Opus 88 Pens

The Good: Looks great, especially with a barrel load of bright ink. Nib is buttery smooth, even on poor quality paper.
The Bad: Too big to be a pocket pen (although I knew that going in). 4 1/2 turns to get the cap off (also known before purchase). Nib seems to scratch up inner of cap (wasn't aware of that). Not a big deal, but such a pretty pen soon looks a little, well, used.

Overall, a great pen for the price, with fantastic service from Pen Chalet (Less than a week from placing order to inking up, all the way down here in Australia!!!)

Really like this pen. Smooth nib and holds a ton of ink. Starts right up with no skipping and feels good in the hand either posted or not! I will agree with others that you need to get used to the number of turns it takes to remove cap.

I own many eyedropper fountain pens, particularly ebonite, this combo of that material and acrylic grabbed my attention when I saw it. The pen feels great in the hand and is indeed a unique design,both aesthetically and functionally. Blurping is a common problem in eyedroppers, this pen uses a chamber rod to try and prevent that,so far it's worked. My greatest surprise has been the smoothness of the steel nib (a bold) all in all I'm a happy camper!

After the first writing with this pen for an hour, I'm convinced that this is my next ‘on the go pen’.

Great reservoir. Fat body.

Thank You, Everything is perfect!

I love this pen. It is a Japanese style ED with a shut off valve (similar to the Namiki Emperors but at a fraction of the price), so it holds a lot of ink and you can travel with it without worrying about leakage/burping. It uses a #6 Jowo nib which is very smooth (I got the fine nib) and should be exchangeable with other Jowo nibs (Edison, Goulet, etc.) It is a large pen, bigger than my Pelikan M800 but comfortable to use. The clear demonstrator design is fun too especially if you fill it with a colorful ink like Apache sunset.

What an awesome pen! Big! Cap will not post, and the nib should have been a black one. Everything eslse is perfect. Fit and finish is great. Flow of ink is excellent. The shut off valve tames the eyedropper beast. I really like this one.

Improves on the superb regular Koloro in almost every way. Has a big, wet, #6 nib, and a bigger, smoother body.
It loses a point in functionality because the cap can't be posted. But a pen this large doesn't need to be posted anyway.
It can hold lots of ink without the dreaded eyedropper burp issues.
Overall, with a collection now exceeding 150 pens,this is one of my favorites.

A splendid pen with a huge nib that gives plenty of feedback. I find Opus 88 pens very reliable and Great to use. This model is gorgeous and very well made.

This has quickly taken over as my preferred pen for long note-taking in my grad school lectures. A wet writer, with an ultra smooth medium nib out the box! Best out of box experience since my Faber-Castell Loom’s (both M and F).

The Koloro fills its role as a long-use Pen very very well, but I docked 1 point for functionality because the screw cap requires 4 full turns to uncap; making it laborious, even when compared to other screw cap pens. Also, if you get a medium or broad nib, you will always need to unscrew the blind cap on the back to release the eye dropper seal. If you don’t, you’re gonna run into flow issues after half of a page of writing. I just unscrew the blind cap at the start of my lecture and leave it like that until I pack my stuff to leave. I would seal it if you are going to pocket the pen or put it back in a bag for travel to minimize slight ink splatters in the cap.

I also docked 1 point for value, as the this pen starts to compete with the pricings of entry level gold nibs (Platinum 3776, Pilot C74, Lamy 2000, Pilot VP, etc.). I’d like see the base retail price right below $100 due to the inclusion of a steel nib.

All that said, the Koloro Demo is the best steel nib I have ever had. Definitely worth the money if you can catch it on one of those generous sales Ron always seems to be running (like I did for ~$93). At the price I paid, this is best value to performance I have ever found.

These pens are rather nifty. The colors are vibrant and the end cap/finial is crystal clear. The nibs are extremely smooth for a steel nib. Highly recommend.

I have had this pen about a week now, and I love it. I like demonstrators anyway, and this pen has a very interesting filling system. The pen is a smooth writer out of the box (it seems to have a JoWo nib). I bought the medium nib, and I like it with sheening inks particularly. I recommend the pen, especially during sale periods when it is quite affordable and an interesting choice.

