The Scribo Tropea is an exclusive to Write Here pens and I am grateful to have been given an opportunity to play with one and review it.
It is another high-end pen, retailing at £530-590 depending on nib chosen. Yes, I know there are pens out there which are significantly pricier (Montegrappa Mayan Calendar pen at a whopping £10 million anyone?) but its all relative really, isn’t it? So, it is a high-end pen for me.
It is a nicely weighted pen in a beautiful cherry red pearl resin, the chatoyance is just breath-taking. Apparently it is named after an area in the south of Italy famous for red onions and the colour is certainly reminiscent of them. It is a piston fill pen (smooth and easy to use) and the lid takes 1 and a half turns to come off. The finishings are… well, I actually don’t know what metal they are, but they are a silver colour rather than gold which is very much my preference.
So, it is a lovely pen but how does it write? There was a 1.4 19 Ct gold nib on this pen, but it comes in arange of steel and 14-18ct gold nibs, most of them being flex nibs. This was not a flex but has a pleasing amount of movement as you write. it is absolutely delightful. I love flex nibs and I love stub nibs so this, right here, is pretty much my ideal!
The writing experience is smooth and silky and very enjoyable (I had Scribo’s Rosso Chianti in it to start). The pen is super wet, in fact it writes like a fire-hose, which personally I love but may not be
to everybody’s taste. The downside is the risk of ghosting on papers that don’t usually ghost and the lengthy drying time. However, I now know why the Scribo Inks were quite so dry! I also tried it with one of my incredibly dry Troublemaker dual shaders, which I find are almost impossible to use in most pens, and it wrote perfectly.
I love wet pens as it makes the writing experience smoother and less painful overall and the pen itself is so lovely that it gets a massive thumbs up for me. I believe there are a limited amount of these so go out and snap one up!
The Inky Sea 