PenHero 365: Giuliano Mazzuoli Ducati Officina End Mill 4 Tempi
by Jim Mamoulides, January 9, 2010
Giuliano Mazzuoli Ducati Officina End Mill 4 Tempi in fountain pen configuration with presentation box
One of the benefits of being married to someone who runs a business selling pens is that you get the chance to see some pretty neat pens. Sometimes you get to see them before the public does. The new (2009) Giuliano Mazzuoli Museo Ducati line commemorates the Ducati Museum in Bologna, Italy, which opened on October 16, 1998, with special Ducati Red anodized versions of the Officina, Miniofficina, and Lima pen lines. The museum celebrates the the history of the Ducati motorcycle company, founded in 1926. This pen, and all the other new Giuliano Mazzuoli pens were sent to us over Christmas break so I could photograph them. Of course I got to try them all out!
Giuliano Mazzuoli Ducati Officina End Mill 4 Tempi fountain pen cap and nib detail
If the Giuliano Mazzuoli Ducati Officina End Mill 4 Tempi looks like the kind of the pen a mechanic would design, then you understand the designer's inspiration, the bicycle tools that Italian designer Giuliano Mazzuoli remembers from his father's workshop. Officina in Italian means mechanical workshop. So is this a writing tool for a mechanic, an engineer, or one who simply has an interest in the truly unusual in writing instruments? It's definitely all that.
Giuliano Mazzuoli Ducati Officina End Mill 4 Tempi showing accessories for all four writing modes
The Giuliano Mazzuoli Ducati Officina End Mill 4 Tempi pen set has to be one of the most unusual approaches to a multifunction pen on the market. Unlike a typical multi-pen, where you twist or turn or pull something to get another writing mode, the Giuliano Mazzuoli approach is much more fundamental, much like the workshop tools it emulates. To change writing modes, you have to change the pen. To change the pen, you have to take it apart.
Want to switch from fountain pen to rollerball or ballpoint? Unscrew the fountain pen section, insert the refill you want, and screw on the ball-pen section tip. The ballpoint refill, though a Parker type, has a special cap top with a spring so it can be used in the same section as the rollerball refill. Want a 5.5 mm graphite pencil? Unscrew both the section and the barrel end screw, insert the pencil mechanism in the barrel from the front, and screw the seating screw, which also has the action button, in the barrel base. Press the button and insert the lead from the front and start writing.
Giuliano Mazzuoli Ducati Officina End Mill 4 Tempi closed with presentation box open
The Giuliano Mazzuoli Ducati Officina End Mill 4 Tempi is a huge and heavy weight pen, weighing 2.1 ounces and being 5 5/8 inches long with the cap on and 6 1/4 inches with the cap screwed on the end of the barrel. The pen comes with a converter and uses international type cartridges. The medium stainless steel nib writes extremely smoothly and evenly, and although the pen is very, very large, it's not ungainly for me to write with, capped or posted.
The pen's cap and barrel is handcrafted from solid aluminum, which is machine milled in the "end mill" pattern. The barrel sleeve is finished in Ducati Red, while the cap and trim are highly polished. The back of the cap is engraved, "Museo Ducati". All the engraving work on the pen is high relief, where you can feel every cut made by the engraving machine. If gives the pen the strong feeling of being a tool, which is what Giuliano Mazzuoli was trying to achieve. The unique clip, with its riveted construction, holds the hefty pen firmly in the pocket, and adds to the "writing tool" theme.
I find the design and engraved finish just simply a lot of fun. This is such a guy pen and fun to show off. Highly recommended.
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