What surprised me most about the Galen Leather Crazy Horse Brown 40-Pen Case ($95) when it arrived was how compact it was. The idea of carrying 40 pens in one case is pretty epic. Galen Leather has figured out how to make what should be an insanely large case into one that’s actually usable. And it’s decked out in the awesome crazy horse brown leather which I love.
The zipper pull has a leather pull tab and the zipper is a strong, metal zipper that works smoothly. I’ve never had any issues with Galen Leather zips.
The zipper is Velcro-ed at the end to keep it flush with the case. In order to unzip it completely, it’s best to peel the end away before unzipping. However, I like the detail of adding the Velcro as it keeps the case smooth and low profile.
When the case is opened, it reveals the center panel of pens and the protective divider over the left layer.
Once the protective suede is lifted, twenty pens are revealed in the first section. I was able to fit an array of different sized pens from a petite Pilot Decimo and Sailor Pro Gear Slim to larger pens like the Opus 88 Coloro and Picnic and the Aurora Optima.
The center divider lifts up and holds pens on both sides. There is sturdy board under the the suede so even fully loaded with pens the divider supports the weight pretty well.
Once flipped, there is another piece of suede protecting the pens on the right hand side as well.
Once lifted, it reveals the remainder of the pens I filled the 40-pen case with: a rainbow of Franklin-Christoph pocket pens on the left and a more monochromatic collection of modern and vintage pens on the right. The vintage pens include some more slender Esterbrook pocket pens which stay in place thanks mostly to the clips latched to the elastic. The elastic holds most of the other pens snugly on their own.
Once closed up, the back of the case is debossed with the Galen Leather logo across the bottom.
The Crazy Horse leather is all pre-destressed so I don’t have to worry about getting any nicks or dings in the case.
I stacked the Galen 40-pen case on top of the ubiquitous Monteverde 36-pen case to compare the size.The Galen 40-pen case is a good deal shorter and narrower.
From the side view though, you can see that the Galen case is much thicker. So, depending on how you plan on using your pen case or what your storage options are, you may prefer one over the other. The leather and metal zipper on the Galen Leather case is certainly going to wear better than the nylon zipper and fabric on the Monteverde case. Of course, the Monteverde case is a third of the price.
Finally, the only pens I couldn’t store in the Galen Leather 40-pen case were my vintage Lady Sheaffer Skripserts which were too slender and some of my slender modern pens like the Caran D’ache 849 and Diplomat Traveler.
Overall, I feel like the Galen Leather 40-pen Case is a worthy investment. If you’ve acquired enough pens to fill a 40-pen case, it’s probably time to invest is a good case to store and protect them. The 40-pen case fits neatly on a bookshelf and will travel well to pen clubs, meet-ups and pen shows and look damn good doing it.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Galen Leather for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
My fhhhddd
My concern would be, over time, the elastic might stretch out as it often does, allowing the pens to slip out of the loops.
Other than elastics, what would be an alternative to hold pens in place? I wondered about that too but I assume the elastic could be replaced at some point as it’s sewn into place.
If using anything else, over time it would still probably have the same issue. The elastic is probably so that you can put different size pens and if you carried them in something which was not adjustable like elastic you would not be able to carry a slim to much bigger fountain pen in girth.