(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. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)
Penquisition, home of many useful review blogs and keeper of one of the more fun and tempting pen show tables, have teamed up with pen designer Ben Walsh of Gravitas Pens to bring us the Touchstone Fountain Pen. The pen is made from anodized aluminum and is carefully curated to be the goldilocks of pen sizes. It's not too wide or narrow. It's a full-length pen that will be comfortable in most grips, but short enough to fit in most pockets or pen holders. The grip section is gently shaped, but not in a way that steers the hand toward any one grip style. Basically, they've set out to make a pen that is comfortable for anyone to use. And while I can't speak for everyone, it was certainly comfortable for me.
The pen body is widest toward the middle, with a gradual taper toward either end, terminating in pointed finials. The cap screws on with metal threads, and is slightly wider than the body, leaving a clear edge so that you always know which end is up. The surface is a matte finish that still looks shiny but avoids the mirror-finish that collects fingerprints. The grip section is slightly narrowed at the middle, with a flare to prevent slipping, and is textured with very subtle ridges to help with grip. Ink does get into these ridges, especially when filling the pen, but they are shallow enough that it was easy to wipe them clean.
The pen comes in three very attractive colors. I chose the Orange with a deep Green grip section, but there is also a Purple with a Teal grip and a Blue with Red grip. It is taking a lot of willpower to not order the Purple one and create a frankenpen of the beautiful combinations.
The pen comes with a steel #6 Jowo nib engraved with the Penquisition logo. My EF nib was a little snaggy on arrival, with the right tine catching on the paper during certain directional strokes, but it smoothed out nicely with a few swipes of micromesh. Overall it writes very nicely, with great flow and the nib did not dry out even when I left the pen in my bag without using it for a week.
The pen also comes with a full-size converter, which doesn't look like it would fit in the pen from the outside, but Ben has access to TARDIS technology apparently, because it does indeed fit.
The first run of these pens also comes with a custom Rickshaw Bagworks Solo Pen Sleeve, turning this awesome duo into a trifecta of pen collaboration. I love to see this all come together, and the end result is a fantastic product. I've carried this pen daily since it arrived in its rad pen sleeve, and really enjoyed using it. The only days I didn't use it were when I ignored it on purpose to see if it would start up again right away after being neglected for a while. It was difficult to not use it! I kept reaching for it, and had to remind myself to use something else. I do feel that they've achieved their design goal of making a perfectly comfortable, portable pen. At $129, it's also priced well for what you get.
Well done, team. I hope that there will be more fantastic collaborations like this in the future.
(Penquisition provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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