Karas Kustoms INK Fountain Pen Review

The fact that Karas Kustoms was there at the L. A. Pen show came as a very pleasant surprise. I entered the hall, looked around, and there, tucked into a quiet corner, was the Karas Kustoms table. There sat Bill Karas and Dan Bishop, the brilliant minds behind the Karas Kustoms pen line. I walked up and Dan greeted with a warm, welcoming smile which disarmed me completely. I stopped being so nervous, and we started chatting about their solid, well-designed pens, that I salivate over.

Karas Kustoms on Instragram

KarasKustoms.com

I had been looking at the INK in black body/brass grip combo for the longest time, but it was constantly sold out by the time I had earned enough to get it. Incidentally, I was looking forward to getting a Spencerian grind on my Falcon, but was informed that John Mottishaw doesn’t work on pens not bought from Nibs.com. This came as a huge disappointment to me, but it also cleared about $110 of my budget, allowing me to re-purpose it towards getting an INK in my dream combo. Best of all, Dan kindly knocked $10 off the original price, which helped me save enough to buy another dream pen (a story for another review).

Getting back into the swing of things…

Hey Everyone,

It’s been a while since my last post about the show, and I’m sorry for the delay. I’ve been busy taking my midterms (this week is midterms week), and I didn’t have the time to post any new reviews. Now that I’m finished, I’m happy to say that weekly content is officially a go, starting this Friday @ 9:00AM. Look out for my review on a pen everyone knows and loves.

Sincerely,

Anchit, The Passionate Penman

L. A. Pen Show Pics

Hi again,

If you want to view the many pictures I took at the show, just follow the link to the Flikr album: L. A. Int’l Pen Show

Write On,

Anchit

 

Did you Miss Me?

Relaxing outside the hotel 🙂

Hey guys, I’m back!

The energy from the show is seeping into this blog post, because even though it’s been two days since college started back up, I’m still bouncing off the walls. I was ecstatic to attend the show, and even more excited when I realized all the different retailers and pen companies that were gonna be there. In short, it was an absolute pleasure meeting all these people, and I hope to be able to do it again next year. Most notably, meeting Brian Gray of Edison, Bill and Dan of Karas Kustoms, John Mottishaw of nibs.com, and master penman Michael Sull was honestly the best part of my trip. While it was oddly timed for me, and a little on the expensive side, I’m so happy with my decision to attend. If you guys ever have the chance of going to the L.A. Pen Show, don’t hesitate in the least. You won’t regret it. Now, on to what you all are going to ask me. What did you get at the show? Here are some teaser pics of everything I got (read as: the reviews to come).

 

Marvy LePen Fine Tip Review

 

I don’t often use marker pens, because I don’t need to. I have a multitude of other pens to use. That and I don’t draw. I just don’t. The only effect a beautiful, svelte, expensive fine tip drawing pen would have on my art skills would be making my stick figures thinner than usual. While the pen itself is built solidly, and has fancy silver lettering, it has too many flaws that overshadow the obvious quality.

As you can notice, the grip is really pyramidal and tapered. The problem is mainly that you have a thin pen, which is already difficult for me to properly hold, and then you add a grip section that is too small and unwieldy to properly use. I found my hand slipping little by little every letter, and I was constantly adjusting my grip. Overall, it was really difficult for me to write this review.

The tip is very small, and delicate. The feeling I got when I wrote reminded me of the Pilot Petit3 for some reason. The tip acted like a brush and went the opposite direction of my writing. However, I got a ton of feedback on every writing surface I used, even the silky smooth Rhodia DotPad. The ink was highly saturated though, so the ending result was a beautiful blue.

All things considered, this pen is not something I would use on a daily basis. The pen has a very thin profile, making it nearly impossible to hold for people with bigger hands. So unless you have small hands, or you’re willing to suffer through the frustration for the beautiful blue shading, I wouldn’t recommend this pen.

Zebra Sarasa 0.7MM Review

Another pen from the JetPen hoard. This is one that I tested first, believe it or not. I immediately wrote a paragraph with it, and then wrote up a review about my thoughts about how great it was. I let the post sit in my WordPress draft section for a long while.  I was so excited, I used it for a week straight, and that’s when I started noticing the flaws. I continued to use it, to just finish up the ink for the next 2 weeks, and I’ve yet to finish. I went back to my initial review draft, deleted everything, and rewrote my review from scratch based on my experiences for those 3 weeks. All my impressions of the pen can be seen in the first picture. But it’s here that I can go a little bit more in-depth about the topics I highlighted in that short paragraph.