Fosfor King Of Pen

[silverlifter]

I placed this order with Manoj of Fosfor Pens in August, 2018, and elected to

have the order fast tracked. The pen was delivered at the end of October,

2019. There may be longer queues for some custom makers, but this one

was no picnic!

It was, however, well worth the wait. The pen is lovely.

Appearance and Design

I opted for the King of Pen in Conway Stewart Dartmoor with sterling silver

furniture and it is nothing short of stunning. The acrylic has a subtle

chatoyance that is eye catching without appearing, to me, ostentatious. The

sterling silver fittings are again, a nice subtle touch that compliment the

material. As a clone, the design is faultless. It gets no marks for originality,

but the execution is admirable. Overall, I'd rate this a solid 9.

Construction and Quality

The first thing I noticed when I carefully inspected the fit and finish of the

pen was the threads: the pen uncapped in two and a half turns, but did so

exquisitely smoothly. The threads are also very smooth, so if you grip does

drift up the section, they are quite comfortable on your fingers. Manoj is

an excellent craftsman, I'm going an 8 here.

Weight and Dimensions

If you order a King of Pen, you are in for a large pen and this thing is at the

outer limits of that descriptor: it is huge. The next largest pen I have owned

or used in the Opus 88 Koloro Demonstrator, and this is a bigger pen. It makes

the Lamy 2000 look slight. It is not, however, unwieldy; the lightness of the

material and the shape combine to make it very comfortable in the hand. It is

satisfying substantial, without feeling like a truncheon. Its full dimensions

are: 150mm long capped and nearly 17mm at its widest point on the cap. As I

wanted a larger pen, I'm going with 10 in this category.

Nib and Performance

The nib is a Pelikan M1000 fine nib. So it writes like a wet double broad.

That's Pelikan for you. No rating as Manoj can't be held responsible for my

nib choice…

Filling System and Maintenance

It's a vacuum filler, which is one of my favourite filling systems. The vacuum,

however, does leave a little to be desired. The barrel capacity is enormous on

a pen this size, but the vacuum is only sufficient to fill a third of it. It is

one of the few times when not sucking enough is a source of disappointment (I

am sure you can think of the others).

As the nib unit is easily removed, it is straightforward enough to just tip a

small bottle of ink directly into the barrel, so it is not a crushing

disappointment, But it would have been nice to have some of that Sheaffer grade

suction at work.

Maintenance wise, it is a dream. Manoj included full instructions and a diagram

of how to completely disassemble the pen. So, that's a big plus. Overall, in

this section, I think a 6 is fair.

Cost and Value

Ridiculous. The real cost is the time you are in the queue. The value is

fantastic. 9.

Conclusion

I'm thrilled with this pen. There are a couple of things about it that could be

better, but at the price I don't feel that I can complain. Manoj is an

excellent communicator and made several adaptations that demonstrated to me the

level of his skill and commitment to making a quality writing instrument. So,

total score is 42/50 - which feels about right for this pen.

[hari317]

Lovely pen. Thanks for sharing.

[flummoxed]

Looks lovely, thank you for sharing. Manoj's pens are always wonderful and interacting with him is a pleasure.

[amk]

What a gorgeous pen. I have a Pelikan-a-like Manoj made for me that is a lovely pen and a sure attention-getter.

[markiv]

Wonderful pen - thanks for sharing.

[Harry44]

Thats a truly stunning pen!

[peroride]

Thanks for sharing @silverlifter

 

Awesome chimera: Conway Stewart Pelikan KOP with vac filling a la Sheaffer/Pilot 823?!

[silverlifter]

Awesome chimera: Conway Stewart Pelikan KOP with vac filling a la Sheaffer/Pilot 823?!

 

The best of all possible worlds!

[Ravi Gautam]

Thanks for the review. The Tikona model of Fosfor pens is really interesting.

[KaB]

thanks for pointing me to fosfor!

[rogerico]

 

The best of all possible worlds!

Nice, nice pen! But... the best of all worlds? Im sorry to dissent, but a KOP without a Sailor nib is not a KOP for me. The nib is the KOPs soul, and Pelikans one has nothing to do at his side. Just in my opinion, of course.

[WLSpec]

What a beautiful pen!

[silverlifter]

Nice, nice pen! But... the best of all worlds? Im sorry to dissent, but a KOP without a Sailor nib is not a KOP for me. The nib is the KOPs soul, and Pelikans one has nothing to do at his side. Just in my opinion, of course.

 

Well, the M1000 now has a cursive italic grind courtesy of Gena at Custom Nib Studio so I am confident when I declare it "the best" for me

[amiRosli]

The pen is stunning, I'd sign up a Pelikan M1000 nib with a vac filler any day. Thanks for sharing!