Pen review: Etturning Birdseye Maple (electrocuted)

Aka if this were a novel it would be titled a Song of Wood and Lighting and I would read the hell out of it

When I was young (yes, this is yet another story time), the only fountain pens that were available were cheap, nameless, plastic or wooden pens that felt like nothing in the hand and were equally as brittle. As you all know, I kept the first pen that I’ve ever had, the small plastic one I used in second grade — but only because it has sentimental value. Otherwise, those cheap pens all fell apart and I frankly don’t care for them.

Naturally, my bias towards plastic and wooden pens remained well into my late twenties (I’ve been 27 for several years now), and I never learned to like wooden ones specifically — because they always, always cracked and would warp from use.

That is, of course, UNTIL I saw Eric Teska’s work… and then I got hooked. Who would have thought a wooden thing can be so cool and durable? Yours truly has apparently never seen a wooden spoon from the medieval times. Anyway, the pen that I got was made of a type of maple wood called Birdseye Maple.

From my limited knowledge, this type of wood is sought after, and what causes the little knots in it is the lack of nutrients that stops any potential new branches from sprouting. Super cool right? The wood looks cool because it lead a pained life until its early demise! If that’s not the best way to describe a work of art I don’t know what is. What’s even cooler than the pen equivalent of Van Gogh is the “electrocution” effect that Eric achieves with a lichtenberg wood burner. The “lightnings” are random but super cool. It makes the pen look like Thor if Thor was a pen.

So, my Birdseye Maple is both Thor and Van Gogh without the endless sequels with nudity or the Visconti price tag.

The finish is exquisite. As I said, it is highly durable and honestly it looks so well polished I thought it was made of acrylic when I first saw it.

Eric was so kind to match my soul pen grip with an equally black nib (Jowo 6, M in my case because I have most other black nibs). It looks sick, I’m telling you. So the accents are black whereas the wood is the color of… well, light wood. See for yourself:

Beautiful and matching <3

As always, no numbers because I’m bad at math but let me tell you, the pen is hefty and chonky. It isn’t heavy so it doesn’t make me cry when I use it for longer writing sessions (looking at you, stupid Dialog 3), but it is substantial. If you’ve ever smoked a Cuban cigar, it’s not at all shaped like one, it doesn’t smell like one, but it’s probably that size. Let’s compare it to other pens:

Left to right: Pilot Cocoon/Metropolitan, TWSBI Eco, Etturning Birdseye Maple, Tailored Pen Co Churchill aka Rave in the Honeycomb (aren’t you angry the cap isn’t aligned with the body?), BENU Euphoria White Christmas

Thankfully it’s smaller than a banana¹.

There is no clip nor a roll stop, so nothing is stopping the pen from joining the Ent army if you’re not careful. Although I am a firm believer that Saruman must be stopped, I’d suggest a pen pouch or sleeve that you like to keep the pen safe. It will fit in a Galen case, but it will also stretch the loop. If you don’t care about it, definitely slap yours next to your other favorite pens.

The grip is comfortable, not slippery, with a tiny little taper that prevents your fingers from actually gripping the nib. Not that I’ve ever heard anyone doing that except maybe on a Lamy 2000 which still makes no sense.

The pen is a flat top, and the cap isn’t flush with the body, but it’s not obtrusive either.

Overall, I love the pen. I love that I’ve learned that wooden pens can be slick and sick. This just might be one of my favorite surprise pens I’ve received in a while (giveaway, I didn’t get it in return for a review), and from what I’m seeing on Eric’s Instagram page (@etturning), there are so many more awesome models this teacher/pen maker is making.

And some of them are also made of wood and lightnings.

1. Side note, apparently I scrolled 69,000+ bananas on Reddit in 2023, which is cool but I don’t know which bananas they use. I was convinced it was Cavendish but who knows.