The Pentel Tradio is a very interesting pen to review, and honestly, I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. The main pen consists of a chiseled felt tip, which is similar to a brush pen, but more firm than any brush pen I have tried (not many). The ink flows really well, in fact, so well that I couldn't really write the review with it like I had planned. It just bled through the page too fast. Instead, I wrote the review with the second cartridge I ordered for this pen, which is a standard rollerball.
I really love the ability to switch the full cartridges in and out of the Tradio barrel at will. Just a few twists of the barrel is all it took, and I moved them back and forth constantly when I first got this pen. The rollerball was a pleasure to write with - very smooth and a nice pitch black ink. I could see using this cartridge the most right now, but I feel this pen is really made for use with the felt tip. The only issue I had with that cartridge was when one of my strokes went against the grain of the tip which caused a little flick of ink on the page. That's not too big of a deal since I shouldn't really be moving the pen in that direction anyway.
I'm still dilemmaed on how I want to use this pen. It cost too much to put it aside, and both cartridges are enjoyable to write and draw with. Any other Tradio owners want to share their uses for this pen?
Click Here for the XL review.
