When I look back over 2020 I’ve written about a lot of different things and I’ve been very impressed by all of them from the Classiky Desktop Toolbox to the Harry Potter notebooks from Primark. So, it was very difficult to pick one out of the many that really surprized me and stood out as something different. But after much deliberation I have chosen the Opus 88 Demonstrator eyedropper fountain pen.
It was one of those pens I had been looking at for simply ages and just couldn’t decide whether or not to take the plunge; at £95.00GBP it’s definitely not an impulse buy, so to coin a phrase I “hit the books” and did a lot of research.
I think I read pretty much everything online about the Demonstrator and I still couldn’t make up my mind. The sticking point for me was the fact that it is an eyedropper albeit a Japanese eyedropper, it’s still an eyedropper. Not the type of pen I have much experience of and combined with the price I was cautious.
Eventually I plucked up the courage and plonked down the pennies and a couple of days later the pen arrived and the thing I hadn’t counted on was that the Demonstrator is a substantial pen and being a substantial pen, it holds a lot of ink (about 4.2ml); so, before you load up you need to really like the colour you’ve chosen.
So, having told you the tale of how I went from uncertainty to sitting at the desk with a big pen full of ink, I need to tell you what makes this pen my Surprize Of The Year 2020.
Well, it’s simply this.
Despite the Demonstrator being a big pen it’s not heavy, even when fully loaded, and nor is it cumbersome. The pen is a delight to hold and to use so much so that after a few minutes of using it I soon forgot how big it is; and that is what surprised me. I had expected the exact opposite and instead what I got was something quite wonderful.
If you’re in the market for a larger pen or just a pen with massive ink capacity I can’t recommend the Demonstrator enough and if you need proof of this just look at the picture at the top and bottom of this post; that’s my Opus 88 collection.
Just one last thing if you are interested the full review of the Opus 88 Demonstrator can be found here, Opus 88 Demonstrator Review.
Disclaimer: All of the pens were purchased at retail price. The opinions expressed in this review are my own; and I am not connected with either the retailers or manufacturers in any way.
My Opus 88 collection, left to right: Demonstrator, Omar & Red Demonstrator
The Indian Marmalade Company 