The Roman Candle Fountain Pen from Birmingham Pen Company

Writing as a form of human expression has evolved with our civilization, and so have the writing instruments. Since the earliest days of writing when cuneiform expressions were made on clay tablets by the ancient Sumerians (modern day Iraq) and a quill was used by ancient Indian sages to write hymns on palm leaf, writing instruments have evolved from reed stylus to quill and made its way to the modern day stylus used on iPad and Android devices. Yet nothing is as charming a writing instrument as the good old fountain pen. 

A fountain pen is a "thinker's instrument".  Similar to brewing tea, there is a certain degree of meditativeness to using a fountain pen. A fountain pen user eschews the hurried nature of our modern lifestyle and prefers to take time to prepare the writing instrument. (S)he opens the barrel deliberately, fills the pen with ink and wipes down the excess, before putting the nib to paper. There is a certain ritualistic aspect to all this, to be done weekly in preparation of getting ready for the coming week.

When using a fountain pen, the nib has to be pushed on paper quite deliberately, quite unlike the ball point pen, which tends to run away at the slightest push. This was one reason why teachers in the past used to forbid writing with ball-point pens and insisted on their pupils using fountain pens only in their writing. Teachers would often tell students that their handwriting would get worse if one were to use ball point pen, but I didn't really needed much convincing.  I always enjoyed writing with a fountain pen, even though at times more ink ended up on my shirt pocket than on the paper!

Close up of Nemosine nib

My love affair with fountain pens began in the earliest days of childhood when the teachers at Mahila Samaj Railway School insisted on the pupils using fountain pens for writing. In those days all we could get were cheap plastic pens with names like Parker and Camlin, and those were ones in which ink had to be filled with eyedropper. Oh, how happy I was when one year I received a Parker with aerometric squeeze filler mechanism! I still remember that day! Today I yearn for exactly the opposite.  Most pens come with little cartridges and I look forward to filling the pen with an eye dropper!

Writers of the yore extolled the virtues of fountain pen, an instrument that allowed the ideas to take full form before being put on paper. The great English writer, CS Foster, was quite fond of fountain pen & this is how he described his writing with the fountain pen:

The material came bubbling up inside like a geyser or an oil gusher. It streamed up of its own accord, down my arm and out of my fountain pen in a torrent of six thousand words a day.

-CS Foster

Imagine writing 6000 words in a day.  One full day!!  That is equivalent of typing 4-5 pages on a computer writing program! Today, there is such a rush to put things out in blogs and other electronic publications that I can't imagine a modern day writer using a fountain pen to allow only 6000 words to "gush out like a geyser".  

The tribe of fountain pen users is rather small and dwindling. Sad! So it's a pleasure to meet another fountain pen user let alone a creator. This is where  Birmingham Pen Company (BPC) comes in.

I never imagined that I would come across an original American Pen Company.  Like most manufacturing, fountain pen manufacturing has also moved on to the far shores of China where companies like Jinhao and Luoshi have come to dominate the pen market. In United States, one hardly ever hears of fountain pens. The only way to find a fountain pen is to go looking online, and so looking to find a new Italian or Japanese fountain company, imagine my surprise when I came across BPC.  

BPC is a Pittsburgh based family affair run by two brothers Nick and Jonas, and apparently their father, who is the machinist.  The company website claims that each pen is hand turned from a resin blank, on a CNC lathe machine.  The nibs and converters are pre-fabricated and come from a variety of parts suppliers like Jowo and Nemosine.

Roman Candle Pen from Birmingham Pen Company

An American Pen Company! Naturally, I was curious about them. After browsing their website, it became clear that they were sold out of many of the different styles they supposedly manufacture, but there were a few that happened to be available on that day, and I picked out a vivid golden resin pen with colorful marbling, called the "Roman Candle". I have still to understand the geneology of BPC pens, but the Roman Candle seems to belong to Sixth Avenue Fountain Pen category.  (The only other category of pens, BPC seems to manufacture, is Model A).  

When the package arrived a week after ordering it, I was anxious to open it, yet Mrs. Joshi had passed a strict edict that I would not touch the package for 72 hours on account of COVID-19. For 72 hours, while I was miserable yet comfortable in my 70°F house, the poor pen sat in the garage in sub zero weather. When finally the 73rd hour arrived, I ventured into the garage with my gloves on, tearing open the mail package dispatching it to the garbage can, and bringing my Roman Candle into the warmth of the house.

The packaging in which this beauty arrived, is rather sparse - a plain paper box holds the pen itself, and another box, about three sizes larger than the pen box holds the certificate of authenticity. And the two boxes are together held by another small paper wrapper with the monogram of the company imprinted in gold.

The Roman Candle pen comes with a Nemosine No. 6 stainless steel nib and an ink converter (If one wishes to use eye dropper for the ink, all one has to do is remove the converter, as I am apt to do).  

The pen is rather light weight, weighing at 22 grams and is 144mm in length & ~15 mm in barrel thickness at its thickest.  At 22 grams I felt the pen was too light, but having used it for a few days now, I have become accustomed to the light weight.  Delta Dolce Vita, my favorite fountain pen, weighs in around 28 grams without ink, and feels nice and sturdy.  But as I said, I have become accustomed to the lighter weight of the Roman Candle. 

You can read the other specifications of the pen below:

The pen lacks a cap clip, or a barrel ring so there are no frills, which also explains the light weight.  The name of the company is embossed on the barrel, as is the serial number, but given the vivid colors AND the small embossing size, it's virtually impossible to see.  However, I am not worried - resin doesn't really wear out so the name and serial number will likely remain despite regular use.

The Roman Candle Fountain Pen features a German Nemosine #6 Nib

Each pen comes with a standard ink converter (is it Schmidt or generic?), which I promptly filled with Schaefer Skrip black ink and proceeded to test write in my journal.  

First impressions are very good.  I have never used a Nemosine nib before so the smoothness of the nib was a welcome relief.  Ink flows without interruption and produces a fine writing that dries very quickly.   In the years past, I preferred Medium to Broad nibs, but lately I have come to like Fine nibs which produce a line width of 0.6mm.

The writing is uniform and the pen glides on paper.  With the cap on the barrel, the pen is sturdy to hold and gives one a feeling of holding something substantial. 

Each pen comes with a certificate of authenticity

The barrel, hand finished by the craftsmen, is smooth as baby's back in its feel and has a degree of translucence that is pleasing to the eye.  The grip is just the right size at 11mm in its narrowest region and allows for fatigue free writing for hours.  I left the cap off for a few minutes but did not notice any drying of the ink.

I was curious about the serial number on the authenticity certificate that came with the pen and is also engraved on the pen itself, so I went back to the website to check on it.  Here is what it says on their website:

Since this is a small-batch production release each piece is engraved with a unique index number indicating it's place within the daily production of it's final touches and completion.

Hmm. So what exactly does my serial number 20032401 represent? It's a mystery that can only be solved by calling Nick or Jonas. Perhaps I'll do that one day.

 

Writing with a fountain pen goes very well with a glass of Johnnie Walker Black Label

It's been two weeks since I started to write with the Roman Candle. I have exhausted the ink twice and refilled it. All in all, I must say that I am pleased with the purchase, and I look forward to writing with this pen for many months to come.  

Here are a couple more pictures for your viewing pleasure, including one with my trusty 20+ year old Citizen Navihawk!  

Pen posing with my 20 year old first edition Citizen Watch

Close up of Nemosine nib