Pensane

An irresistible price had me deciding to give Opus 88 one last go.* Or, technically, two last goes. I picked up two Opus 88 Koloro pens. Here, I have the Amber/White with a medium nib. It’s a much more promising experience (see footnote), though not perfect. On this one page alone, there were a few skips, such as the initial down stroke in the word “marked.” I hoped to chalk this up to finger oils, but it happened in places I likely didn’t place my fingers. Also, I was sure to use my writing glove. So I’ll have to keep an eye on this one.

For the second time in a month, I found myself at a Montblanc store. And, of course, all I could afford was ink. But I was very pleased to find James Dean Rebel Red in a 50 ml bottle. The packaging illustrates the color fairly accurately, so this falls right in my sweet spot for reds: on the deep side, with no pink highlights. The highlights, in fact, lean towards a rusty orange-red, as seen in the tops of many of the letters. Perhaps it goes without saying that this is new to the list of my favorite red inks.

* My first Opus 88 experience was extremely disappointing. I was excited to pick up the Halo and bought a variety of nibs for it. All three nibs were scratchy. In addition, there was horrendous skipping and some leaking. To top it off, the pen has a design flaw, making it possible to unscrew the section as you unscrew the cap. It being an eyedropper-filled, this could be—and kind of was—disastrous. The fix, by the way, is to screw the section down harder than you think you should. However, I will forever be afraid to use that pen!