Booker-Palooza 2012 Review and Giveaway #3: Pentel Tradio Fountain Pen in Pearl Black Finish (Entries closed and winner announced)

Welcome to day 3 of Booker-Palooza 2012. This is the third givewaway of the week, with two more to follow, so make sure you check back daily.

Please note that because I screwed up the timing of this post and it published late, I will keep entries open for an additional 24 hours, until 12:01 a.m. on Friday, September 7.

You're probably wondering how I decided to give away this this Pentel Tradio Fountain Pen after spending 28 bucks on it a year or so ago. The clue is in the last part of that sentence. I purchased this at least a year ago, tried it out for a day to write the review, then put it away and never got around to writing the review. Something tells me there are not legions of Tradio fans scouring eBay for a deal on this pen, so I figured, what the heck . . . give it away! So, here we go.

The Review

The Tradio is comparable in size to a Lamy Safari (though here, I have it pictured next to a Lamy AL-Star,) at least in length. But it tapers more at the ends and is thus less cylindrical. It feels uch smaller than the Safari, though, perhaps partly because of its shape and partly because it's virtually weightless. When you're writing unposted, there's no heft to the pen at all. Some people will like that, some won't.

While I'm comparing it to the Safari in size, I might as well make the comparison in a few other ways, especially since they are similarly priced (in fact, at Jet Pens, the Tradio and Safari are both priced at $26.00) and both could be considered "entry level" pens.

Top: Lamy AL-Star, bottom: Pentel Tradio

The finish on the Tradio is a little fancier, probably designed to give the illusion that the pen has a gunmetal body instead of a plastic one. It looks more purple in the photos than it does right in front of you. (The picture of the cap captures the finish better.) But if you like shiny, metal-looking plastic, the black pearl Tradio is for you. The other Tradio finishes look, online at least, like they would be more obviously plastic. So, in the fancy-shmancy category, score a point for the Tradio.

The Tradio doesn't feel very durable, but I have to admit I never really put put it to the test. Perhaps it is because the pen is so light, but I just would not have the same confidence shoving this pen into my jeans pocket as I would carrying a Safari that way. It feels more breakable to me, but I have no scientific evidence to back that up.

The wire Safari/AL-Star clip is very distinctive, and I've read a lot of negative comments about how ugly it is, but I happen to like it in both form and function, and I do not like the Tradio's clip as much. The cap and clip on the Tradio are part of he same molded piece of plastic; there is no spring for the clip except for whatever physical properties the molded plastic has. While not quite as guaranteed to go over your pocket every time, the Tradio clip is nonetheless pretty consistent. But I have to give the nod to the Safari in this one.

One-piece clip and cap; view window near top

The Tradio cap, like that on the Safari, clicks on rather than screws on, and has one feature that I consider somewhat gimmicky: a window in the cap that lets you see the nib while the pen is capped. I'm not sure what function that serves, though I suppose it's possible you might have a Tradio rollerball in the same color and want to be able to tell the difference. If you're going to put a viewing window in a fountain pen, better to have it so you can view the ink level, like on the Safari.

The nib on the Tradio writes incredibly smooth for a pen at this price point. Really, really , nice. I actually like the feel of this nib much better than any on my Safaris.And it has an aesthetic leg up on the Safari nib as well, with some design on the nib and, according to Jet Pens at least, some gold plating. Unfortunately, the design of the nib was usually obscured by ink; this nib displayed lots of nib creep when inked with Noodler's Navy, but I didn't try other inks and for all I know, that same ink would creep on a Safari. But the Safari has something else going for it: the nib is easily changed, and relatively inexpensive replacement nibs (around $10 each, I think) make it economical to experiment with different nib widths, including three widths of italic nibs.

Overall, the Tradio is a solid entry-level pen or daily writer for those accustomed to fountain pens. It's a viable alternative to a Lamy Safari if you happen to like the design silhouette or finish better, want a fancier nib, want a smoother writing experience (though your mileage may vary on this consideration), or, like a lot of people, are turned off by the Safari clip.

I got my Tradio through Writer's Bloc; they still carry the pen in a few other finishes, but not black pearl.  You can find the black pearl finish and several others at JetPens. I've ordered a lot more over the years from JetPens than I have Writer's Bloc, but they are both reliable vendors in my experience.

