Caran d'Ache Ecridor 55

What evening ensemble wouldn't be enhanced by such a fantastic pen?

The elusive luxury pen.  Elusive for your average college student. I am still an average college student, but I got extremely lucky when filling out a fountain pen survey online and I was one of the selected winners.  Sometimes you just get lucky.  Maybe it's karma, or maybe it's just about time for the world to treat me well for once, but regardless. I won a magnificent Caran d'Ache Ecridor 55.  A luxury pen is within my reach for the first time in my life.  It is quite exciting.  The only pen that I have to compare it to is a Parker 51 (M), which is approximately 45 years old. I'll do my best to review it, but I have to say that luxury pens aren't exactly my specialty.

Extremely smooth medium nib, and it looks pretty too!

The Ecridor 55 is a pen that upon first glance is extremely stylish.  A fountain pen isn't a fashion accessory, but if you're paying enough money for it, it might as well be.  This pen truly fits that label.  Crafted from silver and rhodium, with a stainless steel nib, the Ecridor 55 has a beautiful "S" pattern that is meant to mimic the air intake "gills" of the 1967 Ford Mustang. I honestly can't attest to any similarities that I know of, but it is beautiful indeed.  I can really imagine this pen peeking out from a suit's front pocket.  I don't believe that a pen can define a person, but I do respect someone with a fountain pen... as long as it is being used.

Now, on to the writing experience, because a fountain pen is completely worthless if it doesn't write well.  I found overall that the Caran d'Ache Ecridor 55 was a fantastic writing experience, on par with the Parker 51 (but then again, I don't have tremendous experience with the world of luxury pens).  The balance of the pen is quite possibly the best that I have experienced in any fountain pen (cap posted or unposted), even better than my Parker 51. The nib is the critical part of the pen and this medium nib does not disappoint.  The nib is as smooth as the Parker 51 and the flow is a little bit slower, but not too much slower, so unless you're an artist or have an extremely quick hand, it's nothing to worry about.  The included adapter holds a lot of ink.  I've been running tests on this pen for about 3 weeks and have used almost 2 full legal pads and I've only refilled it 7 times. I have been using Noodler's Polar Black, my standard ink. I'm sure that in time I will find an ink that works best with this specific pen, but even with Noodler's Polar Black, this pen writes fantastically.

I would love to review more high end fountain pens, but unless they fall in my lap, that won't be happening any time soon. Regardless, I enjoyed the experience tremendously and look forward to possibly reviewing more in the future.

Eternally Inked,

The Classicist