The Anterqiue ballpoint pens feature standard ballpoint ink and a fine point and a classic retracable ball point pen design. The click end is wedged rather than round giving it a slightly more modern look but, from a distance, it could easily be mistaken for a classic.

I, of course, got a lime green model but I am sure you can find your favorite color.

I tested the Anterique on Tomoe River paper first but it extended the dry time causing the dreaded lefty-smudgy hand.

On Nakabayashi Logical Prime paper, the ink dried in a reasonable amount of time and performed well. So, the ink dry time issue was specific to the Tomoe River paper, not the ink or pen. (I used a B5 sized notebook. Gentleman Stationer stocks it in A5.)

I was impressed with overall build quality of the pen. The knock works well, there is no rattle or shimmy when writing.  The quality is surprising for a budget priced pen. Definitely worth adding to your next order from Gentleman Stationer for sure.

If you want an even more premium model, Anterique is available with a brass barrel section ($29) and a plastic clip section which look even more retro..

The refill is a standard butterfly refill — its like a D1 with wings. It would be easy to replace and Gentleman Stationer stocks them ($2.80 each).

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Gentleman Stationer for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Pen Review: Anterique Ballpoint Pen appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Normally, I prefer easy-to-recycle packaging and The Scribe is both posh and recyclable. The pen comes in a square-shaped tin embossed with the company logo and a friction-fit cap. The packaging can be recycled because its metal but can also be reused. It’s pretty enough to look good on-shelf in a shop and present as a gift. This would definitely qualify as a pen that would or could be gifted to a graduate or someone who just got their doctorate or passed the bar.

While most readers here are avid fountain pen collectors, I suspect we all own some upscaled ballpoint or rollerball pens and The Scribe would sit beautifully amongst our fountain pens.

The Scribe is available in several different lacquer colors but I chose the millennial pink because …. why not? The pen itself is a rounded square shape that is comfortable in the hand. The hardware is gold tone and the pen features a hex-shaped, knurled end that will advance and retract the pen tip. The clip is long and slender with subtle engraving on the clip with the company branding.

The most disappointing part of The Scribe is the refill.  I discovered that The Scribe utilizes the Cross screw-in refill.  It’s probably one of the most limited refill options. While the Cross screw-in refill is available at most big box office supply stores, options are limited in terms of tip widths, colors and ink type. With the (more common) Parker-style refill, users can choose a wide variety of options and these refill are readily available just about any place that sells stationery from a drugstore to a pen shop.

For a non-pen-snob, the refill might not be a dealbreaker.  The Cross ballpoint refill is long lasting and available in blue and black. Its a solid refill.

For picky folks, like myself, this lack of refill options is a sad turn of events. Unfortunately, until I purchased the pen, I didn’t know what refill it would take. With most ballpoint pens, I already have a cache of refill options that I’ve hacked or modified to work but the Cross screw-in refill is the hardest to create an alternative. So, if you have. preference for gel ink, microtips or a wider range of color options, I wouldn’t recommend this pen. It’s beautiful but its usefulness is severely limited by the refill. I wish The Scribe had used a Parker-style refill or even the Schmidt rollerball refill. If it had, I would have definitely put The Scribe in the same class as the 849 or the Retro 51 Tornado as a new “modern classic”.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

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The Spoke Roady is Spoke’s pocket pen and it manages to be fairly tiny, without being minuscule (I’m looking at you Liliput!) It is approximately 4.25″/10cm in length when capped, and ends up at 4.625″/11.5 cm when posted, which is how I found it most comfortable to write.

The Roady is Spoke’s standard metal body with a titanium grip section and silver hardware. It comes in at about 27g so it’s fairly lightweight as well.

The Roady comes with a Jetstream Uni SXR-600-07 refill in black and I just popped that in there for easy usage.

I found the Roady a pleasure to hold in my hand. Even though the grip is scored, it’s nice and smooth, so it’s comfortable to hold. The Jetstream Uni is also quite smooth, without the skipping I find in a lot of ball point pens. While the pen can be used without posting, I found that I liked the weight distribution better with the cap on.

And the cap is really fun – it’s magnetic and it just slides onto either end of the pen easily.

Overall, I’m liking my Roady so far and I’ll be testing it out more on my travels next week!

• Paper: Ghost Paper Notebook ($25)
• Pen: Spoke Roady in Purple ($59.00)

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Pen Review: Spoke Roady appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Musgrave Pencil Co. of Shelbyville, Tennessee, is one of very few remaining pencil manufacturers in the US. Operating since 1916, it’s still family-owned. As such, I feel an affinity for the company’s history and heritage, though not always its products. For example, the gorgeous Tennessee Red pencils in their cedar box smell scrumptious, and often I slide open the box just to inhale deeply. The pencils, however, are better for sniffing than writing. 