The Giveaway

 If you'd like this pen, here's how to enter the giveaway.

Please note that because I screwed up the timing of this post and it published late, I will keep entries open for an additional 24 hours, until 12:01 a.m. on Friday, September 6. 

You can enter by email, by commenting, or by both. It's perfectly OK for you to enter both ways. Not everyone is necessarily going to take the time to do that (very few did on the first giveaway), so entering both ways may increase your chances of winning.

To enter by email, send an email to me at notebookeresqATgmail.com, with the following word, and ONLY the following word, in the subject line:

TRADIO

 
Lower case or upper case doesn't matter, as long as your email reaches me by 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time, Friday morning, September 7. You may send only one email per person.

To enter by commenting, click in the comment field, then use one of the login methods displayed or click in the NAME field to comment as a guest. Please note that if you log in using your Twitter or Facebook account, I will not have your email and will not be able to contact you directly if you win. In that case, you'll have to return to this post to see if you are the announced winner and claim your prize. (If you are concerned about privacy, note that your email will not display in the comment.) Your comment must be timestamped no later than 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time, Friday, September 7.

Good luck, and check back tomorrow for giveaway number 4 in Booker-Palooza 2012. Remember,  each of the giveaway posts this week goes up at 12:01 a.m. and the sign up period on each is only 24 hours, so you'll have to check back every day to make sure you don't miss your chance at something interesting.

UPDATE: 29 emails and 19 comments equals 48 total entries. And the winner is . . . drum roll please . . . [CYMBAL CRASH] . . .

Kyle, the third email entry received. Congratulations, Kyle!

Booker-Palooza 2012 Review and Giveaway #3: Pentel Tradio Fountain Pen in Pearl Black Finish (Entries closed and winner announced)

Noodler's pen reviews updated

I've added new updates to each of my Noodler's pen reviews. Read about the leaking problems I've had with the eyedropper model here.(The update is at the end of that post.) Click here to read about a pitfall of the piston filler. (Search for "9/30/10" in that post to quickly find the update.)

Noodler's pen reviews updated

Review: Noodler's Ink Aerometric/Eyedropper Filler Fountain Pen

Noodler's Ink recently got into the pen business with two lines of fountain pens. A few weeks ago, I reviewed the piston-filler model, and now its time for me to scrutinize the aerometric/eyedropper filler. Now that I'm sitting down to write this, I realize that I should have reviewed them together (like bleubug did), because most people interested in the Noodler's Ink Pens are probably trying to decide between the two, and it's impossible to write this review without comparing them in any event. So, you might want to open a  new browser tab and bring up my review of the piston filler so you can switch back and forth between my reviews.

The differences between this pen and its piston filler brother don't make it better or worse than the piston filler in performance. Instead, differences in design and aesthetics make the "winner" a matter of personal preference.

For how much I like using the pen, the $24 price at Jet Pens seems fair. Like the piston filler, I like writing with this eyedropper model better than writing with any of my entry-level Pelikans at comparable price points (a P55, Style Silver, and Pelikano), and about as much as the comparably priced Lamy Safari. However, this Noodler's pen displays some troubling quality control issues that make me wonder if it is built to last. It may turn out that time will tell this pen is not worth the money.

Presentation

This pen arrived in the same catfish-adorned cardboard box that the piston model did. The insert in the box covers quite a bit more than the insert in the piston filler, though. In addition to explaining various features of the pen, it explains how to convert it from its default aerometric filling configuration to an eyedropper filler and back again (more on that later).

Fit and Finish
 
While I wasn't expecting much in the way of beauty from Noodler's $14 piston filler, I had higher expectations for this pen, both because of the higher price and because its photos online looked better than photos of the piston filler. I don't think this is a beautiful pen, and I like its lines even less than the lines of the piston filler. However, there area few reasons I prefer the look of this pen.

First, the mottled finish of this ebonite pen (at least the brown — I haven't seen the mottled green) looks much nicer than the smooth finish of the "vegetal resin" body on the piston filler.  I generally prefer a less "busy" finish on a pen, but the mottled finish here functions to hide some flaws. A close look at the finish reveals lots of scratches at right angles to the the length of the pen, just like the piston filler, but they are much harder to see on this model because the mottled finish hides them. In fact, you have to really look to find them on this eyedropper model, while they tend to jump out at you on the piston filler.

