Galen Leather
Only recently did my accumulation of quality pens grow great enough that some sort of storage and organization method other than keeping them all in their original cases or boxes become necessary. Mind you, I do still have a few pens that I regularly use whose value and quality don’t warrant much consideration of storage or protection, but the number that do is increasing, and so I was very happy to obtain the Leather Zippered 20-Pen Case from Galen Leather.
Galen Leather seems to be consciously avoiding cute names on their products and instead going with an SEO-friendly title. That’s fine because it does a good job identifying this no-nonsense workhorse. Made in Turkey, this Galen Leather’s trappings of family-run authenticity seem quite genuine. I’ve run across their products many times in the past couple years and I’m a frequent target of their Instagram ads. Their range of goods include not only pen cases, but stationery cases, boxes and folios, pen display cases and desktop holders, washi tape dispensers, and many of the stationery items to fill these.
My pen case came in an attractive protective carton that took a bit of a beating in its travels, but was still nice enough to use for continuing storage of the case on my bookshelf. The exterior of the pen case was a thick, durable, natural-looking leather with some scratches here and there - not sure if these were an intentional part of the rustic design or an accident of the packing process. The most attractive feature on first inspection was the ultra-heavy-duty zipper. Zippers seem a weak point in many products, often made from springy plastic shaped into a hook-like form. Galen Leather’s zippers are thick, solid metal. Despite that, it opens and closes super-smoothly, as if lubricated.
Inside, 20 pen slots in 2 opposing rows with a central leather protection leaf. The pen slots are generously sized, such that my Kaweco Liliput doesn’t touch the elastic when inserted. I would probably prefer smaller elastic loops that can accommodate this quite common pen, which has the disadvantage of also being short and therefore not able to support itself against the sides of the case like longer slim pens could.
The book-like form factor instinctively made me insert the pens in opposite directions at first, with caps toward the zipper opening. However, this meant the widest parts of the pens were all on one side, and I could not zip the case closed. I turned the pens on one side around (which matches the example photos on the website) and achieved a snug closure. My Lamy Safaris are my largest pens right now, but I know quite a few chunkier pens are on the market, and this case would likely be too snug to accommodate a collection rich in specimens like the Benu Scepter or Sailor King of Pens. All in all, the wide elastic loops that won’t accommodate a Liliput clashes with the narrow closed depth of the case. A good elastic loop could be tight enough to hold the slimmest pens on the market but stretch to hold the largest, and the case closure should have been tested for the latter.
Overall, I think this is a good product. The leather is of obvious quality and authenticity compared to some of the less expensive stuff on Amazon, and the zipper closure seems durable for many openings and closing for many years. But the case does prefer a specific pen size and uniformity, to which my collection doesn’t conform. I would recommend this case and Galen Leather, especially if you are selecting some pens and stationery for on-the-go.
This case was provided free by Galen Leather for review.
