Delta Dolcevita

- Oversize

- Medium

- Slim

Dolcevita – The beautiful Italian life that each one envisions or dreams about (from the Delta Dolcevita leaflet).

If there is a collection that puts food on Delta’s table and gives night shelter to it’s people, that is the Dolcevita collection. Under the above mentioned philosophy, Delta created unique colour and form. The artists combined the dark orange colour of rocky hillsides under the Mediterranean sun with trims based on roman décors from Pompeii over the black resin of the cap. They gave this contrast in the form of rich colour as an expression of joy and sweet life. The barrel form could easily come out from the trouser shape of the 1001 night tales (just a personal appreciation). Loud but not too much, in essence it is a practical instrument thought to be used in a daily basis but at the same time it is a piece of art work as it is recreated every time by skilful artisans with the high quality resins and metals involved in its production.

Dolcevita collection is available in six different versions (according to Delta’s leaflet), Stylus, Stout, Mini, Medium, Oversize and Undersize. In addition there is also one version which is a bit shorter than Medium in overall length and slimmer in diameter It is designated as Slim.

They are produced in what they call a Numbered Edition. In this way, every new pen gets an increasing serial number with no specific limit on the collection’s size.

Regarding the fountain pens, Stout, Mini and Undersize use a cartridge only as filling system; all others use converter or cartridge. In addition, Oversize may be used also as eye dropper filler.

From the ample range of variations offered, sure there is one for every hand taste. In my case the three reviewed were selected because of size, usability and personal taste. The Oversize and Medium pens would fit my hand and the Slim type was a perfect present for my wife’s smaller hands. Instead of making different reviews I opted to join all three and enrich this with comparisons between them.

All pens were ordered with F nib to our personal taste and exhibit some line width variation in the F range. It has to be noted also that all three have different nib and corresponding feed size.

External structure of all is almost the same; Black cap with silver or vermeil trims and clip, marbled dark orange barrel and again glossy black end barrel cap, separated or not by a silver or golden ring in between. Section on all of them is also black. All three feature converter which is screwed into the section inner end. There have been no leaks so far.

First the BAD news in the review. All three pens had some problem with me. This is the first time something like that happens to me with Delta fountain pens. First one was the Oversize version. It was bought at an online store (USA) and on first filling it just refused to write. The reason was a very poor nib tuning. Tines were separated by a considerable gap and parallel one to each other. Miss Surface Tension was absolutely unable to draw any ink to the tip in this condition! Time for criss-cross exercises and after a lot of sweating, patience and time my first degree in nib tuning was acciquired. Finally it was able to write like it was meant-to but refused consistently in drawing ink from the converter (!). After closer inspection I found huge lots of liquid silicone everywhere, in the converter, section, feed, underside of the nib… also, time for dismantling and careful cleaning. Yes, now it was clean as a nice fat baby, but… still refused to continue writing once the feed emptied. Again the same story… also dismantling and buying a powerful magnifying glass. And there were they, two tiny plastic rests in the also very narrow feed channel. A rigid acetate sheet, from a bonbon box, did the trick and FINALLY it was ready to write. Also reassembling again, absolute meticulous pre trial inspection and when all was 100% ready, filling again and…. Oooh! That’s another story. Yes, it finally showed its BEAUTYFUL potential to be reality.

You could ask now… and why on the hell did you not send this pen back for exchange or reparation? And you are in your right! My answer is simple. I think that I’m not the only one that likes to learn as much as possible, who also knows the risks involved but that finally the knowledge and experience gained have no price. There is a way one should choose but this has not to be the one that one finally chooses. Options are there to decide, depending upon careful weighing of the risks and benefits involved.

Bad luck also with the other two pens, they had the same “ %$·#” silicone problem, and the Medium had also plastic bits in the feed channel, but now I had my Dolcevita degree and in an hour both pens were diagnosed and cured to perfect working condition, including final nib tuning to taste. I must confess that at some times I was wondering how Dolcevita could be so popular with the above mentioned problems and I reached just one answer. Surely I had the bad luck of getting just those infrequent samples that escape the quality control everywhere. The larger the series, the greater is the probability of finding such black beans. I have no doubt that in any of the cases all three pens would been have serviced or exchanged without any hesitation and to final satisfaction.

The good news, all three Dolcevitas give every day all the desired pleasure and dependability that we desire, if not even more. This means that design is good, and if well manufactured and quality controlled they should give faultlessly service, as they actually do.

The design on these three pens is very well balanced. Oversize is longer and all three have diameter differences but overall proportions and look are maintained. The barrel is composed of the main body which is made out of very rich dark orange marbled resin (which I find to be a nightmare to photograph adequately) and a glossy jet black end cap. Diameter is not constant and grows slightly till the end cap. Body and cap are separated by a metallic ring, gold or silver in colour, which adapts the different diameters where needed. In the Slim version the ring is almost testimonial. The body screws over the black section and is reinforced by a metallic threaded inner tube that gives the required strength to this vital part, excepting the Slim version which has no metal insert at this point. On the oversize version, the section has a rubber gasket that seals against its seat in the metallic threaded body tube, in order to allow using the pen as an eyedropper filled pen. Oversize and Medium have resin section threads; Slim version has a metal piece which is the one bearing the threads. All three feeds are different.

Oversize to the back, Medium in the middle and Slim to the front

Finishes are bright and glossy throughout all the resin surfaces and the jet black cap is no exception to this. It s conceived as a cylinder type one, decreasing its diameter towards the end in which the Delta logo is engraved in a circular golden or silver insert. It is provided with a clip in elastic metal alloy and attached to a golden or silver finished ring in the upper part of the cap. This clip ends in a small wheel that facilitates the sliding when fixing the pen to the pocket or carrying case. In the lower end of the cap, the characteristic Pompeian deco gold or silver ring finds its ideal place. This ring is nicely carved and engraved and gives the distinctive character to the Dolcevita family.

The nibs, all of them should be of equal and highest quality (if they do not escape quality control). In my particular case, once all three were tuned (the Slim only required a bit more of flow), they were smooth as desired, all three were also F grade but with very slight line width variation. Oversize was more flexible while Mediums were more on the rigid side, but in any case they could not be compared to some nails around. All three had a very good feedback and comfortable to use. All three pens are well balanced, posted or unposted.

For a mass produced pen which is not mass produced, this is a very nice example of what imagination, passion and determination can do, and regarding the various issues encountered they are overall very nice pens indeed. Other owners asked have said that their pens worked perfectly out of the box with no particular issues whatsoever, the bad luck was only mine. After that I have continued buying Deltas with no problems at all, so I consider this as an isolated chapter… perhaps the quality control responsible was enjoying his own Dolcevita time while my pens passed in front of him…

THE NUMBERS:

Delta Dolcevita	OVERSIZE	MEDIUM	SLIM
Length capped, mm.	141	135	131
Length Posted, mm.	177	162	147
Length unposted, mm.	131	122	120
Cap length, mm.	66	62	56
Body diameter (maximum), mm.	16.5	14.7	12.7
Section diameter, mm.	14.5	12.7	10
Total weight (gr.)	48	32	25
Unposted weight (gr.)	30	20	15

FPN SCORES:

FIRST IMPRESSION	5/5
APPERANCE AND FINISH	5/5
DESIGN, SIZE AND WEIGHT	5/5
NIB DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE Once problems were solved!!!	4.5/5
THE FILLING SYSTEM	5/5
COST / VALUE Good value for money. Prices tend to be high if compared to limited editions.	4.5/5
OVERALL OPINION CONCLUSSION They are good workhorses in luxury dressing.	4.8/5