Retro 51 Coffee Tornado Review

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

If there's two things that go well together, it's coffee and pens. For most of us, they're two things that we often enjoy at the same time. For the coffee lovers and fans of the Retro 51, you might want to sit down for this little beauty — the Retro 51 Coffee Tornado from Goldspot. This is a collaboration between Goldspot and Retro 51 that turned out beautifully. Like the name implies, this special Tornado is themed with coffee from top to bottom, and even on the packaging.

Let's start with the packaging. I'm not one to normally keep packaging, but I make an exception for interesting Retro 51 tubes. For one, they're tubes and look awesome when displayed together. And, they have some unique and fun custom designs for the special edition pens. This is one of those special editions, and in this case, the packaging matches the aesthetic of the pen perfectly. There's all kinds of coffee lingo on the band, as well as cute coffee symbols and a mug with the Goldspot logo on it. It's a fun logo, and definitely sets the mood for when you open it up.

I've always really enjoyed the presentation of the Retro 51 in the tube when you open it. There it is — standing there in all its glory, ready for you to pick it up and start writing. The furniture is all antique bronze, but the body is the real attraction. The body looks like a burlap bag, but is actually etched metal. It's hard for me to believe that it's actually metal, and half the fun is examining all the little details to figure out exactly what it is. The etched body features the same lingo and symbols as the packaging, and looks fantastic on the pen.

It's worth mentioning that the art and design work for the pen are top-notch. This is high-quality stuff, and it really shows when you're looking at the pen. It sets a mood, and it's a good one. It's not cheesy or goofy, but it's very coffee-shop-esque and comfortable.

The writing experience is, of course, on par with all Retro 51 Tornado pens. If you haven't had the pleasure of writing with one, check out these other reviews of the Metalsmith Franklin, Metalsmith Juliet Heart Tree, 25th Anniversary model, or the standard lacquer version.

I'm a huge lover of coffee and can get really picky about where it's from, how it's roasted, and how it's brewed. The great thing about Tornados is that you always know how they'll write after you own just one. These are so fun to collect, and the Coffee edition from Goldspot is one of my favorites so far.

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

Parker Sonnet Great Expectations Subtle Big Red Fine Fountain Pen Review

It has been a long time since new Parker pens have earned the respect of the pen buying community. Vintage Parker’s are highly sought after, but a down few decades for the brand has them off many people’s radar.

A couple of years ago, things started to pick back up for Parker, with the introduction of pens like the IM Premium, which was a pleasure to use. They created a beautiful pen and gave a nod to the amazing Parker Vacumatic. What’s not to like about that? It performed very well too.

Since that positive experience, I kept my eyes peeled for other interesting Parker designs, and the Parker Sonnet Great Expectations Subtle Big Red looked right up my alley, so I asked Goldspot if I could take it for a spin.

Despite thinking this was a great looking pen in pictures, I wasn’t prepared for what would arrive in the box. This is a metal barrel pen, and an awesome one at that! I guess I was thinking this was an acrylic pen for some reason, but nope. The black glossy finish is cool to the touch, with beautiful anodized red cap and section bands.

The grip is metal as well, but has a satin finish to contrast the glossy finish found on the body. I don’t know the exact finish color on the clip and finial but they are more of a nickel or pewter color as opposed to a bright chrome. The nib takes on that colorway as well, and shows off the stunning cross hatch pattern.

As much as I am in love with the look and feel of this pen, I was very nervous about the performance not living up to the hype. Thankfully, the Fine 18k nib was up to the task and writes wonderfully. If I had my way I would want a finer nib, but this is a good stock gold fine nib.

It’s not all roses with the Sonnet though. While there are many pens I will pay a premium for, Parker is asking for even more than that here. $270 is way, way too much. $150 maybe? $200 tops. There is no way I could recommend this pen over almost any gold nib Pilot, Sailor, or Lamy. Pelikan is about the only one I’ve seen that can pull off the pricing premium successfully, and this pen is no Pelikan.

Hardcore Parker fans may pay the price, but I’m not one of them. I love everything else about this pen though, so maybe if their pricing model changes (not likely) or these go on a big sale (possible) I might be interested.

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

Rotring Isograph Review

(This is a guest post by Nick Folz. You can find more of Nick and his work on his blog, Smallberry Drive, Twitter, and Instagram.)

Rotring technical pens were the subject of envy or resentment of every art student in my class. For those who have never seen one, they are famous for the ultra thin points and consistent ink flow. Engineering students used them for blueprints and wiring schematics, Art students used them for tiny details, cross-hatching and stippling. They were pricy and you needed to occasionally clean them, but they were a symbol that you had made it. Owning one meant you were good enough to need a hair-thin line and had the discipline to maintain it.

