I’ve been desiring a few new pens lately, so I have been snooping around eBay, Amazon, and Aliexpress. Last year, I have made a list of the top 10 bestselling fountain pens on Amazon. Amazon releases a bestsellers list for each product category every hour. As fountain pens are a relatively niche product category, I did not expect the bestseller list to change that frequently, which is why I am only doing a follow-up of it only now. Last year, we saw a number of familiar pens in the top 10 list, such as the Lamy Safari, Jinhao 250, and Pilot Varsity. This year, the top pens still did not change much from the last, so I did a count of the number of times a brand name appeared in the top 100 list of fountain pens on Amazon, to find out which were the bestselling fountain pen brands on Amazon. No. 3 on the list: Jinhao Coming in 3rd on the list is the Jinhao fountain pen brand. Out of 100 bestsellers, Jinhao products take up 21%. Jinhao originates from China and produces a number of good quality fountain pens. Some of their fountain pens, with their low price point, can […]
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The Lamy Logo fountain pen is yet another Bauhaus, industrial-looking pen. The first time I saw it, I thought it reminded me of one of my first fountain pens, the steel Parker Vector. Thanks to Pen Chalet‘s sponsorship, I got a chance to touch and feel this pen, but all opinions in this piece are my own and not influenced by Pen Chalet or anyone else. I have been hoping to get the brushed steel Lamy Logo, but instead received the matt stainless steel one. The brushed one reminds me a bit of the stainless steel Lamy 2000, with a more special and elegant look to it, while the matt one looks a little more “raw”. It was interesting to unbox the pen. When you slide the box out of the cardboard covering, it looked like two cuboids of plastic stuck together. The mechanism of opening the box was also interesting – First, you push the two sides of the box apart in the directions of the arrows: It reveals a platform inside, on which the pen is supported via a rest… … then you open the other side of the box and voila, the whole platform is exposed, as […]
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I spotted this beauty of a pen the other day and decided to set up a #pendelight article on it. This is the Caran d’Ache Year of the Goat Limited Edition fountain pen, which I should have talked about during the Chinese New Year, but did not get a chance to. The pen is designed for the Year of the Goat, which is the 7th animal in the Chinese zodiac sign, and also the sign representing this year. Those of you who like (or were born in) the Goat Year, and like Caran d’Ache, you are in for a treat with this pen! On the pen barrel, you see the outline of a goat being carved onto it. The metallic material inside the carvings is rhodium-plated. It gives off a lively and vibrant feel to the pen. There are also carvings on the section, which I thought was interesting as sections are not often places penmakers would put an artwork on. Caran d’Ache is a Swiss pen brand from Geneva, Switzerland, so you see the words “Swiss made” engraved on the trim. This pen also makes use of black Chinese lacquer for the body. We often hear of Japanese […]
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Warning: Many photos in this post! Sometimes we all get a little tired of seeing beautiful, sleek, serious, high-end fountain pens, and it’s about time we explore the lower end, cutesy fountain pens, just for fun. Thanks to two members of the SFPL group, I have in my possession two cute fountain pens which are clearly very suitable for children (or adults who like cute stuff, like me sometimes). In terms of pricing, both pens cost $3 (SGD) or less, which is pretty amazing, and you will know why later. I will go into details of each pen one by one. CELLO FOUNTAIN PEN (DISNEY – SNOW WHITE) Cello Writing Instruments is an Indian company that manufactures stationery products. This fountain pen has been offered to me by Burhan from Jalalpen, a Singaporean pen company that has emerged recently. Even though I received this for free, my review is only of my honest opinion of the pen. The colours on this pen are bright pastels, which at first glance looks like something that children will be attracted to. In addition, the barrel has a printout of Snow White, a Disney character. There are also other pens with other colours that feature other […]
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This year is a milestone year for Singapore. 2015 marks the 50th birthday of Singapore ever since it became independent in 1965. Over 50 years, the country/island/city has evolved at top speed from a developing nation to a first-world country today! Since the Golden Jubilee is an important event, a nationwide celebration effort has taken place, known as SG50. To join in this effort, Staedtler has launched the SG50 Flora and Fauna Limited Edition fountain pen on 6 June 2015. I was at Fook Hing Trading Co. right on this very date and had the chance to experience the pen for myself! This pen is based on the Intium Corum Urbes range of premium writing instruments by Staedtler. The first thing you’ll notice is the colourful design on the barrel of the fountain pen. The barrel has a roll of fine quality cowhide leather around it, with the design of a bird and a flower on it. The bird is known as the Crimson Sunbird, the unofficial national bird of Singapore. I have never seen this bird myself in real life, but seeing it in pictures, I can tell it looks really pretty! The flower is Singapore national flower, a […]
