Last weekend I was perusing Teri Morris's second hand pen offerings on the Peyton Street Pens web site when I spotted this very nice gray swirl Gate City Belmont pen, which are made by Bexley. It had only been dipped, never filled and came with two nibs, a steel EF and a steel M. The price was very reasonable so I was unable to resist (know the feeling?).
It was delivered in 6 days arriving yesterday. I am quite impressed with this pen. The EF nib that came with the pen is a very smooth and wet writer which I like, but I swapped it out for a Pendleton Brown F stub that had been ground for my Bexley Corona. The nib units on the Corona and Belmont are identical. PB's nib is a delight to write with being extremely smooth and wet and having around 15° of left obliqueness which really goes well with my writing style.
In short I have found the pen very comfortable in the hand, with nice weight and balance (unposted), perfect section size, and a very handsome pen to look at. The filling system is something really special, being a "syringe filler". Undo the blind cap, press the rod down, insert pen into ink then pull the rod up, and replace the blind cap. Not only is it simple, the ink reservoir is huge, taking up nearly half of the barrel, unlike most piston fillers where the mechanism uses about two thirds of the barrel leaving a relatively small reservoir. And to flush the pen, it just cannot get much easier. Push on the rod and the pen is emptied. Nib units screw in like a Pelikan or Esterbrook which also helps to achieve a complete flush of any ink residue.
I am most impressed and am now tempted to buy the Galapagos tortoise version. My left and right brain hemispheres can argue about that purchase over the next week until one wins out. Here are three photos of this pen for you to view - taken with my Fujifilm X10 at ISO 200 and F11 aperture.
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