Faber-Castell Design Ambition Op-Art Flamingo Limited Edition 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 Faber-Castell Design Ambition Op-Art Flamingo Limited Edition Fountain Pen (what a mouthful!) is a small, light pen with a stainless steel nib, a metal cap, and a resin body.

It comes packaged in a classy Faber-Castell box with a sliding drawer that extends to reveal the pen. One blue cartridge is included, but there’s no converter, so if you prefer a converter, you’ll have to purchase one separately.

The metal snap-on cap has a spring-loaded clip, and it posts easily on the bottom metal section beneath the barrel. Because the pen itself is so light (11 grams), posting the cap (16 grams) throws off the balance considerably, so I don’t recommend it.

The pen design is modern but is not exactly comfortable. Although there is a metal section above the nib, I wouldn’t call it a grip because it is so small in length (about 8.5 mm) and the step down between the barrel and the metal section is significant (and sharp). Because of this, I have to hold the pen much further back than I normally do. Plus, the barrel’s diameter is small (11.1mm), so I don’t find this design conducive to lengthy writing sessions.

The barrel is made from resin engraved with a beautiful guilloche design.

It’s very light and almost feels more like cardboard than resin. The diminutive size of this pen could be a pro or a con depending on how heavy/large you like your pens. Capped, the pen is 5.5 inches; uncapped it is 4.8 inches; and posted it is 6.8 inches.

The nib is a stainless steel fine, and, like most Faber-Castell nibs I’ve used, it writes smoothly. It is decorated with engraved dots and the Faber-Castell logo.

I have another Faber-Castell Ambition, so I borrowed its converter and inked this one with Kyo-Iro 05 Keage Sakura which matches the pink color of the pen well. The pen writes beautifully. I’ve tested it on several different papers and I’ve encountered no hard starts or skipping.

Although I love the sophisticated look and the nib quality on the Faber-Castell Ambition, I’m not so certain of its longevity. I discovered that the resin is easily marred. As I said, I own another Faber-Castell Ambition which I purchased in France. I always carry my pens in a pen case and try to be very careful with them. I’m not sure what happened—if the pen rolled off my desk at work or I accidentally banged it against something—but the barrel got damaged (see photo). I wish Faber-Castell coated the exterior of the resin with clear acrylic to protect the surface.

You can purchase the Faber-Castell Ambition in flamingo from JetPens for $100. Be sure to buy a converter ($5.00) if you don’t want to use cartridges.

Pros

• The Faber-Castell Ambition Op-Art Flamingo is a classy looking pen with distinctive metal accents. The color reminds me of cherry blossoms—it’s not garish like the plastic flamingoes people put in their yards.
• If you prefer small, light pens then you will probably like this model.
• The stainless steel nib on the Ambition writes beautifully and without any problems, such as scratchiness, hard starts, or skipping.

Cons

• This is an expensive pen considering that it’s made of rather delicate resin and has a steel nib.
• No converter is included with the pen. At this price point, I think Faber-Castell should provide a couple of cartridges and a converter.
• I find this model to be uncomfortable, especially for long writing sessions. The lack of a decent-sized grip section forces you to hold the pen by the barrel and the barrel is quite thin in diameter.
• The resin is easily damaged. I would not recommend putting this pen in a purse or bag unless it’s protected by a pen case.

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

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Uni Style Fit Single Color Slim Gel 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.)

Uni makes great gel pens and their Uni Style Fit multipens are very popular. But here's a fun new profile from them that I actually prefer: single color slim gel pens. These are ultra skinny pens with the same great Uni refills and ink, but with a small enough footprint that you can cram a lot more of them into your pen case...or house. The body is just wide enough to accommodate the refill, and there are no frills, bells, or whistles.

They can be refilled with any Uni Style fit refill, which includes ballpoint, gel, or even mechanical pencil. They can be .28 mm, .38 mm, or .5 mm. I have the 16-color bundle in .5 mm and they write smooth as glass with wonderfully saturated colors.

The colors in this set are violet, pink, baby pink, rose pink, red, mandarin orange, orange, golden yellow, lime green, green, sky blue, bright blue, blue, blue black, black, and brown black. It's a lovely spectrum, with enough difference between the shades that I can justify dragging all 16 around with me. And because they're so portable, I can do that easily.

