Esterbrook Fountain Pen Day 2Go Cup Giveaway

I came home with some fresh loot during my travels for Fountain Pen Day, including this awesome Esterbrook Fountain Pen Day 2Go Cup, made just for our holiday. They are a few left for purchase, and I have one to give away this week. Read the rules below and enter away!

Posted on November 21, 2023 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Esterbrook, Giveaways.

YSTUDIO Ocean Sustainable Rollerball Pen Review

The YSTUDIO Ocean Sustainable Rollerball Pen was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, and, in typical YSTUDIO fashion, they delivered a great product.

YSTUDIO came on the scene several years ago, and gained popularity with their lineup of Brassing pens. The concept was to use an underlying brass barrel and coat it with a matte-like black paint which will wear off with age. My favorite is the Brassing Portable Fountain Pen, which quickly became a mainstay in my collection.

Years later, YSTUDIO added resin models to their product lineup for those who didn’t like the weight of their full-metal pens. These, too, performed well. I reviewed the Resin Fountain Pen, and while there was a converter issue with the early models, it turned into a fast favorite as well.

There is something about those faceted barrels, and YSTUDIO got me again with their most colorful release to date.

The Ocean Sustainable Rollerball series features resin barrel made from reclaimed fishing nets in Taiwan. These plastic nets are recovered, recycled, and transformed into the pens you see here. To read more about this process, YSTUDIO has built a page discussing the steps involved. There is great detail shared here, and is well worth your time.

The finished product is classic YSTUDIO, with a range of barrel colors that pop. I chose Sky Blue, which, according to them, represents “open-mindedness, and a clear and radiant heart.” Ok, maybe you don’t need your pen to hit you in the feels like that, but I do appreciate the story they are trying to tell across the product lineup. Each of the other four colors - Dawn Yellow, Sunset Orange, Evening Purple, and Sea Indigo - has their own story to tell.

From a writing perspective, it’s fantastic. This isn’t a small pen, but it works exceptionally well in the hand due to the plastic barrel fronted by a brass grip section. I love the balance and control this setup provides. The only downside is that the taper of the metal section is smooth, and if you have dry fingers, they may slide down. I tend to grip it a bit further back, as the angle of the grip is steep as well.

*Ghosting on the back of the* *Maurman Mnemosyne A5 Notepad. This is an awesome writing paper, especially for fountain pens, but dark, wide, rollerball pens look like this on many paper types.*

Fortunately, the refill in use fits the design of the pen perfectly. The Schmidt 5888F Ceramic Roller in Black features a dark, rich line. The tip is marked as 0.6 mm, but given the traditional water-based rollerball ink, the line on the page is wider. To me, it writes like an 0.7 mm marker tip, which is great if that is your expectation. If not, and you use it on fibrous paper, you will see it bleed and feather on the page.

*Refill access through the back of the pen. Easy to twist with your fingernail.*

I like this refill as an option, but if I want to switch it up, it is compatible with Pilot G2 refills. That means you have hundreds of options to choose from. I’m sticking with the Schmidt for now, as I like the setup and feel of the pen barrel and ink combination.

Will you like it? As I say with every YSTUDIO pen I review, it may not be for you. They are a favorite brand of mine, but there are things to think about when buying one for yourself. Will I like the barrel shape, and feel? Does the grip work for me? Do I have to change the refill to better fit my style? Finally, is it worth $50, which is the going price for the Ocean Sustainable Rollerball?

My answers to those questions made it one of the easiest purchases of the year. Your mileage may vary.

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

Misfill, TIPS2023 Edition

Each week in Refill, the Pen Addict Members newsletter, I publish Ink Links as part of the additional content you receive for being a member. And each week, after 10 to 15 links, plus my added commentary on each, I'm left with many great items I want to share. Enter Misfill. Here are this weeks links:

— Recap of TIPS2023 (Inkcredible Colours)

— Early thoughts on the Tibaldi Infrangible Black Gold fountain pen. (Fountain pen blog)

— Revisiting Diamine Inkvent 2022 (Cheryl Lindo Jones)

— Lamy Logo Fountain Pen Review (Blake's Broadcast)

— Over 25 Years of a Pioneering Collective's History Comes Together in ‘Trailblazing Women Printmakers' (Colossal)

— Tactile Turn Nitro (Figboot on Pens)

— Hobonichi Techo 2024 (Bleistift)

— Site Lines: Jill Gill's New York City streetscapes are a love letter to a lost world (Creative Boom)

— Pen frustration, pen magic (A Gathering of Curiosities)

— Tea pot and lacquer picnic box (Zen In Technicolor)

— Our Favorite Art Books of 2023 (Colossal)

— Pelikan Souveran M800 40 Years of Souveran Review (SBREBrown)