Second, the metal trim on this pen seemed to be in better shape than the trim on my piston filler. Since there are reasons I note below (and Pocket Blonde notes in her review) to believe that this more expensive pen is not subject to more stringent quality control procedures than the piston filler, I attribute the better-looking trim to the fact there is less of it. Despite its larger size, this pen has significantly less trim — including a much smaller clip, smaller cap ring, and no section ring — than the piston filler, so there are no large patches of trim to look nicked up.

Barrel and Fill Mechanism

As I mentioned, the body of this pen is made of ebonite, a hard rubber. Noodler's insert doesn't say so (and why would they), but I'm pretty sure this is the same material that bowling balls like my old Brunswick LT-48 Johnny Petraglia Signature model. In fact, since no one makes bowling balls out of rubber anymore, one wonders if one could recycle all those old bowling balls into fountain pens.

Hold on, where was I?

As you can see, this pen is quite a bit larger than the piston filler, so those with large hands itching to try a Noodler's are probably better off with this eyedropper model than the piston filler.

Let's take a closer look at the filling alternatives.

In the default configuration, the pen is an aerometric filler. The sac is glued to the section and thus cannot be removed between inks like the sac on the Pilot Knight. Inside the sac is a breather tube (which is, I believe,  what makes this pen a true aerometric filler) that the insert says maximizes sac capacity, enables atmospheric changes (presumably, they mean that decreases in outside air pressure won't cause the pen to leak), and acts as an ink drain when the pen is stored upright in your pocket.

Another feature touted in the insert is the "metal filler" that Noodler's says "distributes the heat of your hand to better avoid chamber air expansion." Presumably, that is a reference to the metal sleeve that encloses the sac, but I'm not sure.

Disassembled in Aerometric Mode

The aerometric fill mechanism is less than ideal, to my mind. It works fine to fill the pen, but I found it hard to flush. Then again, I'm pretty obsessive about getting every last trace of the prior ink out before changing colors. If you're comfortable changing inks with trace amounts of the old ink left in the sac, or if you plan on using the same ink all the time, the difficulty in flushing shouldn't matter.

The friction fit of the metal sleeve that surrounds the sac is not very tight, making it easy to remove to reveal the sac. In fact, the sleeve did not stay attached to the section and came away in the barrel the first time I took the pen apart to fill it.

When I got the pen, the sac was clear. The package insert warns that most normal inks will stain the sac (and provides tips for avoiding stains by choosing certain inks that are — shock! — Noodler's inks). Sure enough, about the third or fourth ink I put through this pen is the one that turned the sac pink. Was the stain caused by Noodler's Bay State Cape Cod Cranberry? Nope. Pelikan Brilliant Red? Nope. Iroshisuku Tsutsuji? Nope. The guilty ink is Private Reserve Midnight Blues (pictured in the scan near the end of this post). Interesting that a blue-black ink would stain the sac pink. Perhaps it was a cumulative effect of all the inks, but none of them was anywhere near red or pink.

Converting the pen to an eyedropper filler is fairly simple, but requires some slightly different technigue than described in the package insert. Simply remove the friction fit metal sleeve and take off the sac, and voila — you have your eyedropper filler. (You can remove the breather tube, too, but that's not necessary.)

Stre-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-tch!

Removing the sac takes more than described in the package insert, though. The insert says all you have to do is pull the sac straight off, but intuition tells you that the rubber cement will prevent that technique from working. Nonetheless, I gave it a try. As I expected, all that happened is that I stretched the sac.

To get the sac off, I had to peel it away at the base (which happened almost by accident as I was figuring out the best way to do it). Once the sac was off, there was residue to scrape off the fitting. I'm not sure any of the residue (which I presume included rubber cement) would have contaminated the ink, but I figured why take chances?

Once the sac is removed, all you have to do is use an eyedropper or syringe to fill the barrel with ink up to the level of the inside threads and thread the section and barrel back together. The pen already has an o-ring to seal the seam between the barrel and section, but more conscientious types might consider applying a silicone lube to the threads for added protection against leaks.  Once I converted the pen to an eyedropper filler and filled it without using silicone on the threads, I spent the next several days expecting to find a pool of ink in my pencil case every time I opened it. But so far, so good, and it's been more than a week.

