Bullet Journal “The Pen” Review

Do you need a special pen to Bullet Journal? Of course not. But it doesn’t hurt to have one you enjoy using, and the team behind the Bullet Journal hopes it might be their own model, The Pen, designed in collaboration with long time partner Leuchtturm1917.

The simple name belies its design. The Pen is small and narrow, with a lightweight aluminum barrel and brass ends. The twist mechanism is simple, and finishes off a design that is right at home next to your favorite notebook.

If the design looks familiar, it is because it is based around Leuchtturm’s popular Drehgriffel pen. The standard model was released in 2020, featuring a German design aesthetic from 100 years prior. It was modernized with a dozen different barrel colors, and features a ballpoint ink refill, in blue or black.

Pro tip: Add a bit of washi tape to the refill to mitigate the metal on metal clicking sound when writing.

The Pen differs aesthetically, with black on black barrel text as opposed to the standard white stamping, and with the use of an 0.5 mm gel ink refill-a better choice in my book, and maybe for Bullet Journaler notebooks, too. It certainly caught me by surprise. Not that it was gel ink per se, but the 0.5 mm tip size. 0.7 mm is usually the default. Having a Parker-style 0.5 mm gel ink refill as the stock option is rare these days.

The refill works well, too. It’s not as glassy smooth as other mainstream gel ink refills, but that is a fair trade for the finer line. I saw no skipping issues, and the lines were clean and mess free.

There are a few minor considerations if you are thinking about this pen for yourself. The most minor one is the Bullet Journal logo if you aren’t a user of the system. As I mentioned before, the black on black text makes it barely visible-it’s only there if you go looking for it.

A bigger issue could be the elongated nose cone that extends into the grippable area of the pen. This is part of the traditional Drehgriffel design. I’m a low-gripper, so my fingers cross into the brass area most of the time, where the pen narrows out. I didn’t have an issue with that, because my grip and writing style mesh with the fine gel refill. The thinness of the faceted barrel does allow you to grip it further back comfortably, if needed.

The biggest issue is the price. At $31.95, I think it is completely reasonable. I’d guess many readers of the blog feel similarly. That puts it in the same class as the Retro 51, and more expensive than many Lamy ballpoints and rollerballs, which are another great upgrade option over the basics. Of course, you can #BuJo with any pen or pencil, and could buy a fistful for $30. What will fans of the Bullet Journal system think?

Combined with an upgraded 2nd Edition of the Bullet Journal notebook, The Pen is a nice addition to the BuJo ecosystem. And, as a stand-alone product, it’s pretty darn good in its own right. I think Bullet Journal fans will enjoy it, as will general stationery lovers.

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

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Kaweco Student Fountain Pen - 30’s Blues Review

(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!.)

When I discovered this pen in a recent shipment from the Bossman, I had thoughts. One of which was “Surely, this pen has been reviewed before” and yes, yes, it has been - by Susan, Jeff and Sarah. I deliberately didn’t read their reviews so I wouldn’t be biased, but it’s not that often that several of us are reviewing the same model, so definitely check them out to get our respective thoughts on this pen.

The other thought I had was that I once owned a Kaweco Student and sold it because it was one of the very few pens that I had a tough time writing with because the grip section felt slippery and skinny. Would I want to put myself through writing with this pen just to do a review? Not really, but I did it anyway, cuz #science, I love you all and I’m a glutton for punishment so why not? Read on to see if my thoughts on it have changed.

The Kaweco Student Fountain Pen that I am reviewing is called 30’s Blues. Kaweco used musical decade/genres to name the different colorways, like 20’s Jazz, 50’s Rock, 60’s Swing, 70’s Soul and this one, 30’s Blues. To my knowledge, they have not released anything for the 40’s and I can’t wait to see what they would do for the 80’s and 90’s but I digress.

All of the pens in this series have an ivory-colored barrel with a solid color cap and gold-colored clip, trim, grip and nib. Aside from this series, the Kaweco Student could be found in solid colors like Black, Vintage Blue, Red, etc. as well as a demonstrator. It is a cartridge/converter pen but did not come with a converter. I chose to syringe fill an empty cartridge with Colorverse Project 004 Dirty Red, which is a great match to the cap and has average flow. This pen has a fine nib so I was curious to see how it performed, as the writing experience for some of the Kawecos can be hit and miss.

Kaweco Student 30’s Blues…but with a red cap.

