This morning I noticed several other people posting about their YStudio The Weight of Words Brassing Portable Fountain Pens so it must be in the air this week. These somewhat rare little gems from Taiwan seem to be making their way around the world and ending up in the hands of many fountain pen fans. Dries at The Pencilcase Blog in Europe posted his pure brass COPPER version today and Leigh posted one she got in Singapore today as well. So… around the world in brassing pens!
The packaging is fantastic and normally I don’t care much about packaging. However, if the packaging can have secondary use for storage later and doesn’t look too overly branded then YEAH! for good packaging. The Weight of Words pen comes in a deep stained wood box with paperboard lining that can be removed making the outer box fully reusable. There’s a thumb hole to remove the lid and the only branding on the box is the company name and the characters for what I assume is the name of the pen in Chinese on the lid in gold foil. Very simple and elegant.
Under the lid is a piece of fine grit sand paper and an instruction booklet for the pen, including on how to use the sand paper to weather and age your pen to look more worn. I’m not sure I can bring myself to do that as I like how my pen looks as is at the moment but I’ll hold on to the sandpaper for now in case I change my mind.
Inside the box is the die cut layers of recyclable corrugated cardboard (not foamcore!) to hold the pen, wood carrying tub and lanyard in place. I got the black lacquered copperBRASS version of the pen.
The carrying tube is wood (I think) with a slit at the top to allow the cap of the pen to stick out of the top. Its a clever design element. The leather lanyard ties can be threaded through the cap of the pen and then looped on to a bag loop, key fob, or whatever else you can think of. The pen cap clicks into place rather than a twist mechanism making it a nice option for everyday quick writing.
Its a smaller pen so its probably not something a lot of people would want for long writing sessions and the cap does not post. For my small hands though the brass added enough weight to make it comfortable to use for note taking and on-and-off use throughout the day.
The nib is a standard Schmidt fine nib. Pretty and scaled to fit the pen overall.
When the pen is wrapped up tight in its carrying case and with a leather lanyard attached it looks pretty unique.
The Schmidt nib means its a good writer and it comes with a converter.
Since this pen is quite hard to come by I won’t torture you with price points and availability. If you’re in the EU or Asia, keep an eye out in your local stationery or pen shop for YStudio products because they are worth taking a look at. If you’re in the US and planning to travel, leave some room in your shopping budget for the possibility of seeing one of these in the wild. Maybe they will wash up on our shores sometime soon.
EDIT: Thanks to Dries for catching my errors. I really shouldn’t write my reviews at 6AM!
物外 is the company name in Chinese. 物 is matter and 外 means outside. Together it means outside or beyond existence, or transcendental. I think it fits into their mission to make things that last.
Thanks so much for the translation.
Ooh, thanks for the introduction to this pen. I always love seeing things from Taiwan. 😀
FYI, I believe the link to whatever Leigh (Reyes?) posted is incorrect; it just links to the Pencilcase Blog Instagram again.
Hi Anna – We sell Y Studio on NoteMaker.com.au – and ship to the USA too – in case anyone is feeling the love for this brand. We love it, small range but so well made. The fountain pens will be available in a week or two.
Great review, and I love the background you used for your photos! As a chem student I can’t help but point out that it’s actually the other way around: I have the copper version, yours is brass (which is an alloy with copper and zinc) :p
Thanks for the link to my IG as well btw, this pen sure has gained popularity fast!