In the early days of my fountain pen journey I frequently used Levenger’s Raven Black ink. In part it was for the archival quality of the ink, but also because black is a standard ink color, and at the time I didn’t want to be prevented from using my fountain pens due to ink color. Along my journey I determined that I prefer any color of ink except black. But here I am, with a pen full of a black ink, and I’m not rushing to empty and refill my pen.

This is a pen that was hard to resist; I tried. Having already been introduced to the Souverän model with my M605 I had a sense of what I was getting into. Still, this is an M805 which is longer, thicker, has a larger nib, and the piston is made of brass instead of plastic. After receiving some advice via an Instagram post I decided to give the M800 series a try. Here are my first impressions of my M805 Stresemann.