Aurora Optima: Arguably The Best Modern Italian Pen, Especially If You Use Pens For Writing.

[sansenri]

 

Yes it is the coral. It's a very nice material, indeed.

 

Coral seems to have been a fashionable color this year or last.

 

Italian coral pens.jpg

My Italian Coral Pens - Aurora, Montegrappa and Leonardo

 

David

nice set, the 365 coral did attract me quite a bit, although in the end I did not go for it... too many distractions...

[sansenri]

 

I have that Blue Flex Optima also. After I took the "Family Picture" I realized I had left it out. I agree with your comments on the nib. It can flex, but not like a vintage flex nib. I may swap in one of my Aurora cursive italics and have a custom binde made for it. Still deciding.

 

David

curious to see your next custom modified binde, if you do...

for me the reason to have this pen is actually the nib, I'm not really any good at writing with a pronounced flex, but the extra bounce is really what I'm after for ordinary comfortable writing

[penwash]

Ah, my favorite Italian pen.

 

I have had several of these over the years. This was my first one, a black Optima with older style 14K nib:

 

[sansenri]

Here is mine in black with silver (chrome) trim.

 

I'm seriously liking your second from the left too, David! which model is it?

Edited September 27, 2020 by sansenri

[como]

Is Aurora the most recognised pen brand by non-pen-aficionado Italians? The Italians around me all seem to recognise Aurora as a pen brand and Pineider for stationery supplies. Just curious... Thank you!

[sansenri]

Is Aurora the most recognised pen brand by non-pen-aficionado Italians? The Italians around me all seem to recognise Aurora as a pen brand and Pineider for stationery supplies. Just curious... Thank you!

Yes, I'd say Aurora in Italy is like Parker in US.

Fountain pens were compulsory in schools in Italy until sometime in the seventies and so was cursive writing.

Aurora was the recognized brand of school pens, so that's why it's very popular.

Aurora has always had a wide range though, so mid range pens were also very popular for special gifts, promotions, graduations, birthdays, etc. plus obviously high end pens have always been available too, for collectors and pen aficionados.

A few other brands have nonetheless always been on the Italian market too, so even non-pen-aficionados know particularly Parker, Waterman, Pelikan, Sheaffer, Montblanc.

[como]

That's nice to know, sansenri. Thank you! Here ordinary stationery shops still sell low and mid range fountain pens. Last year I was on holiday in France and I could still see mid range fountain pens being sold in bookstores, next to newspapers, magazines and art supplies. It was nice to see. I do miss the days that people gave fountain pens as gifts for graduation etc.

Yes, I'd say Aurora in Italy is like Parker in US.

Fountain pens were compulsory in schools in Italy until sometime in the seventies and so was cursive writing....

[sansenri]

Here is another of my Optimas, the burgundy red, chrome trim.

This colour is a darker red leaning slightly to wine red, and was tipically used also in the small Aurora mini.

[Karmachanic]

If I may, I'd like to take advantage of the Aurora aficionado gathering to dispel my confusion. Aurora makes a stub and an italic. One of these has a "hammerhead". I have seen this design attributed to both nibs in reviews.

 

What is your experience, and which one is narrower?

Edited September 28, 2020 by Karmachanic

[sansenri]

I don't know about the stub, as I don't own one from Aurora, I do have one cursive italic and it does have a hammerhead like the one shown in the second picture on the UKfountainpens site, it certainly is wider than 1 mm, not 1.5 though, 1,2 is probably right.

Will take a picture when there's some good lighting.

 

Not sure if David has a factory stub, he said most of his have been reground...

[sansenri]

Here is another of my Optimas, the auroloide blue with gold trim

[dms525]

Here is mine in black with silver (chrome) trim.

 

I'm seriously liking your second from the left too, David! which model is it?

 

That is the first of the Optima 365 series. Some of the subsequent issues, like the "Olive" and the "Coral" and the "Cappuccino" have specific color designations. The first one did not. It's just the "365."

 

David

[dms525]

I don't know about the stub, as I don't own one from Aurora, I do have one cursive italic and it does have a hammerhead like the one shown in the second picture on the UKfountainpens site, it certainly is wider than 1 mm, not 1.5 though, 1,2 is probably right.

Will take a picture when there's some good lighting.

 

Not sure if David has a factory stub, he said most of his have been reground...

 

I found the new "hammerhead" italic nibs of little use. In fact, one well-known Aurora authorized dealer told me he stopped ordering them because of negative feedback from his customers. I think it is around 1.3 mm.

