Why Is Nobody Talking About Santini Italia Pens?

[langere]

May I ask what nib you have?

 

 

So you're saying the nibs are soft? How fine is the F nib, compared to other European, or Japanese pens?

 

Thank you.

 

Sorry for not getting back to this thread earlier- I have "F" nibs on both.

 

Erick

[mauckcg]

They have some ebonites that look neat. I think in a month or three i'll get around to ordering one.

[praxim]

Friction fit or screw-in housing?

 

I have never needed to try to remove one. Tweaking one of the 'Colours' ones, I suspect it is friction but this may not apply to others like the Libra. They ask that if you want to exchange nibs 'as new' then to return the entire pen, which to me implies nib replacement rather than of a nib-feed assembly, so friction fit is likely.

 

You could write to Katrina, she is very helpful. There is both a contact form and a client e-mail address on that page or you can find her as the ebay contact.

 

Incidentally, I received a christmas card from Santini. Before opening it I was wondering who on earth would be writing to me from Italy.

[Karmachanic]

 

I have never needed to try to remove one. Tweaking one of the 'Colours' ones, I suspect it is friction but this may not apply to others like the Libra. They ask that if you want to exchange nibs 'as new' then to return the entire pen, which to me implies nib replacement rather than of a nib-feed assembly, so friction fit is likely.

 

You could write to Katrina, she is very helpful. There is both a contact form and a client e-mail address on that page or you can find her as the ebay contact.

 

Incidentally, I received a christmas card from Santini. Before opening it I was wondering who on earth would be writing to me from Italy.

Thank you.

 

I'll drop a line in the New Year. They're closed until the 7th.

[A Smug Dill]

I only like very few of their designs, namely the Libra series in Brown and Ebonite. The rest are too flashy.

I ordered the Calypso Mother of Pearl, with a request to customise the Extra Fine nib into an italic.

 

You could write to Katrina, she is very helpful.

I was surprised to hear from Katrina regarding my order within 24 hours, given that the company is closed until 8/1/2020. In particular, she acknowledged my request for nib customisation and commented on the nature of it. I think I'll send her some writing samples from my two F/EF italic nibs customised by Dan Smith for me.

[Honeybadgers]

I like some of the simpler designs and quality looks good, but the more elaborate designs suffer from the Italian designer disease - overly elaborate and ostentatious. Unless you are the type to want to 'go for baroque' those designs probably won't appeal.

 

Eh, you nailed it when you called it "italian designer disease" but some people like it.

 

It's not my bread and butter, but I don't mind having a few insane pens.

 

My cross peerless london is about as gaudy a pen as is possible. I wouldn't use it at the hospital (sick people don't like a showoff) but I'd never get rid of it.

[sirgilbert357]

Well their website is a slow turd. So that made it hard to look into.

 

 

Agreed.

 

The in-house made nib thing interests me...slightly.

 

This raised my eyebrows (from their website):

 

Wondering if your nib will be perfect? Yes! Every detail is carefully checked. Each nib is mounted on the tester pen and checked for writing before shipping.

Along with your order, you will receive the test of your nib, as the guarantee of the perfect performance.

We care a lot about our work and we want our writing instrument to be perfect and the customer satisfied.

Nib performance is so subjective -- I wish them luck with this guarantee. It is nice to see them going to the trouble of actually hand testing each and every nib and then offering the written proof that it was done though. This should greatly reduce the number of mechanically defective nibs their customers receive.

Edit: Also, I see ebonite feeds as an option, at least on the Libra I was looking at. It's nice to have that option when placing your order.

Edited December 31, 2019 by sirgilbert357

[A Smug Dill]

I've yet to see whether the end product delivered is "perfect"; however, I'm very impressed with the excellent customer service I have received to date.

 

I placed my order, with a nib customisation request, while the company was closed for business for two weeks (which I knew about, because it's clearly stated on Santini Italia's web site). I received a response from Katrina in less than 24 hours -- late at night in Europe on 30 December, smack in the middle of the end-of-year break -- who expressed some (reasonable) concern over the nature of my request. That's pretty quick for any time of the year, let alone during December, and the company's staff is on holiday to boot! Furthermore, Katrina reiterated that the company is closed until 8 January (first day back), and asked that I settle the PayPal payment request by that date so that my order can be prepared ASAP. I think it is refreshing and perfectly decent that the company only needs to see the money when it's ready to start on fulfilling my order, and not secure payment immediately upon the order being placed; and I understood that any delay in payment on my part would simply delay the fulfilment process, without any express or tacit threat that if payment wasn't made by then my order would be cancelled.

 

I made payment last week, and also sent a reply to Katrina acknowledging I understood the limitations of what I requested, along with writing samples produced with two nibs Dan Smith expertly and satisfactorily customised for me in response to very similar requests I made to clarify my expectations.