The package insert advises you to keep an eye on the ink flow to know when to add ink when in eyedropper mode. With that metal sleeve removed, the warmth of your hand can expand the air in the barrel and increase ink flow as the ink supply draws down. When you observe this, according to Noodler's, the ink supply is down to about 1/3 capacity, and it is time to add ink.

This, to me, is the big disadvantage of eyedropper mode. If the ink flow increase is appreciable (and I haven't reached that point yet), then the writing characteristics may not be to your liking, and the only way to get them back where they belong will be to top off the barrel. But what if you also want to change ink colors? Unless I'm missing an alternative (tell me if I am), you either have to pour that 1/3 barrel of the old ink color back in its bottle and risk contamination or pour it down the drain. Neither prospect is attractive. Of course, it could be that with the right ink, the increase in flow is so marginal that you'll be able to continue using the pen comfortably to a much lower level of ink or even until the ink is exhausted. Experience will undoubtedly reveal one's best inks for this purpose.

The pen can be converted back to aerometric filler by replacing the sac, using rubber cement to attach it to the section. That strikes me as a lot easier said than done, though. The parts are small, and I think you'd have to be awfully careful with that rubber cement. With my luck, I'd apply it in a way that blocks the path from the sac to the feed. Also, don't forget to replace the breather tube if you removed it.

Cap

The cap on this pen is not threaded like the cap in the piston filler, but you don't get a "click-on" cap, either, really. There's no clear "click" when capping or uncapping the pen. Instead, the inside of the cap contains springed prongs that grip the section when capped and barrel when posted. (I couldn't get a good picture of them, but Office Supply Geek did). This seems to provide a firm fit in both positions. However, it is possible to catch the nib between the ebonite and the prongs (I did it once or twice), so guide the nib into the cap carefully.

The metal trim on the cap is minimal. Despite the fact this pen is much larger than the piston filler, the clip is much smaller in size and the metal ring on the cap is quite narrow. However, the clip seems no less functional than the larger clip on the piston filler.

Nib & Section

I think this nib slipped by quality control!

This nib is the same as the nib on the piston filler in all respects: stainless steel, fine-medium, a standard #2 friction fit, so it can be removed by a hard, steady pull and replaced with almost any other #2 nib. I never could quite see the same gap between the tines as in the nib on my piston filler, and that Noodler's touts as the sign of a properly tuned nib.

In fact, the slit in the nib in my pen is off center. That doesn't seem to affect its performance, at least not so much that I could notice. This pen writes just like my piston filler. Still, it is not an encouraging sign for the quality of the pen (and makes me worry about the quality of that o-ring that, in eyedropper mode, is the only thing standing between me and an "ink incident"). I have to think this nib slipped by quality control and should not gave been allowed to leave the factory like this. (Pocket Blonde cited different but likewise bothersome signs of poor quality control.)

One of my complaints about the piston filler was its very thin section. This eyedropper model has a  more conventional-sized section. Between that and the greater weight of this pen, I found it more comfortable to write with.

Feel & Writing Experience

With a nib identical to that in the piston filler, it is not surprising that the performance is nearly identical. The "fine-medium" nib lays down a line quite similar to the line on a Lamy Safari fine nib, the writing is very smooth on most papers because of the wet  line. While the pen starts up almost quickly even after being left uncapped for extended periods, I found it to be not as fast a starter as the piston filler. This may be due to some manufacturing variation in the nibs, but more likely due to the fact that I readjusted the tines on my piston filler after dropping the pen into the sink during a flush.

The piston filler tended to lay down a broader line with a Noodler's ink (Lexington Gray) than with others, but I did not find that the Noodler's ink I tried in this pen (Navy) laid down a line any different than that laid down with Private Reserve Midnight Blues. Noodler's has so many different formulations in its inks, however, that I would not expect Noodler's inks on the whole to perform differently than others. As with any other ink, performance is likely to vary from ink to ink even among the Noodler's brand. (Remember that in eyedropper mode, the pen will tend to write wetter when the ink is down to about 1/3 capacity.)



Which Noodler's Pen Wins?

