Ink Review: Pilot Blue-Black

Pilot-Namiki Blue-Black is a good workhorse ink:  it's not flashy, but it's reliable in the sense that it works on most types of paper and has a nice, classic blue-black tone that's appropriate for school, business and most other daily uses.  I have this ink in cartridge form (I picked up a package of 10 carts at Kinokuniya during my last visit to New York City), and it finds itself in regular rotation through my Vanishing Point and my Custom 74.  For a blue-black ink, the Pilot ink leans more to the "blue" end of the spectrum, especially when wet, although I would still consider this a "classic" blue-black.  Highly recommended.

As you might notice, the cartridges are proprietary, so you will only be able to use them in Pilot Pens.

Sample Paper is Exacompta Index Card.

Pen Review: Kaweco Elite

The second of two Kaweco pens loaned to me for review purposes is this Kaweco Elite, with a broad nib.  This review will be brief because I can be short and to-the-point on this one:  there's nothing wrong with this pen, but it's not for me, and certainly not at the $150+ price point where Kaweco has it listed. 

This is a nice-looking pen, albeit a bit clunky when posted.  It's a multifaceted resin body, with a metal/chrome cap.

The broad nib is much larger than the nib on the more common "sport" line of pens.  In fact, it looks nearly identical to the nib on the TWSBI 580, and writes very similarly as well.  I believe the TWSBI nibs are made by Bock or Jowo, two of the major German nib manufacturers, so it very well could be the same nib.   

A nice, high quality, stainless steel German broad nib.

This pen is very heavy due to the metal cap, and as a result was difficult for me to use posted.  I found no major flaws on either the body or the cap--it's a very nicely made pen.  I don't understand, however, where Kaweco thinks this pen fits in today's market.  This is a cartridge-converter steel-nibbed plastic/metal pen priced at $150, while TWSBI is currently selling a piston-filler that uses the same (or similar) nib for $55.  No matter how good a writer this pen is, that's a considerable delta on the price, and I'm not sure what the consumer is getting for that additional $95. 

In fairness to Kaweco, I only used this pen for the morning before I had to return it, so it's possible it would have grown on me.  I suspect, though, that the Elite is simply not a pen for me, and I'll continue to hold out until I get to try my Dia2 or an Allrounder with a larger nib.

Handwritten review of Kaweco Elite fountain pen.  You may recognize the mini-review of the Kaweco Blue-Black Ink at the bottom.

Ink Review: Kaweco Blue-Black

My apologies in advance for not having a photograph of the bottle, but this ink was given to me in single-cartridge form by a friend kind enough to loan me a couple pens for review.  Kaweco's expanded line of inks are fairly new (at least in their current bottle form), so there's not many reviews out there of the various colors.  In the brief time I spent with this ink, I really enjoyed it.  It's a blue-black ink that leans more towards the "steel blue" or "blue-grey" end of the spectrum, at least in a drier nib.  As you can see from my photographs, the more ink you lay on the paper, the more pure "blue" color you get in the writing sample. The ink shades nicely and is well- behaved.  The next time I'm in the market for a blue-black ink in this specific shade, Kaweco presents a very valid option!    

I tried this in two pens:  a Kaweco Elite with a broad nib, and a Jinhao x450 with a 1.1mm Goulet Stub.  The ink flowed well in both pens, although it tended to run a little dry in the stub after an extended period.  There was never any skipping or railroading, however.

Here you can see a close up of the shading, and compare the Kaweco ink with the Pilot Blue Black ink Cartridge and the Pilot Hi-Tec-C in Blue-Black, two of my favorite daily writers.

Here's the stub writing sample in close-up, using the previously reviewed Jinhao X-450. 

Pen Review: Kaweco Allrounder

I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was considering purchasing one of the full size Kawecos, and he offered to loan me two from his collection to test out for a day or so:  the Kaweco Allrounder and the Kaweco Elite.  I popped in a couple of Kaweco ink cartridges I had been meaning to try, and spent a long morning trying to decide whether these two pens were the pens for me.  After spending the morning with the Allrounder, I'm not 100% sold on Kaweco's full size pens as opposed to the Sport line.  That said, I'm sufficiently intrigued by the looks of the Kaweco Dia2 that I'm going to wait until I have a chance to try that pen before making a final decision whether or not to take the plunge.

