Leigh Reyes. My Life As a Verb.

There are pens that do not call attention to themselves, wishing only to remain in the background while their writer attempts the Great Filipino Advertising Tagline.

This is not one of those pens. Look Ma, I’m blingy.

Duke Ruby

Not a millimeter of the cap was spared scrollwork. The cap also has a “ruby” embedded on top, although the red tones are difficult to see without direct sunlight.

And that's why it's called the Duke Ruby

The nib has the crown logo and rays surrounding the 22KGP mark. I like the nib’s shape; it is slightly waisted and tapers pleasingly to the tip.

Duke Ruby, nib

The pen comes with a converter, and is not unduly heavy.

Duke Ruby writing sample

Duke’s tagline is “Each pen gives birth to splendor.” I have a splendor threshold. There is only so much splendor I can take. However, I must admit this pen is growing on me. What’s next? Swarovski-e?

I found this in a 7-storey bookstore on Fuzhou Road. On the third floor, I passed beneath an arch bedecked with flashing lights and neon Stabilo stickers to enter the pen section. The salesladies had no English and I had no Mandarin, so we invented sign language for “No, not the rollerball, the fountain pen!” on the spot.

Confucius

Chinese scrollwork decorates the cap. Chinese characters are engraved on one side, and an image of Confucius on the other.

Confucius, clip

More scrollwork decorates the clip, which ends in a crown logo. (Do not think Krone thoughts at this point.) (King Crown makes Duke pens, I think.) The body looks like bamboo. I’m still trying to figure out how this was done. Bamboo laminate over brass?

Confucius, cap and section

More scrollwork near the collar, and the ubiquitous threaded metal section. The nib is where the pen becomes more interesting.

Confucius, Chinese calligraphy nib with overfeed (click to enlarge)

The nib is bent upwards, as is typical with Chinese calligraphy pens. What struck me when I first held the pen was the length of the bent portion – it’s almost 4 mm. The next thing I noticed was the overfeed. The only other modern pen I know of with an overfeed would be Sailor’s Nagahara Emperor series. The overfeed collects more ink and drives it to the nib.

Confucius, Chinese calligraphy nib, side view

Does it work? Yes, it does.

Confucius, writing sample (click to enlarge)

The bent nib also flexes (!).

Confucius, writing sample (click to enlarge)

The nib writes a fine, consistent line when used upside down. Varying pressure within a stroke does produce a brush-like impression.

Confucius, drawing sample (click to enlarge)

I enjoy it for writing, but much more so for drawing. Duke Ink (24 RMB a bottle) produces both deep and light grays, and is a good match for the pen.

Better than the Cauliflower Festival, whose billboard waved goodbye to me as I was zooming towards Shanghai’s Pudong airport. I was in Shanghai for work, but was lucky enough to be billeted a five-minute walk away from Fuzhou Road.

Fuzhou Road is shop after shop of books, office supplies, Chinese calligraphy supplies… and fountain pens. All of the shops I visited had, at the very least, a dusty Hero or two on display. I saw specialty paper, seals, ink in pots, ink in bottles, ink in blocks sitting on trays, brushes the size of chihuahuas. I saw Dukes and Heros and Picassos and King Crowns. What made me smile was that these shops weren’t filled with art students, but with middle-aged men who looked like they’d just strolled in from work and needed a new fountain pen to cheer them up.

My favorite find is the Duke Beijing Opera mini-me.

Duke Beijing Opera - original and mini (click to enlarge)

The Duke Beijing Opera was one of my first big pens. I like looking at them side by side, and noting the differences.

Duke Beijing Opera mini, writing sample (click to enlarge)

The flex I noticed in the bigger version is more pronounced in the smaller. And because it’s smaller, it’s less tiring to use for long periods.

Black Duke

Surprise. A minimalist Duke pen. I have become so used to the scrollwork and embossed pandas and what-have-you that it is a pleasant shock to see restraint.

Black Duke, section and nib

The metal section tapers from the threads to the collar. This might present a problem for people who grip their pens close to the nib; otherwise, it’s as comfortable as a metal section can get.

Black Duke, writing sample

The Black Duke (that’s my name for it, I have no idea what its official name is) sports the same 14k nib as the Duke Beijing Opera, but with a wash of rhodium. It’s definitely flex-friendly.

Both pens come with converters, and are fine examples of modern Chinese craftsmanship.

Surely no other pen in my care has been this mishandled.

The Duke Beijing Opera came in a heavy box. I don’t know where the box is anymore; it must have warped the space-time continuum around it and sunk into a parallel universe.

Duke Beijing Opera

The pen itself is almost as heavy as the box. It is enamel over brass. The decoration elements come from classical Chinese opera. Two character masks face away from each other on the barrel, floating against stylized clouds. Ancient Mandarin characters adorn the cap. The clip is a snake, and there are blue jewels on both ends.

Duke Beijing Opera, nib side view

And so we come to the nib. The Duke Beijing Opera came with a standard medium nib. Medium nibs didn’t irk me so much back then. What annoyed me no end was the nonstop squeaking when I wrote. It squeaked on the upstroke, downstroke, even a sidestroke. It was a cruel joke, that someone had taken a mouse and buried it alive in this nib.

In my enthusiastic and unlearned way, I decided I would remove the squeak. Not having micromesh (or any sensitivity) at the time, I succeeded (spectacularly, if I may say so) at deforming the iridium beyond salvation.

Duke Beijing Opera, nib top view

Practically the only iridium left on this nib is on the top.

Duke Beijing Opera, converter

I don’t know if this is a converter’s version of a sarcastic wink at piston fillers, but there you go. Unscrewing the cap at the end of the barrel reveals the end of the converter. Either way you still have to unscrew something. This is an interesting design that none of my other pens has.

Duke Beijing Opera, writing sample

In a fit of irony, the universe decided to grant this squeaky nib the ability to flex. That is the only reason why I still take out the pen from time to time, doodle with it, and sigh.

After all it’s been through, this pen deserves a trip to the spa. And a nibmeister.