Ok...so, things seem to be changing with Berea pen kits. I'm a big fan of gold. People who have been buying pens from me really like gold. Some of my absolute favorite pens, like the Triton, have some beautiful gold in them (TiGold, I think, which is a darn durable alloy as far as I understand!!) Real gold, 20k, 18k, is yellow, slightly more towards the orangish-yellow side of things, unless its rose gold (even redder) or white gold. I love that yellow!
Fools gold, pyrite, on the other hand, is a distinct greenish gold. Its notably different, less lustrous, less...aesthetically appealing than real gold. It looks "cheap." Now, it seems that, maybe future Berea pens will be replacing any real gold content, including TiGold (which I think is an excellent color), with Hardite instead? I have not heard any official announcement, but...any Berea brand pens I've found locally all seem to be Hardite now, I haven't found any gold of any kind/alloy lately. Even the Wall Street II, which I often buy, but which are as far as I know still made by Berea (just a name rebranding), seem to be Hardite now, at least at the local stores. A search for TiGold and variants on Berea's web site returns nothing. A search for just Gold returns a small handful of pens, none of which I've really been interested in before, except maybe a Baron. All of them also seem to say "Upgrade Gold", and I don't really know what that means. A search for Hardite brings up all the kits that I know and...at least used to...love.
I've been searching for quite some time, and I have no clue, really, what Hardite is. I found some scant information from many years ago, which I'm not even sure is the exact same as whatever material Berea is using (although it sounds darn similar!), that stated its tungsten carbide, applied with some particular kind of coating process so that the coating is molecularly bonded to the surface of whatever is being coated. So...its super duper durable. But, it isn't gold, as far as I can tell. Even if it has a small amount of gold alloyed in it...it doesn't really look like gold, and doesn't have that luxurious luster that real gold has.
I've purchased a few kits, mostly Sierras (and I think a Baron), that ended up being Hardite, rather than gold of any form. Its called "Hardite", and its described as a "smokey gold" color. In my experience, Hardite looks a heck of a lot like...Pyrite!! It's got a bit of a greenish tinge to it...so, unlike that rich, warm yellowish glow of real gold, it looks a lot like fools gold. I was showing off a few of the Sierra pens to someone at work a while back, and one asked about the "gold" one, if it was 24k. I was about to dive into the whole spiel about how 24k gold is actually not very long-lasting, and 20k or 18k or better TiGold would be much more durable........
Then it dawned on me. It wasn't actually gold! In fact, I honestly didn't even know what it was...and legit didn't even have any way to describe the material. There is no information on it online. Other than just say, hey, "It's Hardite! Its super durable, so it should last a long time, but its not gold." That was a frustrating realization. I'm buying a kit that looks like gold, and gold is what people want...but, its not actually gold. I don't even know what it is, cannot really explain it, and for anyone with a more discerning eye for gold, is going to wonder what the heck it is, especially given it looks more like fools gold than any real gold or gold alloy...
This is a really sad realization for me, as the Triton is one of my favorite rollerball and fountain pen kits. I also like the Cambridge kit as well. Beautiful kits, love them in both the styles (chrome+gold & gold+chrome), but the gold+chrome in particular goes SO WELL with reddish colored blanks. In particular, the reddish (jasper?) and gold web Trustone!
Red woods go really well with them as well, as does desert ironwood. Some of my favorite kits! (Well...when they were real gold, anyway!)
So now I'm facing the question: What am I going to do in the future, when all the Berea kits are Hardite? It is not a precious metal, it doesn't look like one... Am I looking at a future now, where I have to give up many of my favorite kits, because they have legit lost their REAL luxurious attributes? Again, I haven't found any kind of official announcement...it just seems as though gold is just gone from Berea kits. Their site is now chock full of Hardite kits. Even the photos look more greenish, than gold. Am I missing something? Are real gold kits still going to be available from Berea?
Or...did we just suddenly and silently lose a whole host of pen kits that used to have some real, true precious metal luxury to them, in favor of a material we can neither describe (since its a secret proprietary "process") nor sell as a true precious metal? Ironically, the Hardite kits cost the same as real gold kits...
I'm now scrambling to figure out what to replace Triton and Cambridge with, as I really want real gold in my pens. The main alternatives seem to be Diacom, which are often a lot more expensive, and extremely ornate. In many cases, TOO ornate. There are the Majestics as well, which are an excellent (and probably superior) alternative to the Triton and Cambridge kits...but, they are about twice the price or so as well. I do like the Majestics, and have made a couple, and have a few more to make. Still, it is either going to make me push the price of the pen higher...or more likely, just eat into any profit.
