Left Hook Pens

I’ve actually reviewed this pen before, in a post called Happy Fountain Pen Day. That post was an initial review, so this will be a more long term one after having the pen for about five months. Desiderata is a Black owned pen company based in Chicago, and they make excellent small batch fountain pens.

The BAMF has a large ebonite body with a glossy red ebonite grip section. The body and grip section are all one piece, except for a blind cap at the back where you can access the spring-loaded Pump Piston. The blind cap really blends in; I wasn’t sure where it was at first because the little striations in the ebonite match perfectly when the blind cap is screwed on. Unscrewing the blind cap reveals red ebonite threading, which is a nice surprise. The Pump Piston mechanism is very smooth with a titanium rod. The current webpage for this pen says that a new batch will be out in spring 2021 with an in-house screw piston rather than the spring-loaded one. As you can see in the photo above, the pen says “Bad Ass Motherfucker” on it. The engraving is really subtle, which is nice if you have kids unless they pick the pen up to look at it.

The BAMF can be ordered with a Zebra G nib, Jowo nibs from EF to 1.1mm italic, or a Nemosine 0.6mm stub. I went with the Nemosine nib, and it’s great. The stub is very round and forgiving enough that my girlfriend and I can both enjoyably write with it. I can overwrite and underwrite with it; I didn’t know stubs could be like this. Even with the fine stub, there’s still line variation. While overwriting, there is less line variation for me but still enough that my handwriting has some character. I’ve tried two different inks in this pen: Noodler’s Q’ternity and KWZ Honey. Q’ternity is a thick blue-black that writes very smoothly and dries fairly quickly. Honey is one of the few brown shading inks I’ve found that actually dry. Honey doesn’t write as smoothly as Q’ternity, but it flows very well. When capped, this pen seals up enough that there have never been any hard-starts or skips.

While I’ve never dropped this pen, its durability is unquestionable. The smooth grip section is very comfortable while overwriting, and I really like the vintage style flare near the nib. If you’re interested in this pen, there’s a sign-up box to be notified when the new run is available. The BAMF sells for $188 USD.