mini-review of the Ranga Abhimanyu

[sansenri]

This is a mini-review of a recent Ranga pen (don't expect a fully fledged pro review as I will mostly attempt to give you a few facts and some of my personal impressions on this pen. Thanks).

 

The Ranga Abhimanyu is one of the latest pen model offered by Ranga pens India.

As some of you may have noticed, I'm sort of addicted to Ranga fountain pens, for two main reasons, first of all because I like the craftsmanship behind them and the typical originality of a hand made pen, where each pen is practically unique, secondly because I really like ebonite as a material.
The characteristics of ebonite are well known, it's a light, but resistant material, which also feels rather warm in the hand, somewhat similar to wood, and which has been used traditionally for fountain pens since a long time. India is one of those places where this material is still rather popular in the production of fountain pens among the small local manufacturers.

If you do appreciated the characteristics of ebonite in a fountain pen, you will also probably know that through Ranga you have access to a very wide choice of ebonite qualities and colours (whenever I have bought a Ranga the most difficult part has practically always been choosing the colour! despite Ranga offers several other choices such as type of nibs, clip or no clip, eyedropper or converter, polished or bakul finish).
It must however be said, that recently Ranga has expanded offer to several types of acrylic plastic, some of them, particularly the premium quality are really nice too.

With this new pen, breaking a sort of current rule in Ranga's nomenclature for its pen models, the pen's name is not a number.
Abhimanyu, from whom this pen takes its name, is the tragic hero of the ancient Indian epic poem Mahabharata, who dies at war when only 16.

This inspiring name therefore symbolizes fearless heroic braveness.
The Ranga Abhimanyu does seem to incarnate braveness but also ancient tradition. Just look at it. Don't you agree that these unusual (brave) but sensual curves are intimately and traditionally Indian?  With the ebonite versions, the colours and patterns further add to such strong impression.

 

 

In a way, I was in fact somewhat afraid that such a brave shape might not be comfortable (I know, I'm a bore on this, the step down, etc.).
I was proven wrong, for which I'm glad! The length of the section and the carefully smoothed out step makes this short pen very comfortable to hold!
It's length uncapped is comparable to a Pelikan M600, but the barrel is wider, the section slightly wider. It also vaguely reminds me of a Montegrappa Miya, although the section is much longer, and the bulge is moved further back. It can be posted, but I don't feel the need at all. Despite sort of being a portable pen, by Ranga's standards, on it's own it's not a small pen at all.

The cap unscrew in 3/4 turn! and this is a welcome novelty for Ranga.

The ebonite version shown here is an elegant premium ebonite in grey-cream, with a Bock nib and Schmidt converter.

I find it very convenient to swap the nib with any other Bock nib, and I tend to prefer Bock nibs over Jowo (the other German nib option available at Ranga, besides also Indian sourced nibs) due to the slightly more bouncy behaviour of these nibs.
   

Admittedly I was also attracted by one of the acrylic version, particularly this nice cracked mix of red, gold and dark blue, which shows some really nice reflections.

Vs ebonite it's a more modern material but fascinating.

 

Here also a close up of this nice resin.

This version is Jowo threaded for a change.

 

When buying from Ranga, since they offer this choice, I always ask them to test the nib for me, and it's not unlikely that this may have saved me from some disappointments with Bock nibs (which I have viceversa encountered when buying the stock nibs alone elsewhere...).

All in all, I find this new Ranga model, which was recently also offered here in a group buy (in a really wide range of materials, and some particularly beautiful premium ebonite colours - my pink grey cream version comes from there), interestingly different from their 3, 4, 5 models range, a very well done, precise execution (even more notable in the acrylic version), a perfectly working tool out of the box,  which gives pleasure in use and an extremely fascinating and good looking result.

I've already reached three and I am tempted to get a 4th in ED (which was not offered so far).

[MisterSheaffer]

Thank you for the nice review. How long is the section before it reaches the cap threads?

[GardenWeasel]

Great looking pens!  Thanks for review!

[sansenri]

  On 2/18/2021 at 11:15 PM, MisterSheaffer said:

Thank you for the nice review. How long is the section before it reaches the cap threads?

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It's 2.6 mm before the threads, but the threads, in case that worries you, are really smooth

[MisterSheaffer]

Thank you!

To clarify you do you mean 26 millimeters? Or 2.6 millimeters?

[sansenri]

  On 2/19/2021 at 1:12 AM, MisterSheaffer said:

Thank you!

To clarify you do you mean 26 millimeters? Or 2.6 millimeters?

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sorry I meant 2,6 cm, that means about an inch

[MisterSheaffer]

  On 2/19/2021 at 7:39 PM, sansenri said:

sorry I meant 2,6 cm, that means about an inch

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Thanks again.

