This is probably a point that Phil (of Beaufort) would need to answer....
With a higher end pen such as this, what matters a lot to me is the thickness and quality of the plating. I have come to trust Dayacom for high quality plating, and therefore I can honestly list such pens as "lifetime pens", and price them accordingly. Kits from different sources can vary a lot! For example there are several sources of the Gentleman's Jnr/Baron pen (at varying prices) and some of them have plating that wears off within a year. When I first saw the Mistral the first thing that came to mind was "how good is the plating?".
Rod
