Pininfarina Cambiano, the everlasting writing instrument [pdf]

pininfarina.com

8 points·privong··6 comments

Product page here: http://store.pininfarina.com/strumenti-di-scrittura/4ever-pi...

It costs 89 Euros and is sold out until October 15.

I looked into this a bit, and if I'm guessing correctly, the alloy isn't different than the alloy 'ethergraf' tips that have been in the market since 2010, and saw them as cheap as ~25 bucks. These are the sites I bookmarked when looking into it:

http://www.axelweinbrecht.de/en/Produkte/Schreiben_mit_Metal...

http://www.napkin4ever.com/it/

http://www.vat19.com/item/the-inkless-metal-pen

Basically it's not 'everlasting', but lasts for maybe a few years, and you may have to sand the tip down occasionally to make it a finer point again. Note that it does use a bit of lead, and so isn't recommended for use by children. I don't plan on buying any one myself, since it just doesn't seem like the writing give fine-enough of a point for my needs (search on youtube, there's a review or two of these things.)

I don't understand how this works. Can someone clue me in?

The tip is a metal alloy that is slowly left on the page. It's not actually "infinite" -- it's more like "you'll probably lose this before you wear down the solid metal tip." I wouldn't trust it as my only writing instrument on a mission to Mars.

There are other brands on Amazon already; this is a refinement of the idea (purportedly less toxic chemicals involved) and not a completely new concept.

Review of this model: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/innovation/inkless-...

For a company that prides themselves on style and design, that is one ugly press release.

It's an absolutely gorgeous pen though (in my opinion).

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