Posts filed under Pen Reviews

Pilot Acroball Spotliter 3+1 Multi Pen and Highlighter Review

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

It's been a little while since I've looked at a multi pen, so the timing is perfect to take the latest Acroball multi pen for a spin. The Acroball Spotliter is a 3+1 multi pen, which doesn't sound like anything unique at first glance. 3+1 multi pens are usually a combination of three ink colors and a mechanical pencil component, but that's not the case with the Spotliter. In lieu of a mechanical pencil component, the Spotliter has a small highlighter tucked into the top of the pen — as well as the expected three ink choices.

I've spent a lot of time with Acroball multi pens in the past, and this version sports the same refills as other models. This means you'll get a buttery smooth writing experience, bold colors, and decent life before it's time to replace the refill. If you're a fan of hybrid ballpoints, like the Jetstream, you owe it to yourself to try Pilot's offering at some point. I'm not sure which one I like better at this point — Acroball versus Jetstream. They're both so, so good at what they do. In a lot of cases, I like the aesthetics of the Acroball multi pens more than the Jetstream. And in this specific case, the highlighter on this pen is something that Jetstream doesn't offer...yet.

Pilot Acroball Spotliter 3+1 Multi Pen and Highlighter

Writing with this pen is identical to other Acroball multi pens. It's a great experience, and I love these multi pens. The refills are 0.7mm and come in black, blue, and red. Standard stuff. Let's focus on the unique part of the Spotliter: the little highlighter on the back. It's not often that I need a highlighter, but when I know I need one, I'll grab one from the closet or carry it with me in a bag. It's tough to beat a dedicated highlighter in terms of ergonomics and how long the ink will last. This is similar to the idea of carrying a dedicated eraser with your pencils — they're just better than what you find on the ends of pencils. But, just like with the pencils, it turns out the best highlighter is the one you have with you. In a pinch, the highlighter on the Spotliter is a fantastic little tool.

It works exactly as you'd expect. Uncap the highlighter, mark over stuff to emphasize it with a bright translucent color, and get back to writing. To me, it's somewhat fiddly to flip the pen over, uncap the little highlighter to use it, then recap and flip over again. I'd much rather use a separate highlighter if possible. But the fact that I have one in a multi pen makes it very interesting for those instances when you don't have a highlighter on hand.

Similar to the small erasers on wood case pencils and the even (comically) smaller erasers found in many mechanical pencils (the ones that are hidden under the lead click button on the top of the pencil), this highlighter is more of an "in case of emergency" solution as opposed to a full-on replacement for a dedicated highlighter. That being said, this highlighter performs as well as any standard dedicated highlighter I've used, which is more than can be said for erasers. It really is a fantastic solution if you find yourself occasionally needing a highlighter.

While the highlighter tip shape and color are great, I do have a couple complaints. For one, the ink chamber is really small and you won't get much life out of this highlighter. I don't have any numbers on how long it should last, but I wouldn't bet on it going very far. Fortunately, Pilot sell replacement highlighter components that you can snap in instead of tossing the whole pen. That's fantastic. Plus, you can choose between yellow or pink ink.

My bigger complaint is how easy it is to accidentally remove the highlighter component from the pen body. If you grab the cap and pull straight out, the entire component slips out. According to the instructions, you have to rotate the highlighter cap to uncap it. This works great every time provided I remember to do it correctly. My muscle memory is ingrained to just pull caps off to remove them, so this has been tough to re-learn with this pen.

Pilot Acroball Spotliter 3+1 Multi Pen and Highlighter Writing

Also, given how easy it is to remove the highlighter component, I worry that it could come off in a bag or pocket and get lost. It really doesn't take much pressure to remove it, and I just know I'll lose the highlighter at some point if I'm not really careful.

Aside from those concerns, I'm really happy with this pen. It's great having a multi pen I already know and love, but with a new hidden feature tucked into the back. I don't need a highlighter often, but it's easy to swap this pen into my "out of the house" kit with a similarly sized Acroball to ensure I have a tiny highlighter around if needed.

The model I have is the blue body with pink highlighter, but you can also get a black body and/or yellow highlighter. The highlighter refills are almost $3 and available in pink and yellow.

