Review: @Sheaffer_Page Taranis Fountain Pen @YafaPen @AndersonPens

Thank you Sheaffer for sending this Taranis over for me to review! I have been looking at this exact colour and model for awhile, so I am pleased I get a chance to try it.

ABOUT

Body Material: Metal
Trim: Chrome trim
Length (capped): 140 mm
Length (uncapped nib-end): 120.5 mm
Length (posted): 149.2 mm
Barrel Diameter: 12.7 mm
Section Diameter: 8 - 11.3 mm
Nib material: Steel
Weight: 35 g
Fill type: Cartridge/converter
Price: $145 for steel nib
Where to buy: ISellPens
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PACKAGING

The Sheaffer Taranis fountain pen is packaged in a Sheaffer luxury box. It arrived in a plastic sleeve, inside the Sheaffer hard box, tucked into the bed of felt. Under the bed is the usual paperwork - the Sheaffer warranty, and two Sheaffer Skrip Jet Black ink cartridges (have I ever mentioned plain black ink is tremendously boring?). This box does not make the Keep It? cut for me. I personally would not call this a luxury box either...

APPEARANCE

The Taranis in icy gunmetal is quite pretty. I like the shape of the pen - the ends are rounded squares, and it gets wider and rounder towards the middle of the barrel. The ends are fairly blunt. Capped, it has an interesting shape. One thing I noticed right away is very long the clip is. At the top of the clip is the Sheaffer White Dot. Uncapped, the section is very peculiar. The barrel is a combination of black resin and chrome. The chrome has Sheaffer emblazoned on it and it's impossible to miss. This is something I don't care for much. The nib is semi-hooded and it looks cool from the top. Overall, the colour scheme is very appealing and I like the design of the pen for the most part, except for the Sheaffer branding on the section. The section is smooth and seamless though, so I appreciate that.

NIB & PERFORMANCE

The medium nib is quite small, being semi-hooded, and there isn't much to it, just a slit and what looks like a breather hole and blend of the Sheaffer logo. There isn't much else to it than that. Unless you look at the nib from the side, and see how strangely it is set, which may appeal to you or it may not. It looks like the nib is just sitting on the end of the pen, not pushed in far enough. Dan at FPGeeks doesn't like this either. I think an inlaid nib would have looked better.

The medium nib felt slightly fine to me, but it could be that it was a little bit dry, laying down a fairly dry line that dried quickly. However, it wrote smoothly and did not give any hard starts, even though I did not flush the pen at all before popping the Sheaffer Skrip Jet Black cartridge in. I really like the section and grip profile - I think this contributes nicely to the writing experience. I would have preferred a broader medium, and a wetter nib, but the smoothness appeals to me.

IN HAND

The pen is well-balanced and comfortable to write with, even for long writing sessions, and combined with the smooth nib, it's really quite pleasant. I must admit, I like the grip section. The combination of the metal and resin is really nice, and Sheaffer knows it - they wanted to combine the "warmth of resin with the strength of metal" and it hits the spot for me. I love to hold it.

Posted, because the cap is light, this pen remains very comfortable to write with. I really like its balance and weight.

PROS & CONS

OVERALL

The Sheaffer Taranis is an attractive fountain pen that has some really nice features - namely the section and smooth nib. At this not fairly expensive price point though, I think it is a bit of a hard sell. The gold nib option is even more expensive, too.

I received this pen free of charge for the purposes of this review. I was not compensated monetarily for my review. Everything you've read here is my own opinion. There are no affiliate links in this review.