Review: Conklin declares, "Victory!"

Conklin recently sent me their newest fountain pen and I’ve spent about a week or ten days writing with it, and wanted to post out some thoughts.  Expect a more thorough writeup with pictures in the near future.

For now, though, here’s the quick and dirty first take.

Aesthetics: Looks good.  Minimalist (not in the Bauhaus style).  Built for function.  It’s a throwback design to the pens that the WWII journalists would carry with them out on the battlefield.  Purpose-built.  Nothing flashy, but it had to be reliable, lightweight, and durable.  This one meets all of those needs.  Available in black, navy blue, and army green.

Material: Plastic body, steel clip, steel section, steel semi-hooded nib.  Only one size is offered (a slightly pudgy medium line).  Snap cap.  As you can see in the picture, it’s also available in a ballpoint and a rollerball.

Performance:  Conklin has, in the past, been somewhat hindered by some quality control issues - mainly in the design of the feed that they’ve used in the past.  The feed’s channel wasn’t always wide enough to deliver a constant stream of ink to the nib, thus causing starvation and skips while writing.

Not so with this pen.  With the newly-introduced translucent feed, this pen performs really well.  I test-filled mine with Waterman Florida Blue ink, and it started up right away and hasn’t failed me once.  Top-notch performance.  Writes smoothly, but with just enough "tooth" to let you know that you’re writing on paper.  I liked it right away.  Mine even has just a little bit of line variation to it!

Balance: It’s really nicely balanced in the hand.  At first glance, I thought it might be a little bit heavy with the cap posted, but when using it, it works just fine.

The only thing that I might impart as a caution is this.  It’s got a chromed steel section, which looks great.  But…if your hands are wet or greasy, you might slip around a little bit.  I’m thinking about taking a little piece of sandpaper to the section to add a little bit of texture to it, and I think that will help with grip. 

Otherwise, this is a truly great pen.  Furthermore, it’s extremely affordable as far as fountain pens go.  It should be available soon.  Final pricing hasn’t been fully set (as far as I know), but think Lamy Al-Star, not Parker Duofold.  This is a great value pen, and if it works as well for you as it has for me, all the better!  Looks like Conklin might have hit a home run on this one!

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