The Pilot Acroball Spotliter 3+1 multi pen is just $9.75 at JetPens. It makes a great addition to any kit, and I highly recommend checking it out if you're looking for a good multi pen or if you haven't yet tried the Acroball ink.

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

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Posted on August 25, 2021 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Pilot, Acroball, Multi Pen, Pen Reviews.

TWSBI Swipe - Over-Engineered or Welcome Innovation?

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

Let me start off by saying I am a TWSBI fan, ok, crazy superfan, so yes, I am one of those people who has to get the latest TWSBI even if it’s yet-another-color of an existing model. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to see new models and innovations coming from them (or any brand for that matter). So when the TWSBI Swipe was announced, I was eager to see if they really did something different.

TWSBI is well-known for their affordable piston fillers, ranging from the Eco/Eco-T to the 580/AL/ALR/Mini, Precision and Classic. There is also a vacuum filler in the line up - the Vac 700R, and more recently, TWSBI introduced the Go at $19, which is a great value for a “spring-loaded piston-filler”. And now, we have the Swipe, which is a $27 USD cartridge/converter pen. A cartridge/converter pen isn’t exactly “innovative” per se, but it’s definitely not the usual standard international cartridge/converter pen either.

This isn’t a review of the Go, but it helps to understand how the Swipe is both similar to and different from the Go. The Go is a pretty no-frills pen, and in my opinion, not the most attractive pen. It is a pretty durable, snap-cap pen whose spring-loaded mechanism is both fun to use and makes for easy pen cleaning, but it looks cheap and maybe a bit juvenile, like it was meant for kids. Like the Go, the new Swipe is also a snap-cap pen but it is a more polished, dare I say “grown-up” version with a subtly faceted barrel, metal clip, and either solid color (for the Prussian Blue) or transparent color (for the Smoke) for most of the pen with just a small clear ink window..

The Swipe integrates the Go’s spring mechanism into the converter itself, making it very easy (and fun) to ink up and clean out. You can also disassemble the converter by unscrewing the metal ring in the back, which makes for super easy and thorough cleaning; just be aware that the little plastic agitator ball can fall out during disassembly, though I don’t think it’s a big deal if it gets lost.

TWSBI includes a non-spring-loaded converter with the North American models, but it is not included with rest of the world models (priced at $22.99). According to TWSBI, their cartridge and converter are standard international sizing, but neither of them fit into any of my pens that take standard international converters because it is much too wide. I was able to fit standard international cartridges and converters in the Swipe but they didn’t fit as securely as I would have liked, especially the cartridge, which was very wiggly. I suspect this is because neither are wide enough to be held in place.

*Piston and regular Swipe converters vs a standard international converter.*

*Swipe cartridge vs standard international cartridge.*

*Swipe cartridge vs standard international cartridge. Hard to tell from pictures but it’s really wiggly in there.*

Ink capacity in the Swipe’s converter and cartridges is almost double that of its standard international counterparts. The Swipe converter/cartridge holds 1.65 ml and 1.40 ml of ink respectively, while the standard international converter/cartridge holds about 0.85 ml and 0.75ml respectively. The Swipe’s converter capacity is comparable to the Go, which holds about 1.60 ml. It was easy to ink up the pen one-handed with the spring-loaded converter, but you can also buy their Red, Black or Sapphire (blue) cartridges in a 10-pack (you can also use the optional included spring, which helps keep the cartridge in place but I didn’t find that necessary). I suspect that the Swipe is eyedropper-able with some silicon grease on the barrel threads - I did a quick test with some water and the pen did not leak.

*10-pack of cartridges (which I need to exchange cuz I ordered the wrong color, oops!)*

*Eyedroppered Swipe with water and ink that was still in the feed.*

One thing to note, that is easily overlooked, is that the Swipe’s grip is completely round and doesn’t have any ”nubs” or bumps to force your grip a certain way. There is still a small ridge a few millimeters from the edge which keeps your fingers from sliding forward, but that ridge no longer has three subtle bumps, which also means you don’t have to worry about aligning the nib/feed to the barrel.

Eco vs. Swipe’s grip. In the upper left, you can see the “bump” in the upper picture, but it’s not there on the upper right side when the pen is rolled. The Swipe has the uniform ridge around all sides.