 

A few hours ago, I already received a video of the nib being test-written with (ahead of it being finished with rhodium-plating), and a photo of the results on the page, with emphasis on exactly the aspects I called to attention with my writing samples. I was also advised that my order will be dispatched on Monday how.

 

Frankly, I wavered earlier this week as to whether to proceed with this order, on the basis of having additionally spent a similar amount on the weekend on other "unexpected" pen purchases that were more within my comfort zone in terms of brands; but right now I'm quite happy that I didn't get cold feet and cancel.

 

Who knows, this Santini Italia pen may well join my Pelikan M600 Vibrant Orange with the customised crisp italic gold EF nib as pens I'll probably never want to part with in my lifetime, if it writes equally well in my hand -- and, as much as I love the look of that M600, the body of this pen is unquestionably more "special" (even if ebonite on its own wouldn't win bonus points with me).

[Carrau]

Thank you for posting your experience with Santini, Smug Dill. So far, based on several posts now, they appear to be displaying attributes of customer service other companies should aspire to provide to customers.

[Lloyd]

Wow, SD! I've never seen you so positive about ANYTHING before. Your almost in HB-territory!

[sansenri]

I've received my first Santini during the Xmas holidays, a Libra Ambra in resin.

The nib is a stub, I have not tried it out yet... but it does feel springy as I expected (I own an Ancora nib, not the pen, just the nib, which is springy).

I think Ancora, and Santini later, was one of the companies who did not make the mistake of getting rid of long tines nibs, to avoid complaints from customers (ham fisted, BoBo would call them...) unaccustomed to less than rigid nibs.

I'll post some pictures when I get round to taking them...

Edited January 9, 2020 by sansenri

[DrAtomic]

I have a Santini Italia Costa Smeralda in blue. It's a delightful pen with a plunger filling system. Quite a girthy pen, which I like. The filling system takes some getting used to but works well. As stated by others, the nib is just a bit toothy, but not unpleasantly so.

 

[A Smug Dill]

Santini Italia also offers a Chinese calligraphy nib option, which piqued my interest. Further conversation with Katrina, and looking more closely at some more photos of the nib and its output, seem to suggest that it's similar to the Aurora Goccia nibs, which in turn take after the Sailor Naginata togi nibs' design. I don't think Santini has any particular "standard" for the exact geometry (including how wide the tipping's contact surface is at which angle) though, nor does it offer a number of distinct width grades for that type of nib. At a guess, based on the look of two or three Chinese hanzi characters shown in a marketing photo, the "default" is between a Naginata togi NM and a NB. That's okay if you want to write in kaishu script to fit a 10mm grid, but probably not for me when I prefer my Chinese writing to be legible (as in having visibly distinct strokes) at one quarter that size to fit a 5mm grid; I can't even trust a Naginata togi NMF nib to properly support my handwriting, even though I get by just fine with with Sailor's other (steel and gold) MF nibs.

I'm sure Santini can make a narrower version of that nib for me if I so request, but I doubt my own ability to define and communicate the specifications well enough to get the right outcome.

 

Or maybe I can try and convince them to make me a Fude de Mannen nib!

Wow, SD! I've never seen you so positive about ANYTHING before. Your almost in HB-territory!

 

Haha, I thought I was — and still am — very positive in my opinions, expressed on FPN, of Sailor's gold nibs and blue-black pigment (i.e. souboku and seiboku) inks, Dan Smith's nib customisation work on my Pelikan M600 Vibrant Orange, these particular Muji notebooks (so much so that I bought several dozen of them at once on a return visit to the store), the Pilot Justus 95 and Daiso-Hauser fountain pens, and so on.

 

Being on the autistic spectrum is a lifelong condition, and I've learnt over decades not to trust my unreliable ability to read others' real intentions and true emotions in forming judgments and formulating responses when dealing with people; so I prefer to treat those aspects with clinical (or is that pathological?) disregard, and make assessments exclusively (or primarily) on things that can be evaluated rather more objectively: whether someone did what they said they would, whether they took action promptly and/or efficiently, and whether they did it "right" (diligently, to exact specifications, compliant with applicable standards and regulations, without error or unwanted side-effects due oversights or cutting corners) in execution. I just cannot afford to be unduly concerned about how people (excepting family and friends) feel because of the risk of error on my part; but I've convince myself I can relatively better afford for others not to like me, and therefore have generally aloof and unfriendly interactions.

 

It's just easier for me to look at a finished product and judge on the basis of that, instead of forming essentially relationship-based opinions on the way to getting there. Even my closest friends know full well that I am never gentle if they ask me to assess and give them feedback on something they did, and I don't "up-vote" anything to express support based on having a good interpersonal relationship.

