I really don’t know much about Colibri except that it is a UK brand very much in the tradition of Dunhill: a purveyor of high quality ‘gentlemen’s goods’ like lighters, pens and the like. I had actually discovered Colibri specifically because of this pen, the Ascari, several years ago while trawling ebay for ‘knurled pen’, a wide cast net in the hopes of catching unexpected gems. I believe it came out around 2016.
It was priced quite expensively and it would take a while before I found it on clearance for roughly $40. It came in an exquisite satin lined box, evoking vague memories of advertisements for Silk Cut cigarettes in fashion rags.
The entire pen is metal, probably anodized? It’s a twist deploy mechanism and the design is full of mechanical details and accents that you’d find more often on a ‘tactical pen’. But the name? It is named after Alberto Ascari, two time F1 champion in 1953 and 1954 while racing for Ferrari.
Honestly, I still think it evokes more of a mil-spec vibe than a motorsport feel. The knurling is of the flattened diamond head type, which feels delightfully tactile. The makers actually call this a ‘Pachmayr’ texture, which is supposedly applied to the steering wheels of racing cars. In searching for the term, I found out that it is also related to the texturing on certain handgun grips.
I had thought about pairing it with a black drafter; technical and knurled seemed like obvious traits to go for. But something about the Ascari’s stature demanded a more elegant approach. That’s when I remembered that Faber-Castell’s torpedo shaped e-motion series also had a matte black model…
Listed as ‘Pure Black’, this e-motion pencil uses a continuous twist mechanism to propel a short stick of 1.4mm lead. Instead of the more commonly seen red or dark brown pearwood, the Pure Black model is all aluminum, with a crosshatched guilloche texture. This is a lightly grooved treatment, without the raised peaks on the Ascari. Less aggressive in feel but still nicely tactile.
Pretty happy overall! And as luck would have it, I got the e-motion, also on clearance, with two pearwood models. Looking forward to future pairings for those!