The Swipe’s writing experience is what you would expect from a TWSBI Eco, given that they share the same size feed and nib. I didn’t have any issues with dryness as the converter’s large ink capacity made it behave like a regular piston pen. I inked up the Prussian Blue Swipe 1.1 stub (and then swapped with the Broad nib Swipe) with Robert Oster’s Lake of Fire and it wrote immediately, smoothly and consistently.

*Writing sample with the Broad and 1.1 nibs and Robert Oster Lake of Fire on Clairefontaine Triomphe, 90 gsm.*

Pros:

A nicer, more professional-looking pen compared to the TWSBI Go or Eco
Much higher ink capacity than regular c/c pens
Smooth grip section
Great, out-of-the-box writing experience
Easy to use/clean/disassemble converters
Cap snaps/unsnaps securely and easily

Cons/Meh:

The TWSBI converters and cartridges don’t fit in any other pens.
Standard international cartridges/converters don’t fit snugly into the Swipe
Metal clip is pretty tight and takes a little bit of effort to clip to clothing or paper

So, is the TWSBI Swipe over-engineered? Not if you like c/c pens but don’t want to sacrifice ink capacity. And certainly not if you hate cleaning converters like I do - the new converter is so easy to use and clean. It would have been great to be able to use this high capacity converter/cartridge in other pens though. I think it would have been easy for TWSBI to make another piston filler, so I applaud them for coming up with a different take on an existing filling mechanism. Maybe a future iteration could see a regularly-sized standard international converter that has the same spring-loaded mechanism (hey, one can hope!). The TWSBI Swipe is a more attractive and professional-looking pen than the Go or the Eco and the snap-cap makes it easy to take quick notes. All that plus the nibs you expect from TWSBI and at $26.99, it’s a good value for a really good pen.

(All pens in this review were purchased with my own funds from Lemur Ink and I received no compensation from either TWSBI or Lemur Ink for this review.)

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Posted on August 20, 2021 by Kimberly Lau and filed under TWSBI, SWIPE, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

Narwhal Original Fountain Pen Clear Demonstrator Review

Reviewing good products is the hardest thing I do.

You would think that after nearly 14 years of writing reviews online it would be easier to say “This product is good, here is why …” but if I am being honest, it’s easier to write about products that lean one way or the other. Is there something exceptional that sets this pen apart? Is there a flaw that makes you think twice about whether this pen will be good for you?

Or, as is the case with the Narwhal Original Fountain Pen, is being a good pen good enough? I think so, which is why I’m writing this review. This is a good pen. And I’m going to try to explain why.

Narwhal Original Fountain Pen Clear Demonstrator

First off, the build of the pen is nice. It’s on the large side, somewhere around a TWSBI 580 or Pelikan 800 series. Like those two pens, the Narwhal Original is also a piston-filler. Shouldn’t that be a great feature for a pen at this price point? Probably, but we will explore that topic further near the end of the post.

Narwhal Original Fountain Pen Clear Demonstrator Comparison

It feels good in the hand, has a good density to the material, and is well balanced. All in all, it’s set up to be a good writer.

Secondly, the nib is good. Narwhal makes their own nibs in-house, and this Fine steel nib does a good job. For my personal use, I prefer less tipping than this nib has. It is very round, which, in turn, rounds out my handwriting. Something great would be offering the nib in sizes other than Fine or Medium. I would prefer Extra Fine, for example, but maybe that is part and parcel with in-house manufacturing, which I can’t imagine is easy in the slightest. Nib grinders will enjoy the very workable platform, though.

Finally, the price. $50 for a well-built piston-filling fountain pen - that’s pretty great, right? In a vacuum, yes. 10 years ago, yes. Today? It’s still dang good. Add in the other colorful barrel options, and the promise of even more to come in the future, Narwhal is certainly a brand to watch.

Yet, I can’t get past “good” for this pen. Is that a bad thing? Of course not. I would certainly recommend it to someone whose needs it would fit. I would have a harder time recommending it blindly. That’s what separates the good from the great in my book.

If all of this sounds like I’m a Spoilt Victorian Child, well, I hope that’s not the case. In an effort to be objective, as opposed to subjective, maybe I’m straddling the middle line too closely. Or, maybe, that’s the feel I get from this particular Narwhal pen. Maybe, as the brand grows into the wondrous whale it is named after, it adds something a bit more magical into the feel of the pen.

Until then, the Narwhal Original is a good pen.

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

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