I love the looks of this pen within my collection. Be aware, it’s a bigger pen. My collection runs along the Lamy, TWSBI, Pilot varieties. This big boy has a grip section that feels more like a child’s kindergarten crayon in comparison. But I’m getting used to it. The cap doesn’t post, but the pen feels balanced without it, and even full of ink, it’s not too heavy. I worried about that, as I have arthritis, but it’s not like a brass pen would be. The mechanism that allows you to close off the ink between the barrel and the feed still lets you write for a good long time, AND opening and closing that thing seems to get ink moving toward to nib when you need it, too. Overall, I really like the pen. I haven’t used it a whole lot yet, and have only had one ink in it so far (it holds a LOT of ink). I have Robert Oster Forest Green in it right now and I love it. This pen was a gift to me and I’m super grateful.

Excellent Fountain Pen. A real looker too! I would highly recommend this pen to any collector; she’s a stand out. Huge reservoir for ink. Never runs out!!! Love it! Love it! love it! Another winner from Pen Chalet. Thank you! Anthony

I love this Pen. I love it's size, large. I think the stainless steel nib is very good. I had both a broad and a medium. The broad was so smooth with just a very very small hint of feedback, which I consider to be perfect. Ti was a great steady writer and fairly wet.
The medium nib also wrote very smooth with the same or slightly more feedback but very minimal over all. I love the way it writes. It is very dependable as regards ink flow.
If you like larger, beautiful pens, this is the one. Great ink capacity as a eye dropper, and it is absolutely nice to look at with your favorite ink color moving about in its barrel. Enjoy.

This pen is a real gem. Having had some eyedropper fillers in the past, I was some hesitant since they all had some kind. of problem. This pen has a piston governor on
it, so I decided to try it. There has been no leakage at all, and I do not keep the piston closed either. It is there if I need it, but otherwise not really necessary from my experience under most normal conditions. Writing with this pen is sheer pleasure. Ink flow is great, and the nib is a smooth writer with an excellent line width (M nib). Based on my experience, I can recommend this pen without hesitation.

I absolutely love this pen. I guess I'm a minimalist, but every aspect of this pen hits the right notes. Even with its striking looks, it's an excellent writer. I'd definitely buy another one...so I did!

Outstanding fountain pen. Well made, aesthetically appealing, written well and smoothly. Pen has good weight and size. Great pen and pleasure with which to write.

Bought the demonstrator first but want to get the others for their colors and am not disappointed. I'm going to have to go Pokemon and collect them all.

Absolutely love this pen. Ever since learning about the old Japanese eyedropper with it's shut off valve, I've wanted one. Until this came out my only option was finding a vintage pen and hope the seals were still good or pay five to six hundred times the price for a base model top tier pen.

Arrived well packaged to the UK. The pen is just beautiful and works perfectly well. I just love everything about it. Thank you for the fast and efficient service

Firstly the service I received from Pen Chalet was absolutely wonderful. I received the pen so promptly it felt like the store was in my same city! Secondly I really like this pen. I purchased it at a great price so I couldn’t ask for a better experience! I’m definitely ordering from this business again. I don’t know what took me so long!

Writes smooth out of the box. Materials feel great in the hand. Very cool system to prevent burping make this the best eyedropper pen on the market. Love it.

I really like the looks of this pen; that's what drew me to it. I like the ebonite tan sections alternated with the pale teal translucent sections. I like the fact that it is an eyedropper and that I have to open the back knob to write with it. All of that is good old-fashioned stuff that lures many fountain pen users to certain models. Now, on the minus side: I got a M nib, but it didn't write like a M. It wrote more like an EF. And I like fat nibs. So, on a hunch, I pulled out my box of spare nibs. Fished out a TWSBI MINI 1.1 mm stub. Not the 580, or the Vac 700, or the Vac mini, but the regular mini. Unscrewed the nib & feed on the Opus, then unscrewed the nib & feed on the TWSBI. Then, to my amazement and disbelief, the TWSBI nib screwed right into the opening on the Opus and it works like a dream. So I've essentially got a TWSBI pen in an Opus body. Awesome! The nibs are the same size (#5) and if you own a TWSBI, well, you know how their nibs write. Pretty darn good. Now that I have switched nibs, I am very happy with my Opus 88 Koloro. One thing I must mention: I have very small hands, and when posted, the Opus is way too big for me to write much with. My hand would get sore and tired. However, unposted, it's pretty comfortable. So: Lord help me, I might consider one of the other color models. I like them all. That's where the obsession comes in. If you are happy with the Opus narrow nib, or if you don't mind switching a TWSBI nib into it to get a fatter one, then I recommend this pen for you. I mainly recommend it based on its looks. It also functions very well, as far as the filling system and shut-off valve goes. It's a very good pen. But I say that based mainly on its appearance. It just appeals to me, in all its color offerings.