I have long lusted after a Namiki Falcon. What lured me to this Japanese pen was the promise of a flexible nib attached to a modern writing instrument whose name combined the allure of Japan with the elegance and speed of a bird of prey. I knew that the Day of the Falcon has come when on a visit to the Fountain Pen Hospital in Manhattan I saw a Namiki peering out of a glass cabinet. The visit almost coincided with a significant birthday so it didn’t take me too long to become a proud owner of a Namiki Falcon. The Namiki Falcon is not a fancy pen. With its polished jet black resin body and gold trim Namiki has a conservative design its only decoration being the chain link detail with Namiki Japan engraved on the cap band. The gold clip is modern and simple and the flat cap and shiny gold bands give the pen an understated elegance. It also feels quite light. Namiki is not a hefty pen so not one for those who like their writing instruments to possess some weight or a wide girth. Uncap the pen and the Falcon’s hooded nib is revealed. It […]
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About a month ago I was browsing pens from Straits Pen when Sunny (owner) decided to let me choose an Ohto pen that he would sponsor me to play with and review on my blog. Ohto has never been a brand that I usually take note of, and although I already had an Ohto Rook which a friend had given to me before, I have never gotten down to reviewing it. Well, it’s good that Sunny pointed this pen out to me, because this is giving me a chance to show you how adorable it is! Just a disclaimer, all opinions in this review are my own, but I do have a personal bias towards favouring small, pretty pens… 😛 The Ohto Poche comes in 4 different designs, namely the Diamond, Zebra, Leopard, and Arabesque. Out of the designs that were available, I chose the Arabesque, because I was really attracted by the swirly design on the metallic body. The Ohto Poche Arabesque combines exotic traditional patterns on a modern-looking aluminium body without looking awkward or mismatched! When I checked Wikipedia about Arabesque art, it gave me two entries, one being European Arabesque and the other being Islamic Arabesque. I’m not sure which kind […]
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The Pilot Vanishing Point is also known as the Pilot Capless, and it’s a pretty funky name for a fountain pen! I don’t know what exactly to say about this pen, as it reminds me of ball point and gel pens that have the clicky function to push out and retract the nib (and you know how anti-ballpoint fountain pen people can get 🙂 ). Also, the closest encounter I ever had with Pilot Capless pens had been during the Pilot Capless Event held in Singapore a year ago, where they showcased a variety of Pilot Capless pens from 1963 to 2013. I hadn’t gotten a chance to touch and feel the pens at that time! However, thanks to Olli M. who I met during one of the SFPL pen meets, I had the chance to “own” a Pilot Vanishing Point fountain pen for a few weeks! Olli has lent me his beloved Pilot pen to test out and review, and we briefly exchanged terms and conditions where 1) Once a pen gets into my hands, it’s going to be MINE (of course I’m kidding), and 2) Olli requested that if this pen is going to be mine, I’ll have […]
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So, the Parker Vector has been around for a long time. A long-lived pen. But did they remain the same throughout the years? We shall see: We compare vectors made from the USA, UK and France. Presumably, the American Vector is likely the first and oldest batch, the UK version the intermediate batch and the French one the last and newest batch. First the overall look from bottom to top: USA, UK and France, in this order. Nothing seems much different. Differences starts to appear. Other than the country of origin being different, obviously, we can see the one made in USA does not have such a deep imprint as compared to UK, which is less than the one made in France. Likewise, the same is happening in the front. The depth of the imprints is the least for USA, and the deepest for the French version. Also, the words changed too. The word “Parker” on the French build has a bigger P than the rest of the word. The symbols changes as well. This is the French version, looks like the USA version but much coarser. The logo on the UK version looks like a P. In the USA version, the arrow in the logo is […]
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By the generous sponsorship of Frank from Fontoplumo, I received this cute little Kaweco Skyline Sport fountain pen! One can never have too many Kaweco Sport fountain pens, I think, and I had been trying to decide between the original Classic Sport in Bordeaux or in white… In case you haven’t heard, I’ve already reviewed the Kaweco Classic Sport some time ago, and although my picture shows many Sports together, I effectively only owned one of them – the clear version. The Bordeaux would have been a rich addition to my Kaweco collection, and the white a very elegant looking one. But who would have expected that I would have a chance to get a MINT coloured Kaweco?! 😀 Mint is not a common colour for fountain pens, and this is definitely my very first mint-coloured pen. Nice idea, Kaweco! Besides the colour, there are a couple of differences between this Kaweco Skyline and the good old Kaweco Classic range. With the Skyline, Kaweco has brought to its range a new version of the Classic Sport, in which the golden coloured parts have all been changed to silver! For those who dislike gold, this can be a very welcoming change indeed and […]