 

All that said, my interactions with Santini Italia — with Katrina being the contact point — so far has given me nothing with which to find fault, no problem about which to worry; and I cannot yet think of any reasonable customer expectation on my part that they haven't met. Therefore, on a relative scale, I must say the company has to be one of the best I've ever dealt with in terms of customer service.

 

(Fontoplumo is another, but then I'd say I've been somewhat less demanding in that I haven't made any customisation or special requests to Frank in my orders.)

[langere]

Smug,

 

I do hope that you find the results of what you are requesting to be just as you had ordered.

 

Wish the world were like that always!

 

Erick

[Lloyd]

SM- I was just kidding. I've seen some positive posts from you. However, HB is usually (or unusually) over the moon about something which isn't broadly seen as worthy.

[Honeybadgers]

SM- I was just kidding. I've seen some positive posts from you. However, HB is usually (or unusually) over the moon about something which isn't broadly seen as worthy.

 

Point taken. I just find that I'm a bit more of a polar opposite of Gil. He is very particular about what he likes and is very serious about things that don't meet those preferences (which there is nothing wrong with) and I'm much more the type to adapt my hand/mindset to the pen in hand. I do have my preferences, and a few things I find completely inexcusable, most particularly hard starts and cheap feeling capping/uncapping/poor ergonomic design with regards to unscrew turns or posting ergonomics, but I don't mind that some nibs, like aurora, provide slightly feathery lines, and others are very precise. Gil would hate the optima/88 flex nib. No question. I've warned him against spending money on it for that reason. Me? I didn't mind the feathery line, so my opinion on the rest of the pen and its crazy amazing fit and finish were suddenly pertinent. I still had it re-ground to an XXF, but that was just because I wanted it narrower, not different in character.

 

I think I'm a lot more like David (figboot) than, say, Matt Armstrong. Matt had very particular tastes, David was one who went looking for the virtues.

 

I also torture test things a lot more than most users here. If it stands up to my use as a paramedic, being thrown, dropped, used in the rain, snow and mud, with heavy bunker gloves, writing on skin and medical tape, I tend to give it high praise. The delike alpha's plastic threads survived being used as an improvised window breaker. Cheap and chinese? yeah. But it also saved a patient's life and still worked after. Don't think anyone can give a fountain pen much higher praise than "someone might easily be dead if this pen wasn't in my pocket"

 

I'm also very strict about customer service and good, consumer friendly business. God knows y'all know what I think of Jetpens. And I also tend to just not post much about the pens I find uninspired/uninteresting, or just have them re-ground into something I do like. I'm not a MB fan, but now that I've had my 149 heavily customized into an XXF/reverse architect, It's a personal favorite. And if the rest of the pen really speaks to me in some way, like the QC turd that is the Visconti divina metro, I may be willing to overlook a bad nib since a tune is not very expensive, relatively speaking.

 

The one thing I will happily concede is that if Gil says the customer service satisfies him, then that company went over the f**king moon to satisfy. And that's very encouraging. I have saved the Laurel Green Libra to my browser. I just spent $480 on a Wancher dragon Maki-e, but I think this one with a needlepoint flex will be next on my list.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Honeybadgers

[jvr]

Point taken. I just find that I'm a bit more of a polar opposite of Gil. He is very particular about what he likes and is very serious about things that don't meet those preferences (which there is nothing wrong with) and I'm much more the type to adapt my hand/mindset to the pen in hand. I do have my preferences, and a few things I find completely inexcusable, most particularly hard starts and cheap feeling capping/uncapping/poor ergonomic design with regards to unscrew turns or posting ergonomics, but I don't mind that some nibs, like aurora, provide slightly feathery lines, and others are very precise. Gil would hate the optima/88 flex nib. No question. I've warned him against spending money on it for that reason. Me? I didn't mind the feathery line, so my opinion on the rest of the pen and its crazy amazing fit and finish were suddenly pertinent. I still had it re-ground to an XXF, but that was just because I wanted it narrower, not different in character.

 

I think I'm a lot more like David (figboot) than, say, Matt Armstrong. Matt had very particular tastes, David was one who went looking for the virtues.

 

I also torture test things a lot more than most users here. If it stands up to my use as a paramedic, being thrown, dropped, used in the rain, snow and mud, with heavy bunker gloves, writing on skin and medical tape, I tend to give it high praise. The delike alpha's plastic threads survived being used as an improvised window breaker. Cheap and chinese? yeah. But it also saved a patient's life and still worked after. Don't think anyone can give a fountain pen much higher praise than "someone might easily be dead if this pen wasn't in my pocket"

 

I'm also very strict about customer service and good, consumer friendly business. God knows y'all know what I think of Jetpens. And I also tend to just not post much about the pens I find uninspired/uninteresting, or just have them re-ground into something I do like. I'm not a MB fan, but now that I've had my 149 heavily customized into an XXF/reverse architect, It's a personal favorite. And if the rest of the pen really speaks to me in some way, like the QC turd that is the Visconti divina metro, I may be willing to overlook a bad nib since a tune is not very expensive, relatively speaking.

