Wancher Pen Thoughts: Sekai Collection Wrap Up!

[@HeidiRaatz]

Alicia, thank you for this honest review of the Wancher pens. I'm glad you were able to find a way to express both what you loved about the pens and what you found problematic or less desirable about them. The craftsmanship of the urushi is definitely evident but if I were to buy one of these pens I'd be pretty annoyed by the lack of attention to the various finishing details (plastic feeds, steel Jowo nibs that hard-start, barrels that unscrew when you uncap the pen, etc., etc.). Urushi seems to be having its moment right now so it's great to know what one can expect at various different price points and from different manufacturers. Thank you!

[@adventuredenali]

You're very welcome! I am glad too.

[@NelsonFJ]

When I saw the unboxing video, I could bet that the yellow pen would be chosen (= And thank you very much for the detailed and honest review. For me, if I watch videos about a product, to decide if I want to buy it or not, I prefer opinions like yours; that express nuances and details about the user experience and how you feel about the item. For me, this is more important than technical specifications, which can be easily found from manufacturers or vendors.

[@tce4159]

Right after I watched your first Wancher video (opening the boxes) I ordered 2 of their fountain pens…When they arrived I was blown away !! They are amazing pens!! But there was one other one I really wanted to order after writing with the first two. but it was out of stock. But after watching this video, I checked again and it’s in stock 😃I’ll be ordering it tomorrow … what wonderful fountain pens 🥰👍🏻 thank you for introducing me to them.

[@paddymcnamara9147]

Great video as always Alicia. Love your honesty. Definately want an Urushi pen but saw a new Leonardo supernova lastnight in a Brooks Resin and just had to pounce! Urushi will have to wait!!! Your great and keep smiling.

[@paulherman5822]

I'm definitely with you. Using a frankly generic nib used to be the sign of a 3rd tier manufacturer and not a higher end one. Or a replacement for a failed nib... When even a pen made specifically for a drugstore had in house nibs... After the initial concerns about doing a review for them, I'm glad you didn't just gloss over things you weren't thrilled with. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on them!

[@adventuredenali]

You’re welcome! I saw an Instagram post from them the other day discussing a house made nib! So, maybe something more unique to them to match the bodies will be out soon!

[@archivist17]

Very fair assessment. They are beautiful.

[@joymusterer]

Thank you for the honest review, Alicia. They’re beautiful pens for sure!

[@davecharvella4854]

I just purchased/received my very first Wancher. It's the AIZU URUSHI - KIKKOU-NURI - AKATAMENURI. I've been wanting this pen for some time, and when I saw it was back in stock, I pulled the trigger. I got it with a fine gold tone nib along with an ebonite feed. I just put it in my rotation for the month of May, so no real experience writing with it yet. I did ink it up with Robert Oster "Sedona Red", which color wise, appears to be a nice match.

[@adventuredenali]

That's so awesome!!! Congratulations on finally pulling the trigger. Oh I bet that Oster ink looks great as well.

[@oman9999]

Great pronunciation of all the pen names Alicia, well done!

[@adventuredenali]

Oh thank you!

[@ibpopp]

Thanks for another fascinating post. Following your suggestion, a Sheaffer'S Balance Oversize in pearl & black arrived this week. Wow! Thanks for the tip. Cheers from Oz.

[@adventuredenali]

Oooh congratulations!!! That’s so exciting. I hope you and your pen share many happy writing moments. :D

[@georgemitchell9244]

The yellow one was my favorite also . Good taste 🧐

[@evaninker8455]

Thank you Alicia!

[@cate7777]

That was a really nice review. I personally like the blue one with raden and I like the plain shiny one that looks almost black. Currently, I have only one Wancher pen that I bought last year in October; it arrived this year in January and is the from their dream pen line. It's is the Kyoto Opal in blue/green. I don't know what category this falls under, definitely urushi but it's synthetic opal (not natural opal) inlaid the same way raden is but the entire pen is covered in this and it changes color depending on the direction of the light hitting it. Opal being my favorite gem stone, I had to have it. This pen is my first foray into Japanese urushi lacquered pens. I think I would consider buying another Wancher pen in the future. They are nice, but I also see your point about them having Jovo nibs rather than their own in-house nibs.

