Leonardo Blue Chinese Laquer Pen

August 5, 2008

This review is of the Leonardo 'Blue Chinese Laquer Pen'. This was bought from 'Comeon1188' on E-Bay. The price was US$6.80 + $8.00 postage. The delivery was just over a week from Hong Kong.

The pen arrived in a small, red, fibreboard box, with a red polyester silk lining and a red ribbon to hold the pen down. The pen nestling in the box was.. beautiful. I don't say that often.

First Impressions 5/5

What a wonderful colour. The pen has a gorgeous, deep cobalt blue laquer finish with metallic hints in the depths. In daylight the pen is to die for. Seen under artificial light the blue is not so spectacular, but it is very nice. The gold plating on the highlights is of a rich gold colour, it isn't brassy or excessively bright and gives a real 'quality' look to the pen. The whole feel is of moderately restrained elegance and good use of the best materials.

Design 4/5

The pen is of a fairly traditional shape - not what I often go for, preferring hooded rather than open nibbed pens. However this pen is really rather attractive. The barrel and cap are made from metal (presumably brass) and have a reassuringly solid feel. The weight is not too heavy. The flat end of the cap has a picture of Leonardo Da Vinci, in a black on gold resin covered medallion. The cap clicks on and off with a reasonable force. The black section and bi-coloured nib look very smart, though the nib is a little small for the size of the rest of the pen. The barrel unscrews on a single start thread to expose a good quality Scheaffer (?) compatible fit screw turn c/c. The c/c interface is not of a form I've seen before, but seems most similar to the only Scheaffer I have seen.

Size & Weight 5/5

The pen dimensions are as follows:-

Overall Length Capped = 140mm

Length Uncapped = 120mm

Length Posted = 166mm

Maximum Cap Diameter = 12mm

Maximum Barrel diameter = 10.5-10.9mm (measured by eye against a ruler)

Nib Length = 16mm

Weight including cap = 31g

Weight excluding cap = 15g

When uncapped the pen weight and size is not far off a Parker 25. It's light enough to use all day long. The size is good for someone who prefers slimmer pens. The section is more tapered than a Parker 25, but wider than a Parker Vector at its narrowest. It is comfortable for me to hold, despite having hands that require XLarge gloves.

Using the pen 3/5

The nib is slightly scratchy out of the box, and would benefit from a little smoothing, and runs a little dry too (using Diamine Turquoise). The nib is described as a medium, but I'd say it's on the fine side of medium. When unposted the pen balances well. When the cap is posted, it feels as if there is too much weight high up - the cap weighs more than the body of the pen, after all - however, the nib does not try to flip up from the paper. Overall it writes quite well, but isn't a joy to use straight from the box.

Quality Assurance 3/5

Chinese manufactured pens often seem to have some quality issues. This pen is no exception, however the defects are very minor. There is a single speck of dust in the laquer on the barrel, and the nib slit doesn't exactly line up with the slit in the feed. The latter defect may be contributing to the pen being a little dry when writing. The stamped edges of the pocket clip were not smoothed off before plating, and that combined with thin plating means that the edges of the clip don't look perfectly smooth.

Overall

I really like this pen. It is gorgeous to look at, and deserves a deep cobalt blue ink - I shall be getting Noodlers Baystate Blue to go with it. The pen may not be the best writer ever, but it will be worth tweaking to improve it. The pen is undeniably attractive - probably the most attractive pen I've seen - and I shall use it regularly.

The photo below doesn't do the colour justice. I've tweaked the colours a little to get the picture closer. I had a problem, with the flash the colour was wrong but the picture was sharp. Without the flash, the picture was fuzzy & the right colour. I went for a sharp picture..

Regards

Richard.

August 8, 2008

OP: "probably the most attractive pen I've seen". man! that's a heck of a statement! i don't own one of these, maybe i'll check them out.

thanx for the honest review

August 26, 2008

I have used the pen for a month now as my main 'Carry' pen and I thought it would be useful to report back on it.

The pen behaves impeccably with Noodler's Baystate Blue. I have tried the same ink in a P51 and had to change the ink after only two sentences due to dryness. The ink colour is a good match to the pen. Shame the bottle cost more than the pen!

Unfortunately the pen is not bearing up well to the use I put it to. The 'gold' plating on the clip turned out to be yellow laquer over a white metal, which has now completely scratched off. The blue laquer has chipped off around the end of the barrel, and I've got two pinhole sized flakes on the side of the barrel where the blue has flaked off. They will only get bigger.

That said, the pen is still beautiful and I do like it a great deal. I'm just a bit disappointed though.

Regards

Richard.

December 2, 2008

It's December now, and there is no hint of any gold laquer on the pen. The Blue has flaked badly and is showing the brass substrate.

It writes as well as it ever did, but looks very shabby.

Regards

Richard.

December 2, 2008

I guess it's not lacquer.

December 3, 2008

I guess it's not lacquer.

I'm not sure of the definition of 'Laquer'. I suppose it's now used to describe heavy duty paint on a metal substrate. The old definition of shellac does seem rather antiquated, given current useage.

Regards

Richard.

December 3, 2008

Well, what I was talking about is nitrocellulose lacquer, acrylic lacquer, or especially in Asian pens, urushiol-based lacquer (= Chinese lacquer). I don't think Chinese lacquer would just easily flake off.