Material: Acrylic

Nib: Steel, Medium

Appointments: Chrome / Steel colored

Filling System: Converter/Cartridge (Standard International)

Length (Capped): 152mm

Length (Uncapped): 131mm

Length (Posted): N/A

Section Diameter: 10mm

Barrel Max Diameter: 14.2mm

Cap Max Diameter: 16.4mm

Weight, Capped (with ink and/or converter): 28g

Weight, Uncapped (with ink and/or converter): 16g

When I purchased my Edison Beaumont early in 2013, it was only the 5th pen in my collection, and was the first “expensive” pen I had ever purchased. (At the time, I considered any pen over $100 to be very expensive…time has warped my thinking on that front, clearly.) The Beaumont was a nice pen, made from a great material, but it was the wrong shape and size for me, and I found it rarely getting inked as part of my rotation. Eventually, I gifted the pen to my grandmother, who loves the pen, and I was Edison-less for quite a while.

I recently decided to remedy my Edison-less state by purchasing a pen on the opposite end of Edison’s size spectrum–the gargantuan Collier in the new Blue Steel Material. This large, cigar-shaped pen is oversized, yes, but still eminently usable. For me anyway.

Like every Edison pen I’ve ever handled, the Collier is an exquisitely made pen. There are few modern companies making pens with such incredibly tight tolerances. You can tell the folks at Edison take pride in the work they do. It shows in the fit and finish. The high-gloss polish of the acrylic really shows off the deep, shimmery swirls of deep blue.

The Collier is a surprisingly light pen for its size, as it is an all-acrylic body (as are many of Edison’s pens.) That means that the cartridge/converter system can be set aside, and the pen can become eyedropper filled. If you are one of those people who need a lot of ink capacity (and I do mean a lot), this may be the pen for you. I didn’t run a test, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Collier could hold a solid 5-6ml of ink—the size of a Goulet sample vial if it were completely full.

I opted to get the stainless steel nib in medium on my Collier. This Jowo made nib was, while nice, nothing particularly special. It wrote with a little more feedback than I generally like, and ran just a touch drier than I generally like. I found this to be true with my earlier Beaumont. A bit of work on the nib (which I do with 95% of the pens that cross my desk, anyway) resolved both issues, and the pen writes wonderfully now.

Edison’s pens also come in 18k gold varieties, which I’ve never tried. They have also partnered with nibmeister Richard Binder to have him create a nib which has been altered to provide additional flex. I have been wanting to try the binder flex nib for a while, so I may see if I can purchase one of those to add to my pen at a later date.

In a lot of ways, I consider Edison pens and Franklin-Christoph pens to occupy the same strata of the pen world. Both American-made pens, both small companies, both doing excellent, high quality craftsmanship. In fact, their pricing is quite similar as well in some cases. But in some ways, they are also the exact opposite of each other: Franklin-Christoph, whose Model 19 I simply adore, makes pens with different and unique designs, but using relatively understated materials and mundane cartridge/converter filling systems. Edison, on the other hand, makes pens in more traditional shapes, but with spectacular and unique materials. And, on some of the custom pens, with more uncommon filling systems.

Frankly, both pens write so well and look so beautiful that I suspect there will be room for several more of them in my collection over the coming years.