Review of the Visconti Homo Sapiens EF nib

INTRODUCTION: When this pen was first announced, I didn’t take much notice because the price tag ($595) was way out of my budget and I couldn’t see why I should pay so much just for a pen made from lava basalt rocks. Just a few months ago, I just happened to come across a thread on this pen and I saw that the nib is actually made of 23K Palladium! So after taking a closer look at the specs, I realized that if I can get this pen a little cheaper, I’m definitely buying it.

1.      Appearance & Design (10/10) – The pen body is made from basaltic lava from the Etna Volcano. It’s supposedly unbreakable, flameproof and hygroscopic but I have no desire to test them out. It’s a dark matte gun metal gray with small white dots. . The pen may be made from rocks but for some reason, it feels like hard rubber to my hands. It comes with a bronze trim instead of the usual silver or gold trim. And to clarify, the trimmings are made from SOLID bronze From what I’ve seen, the bronze is supposed to tarnish over time to give a nice matt look but this hasn’t happened to my pen yet. More on this to come. The top of the pen has Visconti’s My Pen system incorporated and I have my initials YX put in it. There’s a huge variety of tops you can change to and I feel that this is a nice touch. The clip is spring loaded and has a nice resistance. However, the bottom of the clip is flushed flat against the cap so you need to use a finger to lift the clip before clipping on the pen. Visconti designed this pen with the Human civilization theme in mind (hence the bronze trim) and I have to say that they succeeded somewhat. The pen has a twist cap but it’s not your normal twist cap. It has a cleverly designed thread that only requires a quarter of a turn to uncap the pen. For someone like me who frequently cap and uncap my pens to prevent the nib from drying out, this is a godsend.

2.      Construction & Quality (10/10) – I have nothing bad to say about the quality and workmanship except for one small detail: One corner of the black background of the Visconti words on the clip is not colored in properly. This is only visible on very close inspection ( not sure if my camera can convey that properly ) but if I have to pay more than $300 for a pen, it better be perfect!

3.      Weight & Dimensions (8/10) – This is a pretty big pen and since it’s made from rocks, you can expect it to be heavy. Add to the fact that it can hold a lot of ink, this pen is pretty heavy when fully filled with ink. However, the pen is well-balanced so it felt more like a hefty pen rather than a heavy and unwieldy pen. It can’t be written posted as the cap itself is pretty heavy. However, I don’t post my pens at all so this doesn’t affect me.

4.      Nib & Performance (18/20) – The nib is the main reason why I got this pen. 23K Palladium, Visconti called it Dreamtouch, because the nib is supposed to write with almost no pressure. After trying it out, I can say that this is true. The Palladium material is also supposed to provide a bit of flex but to be honest, I’ve used more gold nibs that have more flex. However, this nib has a springy feel to it that I look for in the perfect nib. The nib has a small amount of feedback too which I love because it helps to control my handwriting. The nib comes in the usual Fine, Medium and Broad, along with the less common Extra Fine as well as a 1.3mm Stub. I’m a huge fan of italic nibs and when italic nibs aren’t available, I will get a Fine nib. In this case, I read that the HS nib runs abit wide and is a wet writer so I bought the EF nib instead. I will say that the nib writes half a size wider, and if written on absorbent paper, the nib will write a full size wider. A point is taken off for the inaccurate size. The nib looks gorgeous with the characteristic Visconti design and the crescent moon shaped vent hole. Three lines of texts are engraved at the bottom of the nib: 23k Pd 950, Firenze, EF, letting everyone knows that this is an EF nib made out of 95% Palladium. The nib is huge too, abit too long for the pen but to me, bigger is always better! The only qualm that I have is that Visconti should change the tones on the nib to differentiate the Palladium nib from the other gold nibs. Maybe instead of gold and silver, how about bronze and ruthenium to go with the black body and bronze trim on the pen body?

5.      Filling System & Maintenance (9/10) – The pen is a power-filler, or a vacuum-filler as I prefer to call it. For those who have filled a power filler before, you’ll know that you won’t have a perfect fill on the 1st fill, probably about 30% to 50%. My other vacuum filler is a smoke-colored Pilot Custom 823 which is semi-transparent. I’ll need 2 or more fills to get about 80% to 90% fill. However, the basaltic rock pen body, despite its many wondrous properties, isn’t transparent so there’s no way to tell how filled the pen is. Just to be on the safe side, I do a couple of fillings to ensure that the pen is as filled as it possibly can. If you’re really anal about this, filling with a Visconti travelling inkwell might help.


6. Cost & Value (10/10) – The MSRP for this pen is $595 or you can get it from Italy for about $420 shipped. I bought this from italianpen on ebay where I won it in an auction for only $350. That’s almost 50% of the original price. To be honest, I have cheaper pens that perform just as well as this pen and cost less ( for example, my Pelikan M600 which comes closest), but this pen is unique in its own way. Where else are you going to find a pen made from lava basaltic rocks, or comes with solid bronze trimmings or fitted with a Palladium nib?

7.      Conclusion (Final score, 65/70) – This pen is the most expensive pen in my entire collection but I feel that I paid a fair price for it. It’s a pen that can last long enough to be a heirloom and unique enough to be one too. I honestly cannot find any major flaw with one ( well the only one being no transparent window to view, but that will detract from the design of the pen ). If you ever come across the chance to try out the pen, please write a few lines with it to feel for yourself how extraordinary the Palladium nib is.