Venvstas evolves again: meet the Calibro 8 ‘Black Tie’

This, the Calibro 8, is a perplexing pen for me to review. It’s clearly a made-in-Italy Venvstas like I’m used to, but at the same time a few of the characteristics that I felt were utterly intrinsic to the brand have been flipped to their opposites.

So let’s start there. While previous Venvstas pens were all about the texture of authentic, engineered materials — grippy linear carbon fiber tubing, scratchy expressive titanium nib, raw metal fittings, raw bronze accents — this CALIBRO 8 is in shiny pianoblack plastic with mirror-smooth gold metal accents (my review sample is the ‘BLACK TIE’; there’s also a ‘WHITE TIE’ with silver-tone plating; both are numbered limited editions.)

With all this shine, the vibe has gone from stealth to Dubai glitz, and I’m not sure I like it. For all the old pens’ flaws, I enjoyed the feel of matte carbon and the scratch of Ti nibs. It was true to the ‘artistic tool’ concept that Venvstas was going for.

While previous models were almost rustic and simplistic in their assembly (friction fit some tubes together; exposed screws abound), this one feels safe and mass-produced (even though it’s assembled by hand in a two-hour process). The elements slide or screw smoothly together, there are lots of o-rings throughout the construction, the nib unit is well aligned to its surroundings, and in general ‘fit and finish’ is great.

There’s also a lot more ornamentation than on previous models, particularly in the form of instruction text engraved into the body of the pen, telling you exactly what to do, all rendered in a cool distinctive typeface.

The nib is no longer titanium, but steel, reportedly from JoWo. Although this is the Calibro “8”, the nib is a #6 size as usual.

Despite these massive differences in materials and aesthetics, the skeleton of the Calibro 8 is true to its predecessors in many ways.

The slanted cap is still push-pull, exposing the nib set into a slanted collar (that still risks trapping ink during filling). While before the cap action had a definite scraping feeling, with the Calibro 8 the cap is almost loose — it takes no effort at all to remove.

The filling mechanism is still a simple, push-pull syringe filler with big capacity, and it’s still concealed behind a sleeve — although that sleeve now unscrews instead of pulling off, and the syringe plunger itself now screws to lock in place to prevent accidental ejection of ink.

It’s still definitely possible to misalign the parts, which somewhat disrupts the geometric precision of the design.

There’s still a metallic (brass) branded disc at the end of the cap, although it’s now very highly polished with softened edges, and looks a little cheaper as a result than the crisp engraving of old.

The Calibro also still seems to be resistant to user maintenance: there’s no ink window, and the filling mechanism doesn’t seem to be serviceable — but at least the nib unit is removable now.

This is a long pen, like its predecessors. At 15cm, it’s longer than a Homo Sapiens or 149 or Maximalistica when capped, and uncapped the difference is even more profound.

The whole thing is a straight cylinder, 15mm across, although an improvement over its predecessors is the flat side, which functions somewhat well as a rollstop as well as a canvas for engraving. There’s no clip, not that I miss one.

The Calibro 8 is not crazy heavy despite the spec sheet saying 48g, and the balance feels quite linear. This has always been a Venvstas strength.

Remove the cap and I’m not sure where to grip: the sharp slanted barrel lip seems to be everywhere my fingers might want to rest.

I ended up with one finger on the section underneath, one on the section above, and my thumb back on the barrel — but your mileage may vary.

I made the comfort work, but this definitely isn’t the most comfortable pen I have ever used. Incidentally, the cap doesn’t post.

The EF steel nib on my review sample is frankly very good, with just the right line weight and even flow.

A gold nib is available for an upgrade (on request), but I probably wouldn’t bother — with a steel nib the Calibro is already 489 euros, and I expect at least 100 euros premium to upgrade.

With the pen left capped in a drawer for a week, I noticed some ink evaporation, but nothing that stopped it from writing immediately, so it’s not a dealbreaker .

So. How do I feel about this pen? Honestly, I’m conflicted.

On the plus side, there are plenty of incremental improvements over previous models: the locking filler, the roll-stop facet, the improved fit and finish.

However, there are a few design decisions that are still problematic (such as the ink getting trapped in the collar during filling) or even that have got worse, like the barrel step and grip.

Overall I feel the aesthetics have taken a step backwards: the Calibro is just too shiny for me, and I haven’t made up my mind about whether I like the unusual typography all over it.

At 489 euros, this Venvstas comes in at nearly twice the price of a Gravitas Monster, and even in today’s crazy gold market you can pick up any number of gold-nibbed Japanese pens for under that price, too (like the latest limited edition Platinum 3776, or a Pilot 823).

The ‘made in Italy’ mark is attractive, but even matching that limitation, you can pick up an Aurora Optima or 88 for under £500, which is fully in-house Italian made including gold nib, ebonite feed and piston filler (with ink window). A Santini piston filler with in-house gold nib starts around 399 euros.

Given this, the Calibro’s edition of 369 (doubled, given the two trim colours) is not tiny enough for me to get FOMO at this price.

My hat goes off to Filippo from Venvstas for continuing to iterate and refine the core concept behind the Calibro 8, and for proactively reaching out to grumpy reviewers like me who have been critical of previous product releases. I hope the brand carries on working hard: the fountain pen market is more diverse and more competitive than ever, and it’s great to have an option like Venvstas doing pens like nobody else does.

If you’d like to get your hands on a Calibro 8, you can buy online at venvstas.com