Edison Beaumont Bordeaux Flake – Steel Medium

The Edison Pen Company is an American custom pen making company founded by Brian Gray in 2007. The majority of Brian’s pens are custom produced – you pick your material and one of their designs and the pen is custom produced for you. However, Brian also releases a number of off the rack options including this Beaumont.

The Beaumont comes in 4 colours – this Bordeaux, a blue, a gray and a “bedrock flake” which is a brown/gray ensemble and if none of these colours excite you, you can ask Brian to make one in your material of choice. You can also ask him to fill it with some funky filling systems instead of the cartridge converter that comes with this production model.

I had a rocky start with Edison pens, my first, a custom Pearlette which had a bad habit of hard starting, so when I went to purchase this one, I purchase this through Richard Binder, who tunes pens before shipping. So when I received this nib, it was a good performer straight out of the box. The flow is just right and the nib is smooth, but has enough feedback to give you a hint of the texture of the paper. Not being completely glassy smooth is also a good thing, especially on super smooth paper, because it gives you a bit of traction control, as well as helping the ink flow a bit better.

This is a small pen though – for me the length is fine unposted, but larger hands will need to post. This is fine, as the pen is balanced and light enough to accommodate both options comfortably. However, the pen is on the thin side and I think the lack of girth may be uncomfortable for larger hands.

In this price range, (USD$149), there are a lot of competitors out there including the Faber Castell Ambition (amazing steel nib), Platinum 3776 (gold nib – a lot of nib options), Pilot Vanishing Point (gold nib, retractable) and the Pelikan M200 – all of which are cheaper than the Edison. For about USD$10 more you then get into the Pilot Custom 74 and Lamy 2000 range, and I’m talking list American pricing here (you can get all Japanese options cheaper on eBay or through Japanese retailers), so its a little difficult to recommend this pen over the others listed. But then these things are never driven by price alone – its about what you love.

Left to Right: Edison Beaumont, Platinum 3776, Pilot Custom 74, Lamy 200, Pilot Vanishing Point, Faber Castell Ambition

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