Out of the blue, I got it into my head that I’d like a wooden pen, and then whattayaknow, one popped up on Kickstarter. Great timing. Pen karma, it seems. After a couple of delays (fairly minor ones, as far as Kickstarter delays can go), my pen arrived last week, and it’s a beauty.
The Troubadour
Chad Schumacher, of Plainfield IL, is the creator and craftsman behind Allegory, which produces a line of pens “handcrafted from reclaimed, ancient, and historical woods.” Pretty cool. My pen, the Troubadour, is made from Sinker Cypress and Picklewood Redwood, which means it has its roots in pre-Industrial America, when logs were floated down rivers and pickling vats were used to preserve food. You can’t say that about your Bic Clic, or even about your Mont Blanc. The wood is smooth and warm, and makes me think about the stories it could tell. You can feel the history.
For a small additional pledge, I selected Allegory’s Maple & Rosewood gift box. It’s a gorgeous storage box which then opens on a hinge to become a beautiful desk stand. The set looks right at home on my mission-style desk.
Maple and Rosewood gift box
Where the pen, and the history, lives
The Troubadour is a twist-style ballpoint that takes a Cross refill. Cross refills are not stellar, but they’re not bad, either. The black fine point refill is acceptably smooth and dark enough. It’s not a Jetstream or a Vicuna or a Surari, but I enjoy writing with it. There’s a bit of streakiness in the line, but nothing terrible. The feel of the wood, combined with the gunmetal accents, makes this pen a winner, even without a top tier refill. I’m a fan. I may, in the future, swap in a Cross-style Fisher Space Pen refill to bump up the writing performance a notch.
Troubadour writing sample
Did you miss the Kickstarter project? No worries. You can read about, and purchase, Chad’s full line of handcrafted pens on the Allegory website, where the motto is “Pens with a legacy, so you can leave yours.”
I’d best get writin’.
Thanks, Chad
