Posts filed under Pen Reviews

Kaweco Frosted Sport Fountain Pen Review

The Kaweco Sport breaks the mold of what a pocket fountain pen should be. I'm a big fan of this product, and as a fan, I'm spoiled. So spoiled, that I almost take the Kaweco Sport for granted.

This is a great pen for me. I like small, pocketable, portable pens, and the bonus of it being a fountain pen is fantastic. It's lightweight, making it vanish into my pocket when I carry it, and durable, as it bangs up against other pocket accessories and keeps on trucking.

For as small as it is, the Kaweco Sport is a full-sized writer. The cap is designed to cover the majority of the pen barrel for a compact closure, but when writing, it adds length to the barrel when posted for a more comfortable experience. The standard section diameter helps with that too. This is not a skinny pocket pen.

My most recent pickup is the Frosted Sport in Light Blueberry, although it was a tough choice. Just look at all of the bright colors for 2019! Kaweco did a bang-up job with this series of Sport pens for sure. Anytime they bring bright colors to the table AND silver trim you can bet I'll pick one up - like the Sport Sunrise I bought from Fontoplumo last year.

I almost exclusively order steel EF nibs for my Kaweco pens, and this one was no different. It was fantastic right out of the box and continues to be. Nibs have always been a question mark around the brand, but they seem to have corrected most of the QC issues that have plagued them in the past. (Myke and I discuss this on the most recent Pen Addict Podcast.) It is firm, smooth, and leaves a clean, consistent line.

In a stroke of pure luck, I found the perfect ink match for this pen right out the gate. I bought a big batch of short international ink cartridges to play around with recently, and in there was this Waterman Radiant Pink. Any time I can get a cotton candy or 3-D look from my pen and ink combinations I am going to do it. This one turned out wonderfully.

For all of the praise I heap on the Kaweco Sport, it is not a pen I recommend very often. It rarely lands on any beginner pen list because it doesn't fit the traditional mold of pens like the Pilot Metropolitan or Lamy Safari. For a pocket pen, the plastic barrels are too light for some, and the metal barrels may not be at a price point consumers are comfortable with. But if this pen hits on the specifics you require, you won't find anything better. Heck, you may not find anything at all, which means that Kaweco is doing something right with this product.

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

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Posted on May 27, 2019 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Kaweco, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

PenBBS 350 Fountain Pen with Rollerball Adapter: 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 PenBBS 350 is an aluminum fountain pen that comes in silver or matte black finish. It is supplied with a fine steel nib and a rollerball adapter that allows you to use fountain pen ink.

Because it is made of aluminum, the pen is rather heavy, weighing in at 23.6 grams. Without the cap, it weighs 15.7 grams, so it still has quite a bit of heft. You can post the cap, if you dare, but it makes the pen very unbalanced.

This is a medium-sized pen in length, 5.12 inches/130mm capped, 4.84 inches/123mm uncapped, and 6.5 inches/166mm posted. The grip is a little over 10mm in diameter, which is rather small for my hand (see my discussion on how it writes below). But it does have a lip that keeps your fingers from slipping.

The clipless cap is octagonal with PenBBS engraved on one of the facets. The finial is also engraved with “PenBBS 350” and a tiny “F” or “P” (I’m not sure which) in the middle. The inside of the cap appears to be lined with plastic.

The body of the pen is smooth aluminum broken only by the cap threads. The threads are placed well away from where your fingers sit on the grip, so they do not interfere with writing at all.

You can fill the pen with the supplied converter or you can use cartridges.

The fine steel nib is adorned with scrollwork and “PenBBS Since 2005 China.”

PenBBS nibs come only in fine and medium (and this model may be limited to fine). They are interesting nibs because their tips flip up just a tiny bit, almost like a mini-fude nib.

The nib writes smoothly, but I noticed a good amount of skipping with KWZ Baltic Memories. I read other reviews of PenBBS pens that indicated these nibs can be a bit stingy with ink. So, I’ll try the pen with a wetter ink next time.

Because the pen is so heavy and the grip so small in diameter, I found my wrist and fingers cramping up even after only short periods of writing. I normally like hefty pens, but they need to have larger diameter grips that help balance the weight more evenly. Then again . . . maybe it’s not the grip. Maybe I’m just old and a bit arthritic.