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This pen has been sponsored by Pen Chalet, but all opinions are my own. I was browsing Pen Chalet’s online catalogue when I chanced upon the Monteverde One Touch fountain pen. It caught my eye immediately and I knew I wanted to check it out. As I was asked to choose a couple of pens to review, I immediately contacted Ron from Pen Chalet, requesting to have this pen to review. Thank you, Pen Chalet, for providing me with the Monteverde One Touch fountain pen! The Monteverde One Touch pen arrived in a cardboard box which is mainly yellow, black, and silver in colour and design. The whole package gives a very technical/industrial feeling about the pen, and I suppose that is the point – you will see why later. Other than the box and the pen, there are two cards inserted diagonally inside the box. One is a “holder” onto which the pen is clipped, and it contains a description of what’s available in the One Touch range. The smaller card slip shows a picture of the main parts of the pen, and instructions on how to refill the pen with a cartridge. I call this the Swiss Army Knife of […]
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I am a music-lover, and used to be a student of music. All that time spent drawing crotchets and quavers, treble clefs and bar lines, has been memorable indeed. It is not until my interest in fountain pens started that I learnt about the existence of music nibs. Did the composers in the past really use nibs like that to write their music? Here is a picture of a handwritten musical manuscript: The style is characterized by very thin strokes for stems and lines, big saturated blobs for the notes, and thick fat lines for joining notes together. You can also see line variation in the handwriting. I’ve decided to investigate whether music nibs are able to produce a similar effect. Thanks to Parkablogs, I have managed to try out a Sailor music nib for myself. Previously, I have reviewed the Platinum music nib and liked it pretty much. I had spent quite a bit of time deciding between the Pilot, Platinum, and Sailor music nibs, and finally decided on the Platinum because of the writing feel on paper. Sailor’s music nib does not have 3 tines like the Platinum, and I had felt that it didn’t look as special, […]
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Finally, I’ve got a chance to review a Delta pen, thanks to Sunny from Straits Pen for loaning it to me (and I have been holding on to it for the longest time imaginable, sorry!). Delta is an Italian brand and it produces many beautiful, striking marbled designs of fountain pens. The pen that I am going to review today is from The Journal Collection, variant being the blue Tech & Web fountain pen. Unboxing The pen comes in a beautiful box – looking modern and with typefaces in large print around the box. Along with the words “The Journal”, it looks to me like the packaging of a beautiful journal notebook inside… but it is actually a fountain pen! Unboxing is rather fun as there are many “layers” of packaging before reaching the product itself. After sliding out the outer covering, there is a cardboard box inside with the brand name “Delta” printed on it. Inside this box is the pen box itself. And voilà, we finally get to the interior of the packaging. Inside, we see the Tech & Web fountain pen in dark blue resin body and dark grey trims lying beside a bottle of Delta ink. […]
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EDIT: Pilot Pen has contacted me to correct the error in my post – there is no Pilot Sumino, and the white Kakuno is still known as the Kakuno. So do note this as many sources online call it the Pilot Sumino, which is not correct! I have made the necessary changes in this post to correct the name of the pen. Thanks to Pilot Pen for pointing this out! As promised on my Fukubukuro sale post, I was going to do a comparison review of the two adorable little pens that have taken the world by storm: the Pilot Kakuno in white and in grey. Okay, okay, I exaggerate a little when I said “taken the world by storm”, but it does seem that many love these pens, and it appears that everyone I know in the fountain pen world has one of these. If you haven’t gotten one, shame on you! 😉 (Just kidding.) The Pilot Kakuno is an economically-priced fountain pen, perfect for beginners and for children (or adults like me who have a soft spot for cheap pens with smiley faces on the nibs). In fact, I have already done a review of the grey-barrelled one […]
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Thanks to Alt Haven lending me this pen, I got a chance to review the Muji Aluminium Compact Fountain Pen. It is a modern long-short pen, and rather obviously, it’s made of aluminium metal. A long-short pen is a pen that has a long cap and short barrel, quite unlike the usual fountain pen which usually has a shorter cap than the barrel. The picture above is a comparison of the two Muji Aluminium Pens that have been available so far. I have done a review before of the Muji Aluminium Round fountain pen, so you can do a comparison. I have a preference toward short pens, and so of course I like this pen, being so small and very easy to slip into a pocket. The thing I didn’t like about it probably is the fact that, while it has a small barrel, it’s a little too small to be very well functional. I tend to grasp a pen in my palm on the barrel side, and pull the cap off. This Muji Compact has such a small barrel that it’s quite difficult for me to remove the cap in this way. Because of this, I have to […]
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