Paper Mate Mini Roller

After much delay I finally got my hands on the Paper Mate version of the ink cartridge roller ball. I posted a while ago about a W.H.Smiths version and its disappointments here: http://pensetc.blogspot.com/2013/04/whsmith-euro-cartridge-mini-rollerball.html. Lets see what Paper MAte have managed to do with their version.

At first glance the construction is virtually identical to the inferior (in my opinion) W.H.Smith's version, but once the top is removed (a very reassuring) and the barrel unscrewed the difference can be felt immediately. Barrel has a very reassuring tightness to it and long screw action to attach/detach. this is not coming loose. Surprisingly the pocket clip is also very firm, which first impressions would lead me to believe it will not stand up to much use, but so far its proved to be very robust.

The pen in capped configuration really is very compact, roughly 5 cm's long, very pocket friendly. a nice tactile and comfortable weight to hold and carry.

Nothing particularly striking about its appearance, other than the size and the cartridge refill aspect, it will not draw attention in use especially, but it's a nice one to have just for the fountain pen experience in a roller ball form factor.
Especially if you have a favourite cartridge only ink.
Here we can see the pen breaks down to 3 roughly equal parts; cap, barrel and nib section.
Here we can see better the long screw to attach nib section to barrel, as you can see, in comparison to the pen over all length it a large percentage of the pen, very reassuring construction points. As can be seen, the lid is longer than the barrel, which causes some issues, more on this later .

And now the issues, as can be seen the cap posted pen is not much longer than the capped pen. This is the main problem, strangely enough I don't think the cap sits low enough on the pen when posted. This results in the pen cap coming loose during writing, very easily, and when this happens the pen is to short (for my hands) to rest against the join of thumb and forefinger.
Which all results in a constant fiddle to stabilize a wobbly and wandering pen, just like the W.H.Smith's version.

So taking into account these similar issues does this point to a design problem and flaw in these mini roller ball/cartridge pens? I would hope not as I really like the concept, I do think a simple redesign and indeed a full size pen would be ideal for this concept.

A nice surprise is the inclusion of 8 standard euro cartridges with the two pens, 6 in the box and one in each pen, not bad value for £0.99, though it would have been nice to maybe get some colour variations instead, perhaps 4 of each colour. I also wonder if these pens would be ok to use with registrars ink or pigment ink, for drawing and document signing etc. Perhaps there is an experiment i need to conduct.

Below is the standard writing test, I think it writes very much like a fountain pen, purely down to the ink, no smudge test this time as it's all down to your ink choice.

Cult Pens Mini Fountain Pen

New post centering on my favourite pen site for browsing and drooling over which pens I want next, I am of course talking about www.cultpens.com.
Cult pens have taken an interesting and bold step, manufacturing their own pen, and not just any old style of pen but a mini fountain pen.

And here it is, the Cult Pens Mini Fountain Pen in all its glory, it is a bit hard to tell from the pictures just how big this pen actually is, so here are the dimensions direct from www.cultpens.com description:

Barrel diameter: 9.5mm, stepping up to meet the 10.5mm cap

Length capped: 105mm, uncapped: 93mm, posted: 123mm

Weight: 20g

Some more details:

"There's a choice of five nib sizes, from EF to BB. The nib is the same German-made steel nib from Bock that features in Kaweco's highly respected AL Sport, Liliput and Dia pens, among others; so not only is it a good quality, smooth nib, but it's easy to replace if it's ever damaged accidentally, or if you just decide you fancy a change of width."

I have really high hopes for this pen, I will certainly be getting one soon, soon as i can justify it to myself, even though it is a very reasonable price. I think it could well become a favourite everyday pen, ideal for pockets and notebooks. Only time and use will tell, stay tuned for a full review once I get one. One note, for some reason this pen wants to make me trying it with the extra fine nib, not sure why, but I'm strangely excited by the thought.

They also have a huge range from various manufacturers of ink cartridges to fit this, and other, mini pens, a colour to suit every desire surely. If anyone already has one, please let me know, or even get in touch for a guest post.

W.H.Smith Euro Cartridge Mini Rollerball

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W.H.Smith is a UK retailer of books, stationery, magazines and much more besides.
A great national chain of shops for fetishists like us, admittedly their prices are higher than online shops but I do believe it's good to patronise them for some things and to check out new stuff before buying.
These pens I bought a long time ago, having only recently got round to using them properly, I was so very excited and intrigued by them but ultimately disappointed, let me explain.

 They are unusual in that they are rollerballs that are;

1. Refillable and,
2. Accept a Euro cartridge, just like a fountain pen.

They are/were sold in a twin pack with the standard 2 cartridges free, one each of blue and black for a nice change, instead of the usual blue only. Each having a colour corresponding ring on the barrel/nib end connection.

They are a "mini" variety of pen, more of which later, as you can tell from the size of the lid in relation to the unposted pen length in the above picture, comprising a cartridge accepting barrel and standard style rollerball veined delivery system.

The clip is suitably strong enough to work with any pocket, a nice clear design appeals to me and gives a nice look in general to the pen, as well as aiding viewing of ink levels of course.

The writing nib is very fine, something I like, but of course that is all up to personal taste, the written line is very fine and precise, consistent and great for those who like a very small letter size, ideal for pocket notebooks, or so I first thought.

Although the written line is very fine, it is very easy to control and still lays down an even and useable thickness, a very strong fine line, some fine line pens are too fine to be usable and result in skipping and faintness of letter. (apologies for the cropped scan).

Here we can see the disassembled pen, clearly illustrating the comparable size of lid, barrel and nib/ink delivery section, further highlighting the "mini" size of the pen, another reason why I initially thought the pen would be ideal as a daily "pocketer".
I find them very difficult to write with for one main reason, when the cap is posted to the end of the barrel the length is very comfortable and perfectly acceptable for extended writing or quick notes, what isn't is the behaviour of the cap when posted. it simply will not stay on teh barrel, it doesn't fit far enough down the barrel to retain a secure fitting, the slightest movement will dislodge the cap, sometimes even popping of itself without any encouragement, meaning that it's almost impossible to use (for me) as the barrel without a posted cap means the pen is too short and "falls" into the hand, wobbling about without the bracing against the hand option.

And here is the Euro cartridge accepting nibe section at the business end as it were, pushing onto the cartridge accepting post is very easy and retains cartridges snugly and securely without any danger of leaking or coming loose in normal use and transportation, but there is still a let down coming...

The pen in normal, everyday use and transport is very wet, in that it leaks a lot, not from the actual writing nib, but from the junction of ink delivery veins and surrounding barrel, so much so that after every use the pen leaks ink all over the fingers gripping it, more than is acceptable and tolerable, both pens exhibited this behaviour. This got to such a point that I had to dispose of both pens, sadly, I was very optimistic and excited with these pens.
One last point, W.H.Smith no longer sell these pens and for a long while I didn't see them or anything similar for a long time, until I came across these...

These form Paper-Mate are virtually identical to my eyes, bar the odd design difference and packaging variation, hopefully from an international maker the leaking will not present in these as much as in the test models above, full test and review coming soon.