Uni has great ink technology. The ink is resistant to water, fading, and forgery chemicals. It doesn't skip or railroad, and it writes easily even after being left exposed for long periods of time.

While I love the slim, clipless design, the pens are a bit flimsy. The clear plastic feels light and brittle, and it often comes unscrewed from the barrel--seemingly even by itself when the pen is just sitting in a pen cup. Unless my pen cup is haunted. I've had to twist them back together fairly regularly. The plastic wrap label is loose and seems like it's intended to come off, though you'd then lose your color label. Still, it's not difficult to identify colors with the tips and end-caps so clearly visible. The pieces are a bit rattle-y and don't fit together as flush as some of Uni's other pens. I was actually a bit surprised to learn that they're refillable, because they feel quite disposable.

Issues with build aside, I still really like these. The ink and portability take priority over other inconveniences. They're great to tuck into my planner case for journaling on the go and don't add extra bulk to my already slightly ridiculous edc situation. They also fit nicely into the slim pencil slots in cases, so if you prefer coloring with pens rather than pencils, these are great to take along.

I do worry that the very small refills will drain too quickly, but with the ultra fine-pointed refills, I doubt that will be a problem. And with 16 colors to choose from, they rotate quite regularly, so no one pen gets too much play.

If you've got journaling or coloring to do on the go, these are a good option. I don't expect them to last forever, and they aren't the cheapest of gel pens, but they do meet a specific need that I haven't had met by other varieties.

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

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Inventery Pocket 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.)

Not long ago, I had the pleasure of reviewing a retractable rollerball pen from a small company called Inventery. It was an impressive pen that featured a minimal design and hearty materials, and I still really enjoy using that pen today. Just recently, I've been using a new pen from Inventery called the Pocket Fountain Pen. The model I have is made of brass and also includes some additional goodies that change the size and functionality of the pen. In all, it's a pretty exciting offering that I've been fairly pleased with.

All the features

The official name of the product I have is the "Pocket FP + Extender in Brass." There's a lot included in the "+ Extender" designation. To make it easy to follow along, here's a list of what's included in the box:

• Inventery Pocket Fountain Pen with a gold-colored Schmidt nib
• Additional section to extend the length of the pen barrel
• Schmidt standard international converter
• Schmidt ballpoint section that can be swapped out for the fountain pen section
• Four different finial components that screw into place on the cap:
  • Clip component
  • Flush component
  • Stylus component
  • Lanyard component
• Plus a bunch of short international cartridges with black ink (nine carts, to be exact)

All I could think when I opened up this package was "Wow." There's a lot going on here, and it's all shiny brass. Very powerful first impression. With a price tag of $165, this will be a difficult purchase for some, even when considering this is a machined brass pen. Do all the unique features and customizations make up for that price? Well, like most things, it depends on the user.

Look and feel

After assembling the pen in my favorite configuration (extended section with the fountain pen section and clip component to prevent rolling) and inking it up with some Iroshizuku Murasaki Shikibu, I was delighted with the performance of the F nib out of the box. Smooth as silk, responsive, and well fed. Schmidt nibs can be a bit fussy out of the box, and I was happy to find no such issues with a pen of this price. Being made of brass, there's a considerable weight to adjust to. At 39 grams, it's not a light pen, but this isn't new territory for machined pens. Either way, it feels great in the hand. Despite the weight, it's still a really small pen. It's somewhere between a Kaweco Liliput and Supra in size, but with the same form factor.

Given the extension that you can use in the body, you can change the feel of the pen quite a bit. As such, I found it comfortable to post the cap if the extension was not in use. With the extension, posting the cap made the pen too long for my hand, which threw off the balance when trying to write. The pen wanted to flip over the back of my hand during certain strokes.

This is all well and good — being able to control the length and weight of the pen is a good thing. But that customization is a moot point if you plan on using the included converter. You must use the extension to make room for the long converter. I've been perfectly happy holding the cap in my other hand while writing with the long version of the pen. This allows me to use what ink I want instead of being limited to the cartridges I have on hand. If you prefer cartridges, this limitation won't impact you.

