TWSBI Mini Review

(Everyone say hello to Jeff Abbott, the latest writer to join me here at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution, Twitter, and App.net. Welcome aboard Jeff!)

Small pens and comfortable writing experiences do not normally appear on a list describing the same pen. But ever since this TWSBI Mini entered my collection, I've been continually impressed by its portability and quality writing experience. The particular model I have is a clear body with a black cap and piston. It currently has an EF nib, and it's my favorite non-Japanese small nib. I currently have Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-peki in the pen, one of my favorite go-to inks.

A lot of mini-sized pens have significant trade offs in the actual usage of the pen, but the TWSBI Mini isn't one of them. I love the size. It's portable and small, but still maintains the proper proportions of a larger pen that makes it easy to hold for long sessions or a quick commute in my pocket. When the cap is posted, the weight is perfectly balanced for my hand. I really enjoy posting the cap on this pen because the cap actually screws on to the end of the pen. This gives it a solid, secure feel in the hand and I don't have to worry about twisting the cap and moving the piston, which might result in a nasty ink spill on the page.

The nib is extremely smooth and consistent (especially for an EF nib), which is one of the main reasons that I pick this pen up in the morning. I've never had issues with the ink stopping or skipping in this pen. Even with other inks loaded, it performs admirably. While we're talking about inks, it's worth pointing out that this little pen holds a large amount of ink.

I've used the pen on a variety of papers, from cheap copy paper and composition notebooks to Rhodia and Clairefontaine papers. It feels smoother and nimbler on the premium paper, but it also gets the job done nicely on cheap papers. In my mind, this is what qualifies a pen for everyday use.

The relatively low cost of entry for this pen is another huge plus. I paid $55 for my copy from Amazon, which is hard to do with a piston filler fountain pen.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this pen to someone just starting on their fountain pen journey, but if you want something small, charming, and deceptively refined, then give the Mini a try. The Mini comes in three color variations: black and clear, completely clear, and all black. You can pick the nib size you want, but like other TWSBI models, the nib section is incredibly easy to swap out later if you want to try other sizes.

Kaweco Allrounder Review

Brad was kind enough to send me one of the Kaweco pens he recently received so that I could play around with it for a bit. The Kaweco Allrounder is a thing of beauty, seriously. The brushed metal finish, a nicely weighted cap, the vintage style-clip…and I really can’t ever see picking up the pen again.

Like Brad, I’m a Kaweco fanboy through and through and pretty much everything in the Sport line has been a favorite of mine forever. I’m pretty envious of the ART Sport Brad just got his hands on. The Allrounder, though, is an entirely different pen. Full sized, heavy, all silver trimmings - the thing is a walking talking writing specimen of German industrial design. It is sleek yet solid, which is a tough feat to pull off in a pen. However, I still don’t end up wanting to use it.

I’ve been trying to figure out what it is that makes the pen not work for me. At first, I wondered if the problem might be, well, me. I tend to over-rotate my hand when writing with fountain pens so I’m almost writing with the nib sidewise, and that ends up resulting in a great deal of skipping with some fountain pens. With the Allrounder, I tried my normal rotation and forced myself to write with the nib at the proper angle to the paper. Nothing really worked. It isn’t so much that the pen skips - there isn’t that usual feeling of scratching or catching that accompanies that terrible moment in fountain pen writing. Rather, I just can’t get a consistent line out of the thing.

If you press too hard, you get a line that ends with more ink than you started with, which leads to some unintended shading. If you hold the pen lightly…well, it is hard to hold the pen lightly. The weight and the girth of it mean you have to grip it fairly firmly. Light-handed attempts just left it skittering across the page.

I asked Brad to kit this out with an EF nib as I almost never write with anything larger than a fine, except with italics. I actually found myself wondering as I wrote whether I should have gone with a bold nib. With a wide nib, I think the ink variation would actually look expressive rather than accidental, and you might be able to hold the pen with a lighter grip and let it skate atop the paper.

I certainly wouldn’t advise against trying out the pen, though it is at a relatively hefty price point for an experiment. I will say, though, if you have small hands and prefer thin nibs, you’re likely better off with something from the Sport line.

(This pen was provided by Kaweco for review purposes.)

Noodler's Ahab Flex Fountain Pen Review

(This is a guest post by Garrett Kubat. You can find more from Garrett on Twitter @gazkubat.)

Flex pens have been something both interesting and intimidating to me. On one hand the idea of a flexible nib for a varying line is intriguing. On the other hand, I have no skill at calligraphy and my handwriting is likely too poor to make an effective us of a flexible nib. Regardless of these factors I chose to dive in and purchase a Noodler's Ahab Flexible Nib Fountain Pen.

I was drawn to the Noodler's Ahab by three things:

1) The price of the pen is amazing. For $20 you receive a well crafted and solid fountain pen. As this was my first pen with a flexible nib this seemed to be an extraordinarily reasonable price for my newest pen adventure.

2) The appearance and feel of the pen is exceptional. There are by last count 48 different colour variations available so regardless of your personal taste there will be something that catches your eye. The body is made of a "celluloid derivative" which is almost soft and warms to the touch while feeling both solid and durable.

3) The pen comes with the ability to customize. The nib and feed are friction fit which allows for the user to adjust the position of the feed to suit their purposes. It is still something I am working on but I love being able to make my pen a wetter or drier writer to my own preference. For someone wanting a larger amount of ink the pen is easily converted into an eyedropper with an o-ring and some silicone grease giving it around 6.0 ml of ink capacity. Finally, the pen is able to fit different nibs if you are not interested in a flexible nib. More diversity is always a benefit and I have a EF nib on its way for when I want this to be a simpler writer.

This pen performs well. While other pens will certainly be smoother or more reliable this is a pen that is enjoyable to use. As you may have noticed in my writing sample I had a few issues with the line variance demonstration. I would blame my adjusting of the feed rather than the pen itself for some of the troubles, although the pen does occasionally run dry. This is not a pen that you take out of the box and immediately write with, it is something you use and adjust to fit your own needs. That being said, I would recommend this pen for anyone who wants something that can be customized and looks and feels great. For the price it is an exceptional pen.