Maiora Everest Celestia Pen Review
The Maiora Everest Celestia is a big beast. Made by the Delta Pen Company, this limited edition mega piston filler has a #8 gold nib. Hand-turned from ebonite, it is as stylish and well-proportioned as you would expect from a pen made in Italy. As you can see, it is rather large at 170mm, but size isn’t everything (or so I’m told), so let’s see how it performs.
First impressions
I’m a sucker for a pretty pen and the Maiora Everest Celestia is rather lovely. It has an ebonite body in an attractive shade of blue with a contrasting woodgrain effect in yellow and black. The trim and clip are gold, ana the nib is 14K gold. The limited edition number for this model can be found on the cap. As previously mentioned, the filling mechanism is a piston and has a whopping 5ml ink capacity.
The Maiora Everest Celestia is not the biggest pen I have seen – I have a friend who loves huge pens and has a few absolute monsters – but it is certainly larger than anything I have in my collection. I was as daunted as a virgin bride when I first saw this one!
I received it already filled and my first thought was to wonder how much ink was inside, as I didn’t want to run out half way through testing it. I needn’t have worried, the 5ml capacity is huge compared to a standard cartridge or converter, even compared to a regular piston filler.
For a pen of its size, the Maiora Everest Celestia is surprisingly light at a mere 44g, according to my scales and that includes ink. It is also quite well-balanced in the hand, so its size does not make it unwieldy. That said, if you are not accustomed to large pens, it does take some getting used to when writing. I don’t post my pens and can’t imagine why you would want to with a pen this size and a piston filler to boot.
Writing Experience
I dashed off a couple of sides of a letter to see how it performed. The #8 nib was delightfully smooth and glided across the page effortlessly. I would expect no less from a Medium 14k gold nib of this size. The tip on a #8 M is substantial enough to be fairly forgiving of writing style. and technique. I tend to write rapidly, even with a fountain pen, and the ink flow had no problem keeping up. The writing sample below was one I wrote for the purposes of this review.
A big pen lends itself to big writing and I found myself using up more of the page that I would have otherwise. This could just have been down to the M nib. I favour F and EF nibs, which lend themselves to small, fast writing. I did find that my wrist was getting uncomfortable by the end of the second page. The exaggerated motion due to a large pen and nib most likely contributed to my wrist strain. (Note to self: slow down a bit when scribbling!)
I found myself with rather inky fingers on first use. I put this down to the piston cap being slightly loose and ink ending up in the cap during transit, I cleaned everything out and all was well again. Until that is, I remembered that you need to loosen the cap to ensure the ink flows properly. I did so by turning it slightly and a very large burp of ink landed on me!
A small aside on piston fillers
There are pros and cons to a piston filler. On the plus side, the ink capacity is large compared to a cartridge or converter. On the down side, you do have to unscrew the piston cap slightly from time to time to ensure the ink flows. However, if you don’t screw it back up properly, this may result in ink leaking into the cap. This is almost certainly why I ended up with very inky fingers on its first outing.
The other concern is that it is impossible to gauge how much ink you have left in this pen. It’s not going to run out quickly, but if you are travelling and can’t remember when you last filled it, it might be a problem.
I do have a couple of piston fillers, but they either have an ink window or are semi-transparent so you can see the ink. In reality, this probably isn’t really going to be a consideration unless you only have one pen with you. In which case, you are unlike any pen enthusiast I know!
In Summary
There is definitely more to this pen than length and width, there is quality too. I have to be honest and say that I’m not into large pens. For reasons that are probably obvious by now, piston fillers are not my favourites either, but I do quite like this pen.
Would I want to own one? No. It is too large for my personal comfort, but I can definitely see the appeal, particularly when it comes to ink capacity.
Pro
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- A huge ink capacity
- smooth gold nib
- well-balanced in the hand
- it’s a beautiful pen!
Con
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- you can’t see how much ink is left
- the ink burping thing!
Who is it for
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- Lovers of big pens
- People who use a lot of ink
The lowdown
This is a limited edition and although my research suggests there are some still available in the wild, they are quite rare. You won’t get much change from £1k if you find one new. You are also likely to have to stump up for import duty.
The Maiora Everest Celestia was kindly lent to me by Nick Stewart from his personal collection for the purposes of this review. You can read his review here.
