The Romillo pen adventure!

Japanese pens have spoiled me for artistry and reliability. I do look at other pens with lower expectations, as a result. Stipula skipping? That’s okay, it’s not Japanese, but the material sure is pretty. Pelikan not writing at all? That’s okay, it’s not Japanese, it’s a rare Pelikan nowadays that writes well out of the box.

The Romillo pen was a big leap for me, and I am glad I took it. It’s not Japanese, but it is very much itself. After three continents, it is a pen that holds a unique place in my collection.

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Romillo Pens are bespoke, and come in different models like the Sil, Nervion, and Essential Writer. I ordered the Narcea, which is shorter than the Essential, and asked for a K nib to be fitted. The K nib is Romillo’s version of a flexible nib, meant to go from fine to broad. They had to adjust the section for me, as the Narcea is not originally sized for a K nib. Customer service was excellent all throughout the process, and I even had video of my pen being measured and tested.

It arrived with a wooden box, a felt case, a wrap in gold and black brocade, a wooden rest, and a bottle of sepia ink.

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The pen has heft, thanks to the brass liner inside. The stud prevents rolling, with minimalist flair. The nib is gargantuan and I have seen people gasp when they twist open the cap. “It’s so big!” (Let the tiny pen/big nib jokes begin.)

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So the big question is – how does it write? Well, when it first arrived, it wasn’t writing as well as I hoped it would. Call it a mismatch of expectations. The fine felt like a medium, and I kept pushing it beyond broad, so it would railroad. I sent it back for adjustment. When it came back, I realized that, to match the pen in my head, the Romillo Narcea had to go to John Mottishaw.

I was delighted when it returned. The nib is now a mutant, capable of delivering a Japanese fine and widening to a double or even triple broad. It likes Platinum Carbon Black. Its profile was beak-like to begin with but the reshaping has emphasized it.

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Here’s the Narcea chumming with Japanese pens.

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The nib is a work of art and the engraved wings gracefully lead the eye to the tip.

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From Spain to the Philippines to Spain to the Philippines to the US and back, the Narcea has logged more travel time than I have this year. I hope we’ll have many stories to write and draw together.

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Karlo now calls this pen the “Romottishaw.” It looks at home beside other red mottled hard rubber pens – that’s its lineage, after all. A thoroughly modern rendition of a century-old material, this pen is worth the effort.

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