I’ve never tried a fountain pen with a rollerball adapter, so I was pretty excited about this little extra.

To my amazement, I actually enjoyed writing with the rollerball more than I did with the fountain pen nib. The rollerball was smooth and the ink flowed perfectly. You can see a writing comparison between the nib and rollerball below. I love the idea of using fountain pen ink with a rollerball. I will say, however, that trying to clean ink out of the rollerball unit was next to impossible.

This is my first PenBBS. I’m very impressed with the pen. It has a beautiful, simple design. All the components work well, especially the rollerball adapter. The nib seems a bit stingy with ink, but it’s usable, and I suspect it will write better with a wetter ink.

At only $22.00 I think this pen is a steal. You can purchase it from Vanness Pens in either silver or black. Other colors are available from the PenBBS Etsy site, but you have to wait quite awhile to receive your pen as it is shipped from China. I ordered two different models last week and plan to review them later this summer.

(This pen was purchased from Vanness Pens with a reviewer’s discount.)

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Posted on May 24, 2019 by Susan Pigott and filed under PenBBS, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

Baux Pen Review

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

We're all familiar with the classic Bic pens. We probably grew up with them, did homework with them, and they're probably stocked in your office supply closet. They're ubiquitous, cheap, and pretty reliable. On the downside, they also don't perform to the level of more expensive gel pens like the Pilot Juice or Uni-ball Signo, not to mention the hybrid ballpoints like the Uni Jetstream and Pilot Acroball. Even though the Bic doesn't produce crisp, dark lines with zero skipping and hard starts, it does a really good job for the price. There aren't many pens that can boast a $1.50 price point...for ten of them. My point is, the Bic certainly isn't the best pen you can buy, but that doesn't mean it's the worst. It certainly has a place, and some people really adore them. So, why can't we have a little custom-machined love for this ubiquitous ballpoint? Well, thanks to Baux Pen Company, you can have a premium Bic experience.

Baux Pen Company is the joint idea of two brothers — Brian and Dan — who launched the initial version of the Baux (pronounced "box") pen back in 2013 on Kickstarter. The initial version was successful, but they saw room for improvement, and I'm glad they did. The Baux Pen 2 launched on Kickstarter in 2016, and it was another success. Today, you can buy the Baux Pen 2 on their site and even have it customized.

So what is the Baux Pen? It's an aluminum machined body that takes the generic Bic ballpoint refill (the Bic Stic or Cristal, not the retractable versions). The refill slips into the front nose of the pen and is secured with simple friction. The grip section and the barrel are separate components that screw into each other, which opens up opportunity for fun color schemes.

Before we talk about color schemes, it's important to understand the difference between the standard Baux pen and the premium Baux pen. The standard pen is all aluminum, while the premium version has a titanium or brass grip section. I only have the standard versions, but I'm guessing the titanium pens are a bit lighter and the brass version is a few ounces heavier. Most importantly, they provide a different aesthetic from the anodized aluminum.

Now, when it comes to color options, there are so many to choose from. You can pick the color/material of the grip section, the barrel, the end plug, the refill collar, and the cap. On top of those options, you can choose the default Baux logo for your pen or a custom text engraving. If you opt for custom text, you have a number of typefaces to choose from as well as a couple of sizes.

I opted for a blue barrel with lime green grip and end plug. I love the color combo! At checkout, there was an option to add on another "mystery" Baux pen for a few bucks more. I couldn't pass this up, and I'm glad I didn't. The gray and purple color combo is also stellar.

One of the main reasons I decided to try these pens out was to understand if it made the writing experience of the Bic ballpoints any better. I personally have a soft spot in my stationery heart for the Bic, so I was cautiously optimistic that this could do the job. For me, the Baux pen takes the Bic refill into the next level. I really love using these pens during my day. It's tough, colorful, has a reliable refill, and is still fairly affordable at the end of the day.

The Baux Pen starts at $9.50 and goes up to $15.50 depending on the options you pick. With the custom engraving and color options, these make great gifts as well as personal treats. I can't recommend these enough if you enjoy the classic Bic refill!

(Disclosure: Brad partnered with Brian Conti to create the Spoke Pen.)