Posts filed under Ballpoint

Kaweco Liliput Brass Ballpoint Review

If there were ever a pen in need of a built in tracking device it would be the Kaweco Liliput Ballpoint.

I love pocket pens about as much as any other subset of pens or pencils I can think of. Manufacturers these days build durable, functional, and great performing pocket pens. The only catch is the obvious one: They are easy to misplace, or even lose.

That's where I was a week ago with the Brass Liliput Ballpoint. I had been carrying and using it in preparation for this review, and took it on a trip with me to an out of town baseball tournament. I keep score for my sons team in a traditional scorebook, and was planning on using this pen for the task.

As it turns out, I left it back in the hotel room before the first game. I keep my Brass Fisher Space Pen in the car for situations just like this, and it became my scoring pen for the weekend. (I use pen in the scorebook instead of pencil. When it's 90+ degrees outside my hand and arm sweat smear pencil marks, which drives me insane.)

I went on about my fun-filled weekend and forgot all about the Liliput. This came into play the following week when I wanted to continue using it in preparation for this review. It had left my mind so completely I didn't remember where I had put it, or that I had even taken it with me.

I looked for it around the house for a couple of days, then gave up. I only stumbled back on it because I was looking for a power cord in the backpack I took. There was the Liliput, tucked neatly inside the Field Notes Campfire Edition that I had brought. I felt like a big dummy, but I was happy my pen was found.

You'd think stories like this would turn me off pocket pens completely, but that's not going to happen. I love this pen, and others like it.

I prefer the brass Liliput over its aluminum counterpart, mainly due to the weight of the pen. The aluminum model has an airy feel, while the brass has some density to it. It's not a weighty pen by any stretch, but you can feel it unlike the aluminum model. You think the brass model is easy to lose? The aluminum model laughs at your silliness.

Two areas where the Liliput beats the competition in my mind are it's retractable deployment and the use of D1 refills. Most pocket pens are capped - like the Fisher Space Pen - and therefore take more time to start writing. Those with a knock - like the Lamy Pico - are two to three times the size of the Liliput. I love both of those pens too, but it goes to show you how different the Liliput is in this category.

The use of a D1 refill gives this pen flexibility its competition can't offer either. Kaweco's stock blue ballpoint is fantastic, but you can upgrade it to a Uni-ball Jetstream or Zebra Sarasa Gel - two of my favorite D1 options. There are a myriad of other choices as well.

If there is any downside to this pen it is the price. At $70 it is very expensive relative to its competition. Add in the fact of how easy it is to lose or misplace, well, that’s a lot of money down the drain. People have given up the Fisher Space Pen for the same reason, and it is less than a third of the cost.

Decisions, decisions. I love this pen. I’m glad I have it. I recommend it wholeheartedly. But there is a price to be paid for ownership, and after as well.

(Pen Chalet provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on July 24, 2017 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Kaweco, Liliput, Ballpoint, Pen Reviews.

Parker Jotter Ballpoint Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

The Parker Jotter is a tried and true classic that keeps upgrading, and this new two-tone, all-metal Victoria Violet body feels fresh while still nodding to vintage elegance. I was genuinely surprised by the price of these new editions, because they look and feel like a much more expensive pen. The writing experience was also a pleasant surprise.

The all-aluminum body is made in France. It's quite small and slim, so may not be comfortable for long writing sessions if you have large hands. The clip is stiff and in the classic Parker arrow shape. The edges of the arrow are sharp, so I'd caution against clipping this to light fabrics. The pen is small enough that the clip also ends up hitting my hand when the pen rotates, so I find I have to adjust it from time to time. The finish can be a bit slick to hold if your hands are at all sweaty, but the texture of the aluminum helps with grip under normal writing circumstances. The new line of colors are fun and gorgeous, ranging from whimsical to executive. And the premium styles of the Jotters are downright snazzy.

This pen has one of the most satisfying clicks I've ever experienced. It's loud, solid, and has a good amount of resistance. You could drive people crazy with this click and I love it.

The refill supplied is a blue Quinkflow cartridge, which is specially formatted for smooth, consistent writing. I think it achieves that. The ballpoint glides nicely on paper, and I never had any skips or hard starts. I did sometimes get that blob of ink at the start of a letter, and it will smear a little if you run your hand over the blob. But that seems like a universal ballpoint issue. The pen will take any parker style refill, though, so there are a ton of other options. I think a Fisher Space Pen refill in this would make it the perfect purse pen, or traveling journal pen.

For me, this pen is unseating the Karas Kustoms Retrakt in my I-need-a-pen-that-isn't-a-fountain-pen slot. Other pens that have occupied that seat are the Cross Click Classic and the Retro 51 Tornado. All of those are at least twice (if not three times) the cost of this Jotter, and so far it has performed better than all of them, for me. And if you're primarily a fountain pen user, but you acknowledge the occasional need for a ballpoint, this really is the perfect one. It looks and feels like you're spoiling yourself, but the price is low enough that you'll still have to add a fountain pen to your cart to get free shipping.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on July 6, 2017 by Sarah Read and filed under Parker, Ballpoint, Pen Reviews.

Sailor 1911 Large Ballpoint Pen Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Sailor are known for their high-quality, well-made fountain pens. There are several Sailors on my wishlist, but they can take some time to purchase given the high price tag. After all, well-made goods cost more than cheaper ones.

When I received the 1911 Large ballpoint to review, I was curious to see how it performed since I only associate Sailor with fountain pens and inks. The 1911 looks similar to the fountain pen version of the pen, except it uses a twist mechanism to extend and retract the refill tip.

At first glance, the top portion of the pen seems too large compared to the grip section. I've seen fountain pen versions of the 1911, and they don't have the same "out of balance" look since the body is longer and untapered at the end. That thought hasn't stopped popping up every time I look at the pen. And, it adds a bit of extra heft to the top of the pen while writing, too. This can cause some balance problems if you're not accustomed to writing with a top heavy pen.

Initial impressions weren't bad, and I was excited to see how it wrote. That's where my impressions took a big hit, and they're still struggling to recover. Yes, this is a ballpoint refill, and I was expecting something in that ballpark, but the writing experience with this refill was less than satisfactory. It's perfectly smooth (almost too smooth), but it skips and constantly looks like the refill is almost dried out due to the light black to medium gray tone it puts down. The lines are not sharp and tend to deposit artifacts outside of the main line as you write. When compared to my favorite ballpoint refill, the Schmidt EasyFlow 9000, it just doesn't compare.

Shortly after writing a few lines to try out the refill, I was optimistic that I could just swap in another refill that worked better. But, as I went through my stash of regular refills and eventually crossed them all off the "compatibility" list, I realized that this refill is proprietary to this pen and that I was just stuck with it. Bummer!

For that reason alone, I find it difficult to recommend this pen. The refill looks like a standard Parker refill that has been slightly modified to make it unique to Sailor. That doesn't feel right, and the fact that their stock refill is mediocre just hurts more.

Maybe I'm being harsh on this pen. After all, it's beautiful! This complaint is similar in nature to buying a $150 fountain pen that has significant nib issues that make the writing experience negative without some kind of nib tuning. It just shouldn't happen. With this pen, however, tuning isn't an option due to the proprietary refill.

At nearly $100, that's just unacceptable. This pen oozes executive class on the outside, and it feels great when you pick it up and operate the twist mechanism. Once you start writing, however, the experience is similar to the dollar-a-dozen Bic stashed in the office supply closet. At this price, you're not far off from the fountain pen version. My recommendation is to spend a little extra money on the fountain pens that Sailor has figured out and perfected!

(Pen Chalet provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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