Hey, I’m a girl and a fountain pen geek. I am perfectly allowed to publish a post with this title. Honi soit qui mal y pense. Anyway, two juicy broad nabbed pens, is what I will be dealing with in this post. Both these pens are fairly recent acquisitions and both have a broad nib. The pens in question are the ASAPens.in Galactic and a unnamed pen from WoodshedPenCo, both two relatively small makers. ASAPens.in being a somewhat broader equipped company than Woodshed, as far as I am able to judge. It was my 2017 resolution to buy more small makers’ pens, and when my pen money jar fills up a bit more, I will be looking into other makers as well. But first, these pretty pens.

ASAPens.in is a pen maker based in India who sells his own hand turned pens as well as Gama, Wality, Jinhao. The Galactic is one of ASAPens.in own series and it comes in the flat top and barrel design, such as the one I chose, as a cigar shaped (rounded) design. You can safely say this is a sizable pen. Capped it is 15.8 cm, uncapped 14 cm, the section tapers from 14 mm at the body to 13 mm near the nib. The broadest part of the barrel measures 16 mm. The cap can be posted, but that will make the pen suspiciously long. This pen was designed to be used as an eyedropper so cartridges or a converter are not supplied. I haven’t measured the ink capacity, but my guess is at least 6 ml. ASAPens.in offers free worldwide shipping, but the tracking details are not always accurate. However, the pen did arrive safe and sound in a nice blue velvety pen pouch in a bubble wrap envelope.

The pen is turned out of a transparent acrylic resin blank, the barrel and cap are treated so that they have an opaque, icy appearance. This contrasts nicely with the clear finial and barrel end. The barrel has the ASA logo and the word Galactic in cursive engraved on it. I have not been able (or patient enough) to screw the barrel on the section to get the logo in line with the nib. The sparse trims are chrome; the clip feels very limber. The #6 nib is decorated with scrolled banners on the tines and the ASA logo under the breather hole. The feed is plastic and flat like vintage feeds, with ribs along the sides. When I first inked up the pen, it burped ink blobs a couple of times, but after tipping over the pen a couple of times to let the air bubbles out of the feed, is hasn’t done so since. The tipping is a nice generous, true broad size. Together with the generous feed, this pen is a very wet writer, as you can see from the swiped ink scribble in the picture. The tipping is quite round, so the with a light touch you get minimal line variation, but because the tines have quite a bit of bounce to them, it is possible to get some variation as shown in the figure-8s. General opinion after a couple of weeks of use is that this is a nice, juicy writer.  I love the transparent barrel end and the girth does not bother me, even though I have small hands. I especially love this Montblanc ink in the pen, and the barrel has easily gulped down the last few drops I had left as a sample. Will have to commit to a full bottle, I fear…

 WoodshedPenCo is the nom de plume of Mike Allen, based in South Carolina, USA. He makes and sells pens of lovely acrylics and the above pen was on my mind for about a month before I decided to buy it. The pen was shipped together with a complementary home-made pen wrap, which was a lovely surprise. I chose the broad nib as well as a spare 1.1 stub. So far, I have only tried the broad nib. The pen came supplied with a converter, but it can also be used as an eyedropper. I am currently using the converter though. The pen is a lot smaller than the Galactic, but by no means is it a small pen. This is a size that will be comfortable for many a pen user. The measurements are: 13.5 cm capped, 12.8 cm uncapped, the slightly tapered section measures around 10 mm, the cap measures 16 mm and the barrel 13 mm. There is a step between cap and barrel as well as between section and barrel. It does not bother me, because I hold pens pretty close to the nib. The screw threads near the barrel are not sharp. The pen is rather straight in shape, which I like. The cap does not post, but I hardly think that will be a problem, even if you have large hands and hold the pen close to the barrel. The pen does not have a clip, which I don-t mind because that would only distract from the material. A subtle roll stopper would have been nice, though. The material is a beautiful taupe-cool brown with creamy white swirls and subtle golden sparkles. It looks like a cappuccino galaxy, I think. The #6 nib has the classic scrolls on the tines and the nib size stamped where the nib enters the section.

For its test run, I inked the pen up with KWZ Ink Cappuccino (yes, I mistakenly wrote Old Gold, still needed coffee, I think), I love how the smell of that ink combines with the look of the material. This nib is also true to size but with a slightly smaller tip than the ASA. The line width is a bit stubbish, with a broader down stroke than side stroke, which I appreciate. Especially since this nib is more rigid, this stubbishness gives just a nice hint of line variation. The flexed figure-8s show hardly any line variation. The smeared ink scribble also shows this is a nice wet writer, but a little drier than the ASA. General impression is that this is a very pretty and comfortable pen, the design and shape give the material the attention that it deserves. A beauty in an understated way. I love it! And I love the way these two pens look next to each other, especially with the ASA being inked up with a warm gray ink. I often air this pens when using them. So as a final picture, a capped side-by-side on my trusted Rhodia which I used for the above writing samples.

If you have any specific questions about these juicy broads, please drop me a comment.

Thank you as ever for reading my blog and until the next post!

Janine