27/03/2020
Wooden Gifts & More
Wooden pagoda
If you get the chanche to review a Wooden fountain pen for sure you will take it with both hands?
A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by Dennis from the Woodengiftsandmore shop. He asked me if I was interested in doing a review of one of his wooden fountain pens. Of course, I was flattered by his question. Important to mention here is, that the fountain pen hobby is new for me, and until so far I only did a couple of pen reviews. So I am still learning and trying to get better in it. As a newbie one of my initial goals is to extend my network, so getting in touch with fountain pen shops raises opportunities. Also I have to be careful, because a review is, in someway, a personal feeling about a fountain pen, and expectations differ from person to person. So, I try to make my review in a very general way: I share what I feel and see and also what I want to expect from a fountain pen. I will never be influenced by the seller itself, I want total freedom to express my feeling. And I have to admit that with the contact I had with Dennis, it was clear he shared the same thoughts. In my reviews I deal with a lot of criteria. For me, the most important criteria are the price/quality ratio (what do you get for your money) and also the writing performance of the pen. After I agreed for the review, Dennis send me the ‘to be reviewed’ wooden fountain pen. Let’s see what this pen has to offer.
The pen was delivered the 3rd of March. As always, first impression is very important. So first impression on this is the package itself. The pen sits in a soft holder, wrapped in a cloth, and around all this some light wrapping paper. On the package were two ‘thank you’ post-its. The pen has the Japanese pagoda wooden livery. In the package is also a converter and a small ink cartridge. Receiving this gives me the impression that customer satisfaction is important at Woodengiftsandmore, this can only make me happy.
The first thing I did when I unpacked the pen was, putting my nose on the pen to smell the pagoda wood, and as a matter of fact you smell the wood. Then I progressed to scan-mode: a first search on the pen for any irregularities (such as fingerprints on the metal parts, scarves, missing parts, parts that come off…). At first look I didn’t find any.
The body and the cap of the fountain pen are on the outside covered with the pagoda wood. Other parts, such as the clip, and the top of the body are made from shiny stainless steel. The top of the cap is in a shiny black plastic. The wood is not covered with varnish, but instead oil is used to give it a natural look. The combination of the wood, shiny steel and some black plastic parts, gives this pen an overall good quality look.
In general, the pen feels heavy (37gr.), but not as heavy as eg. a Jinhao 159 (43gr).
To open the pen you have to unscrew the cap. Although the body of the pen is quite big, the grip looks a lot smaller. On the cap is a stainless steel clip. The clip is not too stiff, so very useable. In general when I use a fountain pen, I never post the cap if it is not necessary to do it. For this pen I don’t recommend to use it posted. The reason is that the pens is then quite heavy for writing. Also for people with smaller hands, the pen could feel unbalanced due to the higher weight on the back. To post the pen you have to screw the cap on the back of the body, I kinda like this. A little remark here is when the pen is posted, the clip is not aligned with the front of the nib. To solve this you have to unscrew the cap half a turn to get it aligned, but then the cap feels to lose (see picture below to notice the difference). Perhaps there is a solution to turn the clip on the cap to get it aligned with the front of the nib.
The grip of the pen is also in shiny stainless steel. The diameter is 0,8 cm. The grip has 12 sides (dodecagon). If the grip was not shaped like that, I assume you to have some grip problems and the shiny slippery grip, certainly for those blessed with sweaty hands. The grip could feel hard when using the pen for a long time.
The nib of the pen is an Iridium Point Germany medium nib. This nib reminds me of a similar nib from a wooden ‘bamboo’ pen from Amazon I already reviewed. Now, there is a big discussion going on if the tip of the nib is really Iridium. Back in the days, iridium was commonly found on fountain pens, but nowadays most tips are stainless steel. So, it could be that the tip is iridium, it could also be that it is just stainless steel. Of importance for me is the writing performance of the nib. In general, the Iridium Point Germany nibs tend to be scratchy, but I have to say when I write with the pen I don’t have that feeling. It could be that the nib has already been tuned to raise the performance. If not, you can always tune it yourself. Considering the inkflow, I had no problems. The pen writes not too wet, not too dry, just in between. In case you don’t like the nib, you can also use a Bock nib.
The body of the fountain pen is big enough to carry large international standard cartridges. For testing the pen I used the converter with the Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue bottle ink. After filling the converter, the inkflow almost started immediately, so no issues with starting up the fountain pen.
I used the pen for writing, sketching and doodling, although, because of the weight of the pen, I would rather use it for writing.
So now coming to a final conclusion. I like this pen for many reasons. This pen is unique because of the used wood and the structure created by it. You can order this pen in 14 different wooden liveries, such as oak, olive, maple, Japanese pagoda and many more. So you can match it up with the wood you have at your desk. The seller stressed out the importance that the wood is used from mainly sick trees. By doing this, wood is recovered into a new destination, the fountain pen. So no trees are cut for this. You can buy this pen for 40,95 Euro (including cost of sending) at Woodengiftsandmore. It also possible to engrave it with your name or logo.
Who could, would or should buy this pen? If you want a good looking unique pen in a good quality/price range, you should for sure give it a try. I’m happy I can add this pen to my collection and show it to friends.
Thanks to Dennis from Woodengiftsandmore for this opportunity.
There is another review available by Penmeester.be, I suggest you also read this one!
The good and the bad:
+ price/quality
+ unique pen
+ performance of the nib
– alignment of the clip with the from of the nib
- the grip can be hard when used in long sessions
Some technical info:
- Length:
- 12,8 cm closed
- 11,8 cm without cap
- 15 cm posted
- Weight:
- 37 gr. complete (ready to write)
- 23 gr. without cap
- Ø
- 1,3 cm barrel
- 0,8 cm grip
- 1,4 cm cap
- 2 cm cap with clip included
All the fountain pens are handmade by Dennis Marechal and made from the most unique wood with special colors and figures.
Our handmade fountain pens are the perfect personalized gifts, you can add your name, text, logo or anything you like on it.
The fountain pen is a true pleasure to write with and is the ideal pen for daily use.
woodengiftsandmore.shop
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