Opus 88 Wine Bottle Fountain Pen Special Edition

Great for a Saturday night writing session at home alone, this special edition Opus 88 fountain pen comes in a unique shape often associated with class and sophistication. It features a secure screw cap and a nice thick barrel which is surprisingly comfortable to hold. The barrel is made from high quality resin and the barrel takes 3ml of ink. The label on front has some helpful information about the pen. Stainless steel nib available in a range of sizes.

To fountain pen geeks, the words "Made in Taiwan" are coming to mean "Expect something special and unusual". And fountain pen geeks like unusual (Although we'll admit this one maybe is a little bit more 'out there' than usual!). Opus 88 have been manufacturing on behalf of other companies since 1988, but now they're designing and making their own pens, aiming them quite firmly at those of us who love fountain pens, and want something a bit different.

While the filling system used by these pens is not something new - far from it - it's rare in modern pens. They may look at first as if they're piston fillers, or perhaps vacuum fillers, but these are actually eyedropper pens. More specifically, they're of a type often known as 'Japanese Eyedroppers' (though these aren't Japanese). They don't draw ink up into the barrel themselves, you need to use an eyedropper (or syringe if you prefer) to get ink from the bottle to the pen barrel.

So why the piston-like mechanism? It's a valve, to seal off the ink supply just above the nib. Why? Well, for one thing, it makes the pens safer to carry, as only the ink that's already in the feed can leak into the cap if it gets shaken about. It can also be used to work around a common problem with eyedropper pens. With a lot of ink and air held directly in the barrel, as the heat from your hand warms up an eyedropper pen, they can push a bit of ink out through the feed, onto the page. It's not usually a problem when the pen is full, only when there's air in the barrel, but if it happens to be a problem for you, you can just keep the valve closed, only opening it to allow more ink to the feed as needed.

In use, you just need to unscrew the valve a little before you start a longer writing session (it's at the base of the 'bottle', and tighten it back up for safety when you're done. And if you just need to make a quick note, the ink that's already in the feed should be plenty, so it doesn't slow you down.

Supplied with a spare o-ring and a glass dropper.

Please don't drink from your pen. Or if you do, at least make sure it's not ink in there!