The Kaweco Allrounder is a gorgeous pen.  It's also solidly constructed from machined aluminum, with stainless trim.  I'm a sucker for red pens, so this one had me from the get-go.

Build Quality

The Allrounder is an aluminum pen, much like the AL Sport, though this pen has a round barrel (as the name reflects).  The pen is very well machined and constructed.  Like the AL Sport, I imagine that it will collect some dings and scrapes with use and age, but as with the Sport that will add to the pen's character.  Despite being a metal pen, it's light (one of the virtues of aluminum as a material).  The cap screws on firmly, with no jiggling or rattling, and the clip is secure.  Typical high quality German construction from Kaweco!

You can get a sense of how nice looking and well constructed this pen is.  Note the nib, which I would venture is disproportionately small to the size of the pen.

The Nib

The nib is where this pen may have lost me.  Much has been made of the size of the nib:  it arguably looks too small for the pen.  Kaweco has used the same great nib from the Sport line, but on this larger pen, it seems a bit undersized.  Also, this particular nib was a double broad.  I'm not one to use a double broad for general day-to-day writing, unless it's a stub.  However, I can still appreciate a smooth, generously flowing B or BB nib when I use one.  This nib gave me some trouble because the ink flow was inconsistent and required me to use heavy pressure in order for the pen not to skip.  If I do end up purchasing this pen (or the Dia2, which also uses this nib), I think I will opt for the fine or the medium.

A Note on the Ink

This review was written with a cartridge of Kaweco's "Palm Green" Ink.  I have to say, I've been extremely impressed with the quality of Kaweco's ink offerings.  The Green is a vibrant green color that is well-behaved and exhibits great shading.  It flushed right out of the Allrounder with one squirt of a bulb syringe when it was time to clean the pen up and return it to my friend.  Once I've worked my way through some of my ink horde over the summer, I may pick up a bottle or two of Kaweco's colors at a pen show, to save on shipping and maybe secure a discount off the relatively steep price of the ink ($14 for 30ml!?). 

I did a quick comparison with two other green inks I have loaded up:  Franklin Christoph's Olde Emerald and Montblanc's Irish Green.  The Kaweco ink is pretty close to the Montblanc; I would venture to say slightly brighter. 

A close-up shot of Kaweco's vibrant Palm Green ink exhibiting gorgeous shading in a double broad nib.

My Verdict

I'm undecided right now.  I LOVE the way this pen looks.  It has everything I typically look for in a good mid-range fountain pen:  good materials, tight tolerances and excellent quality control on the pen's body.  Plus it's red!  Kaweco's double broad nib, however, left me wanting more.  I'm sure with a little tweaking, it could be turned into a fairly good writer, but as I get deeper into this hobby, and at this price point, I'm not so eager to spend time doing nib work or sending it off to be tweaked.  From reviews I have read elsewhere, I suspect the problem may lie with the small feeds used in these pens, which seem to have a hard time keeping up with the ink flow on a broader nib if you write fairly quickly, like I do.  That said, I'd love to try this pen again with Kaweco's medium nib, which I think hits the sweet spot for me in terms of line width and ink flow. 

Handwritten review.  As you can see at the bottom, I loaded the remainder of the Palm Green cartridge into my Kaweco Sport with a medium nib.  The flow was much more consistent than the BB. 

Handwritten review.  As you can see at the bottom, I loaded the remainder of the Palm Green cartridge into my Kaweco Sport with a medium nib.  The flow was much more consistent than the BB. 


Pen Review: Jinhao x450

It seems as though the Jinhao x450 has exploded in popularity, rising from eBay obscurity to be featured as a mainstream "entry level" pen option sold by Goulet Pens, xFountainpens, etc.  SBRE Brown, for those of you who follow his podcast, even mentioned the x450 as one of his "top fountain pens" (speaking strictly as a price/value proposition).  Intrigued, I placed an order on eBay for one in the deep red enamel color.  I believe I paid $.99 and $5.00 shipping.  Even if this turned out to be a dud, I figured, I was only out $6 shipped. 

Initial shot of the x450:  It's a decent-looking pen, and the deep red-black swirled color is very pretty.  However, my love for this pen's color was overwhelmed by my disappointment with a glaringly obvious chip in the pen's enamel finish.

