Visconti Rembrandt Valor Series Fountain Pen

Truphae has hit this exclusive Rembrandt out of the park. The rose gold trim compliments the warm sunshine glow of the Alpha finish perfectly. The nib wet and juicy will be sure to paint the page causing much joy for years to come. I can only hope that Truphae continues to remember folks like myself that have a weakness for yellow pens.

Visconti is one of those companies with a reputation that precedes them. It seems like reviews are always very split. Either it is the greatest pen the user has ever owned, or the worst.

The pen I received is certainly not the worst pen I have ever owned, but has numerous flaws unbecoming of a nearly $200 fountain pen. Let me start by saying I have been a fountain pen collector and user for years now, but this was my first Visconti. I had always been troubled by the reviews and the price of the more famous lines. But this limited edition was a lovely color and much more affordable (for a Visconti at least), so it seemed worth the risk.

Out of the box, the pen is a wonderful color, a sort of muted metallic gray swirl with faint hints of read. Notably there is no purple hue, as the pictures (or just my monitor) might suggest. I purchased Quicksilver, with the intent of using it with some of my favorite gray inks (think Sailor 123). Unfortunately, right out of the box there were some obvious quality control issues. As I unscrewed the barrel from the section it was notably gritty. It felt like the threads connecting the two had been cheaply machined, and the grittiness only got worse as I continued to unscrew the two. Upon inspection, there were numerous flakes of the resin in the threads, at though the pen had never been cleaned after the barrel was shaped. Even careful cleaning of these flakes was only able to improve the screw action somewhat, and I maintain that the machining is subpar for this price point. During writing the barrel began to loosen from the section twice within the space of a couple pages. Perhaps I had under tightened it, but I feel as though much greater force would have been excessive.

Another slight, and I do mean slight, QC issue can be found on the finial. The Visconti logo is not quite aligned with the clip. They are only out of phase by a couple degrees, but it is noticeable, and I have heard that it may be even more severe on other Rembrandts. It is one of those attention to detail things that separates good pens from great pens.

On to the nib, the real crux of any fountain pen. This nib is just a mess. It writes smooth enough, when it writes. Unfortunately, that is not often. Even with a fresh inking, this pen began hard starting after a couple paragraphs, followed by regular skipping. And these were particularly egregious hard-starts, not a miss on the first stroke after a short pause. The pen would stop writing and require a full prime from the converter to get back up and running. In examining the tines, they are noticeably far apart. Far enough to easily break capillary action and struggle to regain function. It is also worth noting that the feed was not well aligned with the nib, this may also have something to do with the flow issues.

At the end of the day, I feel like this pen had tremendous potential. It is a limited edition, Truphae Exclusive, from a particularly famous brand. If only Visconti could have come through on the quality. Frankly, I would be perfectly happy with the pen if the nib simply wrote consistently. For the moment this will likely go into storage until I find some time to work on the nib, or simply send the pen out for professional work. At this price point there is some particularly stiff competition in the fountain pen world, and I can't say that this pen comes out on top.

My first Inkredible box: out of the ballpark! A beautiful Visconti limited edition pen, and, Lamy’s Cristal Ink in — not red, not purple, not fuchsia, but cochineal! BEAUTIFUL! Thank you!

Great buy! Fast shipping! Would definitely use again!

Amazing communications, and item EXACTLY as promised! Awesome seller!