When I started to write this review more than a week ago, I was ready to declare this eyedropper model the "winner" when compared to the Noodler's piston filler. Now, I'm not so sure. They have identical nibs and both have great ink capacity (once you've converted the aerometric/eyedropper to eyedropper mode).The eyedropper has better aesthetics and has more heft. People with larger hands wil almost certainly appreciate the greater size and heft of the eyedropper.

Which one everyone else finds better is likely to depend upon your preferences for size, weight, appearance, filling method, and cap (threaded versus unthreaded). Overall, my preference for the aesthetics and weight of the eyedropper put it ahead, but I still am a little tentative about long-term use of an eyedropper filler. The naturally clumsy (like myself) may want to stick to the piston filler or leave the aerometric/eyedropper in aerometric mode. Fountain pen use has enough hazards for clumsy people without adding the dangers of an eyedropper filler!

Other Reviews

See bleubug, Office Supply Geek, and Pocket Blonde. For more photos, check out my Flickr set for the review.

Update (9/30/10)

This pen has been driving me crazy lately, because I have been experiencing the a problem similar to that experienced by commenter Don Johnson has. He wrote:

So I converted to eyedropper -- I have plenty of ink now, but it also gushes droplets of ink from the section-- NOT good -- Any thoughts[?]

The last five or so inks I've put through this pen have leaked like crazy. I don't get any leaking when the pen is uncapped, but it leaks a lot while capped. Every time I uncap it I have to be very careful about wiping down the section before gripping it and I have to remember not to post the cap, because that transfers a lot of the leaked ink to the barrel, and that eventually gets on my fingers. In fact, this was one of the pens that inspired this post.

I don't know if it's leaking from the section or the nib, but either way, I think I have given up on this pen. I'm not about to go through the hassle or reattaching the sac, because I'd probably just end up sealing off the feed with a glob of rubber cement.

I'll probably be offering this pen in a giveaway soon, so if you're game to give it a try, keep tuning in.

Review: Noodler's Ink Aerometric/Eyedropper Filler Fountain Pen

Noodler's Ink Piston-Filler Fountain Pen Review and Giveaway! (UPDATED)

(UPDATE #4: The announcement of the winners is here.)

I have several fountain pen reviews written out longhand, but I'm glad I haven't posted any of them yet, because it seems fitting that my debut fountain pen review  — and debut giveaway! — should be of a debut fountain pen: the new piston-filler from Noodler's Ink. Instructions for entering to win the pen are at the end of the post. (UPDATE: read the entry instructions carefully, as they are slightly different than the original instructions.)

Noodler's has come out with two lines of fountain pens. The piston-filling model in this review is available in black, red, blue, burgundy or turquoise for $14 each at both Jet Pens and Swisher Pens. I bought mine from Jet Pens, which seems to have its hooks buried very deep into me. (Which I don't mind at all! By the way, if you follow the Jet Pens link, you'll also see Noodler's second line of pens, an aerometric/eyedropper filler, which goes for $24.)

My verdict, after a few days of use: this pen is terrific, but not without a few nagging quirks. I love the writing experience but not the aesthetics. Overall, however, the positive vastly outweighs the negative. I like it much better than any of my entry-level Pelikans (a P55, Style Silver, and Pelikano).

(If you're planning on reading the rest of this review rather than just scrolling down to the instructions for entering the giveaway, you might want to grab a beer, because you're going to be reading for a while.

Presentation

You don't expect ostentatious presentation for a $14 pen, and you don't get it. Instead, what you get is the usual down-to-earth Noodler's packaging. The artwork on the box tips you off immediately that there's something from Noodler's inside. Inside the box is an insert that touts the ease of aligning the nibs, the very low cost of replacing the piston seal, and the design that makes it easy to replace the entire nib. I'll have to take Noodler's word on those, since I did not try them (except for a nib adjustment). It also includes a blurb about why the words "Free Trade Forever" appear on the box.

One thing about the pen that surprised me is the name. Noodler's has all kinds of cool names for its inks. Bad Black Moccasin. Dark Matter. Bad Belted Kingfisher. Widow Maker. Heart of Darkness. You get the picture.

So you'd think Noodler's very first fountain pen line would have some cool name like Bad Ass Scribe or Wicked Scrivener. But, so far as I can tell, there's no name for this model at all. Jet Pens lists it as "Noodler's Ink Fountain Pen with Piston Fill & Ink Window"and Swisher's just calls it the "Noodler's Ink Fountain Pen." Couldn't they have but a "Bad" or "Wicked" at the front, at least? Is that too much to ask?

