Posts filed under Pen Reviews

The Retro 51 Tornado Rollerball Vintage Metalsmith Cursive Review

I get a lot of great feedback at events on what pens, pencils, and paper people are enjoying, and at each event, it never fails that Retro 51 comes up. The feedback on this pen falls into two camps:

I’ll never use a rollerball pen.

-or-

I never knew a rollerball pen could be this good.

As a huge fan of this pen and brand I understand both sides of the argument very well. Heck, I was firmly entrenched in the first camp most of my life. Rollerball pens can be particular due to their ink properties and often wide tip size. The Schmidt P8127 refill - aka the Retro 51 Refill - changed all my previous thinking on this style of pen. And, what Retro 51 built around this great refill made me fall in love with the Tornado.

When everything works well together in a design you notice immediately. Or rather, you don’t notice anything. There is no funny feel or awkward balance or scratchy tip. You put the pen in your hand and you write. Your brain does the work. The Retro 51 is the tool, and one of the best I have found.

It helps that the brand has a great sense of style and design. From basic solid colors to seasonal releases like the Vintage Metalsmith Cursive, there is bound to be a style that suits you. You can even chase down some of the many limited editions they release each year like some of their super fans do. When you have super fans that’s when you know it is going well as a brand.

With Cursive, Retro 51 is making a statement that writing is important. As a pen company, they obviously stand to benefit from a healthy writing environment, but I like the added focus this pen has. My 4th grade son is learning cursive right now and I’m not going to lie - it is a challenge for him. But as I work with him he is starting to get it. I’m not a strict cursive apologist, but teaching handwriting in general is extremely important I believe, and learning cursive gives kids the added skills to improve any type of handwriting they choose.

Being part of the Vintage Metalsmith Series, the Cursive model gets the beautiful antique finished hardware, in this case Antique Silver. It seems more of a bronze shade in person, but it looks great no matter what you want to call it. The cursive writing training paper style is of course the highlight, with their traditional blue and red marks for learning letter heights. The full upper and lower case alphabet fits nicely around the barrel, along with numbers 0 through 9. Maybe my son can take this to class for a few extra tips.

If you enjoy a good writing experience I highly recommend the Retro 51 Tornado. This is what quality feels like, and they are fairly priced as well. And who knows, you may become a rollerball convert like me.

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

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Posted on October 17, 2017 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Retro 51, Pen Reviews.

Uni-Ball Signo DX Twelve New Colors 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.)

I don't know that I necessarily need to review the Uni-Ball Signo DX--it's fairly universally loved amongst pen addicts and the general population alike. Both Jeff and Brad have waxed poetic on its many virtues--a great build, consistent flow, smooth writing. It's practical, reliable, and fun. But it just got more fun, because there are twelve new colors and I need for you to be excited about this with me.

Prussian Blue is a beautiful (but totally office appropriate) bright navy color. It doesn't feel like the standard blue, but has a little extra zing to it.

Blue Green is a fresh aqua color, a necessity for any pen assortment.

Apple Green is an essential acid color. Despite its lightness, it is readable--which is good, because I want to use it forever.

Dark Grey may be my new favorite. It's classy and moody at the same time. In some lights, it almost has a blue-black quality to it.

Grey is pale, but readable, and almost silvery.

Purple is a spunky color—more like a Lisa Frank magenta shade than a true purple.

Lilac follows in purple's footsteps. It's bright and fun.

Light pink is neon cotton candy perfection.

Brown is more of a dark mustard color. Much more nuanced than the name implies.

Khaki is a rich caramel. It looks more like food than pants, to me.

Beige is a lovely creamy ivory. Difficult to see on white paper.

Yellow is a very bright shade. One that, if seen in nature, probably indicates neurotoxins.

These cheerful colors are landing perfectly in time with cooler weather and grey skies. They're a great addition to the existing lineup of colors, and you can get them in either a set of twelve, or individually as open stock. As a bundle, I'd call this the unicorns and ponies pack. I do wish the names of the colors were a bit more true or descriptive. The names themselves don't give a very good indication of what to expect from the colors. But you can definitely expect the great performance that the Signo is known for.

