(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
As if any of us needed more of an excuse to have a specific fountain pen for every day of the week, BENU has taken it upon themselves to make that personal decision an even more difficult one. And we love them for it.
The BENU Daily Mate is a collection of fountain pens that share the same physical design, but with a range of seven colorways — one for each day of the week — and they're all spectacular. Each of the colorway options is vibrant and energetic in their own way, and they're all paired with a great fountain pen shape.
After SO MUCH deliberation on which single pen to choose, I landed on Creative Thursday. This was a really difficult choice because I genuinely liked each of the seven options, and you never really know how a pen will look in person once you receive it. Luckily for me, BENU's photography did a great job of representing the true colors of the Creative Thursday pen. The mixture of vibrant purple and a swirl of dusty amber look great together, and then the glitter particles just accentuate the colors and bring it all together. It's such a pretty pen and I enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoy using it.
All of the color options use the same silver clip and nib, and they all have the same physical design. The pen is what I'd call "full size," though I can't point to a specification for that label. It's slightly longer and wider than a Lamy Safari, but very similar to the Opus 88 Demo and Nahvalur Nautilus pens. More specifically, the pen is 5.5 inches (14 cm) long and 0.70 inches (18 mm) in diameter at it's widest point. The grip is a nice size — just 10-11 mm in width — and has a gentle taper toward the nib with a nice lip at the end of the grip to keep your fingers from slipping onto the nib while writing.
Writing with the pen is effortless. It's balanced really well when unposted, and I can write with it for long periods without discomfort. The overall weight is low given the materials used (acrylic) and the modest #6 nib. After using the pen for a short while, it's easy to tell that BENU designed this pen to be a work horse. It excels at its job.
The nib on the pen is a #6 stainless steel Schmidt, and mine worked flawlessly out of the box. The fine tip on mine is true to size for a western nib, and it makes crisp lines while feeling smooth on the page. Since this is a ubiquitous nib, it would be trivial to swap it out for something else if you already have a favorite customized nib that you'd like to swap in for the fine, medium, or broad nib options that BENU provide.
The design of the pen uses a classic shape with almost squared off ends. Both ends of the pen have a slight convex shape that give the pen a softer look and provide plenty of space to showcase the gorgeous material. The cap of the pen is a simple shape with only the clip and the BENU logo on it. The body, though, has ten grooves that extend along the length of the pen body and add a nice, soft textured feel and provide plenty of additional surfaces for light to reflect from. When unposted, the grooves also serve to keep the pen from rolling away.
The grip section of the pen is the only deviation in terms of materials. It's a single color, and it's fantastic. In the Creative Thursday colorway, the grip is a vibrant purple color that is slightly translucent and also has some reflective particles suspended in the material to add depth. It's a lovely pairing with the richer colors of the pen body and cap.
My only complaint with this pen is that there are so many threads for the cap to screw onto the body. It requires 5-6 full rotations to uncap or cap the pen! That's a lot, and it's certainly a bit unusual. Most pens only need 1.5 to 3 turns to work the cap. 5-6 just feels tedious.
The pen comes in a standard BENU cardboard box along with a cartridge converter already installed. Two thumbs up for that decision, as I don't need any more generic black or blue ink cartridges! The cartridge converter appears to be a standard Schmidt converter and works well.
The BENU Daily Mate is $120 for any of the fine colorways. Seriously, the most dangerous part of this pen is that it's really difficult to only pick one. I'm really happy with the Creative Thursday option I got, and I'll practice some self control and avoid buying any more (for now). But if any of these colors speak to you, you can be sure that the pen won't disappoint once you get it in hand. For the price, it's difficult to find other fountain pens that offer this level of vibrant, unique material options.
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