Fit and Finish
 
This is a $14 pen, so you have to have realistic expectations about how nice it's going to look. Sure enough, this is not a beautiful pen. It's not ugly, either, it's just . . . there. In fact, as much as I was looking forward to the availability of these pens, I was disappointed when I saw the pictures online. I didn't like the position of the ink windows, and the finish on both the body and trim looked uneven and dull in the photos.

When I got the pen, it looked a little better than in the pictures online, but still not impressive. If you look closely at the finish, you'll see lots of scratches at right angles to the the length of the pen. The trim also looks nicked up. Despite that, the black and silver color combination gives the pen a somewhat rich look . . . if the light is dim and you don't look too closely. I don't know how the other colors might compare.



Don't read this as a gripe. I accept it. As the package insert makes clear, the watchword for this pen is affordability. I'm not expecting much more (though a reviewer at Jet Pens was).

Barrel and Piston Fill Mechanism

The barrel is made from a "celluloid derivative," whatever that means. All I can tell you is that it makes the pen exceptionally light. It's also quite short. Here's the pen compared against four others, all with caps posted. You'll see the Noodler's is more diminutive than even my Pilot Knight. Folks with large hands may want to steer clear of this pen.



Though I didn't take any measurements, the width of the piston suggests that the reservoir in this pen will hold quite a bit more ink than your typical cartridge or converter, so you should be able to go for a long time between ink changes.

The piston in this pen is sent toward the feed by unthreading the end of the barrel (much like the Lamy 2000). Screwing it back on draws the piston back, which draws ink into the pen. Though many people suggest repeating this cycle to fill a piston filler completely, the package insert does not so instruct. (For a primer on how a piston filler works, click here.) Full instructions for this pen are in the package insert. The ink view windows in the barrel were one of the things I found unattractive about this pen. Unlike the view window on the Lamy 2000, these are visible when the pen is capped, and I didn't like that at all, but it turned out to be a non-issue for me. Once you put ink in the pen, the windows virtually disappear — with the black barrel, anyway. You mileage may vary on other colors. I actually find the windows on this pen more functional than the one on my Lamy 2000 (which retails for ten times more) because they are less cloudy, making it easier to estimate the ink supply.

The pen seems to flush clean in much fewer cycles than my other piston filler, a Lamy 2000. After four or five cycles of filling with water, the water comes out clean (takes more like 7 or 8 with my Lamy 2000).

Noodler's package insert emphasizes that one of the aims of this line is to make the fountain pen more competitive, presumably with an eye toward entry-level users. If that's so, I wonder why they didn't introduce a cartridge or cartridge/converter model, which is probably more convenient for a beginner than a piston filler. Because its a piston filler, the beginner must also buy a bottle of ink, and the pen is more troublesome to fill and to clean between inks than a cartridge pen.  Then again, I think filling and cleaning is part of the joy of fountain pen use, so you can't get started too early!

UPDATE (9/30/10): Be careful when unthreading the barrel end. I can tell you from experience that if you go too far, it's easy to eject the piston rod from the threads completely. If that happens to you, unthread the end of the barrel completely and grab the piston rod with some needle-nose pliers to pull out the piston. Thread the barrel end onto the piston rod, then insert the whole assembly back into the barrel and thread the end back onto the barrel. When filling, you should actually look through the ink windows for the piston ands stop twisting when you see the piston reach the section.

Cap

The cap is threaded, a feature I usually avoid. It takes about 1 and 1/4 turns to remove or replace. I don't know how that compares generally to other pens with threaded caps, but my only other pen with a threaded cap (Monteverde Invincia Stealth) twists on and off with less than a full turn, so the Noodler's takes a little more turning than I'm used to. The cap posts securely, but does not thread into the posted position.

Since I own only one other pen with a threaded cap, I kept forgetting to thread this one when replacing it, and the cap would click over the first two or so threads before I would remember to thread it. Do that enough times and I figure you may screw up the threads for good, but it's going to take a lot more than a few days to do that.

The cap is designed to accommodate larger nibs, should you ever decide to change out the nib for something else.

