(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
(Update: Please read the comment below from Scott Franklin on the origination and lineage of this design. -BD)
The Wancher Penfolium 13 Pen Portfolio is a black leather pen case with a soft, Jacquard, cream interior. The case has room for thirteen pens plus there is spare room in the expandable envelope for a notebook or other accessories.
The case comes in a black cardboard box with the Wancher logo. It is wrapped in a muslin cloth bag to protect the leather.
Made of full-grain cowhide leather, the case feels sturdy and well made. It has a magnetic snap closure.
The case is large, measuring 11.02 inches long x 6.69 inches wide, so it won’t fit in a purse or a small backpack. But it will fit in portfolio cases and larger backpacks.
One of the things I really like about this pen case is that the pen slots are pliable cloth. Because of this, you can fit virtually any pen in the slots. I filled the case with pens ranging from one of my smallest (a TWSBI Mini) to the largest (a Wahl-Eversharp Decoband Oversize). Every single pen fit, even the Wahl-Eversharp. This is a major difference between my go-to pen case, the Franklin-Christoph Penvelope, and the Wancher. The Penvelope simply cannot hold larger pens because its pen slots are unyieldingly rigid.
The LM1, Dumas, and Wahl-Eversharp do not fit in the F-C Case
That said, the larger pens (my Lambrou LM1, Montblanc Dumas, and Wahl-Eversharp) required a little twisting and turning to manipulate them past the lip of each pen slot, but it wasn’t much of an issue. The only pen that I had trouble getting in the pen case was my Omas Blue Angel. For some reason the clip simply did not want to go over the lip of the pen slot, scrunching the soft material instead. With some pulling on the clip, I was able to get the pen in.
Regardless, I was impressed that I could fit every size of pen into this case. I also tried clipless pens, such as my Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Housoge Kikyo Platinum, Danitrio Sho-Hakkaku, and Nakaya Cigar Dragonfly. All of them fit nicely, and I even held the case upside down and shook to see if they might slip out. They all stayed put even without clips.
As I said, the Wancher case is sturdy and well made. The snap closure is solid, and I would feel confident carrying my pens in this case. I do have a few issues. One is the size—it’s a bit large for me. I like my Franklin-Christoph six-pen Penvelope because it fits in the small backpack I carry to work. And, honestly, do I really need thirteen pens with me every day? Well . . . um . . . yes. I can totally justify having thirteen pens with me. You never know when you need a certain pen with a certain nib and a particular ink! So, I may wind up switching to the Wancher mainly because I can put my large pens in it, whereas my F-C case can’t accommodate them. As a result, I wind up having to put my larger pens in separate single cases if I want to bring them to work. I’ll just have to carry the Wancher in my laptop bag instead of my backback.
The other issue is that the Wancher case only comes in black. I prefer brown leather. Perhaps Wancher will eventually offer the case in other colors since it does so with its smaller pen cases.
You can purchase the Penfolium 13 Pen Portfolio from Wancher for $85.00.
(Wancher provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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