[sansenri]

Another small comment I wanted to add about the step in this pen. Despite I tend to dislike pens with a step between the section and the barrel, I do recognize that in some pens it becomes a minor issue, when the pen is designed with thought.

Often, a longer section does the trick and makes it unlikely that your fingers will ever be forced uncomfortably on the step.

Viceversa, on some pens, what makes the step worse is when the cut is very sharp. In such a case the step can even be small, but that sharp edge is going to be unavoidably painful, if the section is not long enough. That happens more often in acrylic pens, where the material is very hard and the straight cut edges can be very sharp (I have a couple of pens from other brands with that issue).

So I really did appreciate to see that even the acrylic Ranga Abhimanyu has the rounded edge where the step is.

Not only the section is very long and unlikely that you fingers will ever be on the step, but if ever, the step is very smooth!

A positive feature that was evident only after trying out this pen.

[mizgeorge]

I'm going to add to this lovely review with some comments on my Abhimanyu.

 

I decided to get one as part of the Valentine's group buy, and because I was dithering a bit, ended up paying for it on Monday. Today is Friday, and I've had it since this morning. In the UK. I ordered some inks in the UK on the same day, paid about the same in shipping, and I'm still waiting for them to arrive. Now that's impressive.

 

Please excuse the quick phone pictures, but I wanted to share. I wasn't sure if I'd gone for a colour I'd love, because I tend to be more drawn to less blue blues (I'm a bit of a teal/aqua obsessive), but I really really like this. Pretty much everything about it is immaculate. The finish is beautiful - I was expecting to have to do a bit of final polishing - and that's definitely not needed. It's a c/c, but with a perfectly fitting Schmidt converter, and I could easily eyedropper it if I wanted to. The JoWo 1.1 is perfect out of the box, with a feed that more than keeps up - I dip tested the nib and got three close written sheets of A5 (and bear in mind this is a fat nib) on a single dip. Awesome.

 

The best bit, though, is the shape.  I don't have particularly big hands, and I'm quite happy with small pens, so I wasn't sure how comfortable this would be and I shouldn't have worried. It's incredibly comfortable to hold, and to write with. I think a lot of this is down to the long section, and with the threads (which are almost unnoticeable) being set so far back, the grip is just right. 

 

I don't buy a lot of 'modern' pens. I don't buy a lot of acrylic pens. But I'm genuinely delighted with this one. Now I want an ebonite version - I have a couple of Ranga ebonites that I like very much, but this shape beats them hands down. The only decision will be about what nib...

 

 

[doriath19]

Thanks for this review! I've had my eye on Ranga pens for a while, and this convinced me to go ahead and order one. So thanks for enabling me 😋

 

I'm looking at either the Zayante or the Abhimanyu. Does anyone have thoughts on the comparisons between these two models?

[mizgeorge]

I have a few Rangas, but not the Zayante because I prefer to buy direct from the company, so I can't compare the two. However, I can highly recommend the Abhimanyu!

[doriath19]

  On 2/20/2021 at 2:54 PM, mizgeorge said:

I have a few Rangas, but not the Zayante because I prefer to buy direct from the company, so I can't compare the two. However, I can highly recommend the Abhimanyu!

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Thanks! The comments and pictures in this post may tip me over into getting the Abhimanyu. Too bad my budget doesn't allow me to get both!

[sansenri]

  On 2/20/2021 at 12:41 AM, mizgeorge said:

I'm going to add to this lovely review with some comments on my Abhimanyu.

 

I decided to get one as part of the Valentine's group buy, and because I was dithering a bit, ended up paying for it on Monday. Today is Friday, and I've had it since this morning. In the UK. I ordered some inks in the UK on the same day, paid about the same in shipping, and I'm still waiting for them to arrive. Now that's impressive.

 

Please excuse the quick phone pictures, but I wanted to share. I wasn't sure if I'd gone for a colour I'd love, because I tend to be more drawn to less blue blues (I'm a bit of a teal/aqua obsessive), but I really really like this. Pretty much everything about it is immaculate. The finish is beautiful - I was expecting to have to do a bit of final polishing - and that's definitely not needed. It's a c/c, but with a perfectly fitting Schmidt converter, and I could easily eyedropper it if I wanted to. The JoWo 1.1 is perfect out of the box, with a feed that more than keeps up - I dip tested the nib and got three close written sheets of A5 (and bear in mind this is a fat nib) on a single dip. Awesome.

 

The best bit, though, is the shape.  I don't have particularly big hands, and I'm quite happy with small pens, so I wasn't sure how comfortable this would be and I shouldn't have worried. It's incredibly comfortable to hold, and to write with. I think a lot of this is down to the long section, and with the threads (which are almost unnoticeable) being set so far back, the grip is just right. 

 

I don't buy a lot of 'modern' pens. I don't buy a lot of acrylic pens. But I'm genuinely delighted with this one. Now I want an ebonite version - I have a couple of Ranga ebonites that I like very much, but this shape beats them hands down. The only decision will be about what nib...

