I’ve been very anxious to get my hands on a recent shipment from Kakimori. Not only did we receive more of the brass, stainless, and the new antique brass Kakimori metal nibs, but I was most excited about the Kakimori Colour Liners, which are yet another fillable fineliner option!
The wicking refill is very similar to that used by Tom's Studio.
I’ve previously written about the Tom’s Studio Lumos, a series of refillable fineliner pens with replaceable/interchangeable tips and absorbent ink reservoirs. Pens like these have been something of a godsend for me, since I’ve always loved the feel of writing with a felt tip/fineliner pen but don’t like being limited by the stock ink colors. Here, you can load up the absorbent cotton “wick” with the fountain pen ink of your choice, paired with your favorite tip style, to create the fineliner pen you’ve always wanted but have never been able to find at a big box store.
To fill, you place the reservoir in a bottle of ink and allow it to saturate using capillary action.
While the Kakimori Colour Liners don’t have as many tip options as the Tom’s Studio Lumos, and may not be “refillable” since the tip can’t easily be removed and the refill can’t easily be accessed after the pen is filled, at only $7 they are definitely the most cost-effective option if you’d like to create a custom set of fineliners and markers to have at the ready, or if you’d like to create a set containing all of your favorite inks so that you have them in a non-fountain pen format for travel, etc. Currently, these pens come in .3mm, .5mm, brush, and chisel-marker tips.
From left, marker tip, brush tip, .3mm, and .5mm writing tips, all paired with four of my favorite Laban Greek Mythology Inks.
To fill the Kakimori Colour Liner pens, you dip the wick into a bottle of fountain pen ink and simply watch it change color (as shown above). Once the reservoir is sufficiently saturated, insert it into the barrel of the pen and fit the barrel plug into the bottom, which will push the reservoir all the way to the base of the pen nib and allow the ink to saturate the tip. Note that Kakimori doesn’t guarantee that you will be able to remove the barrel plug once it’s been inserted. Once the reservoir runs dry, you may not be able to refill the pen, though I am going to try and I’m sure some people have figured out how to do it. That said, the tip may actually wear out before you can use up the ink. These are large reservoirs that hold a LOT of ink, and fineliners don’t use nearly as much ink as fountain pens to write so they tend to last a long time. You should get a lot of mileage out of one of these pens as long as you use reasonable writing pressure and don’t leave it uncapped.
The four writing tips and refills, uninked. From left, Marker, Brush, .5mm, and .3mm.
Takeaways and Where to Buy
I will guarantee you this: if a company makes a customizable or refillable fineliner, I will buy it for myself and almost certainly stock it for the store. I love these things and consider them to be in the category of “stationery products I’ve always wanted but never thought would actually exist.” If you’re curious about these sorts of pens, but don’t want to take the plunge on one of the fully refillable, interchangeable-tip fineliners like the Tom’s Studio Lumos, the Kakimori Colour Liners are an easy and relatively inexpensive way to experiment. These are available in the shop as of this morning and priced at $7 per pen. I’ve not experimented extensively with inks, but I would imagine these would work well with just about any ink except shimmer inks, due to the size of the particles.
The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. In addition to the Colour Liners, we stock Kakimori dip pens and nib holders, as well as clothbound notebooks.
