantastic pen for a fantastic price. It’s a good thing that I stayed on the bus, because I probably would’ve talked her out of it. She’s a lefty but has no issues writing with this pen. For £24 she obtained a unique pen that will serve her very well for many years to come. The cold, hard, objective final score is 7/10, but after a few hours of writing with this pen, my subjective “emotional” score would be 8/10 or perhaps even 9/10.

[TheDutchGuy]

This pen does something that no other pen I know of does. Look at the writing sample. A lot of the text is pale-blue and some of it is dark-blue. With other pens I know, there's more dark than pale. With this whisky wood pen, there's at least as much pale as there is dark. In other words, it shades like crazy. Personally, I love this effect. It creates an element of randomness into the colouring of the writing that I find very pleasing.

[TheDutchGuy]

Well, at least *I* think it's an interesting pen ;-)

[SoulSamurai]

The body looks a bit like a kit pen; that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it kinda makes it less interesting to people who've seen lots of kit pens as well as kit-less pens.

 

Sounds like a great writing experience, and that's some crazy shading!

[Inkling13]

What you have is a kit pen. The phenomenon you mention is called shading, and it has more to do with the pen-ink-paper interplay rather than the pen itself.

This pen does something that no other pen I know of does. Look at the writing sample. A lot of the text is pale-blue and some of it is dark-blue. With other pens I know, there's more dark than pale. With this whisky wood pen, there's at least as much pale as there is dark. In other words, it shades like crazy. Personally, I love this effect. It creates an element of randomness into the colouring of the writing that I find very pleasing.

[TheDutchGuy]

I was aware of what shading is :-) . But I wasn't aware of "kit pens", thanks for alerting me to that. Kit pen or not, I like that the wood comes from used whisky barrels - if you order a pen online, you can even choose the brand of whisky. I also appreciate how well this pen writes. It's a pleasure to use.