Weekly Sponsorships Now Available At The Pen Addict

Weekly sponsorship slots are now available at The Pen Addict, with the assistance of my friends at Syndicate Ads.

What does this mean, and why the change? I have long term plans for this blog, the podcast, and my work at Nock Co. to be my life. I want to do more, I can do more, and I want you to come along for the ride. This is the first step in making dreams become a reality.

Did I up and quit my day job all of a sudden? No...not yet anyway. But I think I can make a go at this and be successful. It is going to take time, and the time to start is now.

My primary focus with the blog has always been to be as reader friendly as possible. That's why you won't see, and will never see, things like Google Adsense, SEO-style writing and self linking, truncated RSS feeds, etc. I respect you, the reader, too much to put you through that.

With a weekly sponsorship, there is one featured advertiser for the week, and I have a say in who it is. This pays respect to the advertiser in that they have the focus for the week, and pays respect to the reader in that you aren't getting bombarded with nonsense.

There will be more to announce in the coming months. Thank you all so much for your passion and support in reading this site for all these years!

If you have a product or business and would like to sponsor The Pen Addict, head over to the newly created Sponsor Page for all of the details, or get in touch if you would like to book directly or have any questions.

Airfoil Click Pen Review

The Airfoil Click Pen is not Grant Takara's first Kickstarter rodeo. He has lived the ups and downs of funding with his previous project, the original Airfoil, and is back with a pen design that has already proven to be a winner.

This model differs from its predecessor in two major ways. The first is obvious: This is a click pen instead of a twist pen. It uses the popular Schmidt mechanism that many Kickstarter projects before it have used. It is a solid, simple, attractive, and an excellent choice for any machined pen.

The second major change, and the most important, is the reshaping of the barrel. The original Airfoil had a fin-based barrel, which, while extremely beautiful, was not functional for longer writing sessions. Early reviewers of the original model (I was not one of them) repeatedly made note of how uncomfortable it became and Grant took that feedback to heart when designing the Airfoil Click.

To steal directly from the product page, the barrel has been streamlined. The fins are gone, replaced by a smooth barrel with cutouts on each side that fulfills Grants vision of aircraft geometry as part of the pen, and also serves to reduce the overall weight. My first reaction when I saw this pen was to think of the Uni-ball Jetstream barrel cutout and now I wonder with if that is an aviation based pen too. It is named Jetstream after all.

I'm really impressed with the prototype Grant sent me. If I was forced to pick nits I would like to see the barrel seam connect more flush between the two halves, and the edges on the grip ridges could be softened just a bit, but overall this is a solid product.

The Airfoil Click is available in aluminum (natural or anodized in several striking colors) and titanium. There is even the ability to pick the finish on your clip bolts and push mechanism, which I don't think I have seen anyone offer before.

Thanks again to Grant Takara for sending me this prototype for review and be sure to check out the Airfoil Click Kickstarter project.

Pilot Petit1 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)

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the fun you can have with Pilot's affordable Petit3 brush pens. It was my introduction into the world of brush pens, and I'm glad that Pilot offers a pen of such value at such a great price.

Well, I feel pretty much the same way about the Petit1 series, the fountain pen version. The Petit1 pens have the exact same body as the other Petit line of pens, as well as the same unique color options. I know everyone has different opinions about what fountain pen is best to start with, but I think you can't go wrong by recommending a Petit1.

The Petit1 wasn't my first fountain pen purchase, but it was toward the beginning of the whole slippery slope (Thanks, Brad). I bought a couple of Petit1 pens along with a couple of Platinum Preppies to try out the Japanese nibs that Brad and Myke were talking about so much. Looking back, I won't recommend either of those pens for people who are trying to get a good feel for standard nib sizes of Japanese pens. They just vary too much in size, probably due to the price and lack of more stringent quality controls. Long story short, I didn't care for the Preppies, but loved the Petits. They were fun, easy to write with, and could go anywhere.

I've had my share of dud nibs so far, and I've even learned how to work on them to resolve minor issues. But I'm always impressed by the Petit1 pens because so far I've had a 100% success rate from the factory. No adjustments necessary—just clean, smooth, effortless writing from the beginning. I've spent a lot more money on other pens that have been so frustrating due to nib problems. When I think about the Petit1 and the quality I've seen from Pilot, I just can't fathom how other manufacturers can let so many problems out of the factory and onto the shelves. But, I'm starting to rant.

The Petit1 is a small, pocket-sized pen that is very similar in size to the Kaweco Sport line. Very small when capped, but ergonomic when posted. The range of colors you can get with the Petit1 is one of the most attractive features of the pen. Each pen comes with one cartridge of ink that matches the color of the pen. Surprisingly, Pilot even sell extra cartridges for these pens. Yes, they only fit in the Petit1, but it's still a nice option considering these are priced as disposable pens (actually, they look like standard Pilot cartridges that have been shortened). I'm sure you could even convert these pens to an eyedropper system, but I haven't tried it yet.

One of the things that delighted me about this pen when I first got it was the clear feed. When you pop the ink cartridge in, you can watch the ink creep its way up the small wick inside the feed, and the color spreads to the outer edges of the feed. I enjoy it...maybe a little too much.

These pens write well. They're smooth and dependable. In my experience, even though these are listed as a "fine" nib, they vary from (Japanese) fine to medium in practice.

Despite being thin plastic, I've never had one of these break, which is definitely a major selling point over the Preppy. Every Preppy I've owned has cracked from normal use.

Overall, I can't recommend these pens enough. At $3.80 a pop, you can even go crazy and order all eight colors at once.