thank you hello there welcome to my channel my name is Doug and I'm back with another fountain
pen review those of you who watch my videos but not all the way to the end might not know
that I'm now an affiliate of gold spot pens and if you shop on gold spot using the link
in my description below you'll be supporting my Channel at no extra cost to you now I've never
actually received anything from gold spot before but today's fountain pen was provided by gold
spot pens as a thank you for my agreeing to be an affiliate they asked me to choose a labair model
that they could provide for me for review and I chose this leban 325 in ocean blue I've owned
one other leban fountain pen and it was a labash skeleton it was a very cool fountain pen and you
can see my review of it by clicking right up here but even before I bought the skeleton which I got
because I thought it would be cool at Halloween and it's a great match with my Pelican gold and
Barrel ink even before that pen I had been eyeing the leban 325. the photos of the pen make it look
very attractive but I was very impressed when I took it out of the box and saw it in real life
it's much more substantial and beautiful in person so let's take a look at it right now
now I've been bugging you folks for months about me being an affiliate of gold spot
pens online well gold spot has come through with a pen for me in recognition of me being
an affiliate they gave me a choice of Laban of pens to uh to review and to keep and the boxes
finally arrived so here is the package and let's open it up to see what it is
come on
well I had to take that off camera and rip the box to shreds there is a magazine in here
and there is the box with the pen the catalog for gold spot interesting in
this day of online shopping and digital websites and so forth to actually see a
paper catalog very interesting I'll give that a look let's open this up
here's the Box white sleeve with a pen Corp and this is the labama 325 fountain pen in
ocean blue with a medium point a band Crest on the other side take the sleeve off we have
this beautiful royal blue box an orange pull tab and it comes out like a drawer
there's the pen oh even without touching it I notice it's much nicer than what I
expected from the photos there's a bookmark and let's see if there's anything underneath yes
refilling your sole by writing International guarantee and it's a three year
warranty against failures due to faulty materials and workmanship and let's take a look at the pad
well isn't that nice look at that lavender and ice blue but this is the part that really surprised me
and the photos they kind of look just sort of uh beige but this is much more substantial than what
I expected from the photos that's a very nice almost a wood grain type pattern see if I can
get a little closer so you can see that beautiful graining in there look at that that's much more
interesting than in the photos and the section matches that so I'll have to figure out whether
that is a yovo or a Bach I believe it's a yovo nib medium I asked for medium black plastic feed
and it does say Germany on there because the nib is made in Germany
but the pen is from Taiwan so are made in Taiwan this is a cartridge
converter pen and there's the lab converter but that's very comfortable in the hand so I look
forward to cleaning this pen out filling it with some ink and then doing a review
325 and what I'd like to do today is go over the parts and features of this pen show some size
comparisons some measurements and then provide a right example after the writing sample please stay
tuned as I will talk about what I like and what I don't like so much about this fountain pen leban
pens are manufactured and the company is based in Taiwan lebanpez was founded in 1981 by John
Hugh and his brother Charles they make fountain pens ball points and rollerballs overall this
is a substantial pen as I said in the unboxing I was surprised at how robust this pen is yes
it's acrylic but the acrylic is somehow thicker and more luxurious than either I had expected or
seen on an Asian fountain pen this creamy white isn't just white it has a pseudo wood grain and
depth and the dark veins are slightly chatoyant and glitter as well see if I can get in closer
give you a better View of that grain it really is quite lovely it's very reminiscent of one of my
favorite acrylic finishes from Penn BBS and they call it a cedar here is my first pen BBS fountain
pen and Cedar it's a 308 the cedar acrylic comes up so rarely that I had to get another one
in a 480 when it popped up on Etsy the Grain and the gold veins are much wider on the leban
then there is this beautiful iced blue cracked ice it's a lovely finish I have some similar acrylic
resin on my jinhao 100 Centennial although the leban has some nice lavenders and deeper Blues
than the cool blue of the jinhao overall the pen is roughly cigar shaped at least
on the bottom finial the top is more a rounded cylinder from the top we see an embedded gold
colored metal Medallion of the leban logo Crest with an l and Laurel leaves it is
I like Laura leaves the rounded cap then has two embedded gold metal rings these are not
just thin bands applied over the acrylic the acrylic actually has channels milled into it
where the bands sit the bands are slightly convex and you can just feel them softly rise above the
acrylic it's a very nice attention to detail here I think these three layers of acrylic actually
sandwich the clip structure inside the cap and the whole thing is held together with a screw on the
bottom of that cap Medallion and then it's sealed inside the cap with a silicone seal we'll see that
in a moment the elegantly shaped gold metal clip extends from the cap and is very nicely springy
and usable another nice touch the cap curves up to a large domed cap band that has a laser engraved
on the front this band is not embedded into the acrylic the cap is nicely rounded down to the
barrel which begins with another two gold metal ring sandwich of the ivory resin and then the
cracked ice acrylic of the barrel which tapers very slightly all the way down to another gold
metal ring which separates the barrel from the ivory acrylic and finial the cap unscrews with
almost to complete turns to reveal a tapering acrylic section of the same acrylic as the cap
and end finial and has a nice flare towards the number six size steel Bach medium nib and black
plastic feed I said in the unboxing I thought this nib was a yovo but it is indeed a Bach let's look
closer at this nib it has some nice scroll work and then 3952 labash Germany and an M for medium