Nib & Section

The nib is, of course, stainless steel. It is tipped with "a hard platinum group metal alloy" according to the package insert. It's very plain, and comparable in size to the nib on a Lamy AL-Star/Safari or Pilot Knight.

I experienced quite a bit of nib creep with some of the inks, and uncapped the pen a few times to find ink had leaked. I can't be sure I wasn't jostling the pen around, though, so I can't lay it on the pen.

The pen is designed so you can replace the nib with any other #2 size. The size apparently refers to the insertion point, because the package insert touts that extra wide nibs will fit fine inside the cap.

The section is very narrow, even as compared to the otherwise comparably-sized Pilot Knight. Granted, this is a small pen, so maybe a narrow section is to be expected, but the section on the Pilot Knight — also a small pen and barely bigger than the Noodler's — is significantly thicker. This is a second feature that suggests the pen is not well-suited for those with larger hands.

Feel & Writing Experience

This is the important part now, isn't it?

Whether it's Noodler's insistence on separation between the tines or something else, the writing is very, very smooth. I didn't find it the least bit scratchy, even on cheap office paper. I tried four different inks, and every one of them wrote smoothly in a variety of notebooks and on a variety of papers. I honestly wasn't expecting such a pleasant experience.

I also appreciate that this pen starts right up every time, even after being left uncapped for upwards of an hour. I can't even say that for my Lamy 2000, which you'd think would start up even better because it has a partially hooded nib. This reliability makes the Noodler's perfect for me to keep next to my timesheet and notepad at work, as I can pick up and put down the pen all day without having to uncap and cap it every time. That makes the threaded cap less of a hassle.

The nib is a "fine-medium," so I was expecting it to lay down a broader line than I'm used to, but it actually writes more like a Japanese medium. As a point of reference, here are the lines from the Noodler's compared against those laid down by a Lamy AL-Star with a fine and an extra-fine nib. I think the Noodler's is very close to the Lamy AL-Star fine nib, but a little wider. The pen seemed to lay down a thicker line with the one Noodler's ink I tried (Lexington Gray, which is in the photo) than with the others (Private Reserve Midnight Blues, Private Reserve Copper Burst, and Iroshizuku Tsukushi.) Other inks might bring the Noodler's closer to the fine or even between fine and extra fine Lamy nibs.



When I first started writing with this pen, the thin section bothered me. It's almost like holding onto a stick ballpoint. I got used to the narrow section after a while, but I have to think about my grip, as I sometimes tend to grip smaller sections more tightly, which can cause fatigue.

This pen is so light you barely know it's there. The Noodler's feels almost weightless, and not just compared to brass-barrel pens, but also compared to very light pens like the Lamy Safari. If you like heft, this may not be the pen for you.

Giveaway Rules (UPDATED - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY)

I have two more of these on their way from Jet Pens (both in black), and if the number of entries exceeds 100, I will give away the second pen, too!

UPDATE: Aaaauuugghhh! I've screwed up my first giveaway. I'm more used to the Wordpress commenting system than Blogger's. As a result, I forgot that you can leave comments on Blogger without leaving your email, and I have no way of getting in touch with several of the first commenters!  I am so sorry! Hate to make this a pain, but it looks like I will instead have to publish the winners in a future post, so here are the new rules:

To enter to win this pen (a new one, not the one I've been trying out), all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. I will choose the winner (or winners) at random and announce them in a new post on Monday, July 26, so you will have to check the blog. I will give the winner(s) one week after that post to contact me via email. Failure to contact me within one week will forfeit the pen and I will select an alternate.

The deadline for leaving a comment is midnight on Sunday, July 25. The time stamp on the comment will be the official time of the entry. (Sorry to keep this contest open so long so long, but I want to leave time for plenty of people to enter, and it may take a while to get a appreciable number of comments. I don't exactly get the traffic of The Pen Addict or Office Supply Geek.)

My apologies for the screw-up, everyone.

Good luck!

(UPDATE #2): This reviewer and I are about 180 degrees apart. We both like the pen, but each of likes what the other found fault with.

(UPDATE #3): Another review, this one by Bleubug, who offers some points only an experienced collector could. Check it out!

(UPDATE #4): Here's a review I missed at The Fountain Pen Network, which I found through The Amateur Economist.

Noodler's Ink Piston-Filler Fountain Pen Review and Giveaway! (UPDATED)