I have this same exact pen which I bought from Maurizio in early January last year, and I wholeheartedly recommend its purchase. It was solidly built, well-balanced (in my hand) and writes very well straight out of the box; writes with a good, consistent flow producing a smooth and steady line - in fact, ALL 9 of my Grifos/ Nero Muse pens work well right out of the box, something quite remarkable for an Italian manufacturer (in contrast, none of my dozen or so Stipula work the way I'd like them to be, without requiring some sort of nib tweaking which thankfully, I'm capable of doing myself; as is the case for a lot of others coming from famous, big-name, expensive Italian pen manufacturers). You might've owned some other wood pens, but definitely not something like the one on this drop. The dark grainy wood and ruthenium-plated sterling silver parts just don't look like any other pen once it's in your hand - something truly unique for which you must have in your hand to understand what I'm taking about. It even comes with a letter certifying its age by radiocarbon dating written in Cyrillic letters.
Grifos pens are all hand-made; they definitely have character, and certainly not popped out by the dozen from some assembly-line factory. In fact I'd say Maurizio himself must've had a hand in the production of every pen that comes out of his atelier; this explains his presence here, replying to every question/post just like in his previous drop - characteristic of someone who runs a family business and places immense pride in his products and will stand by them. It goes without saying that after-sales service (if any is needed in the first place) will be taken care of personally.
My recommendation - just buy this pen; it's a great value purchase, it's something you'll be very happy to use or just hold in your hand, and this testimony comes from a real owner of this same pen, on top of the fact that this pen had been in constant rotation since I purchased it (which is no mean feat since I own more than 300 pens, and I gave up counting by the end of 2013).
You should also check out the other stuff that he produces - pens made out of wood (briar, olive), acrylics, buffalo horn, skins (cobra, alligator, lizard, stingray), sterling silver, and (I don't know whether he still makes them or not) stone!
Grifos pens are all hand-made; they definitely have character, and certainly not popped out by the dozen from some assembly-line factory. In fact I'd say Maurizio himself must've had a hand in the production of every pen that comes out of his atelier; this explains his presence here, replying to every question/post just like in his previous drop - characteristic of someone who runs a family business and places immense pride in his products and will stand by them. It goes without saying that after-sales service (if any is needed in the first place) will be taken care of personally.
My recommendation - just buy this pen; it's a great value purchase, it's something you'll be very happy to use or just hold in your hand, and this testimony comes from a real owner of this same pen, on top of the fact that this pen had been in constant rotation since I purchased it (which is no mean feat since I own more than 300 pens, and I gave up counting by the end of 2013).
You should also check out the other stuff that he produces - pens made out of wood (briar, olive), acrylics, buffalo horn, skins (cobra, alligator, lizard, stingray), sterling silver, and (I don't know whether he still makes them or not) stone!