I had high hopes for the Stabilo Cult Dynamic. Out of all of the pens Carmen sent me from her European vacation, this one stood out for its unique design. The look and feel of the barrel are great, but when it was time to get down to business, the writing performance was a huge letdown.
If you have ever held a Lamy Safari, then you are used to the grooves in the grip area where your thumb and index finger go. On a fountain pen like the Safari that is great, but on non-fountain pens, I normally don't like this grip. The Cult Dynamic does it well though, and has made me rethink the whole fixed grip area thing. This one is especially nice since the grip is rubber, and it is interlaced with a molded white plastic that give it a cool look and feel. But as I alluded to before, it writes so poorly that I don't think I will get much use out of it unless I find a comparable ink refill to swap it out with.
First off, it writes very roughly. Definitely not a smooth glider across the page. Sometimes I can look past that, but when you add on inconsistent ink flow, it is just time to put the pen down and move on. Take a look at the XL photo and you will see how at the top of many letters, the line just goes away. I could never get past that, even after scribbling a bunch to see if there was something clogging the tip. Oh well, can't win them all.
Click here for the XL review.
