Nemosine Singularity Aqua Demonstrator Fountain Pen Review

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

The Nemosine Singularity is an entry-level fountain pen from a new (to me, anyway) pen company that has a lot going for it. It's not often that we see newcomers to the entry-level game, so this is always exciting. But, it's also difficult to break into this level of fountain pen due to the excellent options already available.

The Nemosine Singularity is just a hair under $20 on JetPens, and you have a fairly good range of options between color and nib size (including an intriguing 0.6mm stub option). While the "gift box" aspect of this pen is a joke, the rest of the pen holds up well against expectations.

On first unboxing this pen, I had similar thoughts and assumptions as when I've purchased $6 fountain pens on eBay from a Chinese manufacturer. There's no flash or pizzazz in the packaging, and the experience is fairly boring. That's fine as long as the pen lives up to the unbelievable price. In the case of the Singularity, the presentation should be improved upon due to the surprisingly great quality of the pen.

This pen reminds me a lot of the Monteverde Artista. While it looks like that pen is being retired from JetPens, it is a great all-round pen for general writing. The Singularity is cheaper, has more nib options, and performs very closely with the Monteverde. I was impressed when I first tried it out.

At $20, you're up against a couple of the best budget fountain pens out there: the Pilot Metropolitan and Kakuno. After the $30 mark, you're in Kaweco, Lamy, and TWSBI territory, so let's leave them out for now. When you compare the Metropolitan and Singularity, the features are very similar. They both come with converters and cartridges, and they're only $5 apart. When comparing these, it really comes down to your own preference. Do you want a professional pen with classy accents? The Metropolitan is the best choice. Do you like how demonstrators look, or do you prefer plastic-body pens? The Singularity is a better option.

The build quality of the Singularity is better than I expected. While it's lightweight, it doesn't feel cheap or fragile. This pen can deal with some abuse, although it will show scratches. The clip has moderate strength and the threads feel precise and well-made.

Moving on to the grip and nib, it keeps impressing. The grip is a black plastic, and it fits my hand perfectly. This combined with the light weight make it ideal for longer writing sessions. The particular model I have uses the medium nib, and it writes like a dream. It's a bit on the wet side, but that's something I expect and want from a medium nib. It never stutters, skips, or has a hard time starting, and it's as smooth as can be. It's a steel nib, but it has a good amount of flexibility that can provide some minimal variation with the right pressure applied.

I'm not sure where the nibs are sourced, but they do say "Made in Germany" on the bottom. Also, the decoration on the nib is classy and pleasing. It's not a plain nib, but it isn't chintzy either.

The included converter does feel cheaper than the pen, but it's worked great so far. One minor complaint I have about this converter is that it has a small ball inside to keep the ink moving around. Other converters use this same method, and the noise that the ball makes inside the converter when you move the pen around has always bothered me. I'm not sure why it's there when other converters do just fine without it. Like I said, it's a minor niggle.

Overall, I've been really impressed by this budget newcomer. It feels well-built while also remaining light, it writes like a dream, and it costs less than $20 (barely). I can see this being a perfect recommendation for people who want to spend 20 bucks on their first demonstrator. For me, it will be a common tester pen for different inks since the nib performs so well.

The Nemosine Singularity is available in Onyx, Aqua, Azalea, and Demonstrator colors from JetPens. You also have an option of EF, F, M, B, and 0.6mm stub nibs. The stub looks particularly interesting!

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

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Benu Purple Night Silver Fountain Pen: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

Benu is a Russian pen company that produces fountain pens and ball point pens in various handmade resins. They currently offer pens in three collections: Classic, Ornate, and Sublime. The pen I’m reviewing is from the Classic Collection and is called “Purple Night Silver.” It features aventurescent (sparkly) resin with a rhodium plated brass ring.

The Benu pen comes in a black cardboard box with the Benu name on top. Inside, you’ll find the pen wrapped in Benu paper tied with twine and nestled in shredded brown paper. The paper wrap includes information about your pen.

The pen is torpedo shaped and the only complication in the design is the rhodium-plated ring with the name Benu inscribed. There is no clip.

When you unscrew the cap, you’ll notice a sharp stepdown from the barrel to the grip, but the grip area is long, and the thickest part of the barrel rests between your index finger and thumb. So, the pen is quite comfortable to hold, and the barrel threads are far enough back that your fingers won’t contact them.

The nib is a Schmidt stainless steel fine (medium and broad are also available). It has some scrollwork, and the nib size is engraved in the middle along with “Schmidt Iridium Point.”

This is a tiny nib because the Benu is a small pen weighing only 0.7 ounces. Capped, the pen is 4.9 inches. Uncapped it is 4.5 inches, and you cannot post the cap.

Currently all Benu pens are cartridge only, but a representative told me they are manufacturing a new pen that will take a converter. My review model came with a Schneider standard short international size cartridge with blue ink.

The Benu pen writes beautifully. The fine steel nib is smooth and demonstrates no hard starts or skipping. I find it a comfortable writer overall.

My main complaints about the pen are (1) the pen is so light that it feels cheap. The resin is unique and thick, but you can definitely tell this pen is plastic. And although it is handmade, it doesn’t have the feel of a Shawn Newton or Scriptorium pen, though, admittedly, those pens are much more expensive. (2) The threads on my pen are rough and sometimes it takes a few tries to get the cap to screw on correctly. (3) For a pen like this I would expect to pay around $40 or so, especially since it is cartridge only and lacks any complicated design elements. But it costs $90. That said, I have no idea how much it costs to make handmade resin and to manufacture pens for export from Russia.

