hari317
March 4th, 2014, 11:09 AM
Gama pens are made by Gem and Company in Madras, a pen shop in the business from decades. I have reviewed the pens and posted some visit reports earlier, the interested reader may want to see the previous reviews etc at the following links.
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/259557-madras-pen-shops-revisited/
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/254169-the-gama-supreme/
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/255781-the-gama-supreme-part-2/
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/258030-the-asapens-kuyil-made-by-gem-and-co-madras-india/
The Gama Raja is a new introduction to their lineup. Specified by ASA pens (http://asapens.in/eshop/)(an online pen shop based out of Chennai). I placed my order for the pen as soon as I spotted it on their website (I was slightly miffed to see that I had received no prior intimation about the upcoming model and had to discover it per chance on their site). Raja is what they like to call it, I call my pen the "padpad" :) .
Ok. the Padpad is also a dropper filled pen(regular filling). Made of black hard rubber, brushed finish. I liked the way the golden cap rings and the golden clip gelled with the brushed matte ebonite finish of the pen. It reminded me of my Deccan Masterpiece GT (http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/100165-deccan-masterpiece-revisited/) which is the only other pen that I have seen with cap rings and a brushed finish. As you might know, the bushed finish is applied by hand using an abrasive paper, so by necessity, the shiny golden rings have to be attached to the pen(by swaging) after the final brushing to the pen is done, a laborious process. The mirror polished cap top and barrel bottom are nice touches.
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9594.jpg
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9595.jpg
Cap top:
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9596.jpg
Open:
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9597.jpg
The padpad came fitted with the standard issue 2 tone EF nib that Gem likes to use. When set up properly, the nib is a delightful true EF writer, however EF is not my size at all usually( unless it is a Pilot), I like M or fatter and one has to make do with what one has on hand, I had only M nibs in GT so I fitted my own nib to the pen and tuned it.
For some practical reason, they decided to very deeply set the huge 35mm nib thus somewhat negating (IMHO, YMMV) the advantage afforded by the bigger nib, as the following picture will show, a standard and cheaper Indian no 8 nib (28mm) could have done the job sufficiently for the Padpad.
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9598.jpg
I guess the reason they did this was primarily due to the washer clip with the washer's edges displayed for cosmetic effect. The washer has too small an ID to allow the nib to pass through it. A longer exposed length of the nib would have meant a longer length of the cap, so they arrived at this deep set nib design to achieve a nice balance.
I have nothing much to comment about the writing aspect as the aftermarket nib in the pen was installed and set up by me, to my preference.
The padpad is a good sized pen:
capped: 147mm
open: 131mm including the nib
posted: 168mm
Cap diameter, max: 15mm
Barrel diameter, max: 14mm
Section diameter: 12mm, tapers to 11mm and then flares.
A comparison of the padpad with some other pens at hand:
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9600.jpg
L-R: Early 14C nib M800, Padpad, Kuyil, GT Supreme FT.
Cheers!
Hari
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/259557-madras-pen-shops-revisited/
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/254169-the-gama-supreme/
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/255781-the-gama-supreme-part-2/
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/258030-the-asapens-kuyil-made-by-gem-and-co-madras-india/
The Gama Raja is a new introduction to their lineup. Specified by ASA pens (http://asapens.in/eshop/)(an online pen shop based out of Chennai). I placed my order for the pen as soon as I spotted it on their website (I was slightly miffed to see that I had received no prior intimation about the upcoming model and had to discover it per chance on their site). Raja is what they like to call it, I call my pen the "padpad" :) .
Ok. the Padpad is also a dropper filled pen(regular filling). Made of black hard rubber, brushed finish. I liked the way the golden cap rings and the golden clip gelled with the brushed matte ebonite finish of the pen. It reminded me of my Deccan Masterpiece GT (http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/100165-deccan-masterpiece-revisited/) which is the only other pen that I have seen with cap rings and a brushed finish. As you might know, the bushed finish is applied by hand using an abrasive paper, so by necessity, the shiny golden rings have to be attached to the pen(by swaging) after the final brushing to the pen is done, a laborious process. The mirror polished cap top and barrel bottom are nice touches.
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9594.jpg
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9595.jpg
Cap top:
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9596.jpg
Open:
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9597.jpg
The padpad came fitted with the standard issue 2 tone EF nib that Gem likes to use. When set up properly, the nib is a delightful true EF writer, however EF is not my size at all usually( unless it is a Pilot), I like M or fatter and one has to make do with what one has on hand, I had only M nibs in GT so I fitted my own nib to the pen and tuned it.
For some practical reason, they decided to very deeply set the huge 35mm nib thus somewhat negating (IMHO, YMMV) the advantage afforded by the bigger nib, as the following picture will show, a standard and cheaper Indian no 8 nib (28mm) could have done the job sufficiently for the Padpad.
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9598.jpg
I guess the reason they did this was primarily due to the washer clip with the washer's edges displayed for cosmetic effect. The washer has too small an ID to allow the nib to pass through it. A longer exposed length of the nib would have meant a longer length of the cap, so they arrived at this deep set nib design to achieve a nice balance.
I have nothing much to comment about the writing aspect as the aftermarket nib in the pen was installed and set up by me, to my preference.
The padpad is a good sized pen:
capped: 147mm
open: 131mm including the nib
posted: 168mm
Cap diameter, max: 15mm
Barrel diameter, max: 14mm
Section diameter: 12mm, tapers to 11mm and then flares.
A comparison of the padpad with some other pens at hand:
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9600.jpg
L-R: Early 14C nib M800, Padpad, Kuyil, GT Supreme FT.
Cheers!
Hari