On a recent trip to Hong Kong, I took some time out from the usual holiday sightseeing and eating to visit a fountain pen shop called Lamy x Ink House (Google Maps link).
The shop is located on the 2nd Floor of Elements shopping mall. The mall is linked to the Kowloon MTR station, making it very convenient when it is raining.
The shop layout is bright and open so you can see into the shop from outside. It is not big but they have a pretty good selection of pens from European brands. There are a lot of Lamy models and colours on display of course, but there are also other brands like Otto Hutt and Viscounti in smaller numbers. The shop also sells notebooks, mainly Lamy and Rhodia. It feels like there were less stuff displayed in the shop than what was listed on their website. If you are planning a visit, it may be helpful to take a look at the online catalogue first so you have an idea of what is available.
I conversed with the shop assistant in Mandarin, because they do not speak English and I know very little Cantonese (not enough to hold a conversation). I asked about Hong Kong exclusives and they showed me a few pen models which were scattered around the shop. There was no sign pointing out the store exclusives so I might not have noticed them if I was browsing on my own.
I was shown some touristy pens with “I ❤️ HK” inscribed on their bodies. There were also fountain pens without the touristy inscription. These have opaque brightly-coloured bodies or demonstrator bodies. There was also an Otto Hutt sterling silver pen that had the Heart Sutra inscribed on the pen body in Mandarin. The pens ranged from HKD138 to HKD1,890 (about SGD25 to SGD320 or USD20 to USD245).
I was interested in the demonstrator pens and asked to take a closer look at them. These came in a box set with a bottle of ink and an eyedropper. The demonstrator models were available with clear finials or coloured acrylic finials. There were five different coloured finials, each accompanied with their own ink colour. For this demonstrator model, I was told Ink House worked with a Taiwanese company to manufacture these pens. I couldn’t tell how much was Ink House’s involvement; whether they designed the pen or they picked from existing models and added their branding to it.
The pens came with mostly EF nibs, but the shop assistant managed to find an F nib for me to try. The nibs were stamped with a swirly border like those found on JoWo nibs. Ink House’s logo was laser engraved in the center of the nib. The shop assistant dipped the nibs into a bottle of blue ink and I scribbled on a Lamy notepad. I was surprised that the nibs felt smooth, even the EF nib. I also tried an EF nib that was already inked up so the smooth writing experience was not entirely due to dipping the pen.
Apart from the nib, the Ink House logo was engraved onto a metal disc at the end of the pen cap and the words “Ink House” were stamped onto the metal cap band. There was a plastic inner cap with a spring to help reduce ink evaporation. Hopefully this means that it will take a long time for the pen to dry out. This pen could be filled in two ways: with the converter or as an eyedropper.
I picked the pen with a light grey finial because it reminded me of the hotel bathroom floor. That thought made me giggled and now it will always remind me of this trip. This model had only EF nibs left so that was what I got. The ink that accompanied the pen was a brown ink with silver shimmer. I’m not a fan of shimmer but since the ink was part of the set, I couldn’t change it.
First impressions
After I reached home, I flushed the nib with water and inked the pen up with Van Dieman’s Native Cornflower. The pen was very light and nice to hold. I wrote with it on MD paper, which was the paper I used most often. The writing experience was markedly different, with more feedback and sound. This EF nib line width was closer to a Western EF than a Japanese EF. I think more than other nib sizes, I need to find the perfect ink + paper combi to deal with the feedback from EF nib. I generally don’t like my nibs to have too much feedback. Time will tell whether the feedback is something I can live with.
After using it for a day, I noticed a thin line of ink left in the plastic inner cap. The tip of the nib was touching the tapered end of the inner cap when it is capped. Whenever I turned the cap, it resulted in a trail of ink left behind by the nib. A design oversight?
The cap is transparent and you can clearly see the ink left behind. After capping, the inner cap is pressed down so the ink trail is not as obvious. I can live with ink in the inner cap. I will probably clean the inner cap when I change inks to prevent the previous ink from contaminating the new ink.
Tips for visiting Hong Kong
- Hong Kong is a very task-oriented country (IMHO) and the service can be brisk, curt and without smiles. The older shop owners are not shy about showing their displeasure if a customer annoyed them. This can be quite intimidating if you are unused to it. But having said that, if you are polite and do not take a long time decide on your order, you will be fine. It also helps if you open the conversation with a few Cantonese words.
- Hong Kong buildings have a Ground Floor, then a 1st Floor, 2nd Floor and so on. So when a shop is listed as on the 2nd Floor, it is actually located on the third floor of the building. This can take some getting used to if where you came from, like Singapore, used Ground Floor and the 1st Floor to mean the same thing.
- A lot of small local eateries like cha chaan tengs are still cash only. So be sure to change some HKD when you visit Hong Kong.
- Depending on where you go, some parts of Hong Kong are very hilly with little flat ground. MTR stations have a lot of exits and not all of them have escalators or lifts. Wear comfortable walking shoes as you will be climbing stairs, walking uphill and downhill pretty often.
Inkcredible Colours 