Anyway...I guess I'm just rambling now. A saddening and frustrating...realization. I hope I'm wrong, and that Berea will in fact still be selling kits with real gold, but based on what I'm actually seeing for sale now, it is really starting to look like real gold may be kaput when it comes to any Berea kits in the long term.
Fools gold, pyrite, on the other hand, is a distinct greenish gold. Its notably different, less lustrous, less...aesthetically appealing than real gold. It looks "cheap." Now, it seems that, maybe future Berea pens will be replacing any real gold content, including TiGold (which I think is an excellent color), with Hardite instead? I have not heard any official announcement, but...any Berea brand pens I've found locally all seem to be Hardite now, I haven't found any gold of any kind/alloy lately. Even the Wall Street II, which I often buy, but which are as far as I know still made by Berea (just a name rebranding), seem to be Hardite now, at least at the local stores. A search for TiGold and variants on Berea's web site returns nothing. A search for just Gold returns a small handful of pens, none of which I've really been interested in before, except maybe a Baron. All of them also seem to say "Upgrade Gold", and I don't really know what that means. A search for Hardite brings up all the kits that I know and...at least used to...love.
I've been searching for quite some time, and I have no clue, really, what Hardite is. I found some scant information from many years ago, which I'm not even sure is the exact same as whatever material Berea is using (although it sounds darn similar!), that stated its tungsten carbide, applied with some particular kind of coating process so that the coating is molecularly bonded to the surface of whatever is being coated. So...its super duper durable. But, it isn't gold, as far as I can tell. Even if it has a small amount of gold alloyed in it...it doesn't really look like gold, and doesn't have that luxurious luster that real gold has.
I've purchased a few kits, mostly Sierras (and I think a Baron), that ended up being Hardite, rather than gold of any form. Its called "Hardite", and its described as a "smokey gold" color. In my experience, Hardite looks a heck of a lot like...Pyrite!! It's got a bit of a greenish tinge to it...so, unlike that rich, warm yellowish glow of real gold, it looks a lot like fools gold. I was showing off a few of the Sierra pens to someone at work a while back, and one asked about the "gold" one, if it was 24k. I was about to dive into the whole spiel about how 24k gold is actually not very long-lasting, and 20k or 18k or better TiGold would be much more durable........
Then it dawned on me. It wasn't actually gold! In fact, I honestly didn't even know what it was...and legit didn't even have any way to describe the material. There is no information on it online. Other than just say, hey, "It's Hardite! Its super durable, so it should last a long time, but its not gold." That was a frustrating realization. I'm buying a kit that looks like gold, and gold is what people want...but, its not actually gold. I don't even know what it is, cannot really explain it, and for anyone with a more discerning eye for gold, is going to wonder what the heck it is, especially given it looks more like fools gold than any real gold or gold alloy...
This is a really sad realization for me, as the Triton is one of my favorite rollerball and fountain pen kits. I also like the Cambridge kit as well. Beautiful kits, love them in both the styles (chrome+gold & gold+chrome), but the gold+chrome in particular goes SO WELL with reddish colored blanks. In particular, the reddish (jasper?) and gold web Trustone!
Red woods go really well with them as well, as does desert ironwood. Some of my favorite kits! (Well...when they were real gold, anyway!)So now I'm facing the question: What am I going to do in the future, when all the Berea kits are Hardite? It is not a precious metal, it doesn't look like one... Am I looking at a future now, where I have to give up many of my favorite kits, because they have legit lost their REAL luxurious attributes? Again, I haven't found any kind of official announcement...it just seems as though gold is just gone from Berea kits. Their site is now chock full of Hardite kits. Even the photos look more greenish, than gold. Am I missing something? Are real gold kits still going to be available from Berea?
Or...did we just suddenly and silently lose a whole host of pen kits that used to have some real, true precious metal luxury to them, in favor of a material we can neither describe (since its a secret proprietary "process") nor sell as a true precious metal? Ironically, the Hardite kits cost the same as real gold kits...
I'm now scrambling to figure out what to replace Triton and Cambridge with, as I really want real gold in my pens. The main alternatives seem to be Diacom, which are often a lot more expensive, and extremely ornate. In many cases, TOO ornate. There are the Majestics as well, which are an excellent (and probably superior) alternative to the Triton and Cambridge kits...but, they are about twice the price or so as well. I do like the Majestics, and have made a couple, and have a few more to make. Still, it is either going to make me push the price of the pen higher...or more likely, just eat into any profit.
Anyway...I guess I'm just rambling now. A saddening and frustrating...realization. I hope I'm wrong, and that Berea will in fact still be selling kits with real gold, but based on what I'm actually seeing for sale now, it is really starting to look like real gold may be kaput when it comes to any Berea kits in the long term.
) Thanks for the tip.