Clicking around Musgrave’s site one day, I did a double-take: Shown among the many pencils were two Duets Pens – bicolor ballpoint pens! What? A red/blue pairing and a red/black one (12/$11.25). Just like Ana does, I have a collection of red/blue editing pencils as well as a more general obsession with all bicolor pencils. But a bicolor ballpoint pen? That’s something I don’t see every day! And here’s what made me do a triple-take: The pens are “cedar wood cased.” Whaaaaat??

Although I didn’t really need a dozen of each color combo, which is the only way they are sold, it was a small price to satisfy my curiosity, now doubly piqued.

Before I get to the Duets, I wanted to mention that, as has been the case every time I’ve ordered from Musgrave, I received a sleeve of two of the company’s most popular pencils as a gift. It’s fun to get anything free with purchase, and these sleeved pencils are an especially nice touch that befits the company’s long heritage. 

Maybe because I use Bic Cristal and Stic ballpoints, I was surprised that the Duets came without caps. I suppose they are more pencil-like without caps, though. Caplessness notwithstanding, the Duets points do somewhat resemble Bics.

The pen body is shorter than an unsharpened pencil and slightly longer than a Stic. It weighs about the same as the Stic and is lighter weight than a standard wood pencil. As for that cedar wood casing, I was initially perplexed. At first glance, it looks and feels like plastic. When I found a rough spot next to the “ferrule” (I don’t know what else to call the collar that connects the barrel with the pen point), I gouged into it with a fingernail, and it was easy to do – it felt like soft wood. On closer inspection, I thought I could see woodgrain beneath the thin metallic-colored paint (which I daresay is the same color as Blackwing’s latest Volume 200, though not as glossy). Hmmm, it doesn’t smell like cedar at all. 

There’s only one way to find out for sure, right?

Yup, it’s real wood – splinters and all – and when I cut it open, I smelled cedar! Does anyone else think it’s odd to make a ballpoint pen out of cedar, then cover the cedar with paint? 

Now I’ll get to the critical part – the ink. For writing, I tend to prefer Japanese “hybrid” inks like Uni Jetstream that flows smoothly and flawlessly. But I also use ballpoint ink as a drawing medium, and for that, my hands-down favorite is the lowly Bic, which contains an oily, viscous ink that layers beautifully like graphite. Upon initial scribbles, I was pleasantly surprised to find the Duets ink similar to Bic’s in consistency.

That is, the Duets were similar if they flowed at all. Specifically, the red side – in both red/blue and red/black – would not flow at all in nearly half the two dozen I purchased. (Ah, so perhaps that’s the reason they are sold by the dozen and not individually: With 12 in hand, you have a better chance of getting a few pens with two working sides.) I don’t mean hard starts; I mean non-starts. Zero ink flow. I wore holes into the paper trying to get the red ink to flow. The blue and black sides flowed acceptably in all pens, especially after scribbling a while. 

I managed to find one of each color combo that worked on both ends, so I made a couple of test sketches. The good news is that the ink is very much like Bic from a drawing perspective: I can build up layers of ink in the same way I do with graphite or colored pencils. However, the red is not as smooth as the blue or black and tends to blob more. Clearly, there’s something wrong with the red ink supply in these pens. 

Though it’s strangely ironic coming from a pencil maker, I give Musgrave credit for this unique bicolor ballpoint pen (with an even more strangely ironic cedar barrel that looks like plastic). Unfortunately, it loses many points for that faulty red ink. 

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

The post Pen Review: Musgrave Duets appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

The limited edition “Claim Your Style” Caran d’Ache 849 ($40)  in vert comes in the same molded enamel clamshell case that most 849s ship in. It makes for an impressive presentation as a gift and the price point on an 849 is such that its a great gateway pen for friends, family and co-workers.

The “Claim Your Style” series features mixed colors on the barrel, knock and clip to create fresh modern statements on a classic pen barrel. The Vert model (the Vert colorway is currently sold out but there are several other options available) features an emerald green body, electric blue clip and metallic red knock.

By default, the Caran d’Ache 849 ballpoint pens ship with a medium blue Goliath refill. The Goliath refill is pretty much the same as a Parker-style refill with a perfectly flat end (no fins).

So let’s give this one away shall we?

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below telling us what your favorite ballpoint pen is! (Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay?) One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Sunday, April 3. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. ONE winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 5 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

DISCLAIMER: All the items included in this post, as well as the giveaway item,  were provided free of charge by Gentleman Stationer Shop for the purpose of review and giveaway.

The post Giveaway: Caran D’Ache 849 Claim Your Style Ballpoint Pen appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Victorian Trading Company  currently stocks two pen necklaces from 1928 — the Adela Cameo Pen Necklace and the Floral Pearl Seed Pen Necklace (both are currently on sale for $39.95)

Both are slim gold tone twist ballpoint pens with a 28″ gold tone chain. The Floral Pearl Seed Pen features a decorative cloisonne rose with pearl flowers on the clip. The Cameo features –well, a cameo design on the clip. These decorative elements make up the clip but since this is a necklace pen, the clip is more for decoration than functionality. I would be worried I’d bend the decorative elements or break them if I tried to use it as a functional clip.

