review: live in you shiyou shier + bobby architect nib

Today, we're looking at a relatively new pen on the Western market: the Live In You Shiyou Shier.

I first saw this pen on Frank's blog, Frank Underwater, last year. If you haven't read his posts but like to stay updated on what's coming out of China, you really are missing out. I was absolutely obsessed with the images of this resin material: it almost looks like it's made of sheets of mint ice cream, peppered with translucent smudges of a light, pinkish-brown. It's gourmet mint chocolate chip ice cream in a pen.

From what I understand, this pen is part of the Shiyou series, and is called Shier (that's something like shee-er, not shyer). There are three pens in the series, but the Shier definitely spoke to me the most.
Live In You is a smaller Chinese company, and you can read more about them in Frank's interview with the founder, Eason Ji. I've noticed over the last year that Chinese pen manufacturers have been taking a page out of U.S.-based handmade pen maker's books and using acrylics that you would otherwise pay a premium for.

The Order

The Shiyou slowly started to show up on eBay as the year progressed, and I finally snagged it from Bobby, who runs office_supplies_pen. I heard that the Shiyou has a #6 nib, and I figured I might as well pick up a nib from Bobby as well. He's been modifying nibs, and I've been curious about architect nibs for a while, so I was sure to pick it up.

The pen arrived in a paper slipcase. It's a simple, no-frills package. The white box has a black wave pattern on it, and the Live In You logo is stamped on the top. The pen also comes with a rest made of the same material, which is a nice little touch!

Body 

You already know that I'm obsessed with the material. It's absolutely gorgeous, with strips and swirls of mint and white. It's mixed together with transparent turquoise and orange-brown. If you looks closely, you can see a hint of the innards through the acrylic. It's definitely a stunner of a pen.

Here's a look at the other side of the pen barrel. The acrylic almost looks like stacks of material, with clear layers.

Frank mentioned that this pen is similar to those made by the Kanilea Pen Company. Kanilea is well-known for making pens based on natural Hawai'ian sights. Most of their pens are offered in over-sized styles where the cap is flush with the barrel, though there are other options as well. Their acrylics are stunning (I believe Jonathan Brooks makes all their materials—feel free to correct me on this one) and are definitely eye candy.

I have some reservations about the Kanilea Pen Company, and their pens are way out of my budget, so it's likely that I'll never get one of their pens in hand to see if it's really as similar to the Shiyou as it could be. I've mentioned before that at some point pens are just going to look the same: a torpedo-shaped pen with a flush cap can't really be changed, you know?

On that note, Kanilea pens and this Shiyou have cap medallions that feature a hibiscus flower. I don't know how long either company has been around, though I will say that they definitely look alike. Is it enough for me to say that the Shiyou is a copy or a rip-off of the Kanilea design? I don't know. It certainly will be for some people, and that's totally okay.

Writing Experience

From left to right: Pelikan M205, Pilot Custom Heritage 92, Live in You Shiyou Shier, Lamy Safari, TWSBI Diamond 580 AL.

The Shiyou is supposed to be an oversized pen. I suppose that it looks large since it's cylindrical and doesn't have a taper. It's quite girthy, but it doesn't feel larger than other pens that I own. Because it's made entirely out of acrylic with few metal parts, its a relatively light pen.

The threads are a tiny bit sharp, but the grip section is quite long and I manage to avoid it most of the time. Speaking of the grip, the taper is not as noticeable as the one on, say, the TWSBI Diamond 580. I definitely notice after a couple of minutes that the grip is wider than what I normally use, but I don't find it bothersome. The cap doesn't post.

A standard international converter comes pre-installed. I wish it could've been a piston-filler, but that's personal preference more than anything. Really, I'm just spoiled that TWSBI and PenBBS offer piston fillers on sub-$50 pens. There aren't any metal parts in the barrel and it's watertight, so you can turn it into an eyedropper with a little silicone grease and an o-ring if you'd like.

EDIT 2/17/19: I have found that this pen dries out rather quickly. I used it a lot during the first few weeks I had it, so I didn't notice at all. I used it occasionally for a sentence or two and after about three weeks, most of my converter evaporated! I'll continue to use it the way I have and update if there are any changes here. Hopefully it was just our weird weather!

Like most Chinese-made pens, your only options in terms of nib size is on the finer side. Live In You is particular about importing their nibs rather than using Chinese-made nibs, so pens in the Shiyou series come with a Schmidt nib. It's like any other Schmidt nib I've ever used: smooth without any particular character. It works and that's all you need.

Now here's the interesting bit. The Schmidt nib is somewhere between a standard #5 and #6 nib. It's definitely larger than a #5. It's shorter than a #6, and also has a small notch cut into it to fit into the feed. This particular unit is the Schmidt FH542, which is also used in the Retro Tornado fountain pens. If you do purchase this unit, you don't need to pull nibs or anything: you can just throw it into the grip.

However, the Shier is surprisingly open to experimentation! First, you need to know that the assembly is made up of four parts: a metal collar, the nib collar, the feed, and the nib. The metal collar is threaded, and fits behind the grip. Long story short: as long as the metal collar's threads can fit on the back of a nib unit, you can put pretty much any nib in there.

Like, for example, the nib unit off of a TWSBI Diamond 580. Just unscrew the metal collar and pull out the stock nib unit, and slide the TWSBI nib unit into the grip. Thread the metal collar on. Voila. Considering that TWSBI'S JoWo nibs are really reliable and pretty inexpensive, it's definitely an option.

So, if you're like me and you dislike fine nibs, the Shier is an excellent pen to play around with. I grabbed a feed off a Taccia Staccato, plopped Bobby's architect nib on it, then put the whole kit and kaboodle into the Schmidt nib unit. It fits almost perfectly: there's a very slight gap, but it hasn't hindered ink flow yet.

Bobby's Architect Nib

Like I mentioned, I purchased an architect nib to go with the pen. I really enjoy writing with stubs and italics so I thought this grind would be fun to use. I've heard that an architect grind is essentially a stub/italic turned sideways. It has thin downstrokes and wide side-strokes.

In action, I found that an architect nib was a bit more like a fude nib. Depending on the angle you hold the nib to the paper, you can get thinner or wider strokes in both directions. Definitely a really interesting thing to play around with.

Bobby's architect nib came in great condition. It wrote well and with a slight amount of feedback. I was surprised by how smooth it was! Bobby did a great job on it, and I have no complaints there.

I don't know yet if architect nibs are really for me, though I definitely think they're fun to use. I just don't think my handwriting looks very good using an architect nib! My print and cursive are both very "round," and the particular writing style of an architect nib seems to fit more angular writing styles. Regardless, I'm having a fun time using the nib, so I'll keep using it.

Final Thoughts

The Live In You Shiyou is one of the more expensive Chinese pens on the market, coming in at around $80 if you buy it directly from China. In a market flooded by inexpensive clones, it's quite a surprise to see a pen at this price point. I do think we need to divest ourselves of the idea that all pens that come from China are going to be inexpensive, hit-or-miss pens. I do think we're seeing fountain pens of great quality at affordable price points, so it only makes sense that we're also going to get some pricier pens.

I've never seen this acrylic on any other pen, and it's absolutely a stunner in person. I personally think this pen is worth it at $80, though I certainly wouldn't have hemmed and hawed on it for so long if it was ten or twenty dollars cheaper. The acrylic is stunningly beautiful. I love being able to tinker with the nibs to find something that fits for me.