 

The one thing I will happily concede is that if Gil says the customer service satisfies him, then that company went over the f**king moon to satisfy. And that's very encouraging. I have saved the Laurel Green Libra to my browser. I just spent $480 on a Wancher dragon Maki-e, but I think this one with a needlepoint flex will be next on my list.

You carry fountain pens while working as a paramedic? Brave. When I was still a journalist, I carried the cheapest notebooks and pens because of the abuse they may take or my talent for losing stuff (pens, not notebooks). I was stupid enough to still wear expensive sunglasses and lost two pairs covering events. Even now, in quieter waters, expensive fountain pens stay at home and I only wear cheap sunglasses.

[TheDutchGuy]

Without wishing to ignore or downplay anyone’s expertise (including my own): if Dill and Badger are enthousiastic about a pen, I’d buy it.

 

As for Santini, I talked to Appelboom about them. Perhaps they can carry the brand, since they have a preference for Italian brands. If not, I’ll order a pen from the factory within a month or two. I’m going to wait on Dill’s feedback :-).

Edited January 10, 2020 by TheDutchGuy

[sansenri]

Santini Italia also offers a Chinese calligraphy nib option, which piqued my interest. Further conversation with Katrina, and looking more closely at some more photos of the nib and its output, seem to suggest that it's similar to the Aurora Goccia nibs, which in turn take after the Sailor Naginata togi nibs' design. I don't think Santini has any particular "standard" for the exact geometry (including how wide the tipping's contact surface is at which angle) though, nor does it offer a number of distinct width grades for that type of nib. At a guess, based on the look of two or three Chinese hanzi characters shown in a marketing photo, the "default" is between a Naginata togi NM and a NB. That's okay if you want to write in kaishu script to fit a 10mm grid, but probably not for me when I prefer my Chinese writing to be legible (as in having visibly distinct strokes) at one quarter that size to fit a 5mm grid; I can't even trust a Naginata togi NMF nib to properly support my handwriting, even though I get by just fine with with Sailor's other (steel and gold) MF nibs.

 

I'm sure Santini can make a narrower version of that nib for me if I so request, but I doubt my own ability to define and communicate the specifications well enough to get the right outcome.

 

Or maybe I can try and convince them to make me a Fude de Mannen nib!

 

 

Haha, I thought I was — and still am — very positive in my opinions, expressed on FPN, of Sailor's gold nibs and blue-black pigment (i.e. souboku and seiboku) inks, Dan Smith's nib customisation work on my Pelikan M600 Vibrant Orange, these particular Muji notebooks (so much so that I bought several dozen of them at once on a return visit to the store), the Pilot Justus 95 and Daiso-Hauser fountain pens, and so on.

 

Being on the autistic spectrum is a lifelong condition, and I've learnt over decades not to trust my unreliable ability to read others' real intentions and true emotions in forming judgments and formulating responses when dealing with people; so I prefer to treat those aspects with clinical (or is that pathological?) disregard, and make assessments exclusively (or primarily) on things that can be evaluated rather more objectively: whether someone did what they said they would, whether they took action promptly and/or efficiently, and whether they did it "right" (diligently, to exact specifications, compliant with applicable standards and regulations, without error or unwanted side-effects due oversights or cutting corners) in execution. I just cannot afford to be unduly concerned about how people (excepting family and friends) feel because of the risk of error on my part; but I've convince myself I can relatively better afford for others not to like me, and therefore have generally aloof and unfriendly interactions.

 

It's just easier for me to look at a finished product and judge on the basis of that, instead of forming essentially relationship-based opinions on the way to getting there. Even my closest friends know full well that I am never gentle if they ask me to assess and give them feedback on something they did, and I don't "up-vote" anything to express support based on having a good interpersonal relationship.

 

All that said, my interactions with Santini Italia — with Katrina being the contact point — so far has given me nothing with which to find fault, no problem about which to worry; and I cannot yet think of any reasonable customer expectation on my part that they haven't met. Therefore, on a relative scale, I must say the company has to be one of the best I've ever dealt with in terms of customer service.

 

(Fontoplumo is another, but then I'd say I've been somewhat less demanding in that I haven't made any customisation or special requests to Frank in my orders.)

 

Ah, the Muji A5s! I use those all the time! they're not only quite good with FP ink, but are also light and not bulky, great for travelling!

[jvr]

Thanks for this thread. I ordered the Park Red with a medium nib, which I received today (free shipping basically overnight from Italy) and I love the look, the feel and the nib of this pen.

 

Good thing too, because I vowed not to buy any new pens this year and I’d be really disappointed if the last one I ordered last year had been a dud.