The ink is very saturated but doesn't feel dry. It's the best behaved gel ink I've used. There's no skipping or globs or smearing. It's waterproof, fade-resistant, and feathering-resistant. There are enough colors in this line, now, that they may have inched to the top of my personal list of favorite coloring pens. Because now my unicorns will look true to life.

The pens run at $2.84 apiece, or $34 for the 12-pack. That's about average for a nice gel pen, and definitely worth it. The fine lines, viscous ink, and saturated colors all help contribute to a little extra longevity for the cartridges. Still, I may run them dry out of sheer enthusiasm sooner rather than later.

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

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Posted on October 12, 2017 by Sarah Read and filed under Uni-Ball, Signo DX, Pen Reviews.

Lamy Joy 1.1 mm Calligraphy 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.)

The Lamy Joy Calligraphy Fountain Pen is a black resin pen that comes in nib sizes of 1.1, 1.5, and 1.9.

The pen is packaged in a red cardboard box with a plastic sleeve. It comes with one blue Lamy ink cartridge.

The design is sleek with only the red stainless steel clip, the red finial, and the red tip on the bottom of the pen as accents. But, boy do those accents pop! Although there are two ink windows, they are embedded deeply in the barrel and the cartridge is so dark, it’s difficult to tell how much ink is left in the cartridge. The cap snaps on and off and can be posted.

Lamy is lightly enscribed near the bottom of the barrel. The barrel itself has two flat sides and two rounded sides. If you use the pen unposted, the flat sides of the barrel will keep the pen from rolling off your desk.

The pen is longer than average fountain pens, measuring 179mm capped, 169mm uncapped, and 176mm posted. But it is quite light, weighing only 11 grams unposted.

The Lamy Joy comes with one blue ink cartridge, but you can purchase a Lamy converter if you wish to use bottled ink.

Like Lamy Safari pens, the Joy has a triangular-shaped grip meant to keep your fingers in the proper position. Some people love this grip, others (like me) don’t. It’s a matter of personal preference.

This pen has the 1.1mm nib. It’s a stainless steel nib and, in typical Lamy minimalist fashion, it is unadorned. It bears only the nib size and the Lamy name.

So, how does it write? Well, I’m no calligrapher, but I do use italic nibs quite often, and this nib is, after all, a 1.1mm italic. I found it to be adequate in terms of wetness, though I like my nibs much juicier. However, it isn’t a smooth nib. I’m not sure if the tines are slightly misaligned or if there’s some tipping material causing the scratchiness, but it feels like the nib is digging into the paper on every stroke. In other words, my writing experience was not pleasant. Perhaps a bit of micromesh would fix the problem.

In any case, I wrote a couple of test pages, and the 1.1mm offered some line variation and shading with the Lamy blue ink.

For calligraphy, I would suggest choosing the 1.5 or 1.9 size nib since the 1.1 seems a bit narrow.

Neverthless, for everyday writing, the 1.1 nib is a good choice as you can see with the following writing sample.

You can purchase the Lamy Joy from Pen Chalet for $28.00. The converter is an additional $4.70.

At $28.00, the Lamy Joy is quite a bit more expensive than other plastic calligraphy pens, such as the Pilot Parallel ($8.00 at JetPens). Granted, the Lamy Joy looks much nicer than the Pilot Parallel. But if you’re wanting a decent calligraphy pen for a good price, the Pilot Parallel pens are excellent. I own the 1.5mm and the 2.4mm Pilot Parallels and both nibs are smooth.

Pros

The Lamy Joy is a sleek resin calligraphy pen. The red accents make the pen pop.
The pen is very light, so it is easy to work with during long writing sessions.
It sports a grip that many users find very comfortable.

Cons

I honestly think the Lamy Joy is overpriced at $28.00.
Although many people like the triangular grip, I find it inhibiting. I tend to rotate my pens a bit when writing, so I feel like I have to fight the grip on this pen.
The nibs on Lamys can be hit or miss. This steel 1.1mm nib was scratchy.

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

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