While I’m primarily a vintage guy, I don’t have many Conklin pens in my collection Well, in fact, I think I only have one. The crescent filling pens always seem to be more expensive then I want to pay at any given point, or something else of greater interest beats them out, and many other vintage Conklin pens are too late for my collecting focus. Well, in comes the new Conklin Endura.
Conklin Endura in Taupe and Red
What first struck me about the new Conklin Endura were the true to vintage color combinations. The marbling is what you’d expect in a vintage pen. None of this overly swirly, neon bright marbling some brands have these days, but nice muted colors and even marbling between the colors. The Conklin Endura is offered in three color combinations, Red & Taupe, my choice by far (although I would have loved to have seen them make one in the blue and brown version they made Symetrik’s in), Black & White, and Green & Black. All are fabulous colors, but the Red & Taupe just spoke to me. What’s nice about all of these pens is that the section is made from the same material as the rest of the pen, so it really makes for a nice look. While I realize a vintage Endura would have a black section, these plastics are just gorgeous so why not have it everywhere it could possibly be? Besides, it is a modern pen after all, it is allowed a little variance from its vintage counterpart.
The cap is one of my favorite parts of the pen. Ok, so that may sound a little weird, but hear me out. The cap band is wide gold filled, and not obnoxious as most other brands out there. It is a plain band with two grooves in it. Big enough to say “I’m a large pen”, but not loudly so. There is a groove at the top of the cap and there is a hand painted gold band in the groove. Ok, so maybe that’s a little weird and maybe out of place, but it’s not distracting. It’s really no different than its vintage brethren with a painted groove. The clip is really my favorite part of the cap. It has the Conklin name in reasonably large letters down the front of it, and you grab the top of the clip to open the clip to put it in your pocket. It no longer matters what type of shirt you have as this clip accommodates anything. Grab the top to open it up, slide it in your shirt pocket, release the clip and you’re all set. Frankly, I had so much fun with this feature, the other pens in my pocket for two weeks saw little use, just because I wanted to play with the clip.
The Conklin Endura
The pen is a large senior sized pen. About 5-1/2″ long capped, 6-1/4″ long posted, and it posts very well. There’s no question about whether the cap is going to stay on. I guess that’s one nice feature of a flat top pen. The section is a comfortable one and is about 3/4″ long with a bit of a flare towards the nib. If you grip close to the nib, you’ll find this pleasing. The barrel has a nice classic imprint on the pen, although it indicates it was made in Toledo, Ohio, I’m not certain this is the case.
The nib is, well, beautiful. Just the right amount of gold plating on the steel nib. And unlike most other manufacturers, there is no scroll work on the nib, just Conklin in the gold plated oval area, and Toledo, USA. That’s it, nothing else to get in the way. A real plain and simple nib. The nib is further accentuated by a crescent shaped breather hole. The Stubs, it should be noted, do not carry the two tone finish and are all steel with a round breather hole. While I initially wanted a stub nib, I liked the two tone look so much I went with my customary medium nib.
Conklin Endura and the Nib
The pen is a cartridge converter, and departing from most c/c fillers, this one uses a screw in converter. An interesting touch, and it seems to work well. Cartridges are included in the box as well, and it is a large box at that. Easily the largest non-limited edition box we have in stock.
How does it write? Pretty darn well for a steel nib. There is no real flex or give to the nib, but I found the pen just so much fun to use I couldn’t put it down. I had acquired another pen the same week as this one, and that pen sat in my pocket for two weeks basically unused until I ran out of ink, and the other pen was a more expensive pen at that. The feed is a semi-flat feed but has fissures throughout, so the flatness gives it the old school look while the fissures give it the protection a modern performing feed needs. My medium wrote a bit on the finer side of medium, which was kind of nice. Occasionally I desire a finer line and this seemed to be a nice compromise. It was not, however, a Fine line. Maybe some of the other Medium nibs out there are a bit too broad, I don’t know.
Now, the funny thing is I used this pen pretty much exclusively until it ran out of ink. I let it sit on my desk for a week while I took some pictures and started this write up, and here I am, having inked it up yet again and guess what? It’s going back in my pocket tomorrow. I wonder which pen will win out? I’ll give you one guess.
Cheers!
Brian