Karas Pen Co. Cinnabar Vertex Unboxing and Initial Impressions

Sep 2

We are trying something new (for us) today, which is a little video unboxing. After taking off the last half of August, I’m back today with a pen I’m so excited about I couldn’t wait to show it off. After two years of wanting a Karas Pen Co. Vertex, I’ve finally picked one out, and I wanted to share my first look with you. Check out the video below, then scroll down further for a writing sample and a few more thoughts.

As I mentioned, I’ve been eyeing this pen for over two years at this point. I remember seeing an earlier version of it at the DC 2018 show, with black caps and barrels and contrasting color sections. I didn’t end up buying one there, though, and the green and orange colors available at the Baltimore 2019 show didn’t really speak to me, and then Karas Oen Co. Ended up sitting out both the DC 2019 show and the Baltimore 2020 show. I came close to ordering either the all red H-Alpha model last August, or one of the regular production Delrin models, but I just never pulled that trigger, and then the pen went out of stock for a little while. When production started back up again recently, and I saw a preview of the material on this Cinnabar model (named for the moth it resembles, not the island in the original Pokémon game) I knew this was the one to get. There’s something about a red material with either black or very dark blue veining that just speaks to me (Bloody Basin Jasper is a favorite stone of mine as well, despite the rather gruesome name, which is a stone found in Karas Pen Co.’s home state of Arizona, just to tie everything back together.)

As I said I intended to in the video, I swapped out the steel Double Broad nib that the pen arrived with for a Titanium Fine nib, also laser etched by Karas Pen Co. I have the pen filled with Backpack.ink Rome Purple via converter for the time being, but I look forward to testing it out as an eyedropper in the future. So far, in my initial testing, the pen writes great. It is a nice size and balance for the softer titanium nib. I’m glad I waited to find the right color of Vertex, because I really love this material, but I’m also very glad that I’m not still waiting, because It is just so nice to finally have this pen in hand.