Build

The x450 is a heavy pen.  It's enamel/lacquer coated brass, which makes this pen so heavy that you could probably use it as a weapon.  Holding it in your hand and looking at it, the build quality is decent overall, and great for $6.  After a couple days of use, however, it was easy to pick out some flaws.

The biggest flaw in this pen was a chip in the enamel/lacquer on the pen's cap.  I know this is a $6 pen, but come on, people. 

The chip in the lacquer, pictured above, is a pretty big irritant to me.  I know I only paid $6, and the seller promptly refunded my money when I sent them a picture and requested a refund (they didn't even make me mail the $6 pen back to China, which is not really all that surprising).  I am, however, "mildly" OCD and seeing this chip staring me in the face whenever I carry this pen around with me is bothersome.  Since this pen was effectively free, I considered buying another one and using this one as a knockaround, but there were some other build quality issues preventing me from spending even $6 more.

Interior shot of the Jinhao x450 slip cap.  You can also see the semi-triangular gripping section on the left.  The tolerances on the pen's cap are off, and the grip section may be a nuisance to some people.

By biggest criticism of this pen--and the one that keeps it from being considered a great entry level pen on par with the Metropolitan and even the Safari, is the cap.  The cap on my pen is a friction fit, snap-on/off cap that opens and closes with a nice, satisfying "pop," but rotates and rattles terribly when closed.  It gives one the impression that the cap will fall off at any moment, though this has not happened yet.  The photo above shows that the cap is held on by a plastic internal cap that does not inspire confidence as to its durability.  Despite the nice torpedo shape of the pen, the cap does not post firmly.

Nib/Performance

The stock nib that the Jinhao came with was a nice gold plated medium.  I had no issues with the nib.  It would call it a true western Medium, it wasn't too dry, and the feed performed well.  Where people might have an issue is with the grip section, which has a semi-triangular "finger guide," for lack of a better term.  How I grip a pen corresponds to how this section was designed, so it did not create any issues for me.  Then again, I don't have any issues with the triangular grips on Safaris, so YMMV. 

That said, given that the pen was free, and because I was in the mood to do some experimenting, I ordered a few of Goulet Pens stock #6 nibs, which are on sold as being compatible with the x450 and the x750 models.  I fitted this pen with the 1.1mm stub, and this nib alone is the reason why I still use this pen occasionally.

The Goulet Pens 1.1mm Stub Nib fits perfectly into the Jinhao x450.

Reverse side of the Goulet 1.1 mm stub, showing the plastic Jinhao feed.

The Goulet nib performs well.  I believe I paid $15 for this nib, which raises the price of the pen to about $21.  Given the QC issues with my specific Jinhao, this is still too much money.  I would, however, offer a plug for the Jinhao x750, another pen I purchased on eBay that did not have any of the aforementioned build quality issues, and feels much more sturdy (review forthcoming).  Whether this represents true differences between these two models or simply variances in the quality of individual pens, I can't say.  Goulet Pens is selling both Jinhao models for $9.90, so if you want to pay a bit more, you will get a quality control guarantee given the Goulets' exceptional customer service.  If I had paid $3 more by purchasing from Goulet, I probably could have exchanged pens due to the chipped lacquer/cap problem.

Short bit of a writing sample with the x450.  I didn't do a formal handwritten review of this pen, but may add one in the future. 

I didn't do a formal handwritten review of this pen.  The Goulet Nibs look like JoWo nibs sourced by Brian Gray of Edison Pens, but I could be wrong on this.  They perform very well.  The tines came perfectly aligned, with adequate space between them for ink flow.  Any issues I have experienced with this nib has been the result of the Jinhao feed, which sometimes has issues keeping up with the stub nib if I write fast.  Otherwise, this pen is more than usable.  It's a basic cartridge converter pen, which comes with a generic converter that is a bit on the small side, in terms of ink capacity.  

The Verdict

Overall, "Mehhh."  This pen is fine, and I don't feel as though I wasted money on it.  I use it occasionally, and the upgraded nib makes for a pleasant writing experience.  But I have nicer pens that I like to look at more, and the chip in the lacquer and the rattling cap annoy me.  I far prefer the Jinhao x750.  In the future, I will likely purchase another x750 to outfit with my Goulet Stub (I have a Goulet XF on my current x750) and pass this pen on to someone else.   

Below please find a gallery of some additional shots of the pen in the hand and posted/unposted.