Pilot Myu

To those who have laid eyes upon it, the legend needs no introduction: The Pilot Myu gains its 100% deserved reputation with its rarity (i.e., not very, or not too much so) and its quality. Made from steel all over, it has the polished-chrome look of last-century modernism, and its slim, tapered profile definitely harbours...

PenBBS 456

This pen was everything I hoped that the TWSBI Vac would be. I’ve officially given up on repeatedly buying parts for my Vac 700. Priced similarly to the Eco — and lower than the Vac — there’s literally no reason to go for one of those since the PenBBS 456 exists (and if you want...

Pelikan M620 New York

After getting the Grand Place and Piccadilly Circus pens from Pelikan’s M620 Cities series, I had my sights set on the soft stripey blues of the Place de la Concorde. But then this turned up: Emulating the chunky celluloids of an earlier era, this barrel material is pretty unique for Pelikan. I’d always appreciated the...

PenBBS 309

A Chinese product that really distinguishes itself from the cheapness of its competition. Enter PenBBS: There are so many numbers, and I don’t know if there is any logic to them. This is the 309, in the Smog acrylic (54), with a stock silver-coloured fine nib (SF), making the full name of my model the...

Faber-Castell Ambition Pearwood

’I complained about the e-motion being a fairly weird design and also uncomfortable to use. The Ambition, in the same price range, fixes those problems: The pearwood on my Ambition looks and feels the same as that on the e-motion. This is also a cartridge/converter model, as with all of Faber-Castell’s low-end offerings, and features...

Namiki Impressions Sapphire

This is truly a grail pen: The colours on this are even more striking than on the Ruby version of the same series. Blue and purple actually go really well with the gold trim, and the purple has a perfect match in Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu, which I’ve decided to use for this review.  A small...

Waterman 42 1/2 V (1920s)

The little brother of my 12 1/2 VS, I got this on eBay on Fountain Pen Day last year, but it leaked ink everywhere when I tried to fill it. Clearly it needed restoring, but I never got around to it until recently: And what a process it was! I had to take it apart....

Jinhao 992 (modified!)

At 99p each on eBay with free shipping, it’s very hard to say no! It’s always interesting to see what the Chinese companies decide to copy: the Wing Sung 659 I reviewed rips off Pilot and another popular Jinhao, the 599/599A, copies Lamy’s Safari/Al-Star line. This one is a little sneakier, and I don’t actually...

TWSBI Vac 700 Clear (modified!)

I picked this up used on a lark for £35: Truth be told, after holding out on TWSBI for a long time and finally succumbing to the 580AL in the last days of 2016, I was surprised I hadn’t sprung for this earlier. It’s easily worth its RRP of £65, with good heft, a surprisingly...