Review of the Conklin Durograph in Forest Green

As a combination of a treat for my birthday and to commemorate me leaving work, I bought myself a Conklin Durograph in Forest Green.

Conklin Durograph in Forest Green

It arrived packaged in a card slip cover containing a navy box.

Box in slip cover

Inside the box was the pen and some instructions and two standard (short) cartridges and the converter. I prefer bottled ink (and have LOTS of bottles of ink) so I screwed the converter in. Yep, you read that right - the converter screws in, rather than pushes in. A couple of reviewers have said that they have found that screw-thread to be tricky and that it doesn't thread properly without being really careful, but I can't say that that was the case for me. It's threaded in okay every time I've used it, so far.

Box

Box open

The exterior of the pen is gorgeous. The body is made of resin with a good depth of colour and pearlescent flecks. At the base of the barrel is a solid black end piece, separated from the rest of the barrel with a chrome trim. The cap has a similar end piece, with Conklin Est. 1898 on it. I suspect that this writing will wear off in time as it is just painted on. Again, the black end piece is separated from the rest of the cap with a chrome trim which is part of a VERY sturdy clip. There is another chrome trim further down the cap which has Conklin Durograph etched on it. The cap screws on.

Cap removed, the body of the pen is black with a fairly substantial looking nib. The stub nib has entirely polished chrome finish; other nibs have a two-tone nib.

Beautiful!

Dismembered and still beautiful!

I'd thought, when I'd been using it, that it was a heavy pen, but when I compared how much each of my pens weigh, I was surprised to find that the Conklin wasn't much heavier than most of my pens at all! Both the TWSBI 540 and the Conklin (unposted) come in at 14g; a Sheaffer calligraphy pen is 12g and the Platinum PTL-5000 is 13g. It is chunkier in its girth though at 12mm for the barrel.

So, never mind what it looks like, how does it write?

Beautifully. There isn't much (if any) spring in the nib, but then, it's chromed steel so why would there be? It lays down a lot of ink (depending on the ink/paper combination, sometimes too much), giving great shading with inks. The nib is smooth and glides easily across paper, without skipping. It 'starts first time' - i.e. if it's not been written with for a few days, it writes immediately. The only disadvantage is that if I'm writing on some papers (like the Leuchtturm A4+ notebook, which seems to encourage LOTS of ink to flow), it can fairly rattle through the reservoir of ink! On other paper (such as Original Crown Mill vellum) it lays down much less ink.

Overall:
I love the pen. It's special because it marks a major change in my life (not just my birthday), it's drop-dead gorgeous (to me, anyway!) and it's also a great pen to write with. Which, after all, is what matters!