I was pleasantly surprised that, after setting it nib down for a bit to let the ink flow from the cartridge, the pen wrote nicely. It wasn’t scratchy or dry (nor wet), and it actually had a nice almost-Japanese fine width to it with just a hint of tooth/feedback. It wrote beautifully out of the box, no cleaning or rinsing or anything. Yay!

Taken from the Kaweco Student Fountain Pen webpage which explains how it got its name.

Here’s how it compares to some other nib widths for other currently inked pens.

I wrote with the pen about half a dozen times over the course of the past month and it has worked without issues on all of them, except once when the ink was “stuck” to the bottom of the cartridge and the pen worked after a couple quick taps to the cart. I’ve done everything from quick to-do items to longer writing sessions and each time, the pen wrote flawlessly and it was a pleasurable writing experience. The grip that caused me to sell my own Student pen several years back doesn’t seem to be bothering me at all this time around. I wasn’t gripping the pen any tighter (or looser) than I usually do. I can’t explain why it worked for me this time around. I will say that the grip still feels a bit thinner to me, but it might be the slight concave shape of the grip that makes it feel so thin. The grip looks metal but feels both metallic and plasticky at the same time - hard to explain so you will either have to try one or take my word for it. And it is also a fingerprint magnet.

Left to Right: Kaweco Sport, Pilot Prera, Sailor Lecoule, Esterbrook JR, Pilot Kakuno, Kaweco Student, Sailor Compass, Kaweco Perkeo, Platinum Procyon, Faber-Castell Grip, TWSBI Eco, Lamy Safari.

I’m glad I gave this pen a second chance because I really liked the Kaweco Student this time around. It is a classy looking acrylic pen that has a slight bit of heft thanks to the metal grip section, is available in a variety of colors, and writes like any of the Kaweco Sport nibs (which means your mileage may vary, especially with the EFs). I do like that the nib units are screwed in (as opposed to glued in for many of the Sport models), so you can swap in different nib sizes. The price of the Kaweco Student typically ranges from $60-70 though you can sometimes find the solid options for ~$52. ~$50-60 feels like a good price for this pen, but I think $70 is a bit much. You can find this one at JetPens for $60 which I think is reasonable.

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

Aurora 88 Unica Nera Fountain 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. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

First of all, I want to thank everyone who weighed in this past fall to help decide what pen I would use for NaNoWriMo this year. May I just say that you all have excellent taste. The Aurora 88 Unica Nera was perfect in every way. I also want to thank Kenro Industries for letting me borrow this exquisite pen even after they were warned that I was going to put it through the wringer. And I want to thank Brad for helping organize this fun exercise. He doesn't even (visibly) flinch when I say, "Hey, I have this wild idea..."

I normally have at least five pens in rotation, often as many as a dozen, so switching to just one pen for a month was a challenge! But with such a nice pen, it was also a pleasure. I did miss my other pens, of course, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with the Aurora.

The Aurora 88 Unica Nera is made from a matte finish black resin with shiny black accents and a black-coated gold nib. There is a smokey-clear acrylic ink window at the base of the grip section. It has a piston-fill system that holds a substantial amount of ink. The cap screws on, and it does post, though that might scratch the finish over time. The clip is very firm--I have to manually lift it to get it to slide over paper or a pen case. It's definitely not going to slide off easily.

The pen feels very substantial and strong. It weighs almost 20g and nothing about it feels light or cheap, though it also isn't heavy. It really feels like the luxury pen that it is. The piston and cap all thread very smoothly and all the joins are precise and seamless.

I confess, I was a little nervous about the nib. In the past, black-coated nibs that I've tried have felt too dry, or like they have a grippy texture that doesn't flow smoothly across the page. I had no such issue with this pen. The nib is smooth and perfectly tuned. This nib is an EF, though I noticed some subtle italic-ness to it. It definitely has a sweet spot where this effect is highlighted, but it writes well regardless of writing angle or speed. I did notice that the pen had some trouble keeping up with ink supply when I was writing very quickly for very long periods of time, but that's to be expected. If the pen needs a little break after speed-writing 2k words, I probably do, too.

Overall, this pen is elegant, luxurious, and a fantastic writer. It survived my NaNoWriMo adventure across 3 states, 4 airports, 3 hotels, 6 libraries, and 2 road trips. It stayed perfectly safe in my Musubi pen case and never leaked once. The only thing that makes me sad is that the adventure is over! Alas, at $585, it's outside my price range. I won't say it's not worth that price, though (as much as any pen is worth the price we Pen Addicts will pay for the right pen). An Aurora is definitely in my future, though, when the right time comes.

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

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