Skip to navigation, content, or footer
innosu
Written on in Lifestyle

A quick negative reviews of my fountain pens

As there is a boom in fountain pen users recently, there are already quite a lot of fountain pen review on the internet. Most talks positive things about each pen, so I would like to do the opposite. I would like to do a purely negative review.

Note that this review is from my practical usage standpoint. If your usage is not the same as mine then some points might not be valid. Personally I use about 1-2mL of ink each week across 5-8 pens.

Let’s start:

LAMY

  1. Lamy Safari and Al-star
    • Nib are not consistent in both size and feedback.
    • Pens can dry out relatively quick (over weeks rather than months)
    • Nib is not very smooth (depend on your preference)
  2. Lamy aion
    • Relatively high price for a stainless-steel nib.
    • Cap can spin freely which might or might not bother you.

Platinum

  1. Platinum Preppy/Plasir
    • (Preppy only) Fragile body. Plastic can degrade.
    • Depend on your grip, your finger might be at the connection between the feed unit and the body, which can be painful for long writing season.
    • Nib is relatively stiff.
  2. Platinum Century 3776
    • Big pen, not suitable for pocket.
    • A little bit hard to clean.
  3. Platinum Victus (PTL-5000A and the Kanazawa Maki-e family)
    • Body can be a little too thin for many people
    • Stiff EF nib can easily dig into paper

Sailor

  1. Sailor HiAce Neo
    • Feel really cheap (and it’s cheap so…)
  2. Sailor Pro Gear Mini/Slim Mini
    • Hard to use without posting.
    • Can only fit sailor short converter with measly volume (0.3mL)
  3. Sailor Pro Gear Slim
    • Weird size – not really pocket pen but not full size either
  4. Sailor Lecoule
    • Same as above. Also, cap can rotate easily and may be open with just vibration.

TWSBI

  1. TWSBI Swipe
    • I really don’t prefer how they feel in hand.
    • Relatively dry-writing compared to other TWSBI
  2. TWSBI ECO
    • I really have problem with ink blurb when running low on ink.
  3. TWSBI 580ALR
    • The textured of ALR may be off-putting to some people (I like it though)
    • Same as ECO for ink blurb.

Pilot

  1. Pilot Kakuno
    • No clip. This is really a problem for me. Luckily there are some third-party clip.
  2. Pilot Prera
    • The CM nib can be really sharp.
  3. Pilot Decimo
    • The spring action may spray ink.

Kaweco

  1. Kaweco Liliput
    • Too many steps to assemble for writing.

Sheaffer

  1. Sheaffer VFM
    • Feel cheap compared to the price.
  2. Sheaffer 100/300
    • Expensive compared to similar offering from other brands
    • Nib is really stiff

Diplomat

  1. Diplomat Aero
    • Really too heavy for me.
  2. Diplomat Viper
    • Grip is too slippery.
    • The silver ring collect ink if you dip your pen into your bottle too deep, and release the ink over time to dirty your grip section.

Esterbrook

  1. Esterbrook Camden
    • Expensive considering it’s steel nib
    • Cap doesn’t post.
  2. Esterbrook JR
    • Maybe it’s just my pen but I find the posting action to be not really tight.