[@adventuredenali]

Thank you! It was the blue one I thought I'd end up keeping. I really loved that one. But the yellow surprised me, and won out in the end. Congratulations on your Kyoto Opal! I bet that is just so magnificent to look at and hold.

[@user-gl5ld9vm7i]

I actually love these kit-less style wooden fountain pens. I love handmade wood turned pens. Oh, by the way! I just bought a vintage black Kaweco fountain pen, and ballpoint per your video in the past! Per your video, you really liked them.

[@adventuredenali]

Congratulations on your vintage pen set!! That's so exciting!

[@wittwittwer1043]

I have a couple of Wancher FPs, though both are a collaboration between Wancher and Sailor. Both have 21K Sailor nibs. I have been looking to buy yet another Wancher, but the problem is that I want a stub nib, and you can't get a gold one from Wancher; you have to get a stainless steel one. Alicia's demo pens are all clipless, but Wancher offers an optional "roll-stop" device that you can have added to the cap.

[@adventuredenali]

The gold medium nibs would probably make for a great stub if you had a nib smith grind it down! But, I know how tricky it can be to find a nib smith, so that would be a whole process. Would be really great if they had more gold nib options to offer.

[@missfl0werstar]

If you keep the pen, you can floss the tines (with a brass sheet but I prefer the really thin plastic sheet that comes with the Pilot Parallel pens) because Jowo nibs often come with the tines squeezed too tight together. I love Jowo nibs to pieces, especially extra fines. They're among my favorites. It's nice to "tune" them a little bit though (like flossing and aligning the tines, that kind of thing).

[@adventuredenali]

Thank you for the tip! I do have brass sheeting that I’ve used to floss tines before, I hadn’t even thought to use it for these though.

[@technoraptor7778]

Really pretty pens. And so cool you went with the yellow one

[@adventuredenali]

Yeah, that is a fun one for sure! :D

[@marilyngardner4269]

Is there any possibility that your climate (plus the pens being wood) is contributing to the hard starts? I'm just curious because I haven't heard about this issue with Wancher pens before. Also, does the entire nib unit screw out as usual? If so, it would be easy enough to replace the nib unit with another Jowo nib that features a custom grind (or get a custom grind on one of these) for added interest. I agree that Jowo nibs, while they can write well, also offer a somewhat "generic" writing experience. And you are exactly right that these pens are a great way to get some very expensive looks at a lower price point.

[@adventuredenali]

That’s a really interesting thought! The wood did travel from a very humid climate to an extremely dry climate. I know what can be very sensitive to environmental conditions. Hmmm… Also, the nib units do unscrew from the grip section, so yes, getting alternative nibs would be very easy.

[@marilyngardner4269]

@@adventuredenali I suppose that could even explain the slight unscrewing too, if the wood contracted for example. Hmmm. (I've had other pens that do that. While it's bearable, it can be annoying.)

[@gristlevonraben]

Very cool pens, very cool review. I hope your springtime days are soft and sweet.

[@adventuredenali]

Thank you and same for you as well!

[@edwardstaats4935]

Did I predict the right pen you are keeping? I quite like subtle. I hear you about the nibs but I am guessing the cost was prohibitive.

[@nordlyselsker]

I own two wooden pens (non-Wancher and non-urushi, from two different makers) and got to try a third one for a couple of weeks, and I have/had problems with drying out and hard starts with all of them. I know someone who had the same problem with several wooden Conklin All Americans. So, my impression is that this is a problem that is difficult or impossible to avoid with wooden pens, which is a shame because it's such a great material otherwise. I was wondering if the urushi layers might help to prevent this, but judging from your experience, that doesn't seem to be the case.

[@sassytbc7923]

I wonder, would you have less hard starts if you stored the pens with the nib down??