 

The current stub nibs are nice - very smooth writers and very ... well ... stubbish. I have one, and I had it ground to a crisper cursive italic which is much more usable and enjoyable for me. However, if you write a loopy, Palmer-type cursive hand, you might find the stock Aurora stubs quite lovely.

 

I have a couple or three Aurora italic nibs from 5 or more years ago. These were around 1.0 mm in width and perfect (to my preference) right out of the box. The ones described above are of newer issue. Why they changed is beyond me.

 

David

[dms525]

If I may, I'd like to take advantage of the Aurora aficionado gathering to dispel my confusion. Aurora makes a stub and an italic. One of these has a "hammerhead". I have seen this design attributed to both nibs in reviews.

 

What is your experience, and which one is narrower?

 

See my reply, just above this one. I hope it answers your question.

 

BTW, I suspect that the reviewer's confusion about the two nibs is due to a factory error in packaging. FWIW, I have experienced this with another Italian pen. The box sticker said the pen was a stub, but it had a Fine nib installed. (The manufacturer promptly made it right.)

 

The review quotes Dan Smith's description of the two nibs, and I find it accurate, which is to say it matches my own experience completely.

 

David

[Karmachanic]

Thank you for your clarification David.

[poppi1971]

Here my two Optima.

 

 

Edited October 2, 2020 by poppi1971

[thm655321]

Hello. I received an Optima Nero Perla with a medium nib as a gift for acting as a best man. Out of the box I found it very scratchy, with paper shreds often ending up in the tines. The tines looked aligned, so I used some 8000/12000 micromesh to smooth it out. Now it writes okay but still not as smooth as I would like. Before I send it off to a nibmeister I wonder if you can tell me what the difference is between scratchy and "toothy". Perhaps mine is now just "toothy", but I don't know what I should be looking for feel-wise to determine that.

 

Thanks.

Edited October 4, 2020 by thm655321

[dms525]

Aurora nibs are famously "toothy." I suppose, if it isn't a damaged nib or hasn't misaligned tines under magnification, one could say that "One person's toothy is another person's scratchy."

 

On the one hand, if you can write smoothly with the nib, it is most likely "normal." Maybe a bit of use will make it comfortable for you. On the other hand, if you strongly prefer a glassy, smooth nib, a nibmeister can achieve that for you I suppose. In the last analysis, it's your call.

 

Your shredding paper with it is not normal. I suspect you are rotating the nib so you are catching a corner of it. That shouldn't be happening with a round nib.

 

David

[A Smug Dill]

Before I send it off to a nibmeister I wonder if you can tell me what the difference is between scratchy and "toothy". Perhaps mine is now just "toothy", but I don't know what I should be looking for feel-wise to determine that.

 

 

Scratchy, to me, means literally scratching and damaging the paper's surface, breaking through the paper's coating if there is any as manufactured, and causing fibres to either come off the page or protrude above the plane of the page. You'd feel the lacerations in the paper surface with your fingertip after you've written on it with a scratchy nib, especially if you have to press down hard on the pen to get it to put down a consistent line of ink.

 

"Toothy", on the other hand, is a matter of user perception of friction when making pen strokes. Cold press paper is "toothier" than hot press paper, which in turn is "toothier" than some other paper with a slick coating, for a given pen; or, if you're just comparing two pens, the one you feel produces more friction against the same sheet of paper, when you write with it how you normally would is, "toothier" of the two. A scratchy nib will feel "toothy" (and then some), as a matter of course; but not all "toothy" nibs will scratch and damage the paper surface.

 

Out of close to 20 Aurora pens I bought, only one (an Aurora 88 Cento Italia 100th anniversary commemorative limited edition with rose gold trim, no less), factory-fitted with a "hammerhead" Italic nib, was scratchy; which makes it one of very few pens I ever returned to the seller as defective for a full refund. Ruthenium-plated Aurora nibs are, in my experience, toothier than plain (yellow-coloured) gold nibs and rhodium-plated ones.

 

Aurora Italic nibs have a reputation for having sharp corners, but there is no plausible reason for a yellow- or silver-coloured Medium nib to be scratchy other than just being defective.

[Christopher Godfrey]

David wrote, somewhere above, that the flex nibs are not as flexy as vintage flex nibs: I understand perfectly; but could someone elaborate, perhaps? David? Those long nib tines look as though they to perform! However, I have tried one or two other modern supposedly-flexible nibs and been disappointed (Conklin comes to mind)