Made In The USA: Birmingham Pen Company

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They made me wait

FIVE. GOD. DAMNED. MONTHS.

for this Birmingham “Ironsides” pen. I’m pretty sure they just forgot about me; I let three months slip by between inquiries, and it shipped the day after I finally remembered to contact the manufacturer one final time. It’s the second-worst customer service I’ve had in recent memory — the worst, by far, is the Redline BMX Foundations RL-20II project, now in its third year of holding $1,795 of my money and delivering not a thing.

However, the pen did arrive this afternoon…

…and all is forgiven.

To begin with, Birmingham Pen Company (BPC hereafter) does a more thoughtful, aesthetically pleasing, and heartfelt job of packing and shipping their products than any other manufacturer of anything in my personal experience, at any price level. I’m not going to share the pictures of what you get and how you get it, because I want you to be surprised. That’s how nice it is.

On to the pen. Some of you know this, but I have long collected Pelikan and other high-end fountain pens. The BPC Ironsides was a fraction of their cost, at $129 including several different configuration choices. The description of its creation is lovely:

A virtually indestructible writing fortress, the hefty Ironsides is our very first alloy fountain pen. Fully machined by Dad from a high-grade stainless steel rod, each fabricated part undergoes at least three finishing steps before the assembly of the section, barrel, cap, and threaded finial. Every piece includes a proprietary pocket clip shaped by hand in-house on Nick's homemade clip jig.

Think of how wonderful it would be to work side-by-side with your father, making things. The closest I ever came to that was a laconic comment by my father decades ago, suggesting that he buy a few Subway franchises so he’d have something to do and also Brother Bark and I might finally get steady jobs.

Most of BPC’s pens have been made from various acrylics and Bakelite-esque materials, but I wanted the steel one. It’s awfully heavy, perhaps the heaviest pen I own, more than a TactileTurn in brass or copper.

if you recognize the song without google, i hope you’re in some sort of therapy

It has the appearance and tangibility of something from the nineteeth century. Could be two hundred years old and nobody would be surprised. Out of respect I started it with BPC’s own “Quantum Teal” shimmer ink, which would improve virtually any pen to which it was fed, even my old Place de la Concorde from two decades ago.

Cold to the touch after even the smallest space of time between uses, my pen arrived with two small dents. I suspect this might be part of the reason why my order waited so long to be fulfilled. Somehow this improves the device a bit. The company name and a serial number are etched lightly enough to be invisible from most angles. Palpably imperfect, with a wavy gap between pen cap and clip, the Ironsides reserves its precision for the threads, which are chased and polished for effort-free cap removal.

The nib is a true delight, affordably but carefully made by Nemosine in Germany. It has very little “flex” to it. The whole pen feels far more substantial than a Pelikan or Montblanc.

It’s obvious that the BPC business model largely focuses on their inks, which are delightful and not expensive — but on the apparently rare occasions when they are willing to build and deliver a pen to you, I strongly recommend you pull the trigger.