[@curatedavalon]

So neat seeing all of those pens!

[@crouserm]

Enjoyed all of it, of course, but, having more pens already than I can use, (which, strictly speaking, would mean, two, but, of course . . . ), what really caught me in this delightful exploration was the discussion of ebonite feeds. I have some vintage pens, yes, love them. My only modern ebonite feed is from Fountain Pen Revolution. Indians use a lot of ebonite still. Don't know why. My FPR Himalaya V.2, steel ultraflex nib, writes beautifully, now that I've accepted that the nib is in charge, not me. I don't know if its perfect start after long disuse, or splendid flow if I write slow, has to do with the ebonite, or not. I'm glad to have it, though!

[@sassytbc7923]

The purple is my favorite

[@johnlopez3996]

I wonder what other fountain pen company will contact you to test more fountain pens.

[@pacomacaw2456]

Business documents all seem to be DocuSign now. So I don't get to use my lovely fountain pens anymore. How do we fight back?

[@adventuredenali]

Aah that’s such a bummer! I don’t know. I wish I did, but it feels like a loosing battle.

[@_erickgama_]

omg yay! So glad you are keeping the one pen I would keep also! :)

[@KenVanderheyden]

Hi, it's been a while since this review, and I'm wondering if you could make a followup on the urushi pen ? Is it still being used, and how does it "age" :- ) Kind regards

[@konradyearwood5845]

I can see why you chose that yellow pen. It has character. Although it is not my best writer I have a pink Waterman fountain pen that I throw in my bag when I have to work from home I also have the following; pink pocket calculator, pink folio, pink case for my tablet computer, pink mobile phone bank charger with pink USB lead, pink, roller ball, pink mechanical pencil, pink mobile phone case, pink touch screen stylus for my tablet and mobile phone, pink Blackberry case (yes, I still have one of those), pink insulated water bottle, pink train season ticket pass holder, pink A5 notebook and pink Moleskine ballpoint pen. Guess who can put their crap together the quickest and never gets their stuff confused with anyone else's when it is time to lift and shift from the office in a rush? And it all started when I asked my daughters to get me a building pass holder and a lanyard (yes, they are both pink to support breast cancer).

[@esiebert7625]

I initially thought thats kind of sketchy that they sent you a bunch of pens to review and only let you keep one. Then I looked at their website and saw the price of each pen. Holy crap those are some expensive pens, must be extremely good pens at that price point.

[@adventuredenali]

Yeah, they're not cheap! Their more an art piece, a lot of hand work has gone into them.

[@hichamharrouchi7366]

Perfect 👍🏽

[@geslinam9703]

Very good review! So pretty, especially the ones with raden….but when the same writing experience than be found for much less, I can’t justify the price. I’d rather they added a few dollars more to the total and gave me a more exciting nib. Doesn’t matter how a pen looks, if I don’t love the nib, not going to use it.

[@adventuredenali]

Thank you! Yeah, it's a balance - for me I want it to be aesthetically pleasing and an inspiring writer. All of which is very subjective, and maybe for someone else these pens have that balance.

[@pranjaltiwari1663]

Beautiful Handwriting

[@adventuredenali]

Thank you!

[@sameeralazawee7524]

Nice Pen >>>>>>>> Thank you .

[@ichirofakename]

That's a lot of hard starts. And self-unscrewing barrels. They do have a look, though.

[@adventuredenali]

They do have a look! Someone pointed out that perhaps the wood has been affected by the change in humidity coming from Japan to the desert. Thought it was an interesting thought!

[@PalehorseThirteen]

Most of (MAYBE all???) Noodler's pens have ebonite feeds at a very budget friendly price. I have a Noodler's Konrad with their flex nib and it might be my favorite pen.

[@stefanv5972]

I’m totally in love with you! Also cool pens!

[@adventuredenali]

😆

[@crystalpiolyn]

Love your teeth...white & super neat ❤️

[@pacomacaw2456]

With you on the teeth.