(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)
Another winner in the lineup of Opus's ink tank pens. This limited edition Opus 88 Demonstrator in Sapphire is a stunning acrylic in sparkly, swirly blue and purple. The finial and end cap are a clear blue resin. The demonstrator name is a little misleading in this edition, as the body of the pen is opaque enough that you can't see much of what's going on inside. But there are cool things going on inside.
This pen is an eyedropper fill pen, and it comes with a glass eyedropper you can use to fill it. The grip section unscrews from the body, then you use the eyedropper to fill the whole entire pen body with ink. It's a lot of ink. This pleases me. Also in the pen body is an ebonite piston and gasket, which seal the ink chamber off from the feed and nib, which helps to prevent leaks and burping. To set the ink free, you unscrew the clear blue end cap, which pulls the gasket away from the feed and lets all that good ink flow. This is great for longer writing sessions, when you want to drain as much ink as possible. Then you can close the end back up for transporting the pen.
Pro tip: after filling the pen, loosen the end cap and let it sit nib-down for a few minutes. If you fill it and let it sit with the gasket closed, you're going to wonder why there's no ink flowing and be puzzled for a minute, before you realize that the ink is sealed off from the feed, so of course it's not writing, and then you'll feel kinda silly. Hypothetically.
Once it is writing, which will only take a few minutes if you are very clever, or few hours if you haven't had enough coffee that day, it writes very well. The pen uses a black stainless steel #6 JoWo nib that comes in EF, F, M, B, and a 1.5 stub. My pen has the stub nib, which is perfect for working through all that ink.
This pen ended up being the MVP of my NaNoWriMo efforts. I wrote four pens dry before I inked this one up, and it saw me through to the end of the month. The fact that it's so dang pretty doesn't hurt, either.
You can snag this pen at Pen Chalet for $140. Between the looks, function, and great build, I would likely have bought one, myself, if Brad didn’t send it to me. I'll be happily writing with this pen for a long time. Today. Because it's the last day of NaNoWriMo and I'm not done yet.
(Pen Chalet provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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