Posts filed under Pen Reviews

Faber-Castell Essentio Ballpoint 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 Faber-Castell Essentio ballpoint pen is a classy pen with a stylish carbon fiber body that looks great with any outfit or carry.

There's a lot of pens available today that use the popular Parker style cartridge, which means that there are plenty of options in the way of third-party refills. This is always an interesting genre to me because I know that I can choose a pen based on aesthetics or feel and know that I can completely control most of the writing experience by replacing a refill.

The Essentio is a bit on the larger side of the ballpoint pen scale, but it's also incredibly comfortable to use. The rubber grip section has a soft feel and a matte finish, which make it both comfortable and resistant to fingerprints.

The body is made of a carbon fiber (or something similar) material that lends a classy aesthetic as well as a light weight. It's shiny without being overly so, and there's a small and classy Faber-Castell logo toward the top of the body.

The clip is fairly light compared to most other pens I've used. I wish it were a bit stronger, but given the overall light weight of the pen, it does a great job of keeping the pen secured to whatever you attach it to. The clip has a slight curve that adds a bit of visual interest to the pen.

The click mechanism is smooth, reliable, and fairly quiet. The top of the nock has a concave surface that feels great on your thumb. While it's not loud or overly clicky, using the nock on this pen is incredibly satisfying and tactile.

Like I mentioned at the beginning, the Essentio uses a Parker-style refill. The included refill is a Faber-Castell bold refill that is actually stupendous. It reminds me quite a bit of the Schmidt EasyFlow 9000 refill, which is high praise. It's incredibly smooth, dark, and dependable. When so many ballpoint refills can suffer from skipping or dryness, it's always a relief when the stock refill performs so well. Most of the time, I replace the refill with an EasyFlow, but that's not necessary in this case.

Writing with this pen is a great experience. The combination of the size, light weight, smooth refill, and comfortable grip section make for a great writer. At $35, the Faber-Castell Essentio a bit on the expensive side, but it still falls within the normal range for a well-performing ballpoint pen. There are lots of attractive options in this price range, and this one should be on your list for gifts and affordable ballpoints. It's a great value and excellent performer. And, if the included refill isn't your thing, you have so many options for replacement.

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

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!

Posted on November 21, 2018 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Faber-Castell, Ballpoint, Pen Reviews.

Récife Special Edition Artis Traveler 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.)

Récife is a specialty shop in Paris that carries leather goods, accessories, and writing instruments. Today I’m reviewing a soon-to-be released fountain pen in the Récife Special Edition Artis collection. These pens are meant to evoke the works of Claude Monet. My pen utilizes the colors found in Monet’s work, “Le Jardin de l'artiste à Giverny”: purple and pink (Récife calls the color Violene). Récife craftsmen make each pen by hand, so each pen is unique.

I’m not sure if the pen is made of resin or acrylic, but it is extremely lightweight, regardless. It is 5.5 inches (140mm) capped, 4.75 inches (121mm) uncapped, and 6.25 inches (159mm) posted. I found the pen to be unbalanced posted, but I do not usually post pens, so your experience may vary.

The cap’s final and clip are one piece of metal with an art deco motif. The cap band is inscribed with “Modèle Recife déposé Paris,” which means “registered Recife model, Paris.” The cap screws onto the barrel with a few twists.

The grip is made of metal, but it doesn’t add much heft to the pen.

My pen came with a standard international-sized black ink cartridge but no converter. I didn’t see any converters advertised on the Récife website, but it’s likely that a standard international converter would work with the pen.

The nib is a steel medium with scrollwork, “Récife Paris,” a logo (I can’t tell what it is), and the nib size inscribed on it.

The tines are perfectly aligned and the writing is smooth. However, I experienced hard starts whenever I uncapped the pen to write a new page.

The Récife Special Edition Artis Traveler Fountain Pen is an interesting pen with a palette based on Monet paintings. It sort of reminds me of the Visconti Van Gogh pens, but the Récife is definitely not in the same class as the Visconti pens which are made of resin, have magnetic closure caps, and sport much thicker metal trims (they are also more expensive). The violene color is not my cup of tea, but there are other marbled colors in shades of black, gray, green, blue, and red in the collection. I also think the pen is much too small and light, but that is because I prefer heavier, large pens.

You can purchase Récife fountain pens from Récife Paris. The Traveler model is ordinarily 50 euros (= $57.00), but the Special Edition Artis models will be more expensive (around $90.00).

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

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

Posted on November 16, 2018 by Susan Pigott and filed under Récife, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

Regalia Writing Labs Crossflex Nib: 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.)

Regalia Writing Labs is the brainchild of Ralph Reyes, a college student who also happens to be a genius with nibs. Ralph explains that he was fascinated by flex nibs and Sailor Nagahara nibs, but because he couldn’t afford super expensive vintage flex nibs or Nagahara nibs, he set out to create his own. You can see a gallery of his creations here.

A few weeks ago, Ralph posted a new nib on his Instagram account (@reachingralph) called the Crossflex Nib. Only fifty nibs were available, and I snagged one for $150. The nib came in a small box decorated with a wax seal lookalike accompanied by Ralph’s business card.

The nib is a screw-in JOWO #6 steel and it fits a variety of pens, including Franklin-Christoph, Opus 88, Newton Pens, Herbert Pens, Carolina Pens, Woodshed Pen Co., Kanilea Pens, Desiderata Pens, Scriptorium Pens, and others. The ebonite feed and housing were specially designed for this nib by Flexible Nib Factory.

I put the Crossflex nib into my Opus 88 Koloro (review here). The Opus 88 is an eyedropper pen, and Ralph recommends eyedroppers to supply plenty of ink to the nib. I didn’t try the nib with a converter or piston-fill pen, but I suspect a converter would starve the feed.

The Crossflex nib is specially designed for flex writing. Ralph describes his goals for the nib better than I can:

Durability, snapback, softness, control. These are the qualities I search for, not "mushy" maximum flex. While this nib is designed primarily for flex writing, with extraordinary softness, the lines delivered must be beautiful. The sensation of creating those lines must be a pleasure. Snapback was highly prioritized when creating this nib. The nib starts as an extra fine, but with Ralph’s handmade modifications, it can flex up to 3mm. I didn’t try pushing it that far, but I will say that the nib flexes beautifully.

I practiced writing my formal calligraphy alphabet with the nib, and the results were every bit as good as a dip pen with a flex nib.

You can see the difference between the nib unflexed and flexed in these swirls:

When I measured the pen’s flex, pushing as far as I was comfortable doing, the lines measured a little over 1mm. Like I said, the nib is made to flex up to 3mm, but I never pressed it that hard.

This nib is a joy to write with. Unflexed, it is smooth and bouncy. The tines are perfectly aligned.

When you write with flex, the nib behaves beautifully. The tines spread with gentle pressure and snap back with ease. You can really press into the nib without being afraid that you’re going to spring it (though Ralph warns it is possible to push it too far).

I am thrilled with my Crossflex nib. It makes my Opus 88 the perfect calligraphy practice pen. I no longer have to deal with the mess of a dip pen, but I get the kind of flex I want to form my characters.

Unfortunately, this run of Crossflex nibs sold out quickly, and there are no more. Ralph typically sells his nibs at pen shows, but occasionally he sells them via his website (as he did with the Crossflex nib). The best way to keep apprised of nib sales is via his Instagram account. But it’s definitely worth going to his website to see all the amazing and fantastical nibs--one of his creations has nine tines!

(I purchased the Regalia Writing Labs Crossflex nib with my own funds.)

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