I really like all the different resins Benu Pens offers. They have many beautiful, unique choices. You can purchase Benu pens from their website: BenuPen.com. Models range from $80-$120.

Pros

• The sparkly purple resin on my pen is quite striking, especially in sunlight.
• The pen is comfortable to write with.
• Because this pen is so small, it might work well as a pocket or a purse pen, though it does not come with a clip.
• The Schmidt fine nib on my review model writes beautifully.
• Benu offers a wide range of unique resin colors though all the pens have the same torpedo shape.

Cons

• Unfortunately, the pen does not have that special feel that you might expect of a homemade pen.
• The Benu is a good pen—one that I think many people would enjoy as a pocket or purse pen. However, as such, it seems overpriced.
• The threads on my pen are rough and the cap doesn’t screw on smoothly.
• The pen is cartridge only which limits your ink choices.
• This pen is very light, so if you prefer hefty pens, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

(Benu Pens provided this pen at no cost to Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Tuff Writer Mini-Click Gen2 Pen Review

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

The Tuff Writer Mini-Click Gen2 is a second iteration on the Mini-Click that offers a larger selection of materials from the standard aluminum offerings that were available in the first iteration. The Kickstarter funded back in February, and the rewards are already being shipped to backers. I would imagine that these new materials will be available on the Tuff Writer store in the near future as well.

Among the new materials that were offered, backers had a choice of titanium, copper, and brass for the Gen2 version. Aside from the material options, there were also options for each one that ranged from polished, brushed, tumbled, flamed, and aged. Really, there were quite a few aesthetic decisions to make if you backed this pen!

The version I have today is the Aged Brass Mini-Click. This version went for $96 on Kickstarter, but I would expect a higher price once they're available in retail settings. The Aged Brass looks fantastic. The method they used to age the brass gave it a dark, gunmetal look that pairs beautifully with the black tumbled clip and polished click mechanism.

First off, though, let's talk about packaging. These pens shipped in Tuff Writer-branded airtight cigar tubes. Nice touch. You can even repurpose the cigar tube as a way to protect fountain pens from air pressure changes experienced on airplanes. The more you know!

Upon opening the package, I was met with a pretty strong smell that reminded me of gun polish. Not my favorite smell, but it dissipated with time. I can only detect it when I hold the pen directly under my nose now. There's a faint smell on my fingers after using the pen, but not nearly as noticeable as using other brass or copper pens. Something about the finish on this Mini-Click reduces and masks that oxidation odor.

First thing I noticed about this pen? The weight. Oh boy, this is a hefty pen. Weighing in at a whopping 66 grams, this is something you notice in your pocket. If casually dropped onto a conference room table after you close your notebook, the noise will attract the attention of everyone in the room. It's not a toy!

The weight makes it feel sturdy and reliable, but it's a downside in my book due to the fatigue it causes after a couple of paragraphs of writing. It's just too heavy to hold comfortably. I think I would really enjoy the titanium or aluminum versions better because of this, but they don't have a finish similar to this one. Dilemmas!

The clip is black with a tumbled finish. It's held in place with two hex screws that match the black finish. It's an incredibly strong clip, which is important given the weight of the pen.

The body of the pen features 6 different o-rings in different places. At the grip section, three o-rings are grouped close together to form a surprisingly comfortable grip. Further up under the clip, there are three more o-rings spaced further apart. I'm guessing the functional purpose for these is to provide some needed friction under the grip to ensure the pen is secure. Regardless, it's aesthetically pleasing.

The Mini-Click ships with a black medium Fisher refill. Excellent choice for a tough pen like this, although it does require a unique fitting on the butt of the refill for it to work properly. If this fitting will work on other Parker style refills, then it's fair game in this pen. That means you have many, many options outside of the Fisher.

The click mechanism on this pen is...interesting. On the Kickstarter page, they describe the "416SS Pen Advancing Mechanism" as the best refill advancing gadget that is available today. I'm not really buying into the marketing on this because it resembles the same mechanism used by the majority of other Kickstarter machined pens. If you're a fan of machined pens, you'll probably recognize it. The only difference here is that there are machined grooves around the diameter of the push cylinder, as well as a logo on the top of the push cylinder. Nice touches, but not worthy of the marketing language.

I wish that the marketing language the end of my criticism for the knock. Unfortunately, the copy I have has a significant defect. About 1 time out of 5 clicks, the mechanism becomes stuck in either the "open" or "retracted" mode. It takes a pretty hard press on the knock to recover from this state, and it really frustrates me. It would be one thing if it was a rare issue, but it happens very frequently and is very easy to reproduce. I would imagine that this is an example of a small quality defect that doesn't impact very many pens, but it should have never shipped like this. I've said this many times, and it applies here: when you're paying this much for a pen, this type of problem is unacceptable.

With that out of the way, I don't see it as a crippling issue for the pen. Tuff Writer bills this as a modular pen, which makes it easy to replace any part that breaks or gets lost. In this case, a quick swap of the knock mechanism would likely clear up the issue. Easy fix.

Overall, this is a beautiful, rugged pen that will easily outlive me. It could stand up to some of the most harsh environments without breaking a sweat. The price is fair considering the materials used and the time spent producing the aged aesthetic. Knock issues aside, I think this is a great pen. If I did it again, I'd probably opt for the aluminum or titanium versions to cut down significantly on the weight.

Tuff Writer sells the Mini-Click and many other machined pens on their site, and I would expect these new metals to be available soon.

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

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Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!