(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)
The Parker Jotter is a tried and true classic that keeps upgrading, and this new two-tone, all-metal Victoria Violet body feels fresh while still nodding to vintage elegance. I was genuinely surprised by the price of these new editions, because they look and feel like a much more expensive pen. The writing experience was also a pleasant surprise.
The all-aluminum body is made in France. It's quite small and slim, so may not be comfortable for long writing sessions if you have large hands. The clip is stiff and in the classic Parker arrow shape. The edges of the arrow are sharp, so I'd caution against clipping this to light fabrics. The pen is small enough that the clip also ends up hitting my hand when the pen rotates, so I find I have to adjust it from time to time. The finish can be a bit slick to hold if your hands are at all sweaty, but the texture of the aluminum helps with grip under normal writing circumstances. The new line of colors are fun and gorgeous, ranging from whimsical to executive. And the premium styles of the Jotters are downright snazzy.
This pen has one of the most satisfying clicks I've ever experienced. It's loud, solid, and has a good amount of resistance. You could drive people crazy with this click and I love it.
The refill supplied is a blue Quinkflow cartridge, which is specially formatted for smooth, consistent writing. I think it achieves that. The ballpoint glides nicely on paper, and I never had any skips or hard starts. I did sometimes get that blob of ink at the start of a letter, and it will smear a little if you run your hand over the blob. But that seems like a universal ballpoint issue. The pen will take any parker style refill, though, so there are a ton of other options. I think a Fisher Space Pen refill in this would make it the perfect purse pen, or traveling journal pen.
For me, this pen is unseating the Karas Kustoms Retrakt in my I-need-a-pen-that-isn't-a-fountain-pen slot. Other pens that have occupied that seat are the Cross Click Classic and the Retro 51 Tornado. All of those are at least twice (if not three times) the cost of this Jotter, and so far it has performed better than all of them, for me. And if you're primarily a fountain pen user, but you acknowledge the occasional need for a ballpoint, this really is the perfect one. It looks and feels like you're spoiling yourself, but the price is low enough that you'll still have to add a fountain pen to your cart to get free shipping.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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