Being made of brass, there's certainly a metallic odor associated with this pen after minimal use. Depending on what day it is and what side of the bed I woke up on, I either don't mind this smell or I really can't stand it. For that reason, I'd probably stick with the plated options that Inventery offer. You can choose either "Black Oxide" or "Brushed Chrome" if you don't want the raw brass option. They're all the same price, and they're all made of brass. The added benefit of the plated versions is that you don't have to deal with the natural effects of oxidation on brass.

The included finial components are more of a gimmick in my mind. It's all about customizing the aesthetic of the pen. I've never enjoyed pens that include a stylus, so it's great that they've left that decision to me. The flush finial looks great, but the pen rolls around. The lanyard finial seems like a good idea, but I don't use any pens with a lanyard. The clip finial is my favorite, but I don't like that the clip doesn't actually rest against the cap. It rests about 2mm away from the body of the pen, making it ineffective at actually clipping it to things. As long as gravity is on your side, the pen will be secure. If anything gets turned upside down or jostled too much, it will fly right out.

Swapping out the different finial components is incredibly easy since they are all threaded.

Build quality

The build quality of the Pocket Fountain Pen is on par with the other pen I've used from Inventery: it's fantastic. The main thing I want to point out is that Inventery have included a brilliant feature on the inside threads of the cap. Instead of brass-on-brass threads, there's a thing plastic lining on the inside of the cap. This means that when you unscrew/screw on the cap, you don't have the tactile feedback of scraping metal or the abrasive sound. The thin lining makes the experience incredibly smooth and quiet. I'm not sure how long this lining will last over the years. The lining is included on the cap threads as well as the interior threads of the section extension piece. I can't stress enough how much I appreciate this feature.

Tolerances are tight with this pen. It has a very slim profile, so that means that there are no visible gaps between the pieces and that the cartridge converter barely slips into the body of the pen. There is no room for larger converters or cartridges. They machined this pen exactly for the standard cartridge converter. This shouldn't be a problem since that size is very common, but it is interesting to see how that works when assembling the pen.

The fountain pen section and ballpoint section each unscrew from the grip section with ease. This is identical to how the Kaweco fountain pens operate, making nib replacements a breeze.

Writing performance

This is really two pens in one, so I'll start off with the fountain pen section. Like I said earlier, the Schmidt nib operated beautifully out of the box. The flow is great, the nib is smooth on paper, and I really enjoy writing with it. Given the smooth but contoured grip section and the weight of the pen, it's a joy to write with. As long as you can tolerate the smell of oxidation that comes with brass pens, it's a fantastic experience.

I've never used a ballpoint or rollerball pen that uses a fountain pen cartridge or converter, so this was a new experience for me. I'll start off by saying that the plastic ballpoint component does detract from the overall look and fell of the pen compared to all the brass. The Schmidt nib is also gold-colored, which fits in nicely with the color scheme. Not knowing what to expect, I popped in a J. Herbin Éclat de Saphir cartridge and started writing. After a few seconds, the ink started flowing beautifully. The 0.5mm tip is very fine and makes a great line. Cleaning it is also fairly simple; I used the same process as the fountain pen section, but it didn't take as long to clear out and dry. When the ballpoint section is installed in the pen, it's also a joy to write with. Like I said, though, it doesn't look as nice as the fountain pen section due to the black plastic.

One quirk regarding the two writing components is the fact that you can't swap them out with the brass section without also removing the cartridge or converter. This usually isn't an issue, but in some instances you might have some ink spillage.

Overall

The Inventery Pocket Fountain Pen + Extender is an interesting pen with a lot of options and customizations. Doing it over, I'd probably go with a different color option to avoid the brass smell, but the pen is a great writer and unique enough to merit a look. Given that the Kaweco Supra is a bit larger, but still less expensive, I'd recommend you look there first and weigh your options. I love the rounded ends of the Supra, but that's another matter of personal taste.

At $165, this pen sits in a category that is extremely competitive and fully stocked. I wouldn't recommend this to someone as a first "premium" pen purchase due to the other options that are available in the same price range (or lower). If you're familiar with brass machined pens and this design grabs you, then you won't be disappointed.

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

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