Being that my dinners sometimes consisted of a single can of corn back when I was a student, I simply couldn’t fork out the money for such a luxurious item, so I resented them. After all, who wanted to do all that maintenance? It was sort of annoying how people who used them would tilt them back with a flourish of the arm to get more ink flow, and it seemed to me that they did this more often than was really needed… Almost as often as they pointed out that Rotrings were R. Crumb’s favorite pen. Yes. We all heard you the first fifteen times. I had my Pilot V5 and that was fine enough for me (pun intended).

Well, sometimes you have to realize you were just wrong, or bitter, or both.

I got my hands on a .35 Isograph, a smaller point than I am usually comfortable with. Rotring’s Isograph is nearly identical to the more ubiquitous Rapidograph, the exception being that you can refill the cartridge of the Isograph while the Rapidograph only takes special pre-filled capillary cartridges. I was looking for something I could do some stippling and very small detail work with. I would usually just use the Pilot V5 for this, but the rollerball tip doesn’t handle the dots of stippling very well, since it relies on the roller ball movement to supply ink. The Isograph tip uses gravity and a tiny feed wire to facilitate ink flow, so the tapping of the nip will always produce a dot of ink, so long as there is ink available and it's not clogged (which has yet to happen to me, more on that later).

First impressions are important. Rotring knows this. It always depresses me to see a quality item delivered in nothing more than a blister pack. While Rotring is not exactly Apple level when it comes to this, they are no slouch either. This is the second item I have gotten from them, and their triangle shaped packaging is well thought out and considered. I feels like the kind of packaging you might find in a grandparents garage. It is still just a thin cardboard, but I like it.

This pen comes with NO INK. It is usually well labeled as such, but I would hate for someone to make the jump to buy one only to have to wait another 3-4 business days to use it. I am using the Rotring Black Drawing Ink which has a convenient tip made to fill the cartridge for the Isograph. Still, I managed to get a bit of ink on me, but it should be easy and clean for anyone who isn’t a clumsy mess like me. The empty ink cartridge that comes with the pen is a simple plastic cart very reminiscent of an empty fountain pen cart. It slides firmly onto the tip and the tip screws into the plastic barrel of the pen.

The body is slightly tapered. Since the plastic barrel of the pen is hollow, it is dramatically weighted to the front. This is different from most pens, but you use this pen differently than most pens. Technical pens work best when perpendicular to the page, or being held straight up and down. That is going to be a deal breaker for some but it is far more natural than you might expect, especially when only doing details or making a million little dots. It does still work at an angle, but not as predictably as straight up and down. A big plus of using the pen in this manner is that none of the pen obstructs your view, important when doing tiny details.

The aforementioned tilting the pen backwards to get more ink flow works like this: If you are drawing and it seems like you are running low on ink, you lift the pen, turn the pen's tip upwards and then back down. You will hear a slight "click clack." and more ink will be on the ready. I am not sure if the ink feeding system has improved over the years but the constant tipping of the pen back and forth is not that necessary. Maybe if you are filling in large black areas and then jumping to do tiny dots, but I can’t imagine a worse pen for filling in areas. Anyway, tilt it or shake it you want to, but you probably only would need to do it once or twice every half hour.

The tip of the pen is the star: sharp, tiny and chrome plated. It is durable without being bulky. It lays down a consistent fine line that is easy to control. It is long enough to be used with a straight edge or ruler, but not so long that would make it fragile. I heard horror stories when doing research about the non-stop-clog-fest that these pens can suffer from; I have not experienced one yet. It helps to use them often, and I don’t think I have gone longer than four days without picking it up. So maybe I’m the wrong person to ask about this.

About the barrel: it’s plastic and not very durable. This is a bummer since you have a lot of screwing going on; the cap screws onto the tip and the tip screws into the barrel. If you have ahold of the barrel and try to over tighten the cap onto the tip, you are going to overstrain the plastic of the barrel and get tiny cracks on the barrel where it is connected to the tip. This happened to my pen and they really sucked the joy out of using it. The tip would come loose and it never felt right after the tiny cracks showed up, sometimes when holding it a little too tightly I could feel the threads of the tip push the barrel away and the whole thing would bend a bit. I contacted Rotring and they sent me a whole new pen at no cost. I am being very careful with the new barrel and have had no issues so far. My advice would be to hold the yellow part of the tip when screwing the cap on, that way you don't over torque the threads of the tip into the barrel.

When I got this pen I thought I would use it for only two or three projects in mind. Add a few dots there, some hatching here, you get the idea. Much to my surprise, I have used this pen on almost every drawing I have done since I got it. It is one of my favorite tools in my bag now. It works incredibly well and I would make a bigger deal out of the barrel cracking, but Rotring's customer service fixed my problem and I haven't had it happen since. You can find the complete line of Rotring Isographs at Jetpens.com in nine tip sizes that range from .1mm to .5mm.

Back when engineers or illustrators had to go through an apprenticeship, they would often receive a full set of Rotring Pens as their gift for completing their training, much like tattoo machine would be gifted to an apprentice. I can see why, they are the tools of the trade and a badge of honor. Did you know that they were R. Crumb’s favorite pen?

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