Pen Review - Laban Kaiser

Let's review the Laban Kaiser for a bit.

I was attracted to the pen for its size and looks - off-white pseudo antique ivory looking cap, body and section with clean, simple chrome trimmings. I believe the overall pen is made of resin. The dual tone stainless steel nib with iridium tip complements the overall look of the pen. For looks 5/5.

The Kaiser is slightly larger and fatter than most fountain pens but it is not a heavy pen. It also feels good in your hand if you like larger pens. As I hate using the tape measure to give you dimensions, I've taken some shots of the Kaiser and compared it to other familiar pens of different sizes i.e. the Lamy Safari and Stipula Vedo. For size and weight, I give this pen 5/5.

The dual tone stainless steel nib though nice with its engravings, does not perform as well as expected. The initial ink used in the pen was Waterman Black, which I was told has good "cleaning" agents. However, the ink did not flow as smoothly and the pen was a slow starter. It also tended to skip. I had the nib tweaked and cleaned before the pen performed. Even then, it's not butter smooth writing. But what bugs me more is that the ink tends to "leak" at the tip of the nib and collects, despite cleaning. So for nib performance, 1/5.

The picture below is a sample of writing with the Kaiser, inked with Sherwood Green Private Reserve Ink. By the way, the Kaiser uses catridge and converter. Writing with the Kaiser is fun as it does give me a feeling of writing with an "old" larger pen. Not perfect but pleasant and comfortable. Writing comfort 3/5.

So the Laban Kaiser scores an overall rating of 14/20 from me (20 would be the perfect pen). As the pen is relatively affordable (about USD 80), it is good value for money as long as you're not as unlucky as I was with the nib. I wonder if I changed the nib to a gold one would improve the Kaiser's ratings...? :)

What I had before, they are more precious now

With the love of fountain pens rekindled and armed with knowledge on how to care for them, I rummaged my drawer and found that I had some fountain pens and loose pen parts. I found a Cross Townsend (a gift from my colleagues when I left the airlines) and a Pierre Cardin (a gift from being a passenger on Malaysia Airlines ages ago; they used to present fountain pens to business class and first class passengers then), a Sheaffer box intact with only a Sheaffer converter (don't know what happened to the pen) and some Lamy converters (I remember throwing my Yellow Lamy and some other old Lamy Safari as I was not sure if they could be cleaned and I thought old pens were useless).

Hmm...not much to work on. Must get more pens.

Take a break, learn to care

As I was caught up with work (to clear my credit card for the Laban Kaiser purchase), I didn't realise that I had left the Kaiser for a few months inked and unused, stashed away in a drawer somewhere. Little did I realise the damage that did to the pen.

I found my Kaiser's nib stained with ink corrosion at the end of the nib, marring the clean steel nib. The pen became a poor starter, refusing to write on the first stroke and skipped frequently. I was sad and quickly consulted Rafil who then took me to another store to introduce me to a pen doctor - the Gills. The Gills have been in the pen business for a long time and though their shop is not fancy looking like Pen Gallery, they do carry branded pens and lots of middle to lower range pens. And they know what they're doing. (note: I could have brought the Kaiser back to Pen Gallery to be fixed but we were not going to swim through the jam that day).

My Kaiser was fixed and I also found out that my converter was faulty thus making inking the pen a bit of a chore as the ink was never able to fill the converter fully. Out comes the cash for a new converter but my Kaiser is a happy camper now. The stain on the nib remained though and it's a good lesson for me. I could have changed the nib but I wanted that "stained" nib to remind me to take some time to care for my fountain pens.

Check this penspotters site out. I learned quite a few things from it.

All in all, my Kaiser is very dear to me. It's special because it taught me a lot of things I never knew about fountain pens. In fact, if the Kaiser hadn't acted up (which was basically my fault in the first place), I don't think I would have learned much and delved much deeper into the art of fountain pens.

The other pen makers...

Rafil invited me to accompany him to Pen Gallery, one of the few established retail stores in Kuala Lumpur carrying major and obscure pens from around the world. I refused at first. Though curious, I didn't want to be tempted. But I gave in, obviously.

My dictionary of pen makers and brands expanded exponentially that day. There was Sailor, Laban, Marlen, Kaweco, Stipula, Senator, Aurora, Montegrappa, Visconti, Caran D'Ache apart from the more familiar brands like Pilot, Faber Castell, Dunhill, Porsche Design, Pelikan etc. I was like a kid in a candy store. So many wonderful writing instruments. So so many. And so so pretty. My eye particularly focused on the Sailor 1911 demonstrator pen, having tried Rafil's Sailor, I had secretly wanted to own one.

The Sailor was out of my price affordability, so I was safe. But try as I might, I knew resistance was futile. I was 'borg-ed' and caved in when I spied a white ivory looking large pen in one of the display case. Lai (the shop owner) seduced my senses and took the pen out of the display case and let me try it. When I came to, I had already paid for it and was carrying it home, smiling.

That first pen that opened the floodgates was a Laban Kaiser. Next entry, review of the Laban Kaiser.

How it started...all over again

My exposure to fountain pens started when I was in secondary school (high school). We were all required to own a fountain pen and had to practise cursive handwriting (of which I'm sure is no longer practised in schools nowdays) to improve our penmanship. Of course, that never guaranteed that we would develop beatiful penmanship but it did develop an inkling to fountain pens. Well, for me at least it did.

I started out with Hero brand fountain pen. Hero pens were made in China and they were quirky but hardy fountain pens. You could drop them and abuse them and they still worked though you had to twist the nibs back in place sometimes. They were affordable especially when all I had to buy them with then were my daily pocket money for school.

When I had a little more pocket money, I got interested in the Lamy Safari. They came in wonderful bright colours and I remember owning 3-4 pens back then. Ink colours were limited though and the only "different" colour I could get was turqouise. I loved the Lamys I had. But I was still very naive on how to care for fountain pens and I used to leave them inked for ages without even using or cleaning them. So it was not surprising that after a while, I found I could not write with them and threw them out to get a new one. Wasn't the smartest thing to do but hey, I was a kid back then. :)

In college, I avoided fountain pens and preferred ball point pens as they allowed for faster drying inks and were the cheaper alternative especially when your friends borrowed your pens for note taking during lectures. Basically, losing a ball point pen was less painful so they were my main staple.

The fountain pen slowly crawled its way back into my life when I started working. Even then, I limited my use of them to just signing important papers or documents and they looked good in my shirt pocket. I still preferred my ball point pens for my scribbling. Plus I didn't want them staining my working shirts if they ever did leak...

Many years later, one of my best friends, Rafil, brought over his collection of fountain pens to show my daughter and wife who showed a lot of interest in them. He allowed them to choose a few and keep for a period of time and play with the pens. He did offer me a few pens to play with but I was apprehensive in keeping someone's pens especially when the person is a collector of fountain pens.

But by and by, I rediscovered my interest in fountain pens through Rafil's collection of pens. I learned that there were other brands out there and not just Hero, Lamy, Cross, Parker, Sheaffer, Waterman and Mont Blanc. My curiousity was piqued...