 

 

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Very nice looking! I was more attracted by the premium acrylics with their cracked ice appearance, by this one really looks... "liquid"!

 

I think your're right on the delivery time, I was impressed too, took approx 3 days from my order to receive it!

Ranga used to ship free of charge with ordinary post and shipment often did take a long time, often over a month to reach Italy, I believe with covid issues they were forced to switch to courier, that adds some extra cost but is now very fast!

 

Spot on on the shape too, that's the message I was trying to put across, it struck me as really comfortable and I wasn't sure it would be, just by looking at it. Like you, I was more pleased that I expected when I got mine, and that is an experience you don't always make when buying a pen.

The ebonite versions are really nice too. For this pen I would tend to recommend a premium ebonite because some of those colours are really attractive.

If you want to check them out before you buy I would recommend you look for the group buy thread (even though the group buy is closed by now) and you take a tour with the purchase form. Inside the form, when you get to choosing the colours, there is an option to run through photos of the available colours. They are larger sized photos where it's easier to understand more closely what the actual pen will look like.

I did that when choosing mine, I had set my idea on one of the colours but after the tour I actually changed my mind!

 

[sansenri]

  On 2/20/2021 at 3:31 PM, doriath19 said:

Thanks! The comments and pictures in this post may tip me over into getting the Abhimanyu. Too bad my budget doesn't allow me to get both!

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I don't own a Zayante, nice pen I'm sure, but the Abhimanyu has (don't know how to describe it...) a sexier shape!

[mizgeorge]

  On 2/20/2021 at 9:33 PM, sansenri said:

...

 

If you want to check them out before you buy I would recommend you look for the group buy thread (even though the group buy is closed by now) and you take a tour with the purchase form. Inside the form, when you get to choosing the colours, there is an option to run through photos of the available colours. They are larger sized photos where it's easier to understand more closely what the actual pen will look like.

I did that when choosing mine, I had set my idea on one of the colours but after the tour I actually changed my mind!

 

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Thank you! That's an excellent idea - I have an idea of a couple I particularly like the look of, if they're available of course. I suspect I will also be unable to resist another of the acrylics - there are two or three more that are calling to me - and having now seen just how good the finish is I don't think I can resist! 

[Ayami_109]

Thanks for posting this review! It's always interesting to read your experiences with Ranga pens. I've been on the fence on what colour to get for this particular model since they announced it late October last year. Was so indecisive that I missed the Oct group buy and wasn't particularly enamoured with the colours offered in the subsequent ones for this model. So happy the Oct colour options are back with the group buy announced mid-march! I particularly like the look of the flake ones. In-fact, I recognise the purple/blue/gold flake acrylic (P37) as one used by Franklin Christoph in one of their pens I own.  The toroiseshell (P38) and the blue/red/white (P39) both feature as colourways for the Conklin All American!

 

Edit: tossing up between the tortoiseshell and the red/gold/blue flake you have! 

[sansenri]

I hope some of you who were waiting on the fence made the purchase of the Abhimanyu

it would be nice to see which ones you chose!

I'm really liking mine and I keep putting them back into rotation...

[Ayami_109]

Hey Sansenri! I purchased an acrylic Abhimanyu in a later group buy. It was a red/black/silver coloured flake. Been using it for the past few months and it just feels so nice in the hand. 

[Nellie]

Just adding some pics of mine in polished Solid Green Premium Ebonite. The colour is very hard to show properly in photos. To my eyes it's much greener and less teal than it looks in almost all online pictures. The truest pic I've managed is this one: If I put the real-life pen next to the following pic, its green actually looks closest to the PFM's to me:

Of all my pens it's closest to my Snorkel, but it's a bit darker and greener than that IRL: 

I've only dipped the Abhimanyu so far, but this may in fact be a German nib I like out of the box 😮. That'd be a first in my life and I got the first one when I was eight years old or so 😄! (I don't think I've ever had a Jowo nib before, though. How long have they been around for?)

Edit: I must add that this handmade (!) pen got to me impressively quickly. I had an email informing me it was shipped three days (!) after I'd placed my order and the first time DHL tried to deliver it to me was only eight days from my order date! 

[AlexLeGrande]

I own both the Abhimanyu in acrylic and the Zayante in ebonite, both stub nibs from Peyton Street pens, as well as an ebonite 8b which I bought in a group by directly from Ranga, and also a Bamboo from Ranga with a Bock fine nib. Lovely pens all and good writers. The Peyton Street models come with JoWo nibs.  My 8b holds a Bock Titanium nib that I bought from Namisu.  This nib has a unique and special feel on paper.  The pen that I find most problematic is the Bamboo.  I just can't get a comfortable hand-feel with the knobby form of this pen.