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Danitrio is not a brand that I am familiar with, but after trying out couple of pens owned by a visiting fountain pen enthusiast, and attending the inaugural Southeast Asia Danitrio Maki-e event held in Singapore last year, I must say I’m very impressed with their range of pens. So you can imagine my delight when I received this pen in the mail… as a GIFT! Thank you so much, generous friend (you know who you are). I’ve always been hoarding pens, but now that I have this pen, it simply fuels my desire to start collecting beautiful Japanese pens. <Checking into reality, checking my pockets… uh-oh! Budget is still a constraint…> If you haven’t heard before of Danitrio, it is an American fountain pen brand that specialises in urushi and maki-e pens. Urushi, derived from the sap of certain trees, is a special type of lacquer originating from Japan and was frequently used in fountain pens of old. Today, pen brands like Danitrio, Edison Pen Co., Manupropria — just to name a few — and the bigger Japanese pen brands such as Pilot-Namiki, Nakaya and Sailor, still employ the urushi lacquering technique in some of their pens, although it […]
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I know I’ve reviewed this pen before, but since I have grown very fond of it, I felt that my anecdotal previous post hadn’t given it enough justice. Those had been the days when I did not even have a proper camera (not that I have one now – my photos are all taken using my smartphone with a nice quality camera). I was just starting out in the realm of fountain pens and hadn’t known very much what to take note of in a fountain pen. So this time, I would like to bring this pen up to the surface again and appraise it once more. These pens have got to be one of the best affordable fountain pens I ever owned, but although I had mentioned in the initial review that it is dirt cheap, I realised after a new search today that it costs a bomb in Amazon, and more expensive than I imagined from other places. Nevertheless, the price point remains low for a hardy pen like itself, and while it is not as cheap as a Platinum Preppy, I do consider it very affordable (perhaps in the range of the Pilot Kakuno?). To be honest, even […]
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On the topic of beginners’ fountain pens, I realised I haven’t really done up a single post about fountain pens for beginners! I shall look into this very very soon, but meanwhile, I have created a new category of posts for my blog to cater to this need. The category is called “For beginners”, and this new fountain pen that I got recently is the first to go in! I shall also review my older posts and fish out those pens that I thought would be nice for a beginning fountain pen user. Anyway, today’s fountain pen on review is the Pilot Kakuno fountain pen, and this is one of the pens I felt would be really suitable for beginners! I got this Pilot Kakuno from NBC Raffles City (basement level) while shopping around waiting for my mum to join me for an event. I had thought I wouldn’t get any fountain pens lately since I had been spending so much on other things, but seeing how affordable this pen was, I just had to grab it. It’s only below 20 SGD! You can choose between fine and medium sized nibs, and of course I chose the fine. I wanted […]
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I don’t use Parker pens very often, and I guess the pen that I’m going to talk about today is one of the rare Parker pens that I have. It was a gift! An ex-colleague was quite a little into fountain pens and Aurora inks, and this is one the prized fountain pens that he owned. One day, he thought that he was absolutely too busy to play around with fountain pens and to keep them well-maintained, that when he discovered that I liked fountain pens, he gave this to me. Gifts are gems. Introducing the Parker Sonnet Ciselé Sterling Silver fountain pen! Alright, so… my ex-colleague is a guy, and this pen is a very manly pen no matter how I look at it. I don’t usually carry this pen around with me as I feel it doesn’t suit me so well (and also because it’s expensive), but from a more “genderless” point of view, it’s really a beautiful pen! It has a grid pattern all throughout the body, which some prefer to call “cross-hatch” – they are pretty much the same thing – and the black lines of the grid are actually chiseled into the body. That means […]
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Alright, I actually bought this pen for myself for my birthday in 2012, but I’ve been keeping it under wraps for almost 2 years now! Nope, it’s not a hideous pen that is unable to see the world. In fact, it’s a pretty pen, and a good one at that! Introducing… the Pilot Custom 742 with a soft fine-medium nib! This elegant, classic-looking pen is black with gold trims, not very much unlike the Mont Blanc classic pens, or my Platinum Music pen which I reviewed here. I remember debating with myself for a long time, whether I should get the Pilot/Namiki Falcon, or this pen. I finally decided on this pen just because it’s a little bigger (and you know I love huge and tiny pens), newer, and pretty sturdy (sturdier than the Falcon or not, I’m not sure). The Falcon nib has a nice shape, and is able to flex just like this soft fine-medium (SFM) nib, but all I wanted was a flex pen, so either way was fine for me. The golden trim around the pen cap says “Custom 742”. 742 is a nice number, I can’t really explain why. It’s just one of those nice […]
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