REVIEW: WANCHER SEVEN TREASURES FOUNTAIN PEN

Wancher managed to create quite a name for itself in the latest year or two. The Wancher Dream Pen and Dream Pen Urushi kicked things off with a hugely popular Kickstarter campaign: The premise was original and people -myself included- generally seemed to really like the pens that came forth from that. Two years later, it's time for another Kickstarter, and five days in (24 days left as of writing this) they already passed the 100.000$ mark with relative ease. 

Sure, in part that's because they seem to have the marketing aspect down and are omnipresent on social media (the fact that you're reading this review sort of illustrates the point). But of course, the quality has to be there as well. And if it's not too much asked we'd like to see something unique, too. Luckily, the Wancher Seven Treasures Shippoyaki fountain pen seems to deliver on all fronts! 

'Unique' certainly seems to be the strong suit of this pen. Ok, from afar it looks like a regular stately, flat-top pen. The large size of the pen is accentuated by the bulky, stout clip and two wide cap bands. The design is quite classy, it has a bit of an old-school Parker Duofold vibe to it.

The material this pen is made of is quite unseen in modern fountain pens: Bakelite! As a chemist, I was quite fascinated because Bakelite is often regarded as the first real fully synthetic plastic and it happens to be invented by a fellow-Belgian: Leo Baekeland! Bakelite is quite a strong material on itself, but here they opted for an even stronger composite Bakelite reinforced with paper and linen. The material has sort of a semi-polished finish and feels very pleasant in the hand.

The real reason this pen classifies as unique is the cap finial. Wancher incorporates traditional Japanese artwork in a lot of their pens. With the Dream Pen they showcased Urushi, the Seven Treasures features a small glass inlay in the finial, made with a traditional cloisonné enamel technique called 'Shippo'. I'm not familiar with this kind of technique, but the artwork is made by Okagaki Yukie, who is apparently a reference when it comes to this technique.

L to R: Pelikan M800, Opus 88 Omar, Wancher Dream Pen Urushi, Wancher Seven Treasures, Lamy Safari, Lamy 2000

The Seven Treasures is a large pen. At 15 cm (5,9") capped, and 13.2 cm (5,2") uncapped. With an overall weight of 39 g it's not a featherweight but doesn't weigh you down when you're writing either. Part of that weight comes from the thick-walled construction, giving the pen a durable and solid feel in the hand.

The section is quite comfortably shaped, but I wish it was a little longer because that would've moved the threads and step a bit further back. The transition towards the barrel isn't terrible, but it's a bit noticeable. The cap does post, but there's actually two reasons why I wouldn't suggest it: it's long enough by itself, and it posts onto the blind cap so you might actually operate the piston by accident.

Talking about the piston mechanism... Wancher calls it a high-capacity piston mechanism, but I find that debatable. From my rudimentary measurements, it holds about 1 ml of ink, a bit more than a standard converter but not quite what I'd call 'high-capacity'. The mechanism feels like a captured converter to me, so the piston knob doesn't extend from the barrel when you operate the mechanism. My only gripe with this system is that the piston knob never really tightens down like with a normal piston-filled pen. Especially when you'd post the cap, it would be an easy mistake to twist it, leaving you covered in ink. For example, most Leonardo pens also have captured converters, but they covered the piston knob with a blind cap so you can't accidentally operate the mechanism.

One nice detail Wancher thought about is the removable section to avoid staining the material when you fill the pen (Bakelite can take up moisture). It's quite a clever workaround and shows good attention to detail on Wancher's part.

The Seven Treasures comes stock with a steel JoWo nib and feed, but you can upgrade the feed to ebonite for 30$ (or red ebonite for 50$) or an 18k gold Wancher nib for an additional 130$. The stock JoWo nib that I received performed flawlessly out of the box, and I really like this monotone gold-plated finish. The medium nib is very smooth and the feed keeps up nicely (although I would still upgrade for the ebonite feed anyway, while you're at it). If you want a more expressive writer, the optional gold Wancher nib offers more springiness and I've had good experiences with it in the past (Read my review HERE).

The final verdict? I think Wancher scores two for two with the Dream Pen and now the Seven Treasures. Once again, they are not afraid to go outside of their comfort zone and manage to offer something quite unique to the fountain pen market. The Wancher Seven Treasures fountain pen brings a small but tangible piece of artwork to your desk, but is also an excellent daily writer to boot! The Bakelite construction is quite cool and the entire pen feels very well-made and solid.

The only real hurdle to the Seven Treasures is its price. Of course, you're paying a premium for the piece of Shippo artwork, but a full MSRP of 300$ it's feels perhaps a bit steep. The current Kickstarter prices are a better deal, starting at 240$ (Super-early bird backer prices of 210$ were already gone on the first day of the campaign, unfortunately!), but it's still not a cheap pen whatsoever. 

NOTE: This product was provided by Wancher, so I could write this review. I was in no way influenced in the making of this review, the opinions shared in this review are completely my own. This post does not contain affiliate links.