I don't know what's up with that number on the nib not matching the model number of the pen the leban
skeleton has a really nicely engraved nib with leban and the label L with the Laura leaves logo
so I don't know what's going on there the nib and feet are part of a nib assembly that unscrews for
maintenance or replacement the section unscrews to reveal a gold medal nozzle and be included Levan
standard international converter with leban in script which is another nice touch the inside of
the barrel shows a metal insert for the threads to mesh with the section so they are metal on metal
again another nice touch the inside of the cap shows there's no cap liner or step milled into
it to meet up with the section but you can see that screw from The Medallion that holds the top
cap together with the clip and it's all sealed in a silicone membrane unposted the pen is very
comfortable in the hand the section is lovely and those threads are smooth and unobtrusive the cap
does not post as those acrylic threads of the cap do not go over that ring unposted the pen is very
comfortable in the hand and the section is lovely and those threads are smooth and unobtrusive this
pen retails on gold spot pens for 97.99 us and is available in nine color finishes this ocean blue
Aqua Lagoon Black Ivory Flame forest green Sakura snow Sun orange and Wisteria purple and they have
five nib options extra fine fine medium Broad and a 1.5 millimeter stub only the ocean blue
seems to be priced at 97.99 while the other colors are 127.95 now let's look at some size comparisons
and here is the leban 325 in ocean blue with a Leonardo momento zero Grande a jinhao
x159 and Opus 88 Bella and a pilot Metropolitan for scale now let's look at them posted and here
they are posted and of course the leban 325 does not post but the Leonardo momento zero Grande does
post the jinhao posts even better the Opus 88 Bella posts but makes it a very large pen and
you can see by the scale how big these pens are now let's look at them unposted and here they
are unposted and again these are Big pens as you can see from the scale of the Metro the Opus 88
is very fat indeed but the best comparison I think is between the leban 325 and the jinhao x159 they
both have the same length the general x159 is slightly girthier and the section taper is a
little bit more but you can see that the leban 325 isn't that far off of a momento zero Grande which
is a big pen now let's look at some measurements and I'll be back with a writing sample
and we're back with the writing portion of the
review this is Claire Fontaine 90 GSM paper and this is the leather
or leaving three two five and it has a number six size Bach Steel medium nib
and let's check the wetness
nicely wet right out of the box and it is glassy smooth with just a hint of feedback
I would say the nib is perfect
and the ink today
is hiroshizuku
Hammer hero
which I think is a really nice match with this particular shade of blue in the acrylic
and here are some close matches to this ink from inkswatch.com that's the line variation
yeah you can push out a little bit but it's a stiff steel nib
and the line This nib makes
is a 0.6 millimeters which is a western
medium
or a Japanese
medium to Broad and for our quote
and for some reverse writing
it's actually quite smooth
a lot drier and thinner but it works and for some quick writing
no issues whatsoever nicely wet nut feed keeps up so what do I like and what do I not like about
this fountain pen well first I have to say that I was not expecting a pin this big and substantial
why did you get it so big hey that's what she said come on in all the photos I've seen of this
model I don't think I've ever seen one side by side with a normal size pen so I was expecting
something like the size of this pen BBS 308 and I was also not expecting to weigh almost twice as
much as this pen BBS 308 even my Leonardo momento zero Grande weighs four grams less than the leban
325 and this Leo is a piston filler not that the size and heft of this pen are a bad thing I think
the size is nice in my hand and the pen on posted because it doesn't post is really nicely balanced
I was also surprised at how incredible this acrylic finish is on this pen the cracked ice
is beautiful but this ivory with the veins of gold you just have to see it and feel it as the
photos don't really do the pen Justice at all I did expect the quality fit and finish of this pen
from leban however the Levan skeleton is a very well-built fountain pen and I remember being very
impressed by it it's always expecting no less and got no less than a superbly built pen from leban
for the 100 price tag you get a beautifully finished well-balanced fountain pen with a
glossy smooth block nib the only criticism I have of this pen is that it does not post at all
the cap weighs a full 14 grams by itself so maybe it's a good thing it doesn't post
but there are ways to make a cap like this post deeply and not unbalance the pen severely the
Leonardo momento zero Grande is a big pen and its cap weighs a full 12 grams but it does post
deeply and securely and the pen is lovely in the hand both posted and unposted perhaps of leban
slimmed down the capsum and reduced the number of rings and metal in the cat made the end finial
ring flush and allowed the cap to slip over the barrel it might be a lighter more well-balanced
pen than posted but those are just thoughts this is a magnificent fountain pen and I'm sure lament
are proud of it as they should be but I expect they get a lot more potential customers if the
pen posted well as a non-posting fountain pen is pretty much a deal breaker for many people
I have to note something else here as well and I'm nitpicking a bit the only choices are with
this white Ivory and some color combination on the barrel that's okay if you like white
white beige or Ivory and I do in fact like it if there was an option for a darker material on this
model burgundy dark blue green black charcoal I think more people would love this style of
pen and not be shy to pull them out in meetings at the office Excuse me while I whip this out
also with the off-white section dipping the pen into the ink to fill it stains the acrylic I dip
filled this pen once and it's already tinged with blue from now on I'm going to fill the
converter with a syringe to limit the acrylics exposure to Ink I have the same problem with
my Leonardo Ferrari salt so just a word to the wise and there you have it thanks go out to my
friends at gold spot pens for providing this pen for review if you like this video please like And
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and that's all she wrote
I made this