Gravitas The Monster Cherry Velvet Fountain Pen

The name suggests a bulky pen, but the Gravitas The Monster Cherry Velvet Fountain Pen is nothing of the sort. It is built on the well-proportioned shape of the original Vac. Every line and contour has been refined, from the silhouette to the balance.

The body is made of anodised, bead-blasted aluminium, optical-grade clear acrylic and 304 stainless steel. Thanks to careful weight reduction, the pen weighs 42 grams capped and 28 grams uncapped: solid in the hand without feeling heavy. An inner Delrin sleeve in the cap gives a smooth capping and uncapping action, and for writing the cap pushes onto the back of the pen.

At the heart of the pen is the Kraken filling system, designed by Ben Walsh. While researching shut-off valves for retractable pens, he looked at medical devices and found a simple but effective sealing principle there. The system is closer to a mechanical heart valve than to a traditional Vacuumatic filler.

What makes the Kraken filling system special:

• up to 6 ml of ink when fully filled
• a specially shaped quad ring that keeps lubricant between the contact points, for constant lubrication and a better seal
• thanks to the precise machining, a single plunge already draws a large volume of ink

The writing point is a Size 8 steel nib with an ebonite feed, available in Extra Fine, Fine, Medium and Broad. The nib is black. The grip section unscrews, which makes the filling system easy to clean and grease. The grip diameter is between 12 and 14 mm. Each pen comes in a zip case.