The pen tip retracts with a twist mechanism that is smooth and snug. The likelihood of the pen coming untwisted unknowingly is pretty slim. The overall pen shape is slender like the classic Cross Century. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the pen was entirely designed on the Cross Century chassis.

Both pens rely on the classic Cross style twist ballpoint refill. I scavenged through my refill stash to see if there were any comparable refills that could be hacked to fit into the pen but didn’t find any other solutions. Monteverde sells compatible refills in Medium and Broad in a wide variety of colors. There are other options for the Cross refill but I am confident to recommend Monteverde and Cross.

The pens have a lovely engraved pattern in the body that gives them a retro vibe.

While no one (myself included) really wants a pandemic era torso photo, I needed a model to show the length of the chain. So… no comments about the crappy, unflattering photo, ok?

I am quite short and short torso-ed and the pen chain and pen hit at my natural waist. The pen clips on with a lobster claw for easy-on and -off and there’s another closure at the back of the neck to make putting the chain on easier though I was able to just put it on over my head. I am sure it would be easy to add length to the chain or just swap out for a longer chain so long as your could add a lobster claw for attaching the pen.

In writing tests, the pens write like a standard ballpoint pen. Ballpoint pens are not my favorite writing tool as they always feel a little “skippy” to me. But I love the idea of having a pen on a chain so I might continue to research hack options so I can replace the refill with a gel pen.

Victorian Trading Company  also carries the Anna Griffen Rose Garden Gift Pen ($24.95)

This pen is a capped pen with gold hardware and a floral motif printed on the barrel.

The cap snaps tightly to post on the end which is a nice design feature. It is also a snap cap so it makes it a quick on-and-off.

The pen takes a standard Parker-style refill which means, although it ships with a bog-standard medium ballpoint refill, there are a lot more options for upgrading this pen.

Since we all need at least one ballpoint pen in our collection, these pens are definitely an option. If you like roses and gold hardware, it’s definitely fun and eye-catching. Or if you have a friend or family member who has always wanted a “nice pen” but isn’t quite ready to dive into the world of fountain pens, any of these might be good options. I would definitely include a few extra refills though.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Victorian Trading Company for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ballpoint Pen Reviews: Victorian Trading Company Pens (Part 2) appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

The limited edition “Claim Your Style” Caran d’Ache 849 ($40)  in vert  comes in the same molded enamel clamshell case that most 849s ship in. It makes for an impressive presentation as a gift and the price point on an 849 is such that its a great gateway pen for friends, family and co-workers.

The “Claim Your Style” series features mixed colors on the barrel, knock and clip to create fresh modern statements on a classic pen barrel. The Vert model (the Vert colorway is currently sold out but there are several other options available) features an emerald green body, electric blue clip and metallic red knock.

As with all 849 pens, the proportions are petite and similar to Caran d’Ache pencils with the hex barrel and slender width. For many, this pen might be too slim for long writing sessions but, within our community, I think ballpoint pens get relegated to filling out forms in doctors’ offices, signing receipts and the occasional dashed note so I don’t think its a deterrent that the 849 is slender and more petite overall. It makes the pen pocketable and easy to stash in a bag or purse pocket.

For a ballpoint refill, the medium blue Goliath is a super smooth refill. Not as smooth as a Uni Jetstream refill but a good option if you want to have a pen in your bag, car or on your desk that can be used on just about any surface and does not require any maintenance. It’s a pen that you can have on your desk that a co-worker can comfortably borrow without the “oh, no! I can’t use a fountain pen!” moment. And you’ll still impress them with your sense of style.

By default, the Caran d’Ache 849 ballpoint pens ship with a medium blue Goliath refill. The Goliath refill is pretty much the same as a Parker-style refill with a perfectly flat end (no fins). I swapped out the refill a couple times to see how the pen performed with a black fine Goliath ballpoint refill ($9.25 each) and a Kaco 0.5mm black gel refill. The Kaco is a Parker-style refill and seemed to fit and activate the knock mechanism just fine. The black fine Goliath refill is designed to fit so there were no issues using it either. I prefer the silky, dense black line of the Kaco refill but the roller on these refills can be hit or miss and if you get any oils on your paper from your hand or lunch, you can get skipping.

All this is to say that if you don’t own an 849, you now have some very colorful reasons to add this pen to your collection. If the Limited Edition pricing is a bit steep for you, the standard color options are available for a significantly lower price ($20 each).

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Gentleman Stationer Shop for the purpose of review. This review includes affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details. Please see the About page for more details.

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That said, even lefties need to use a ballpoint every now and again to fill out paperwork in the doctor’s office, sign a slick piece of receipt paper for a credit card purchase, etc.

So sometimes, you just need a ballpoint pen. But who wants to carry a Bic Stic next to your beautiful fountain pens and mechanical pencils? Ensso understands your dilemma so they have created the premium Bic Stic solution: the Aria ($39, available in matte black aluminum or brass).

The packaging is simple and satisfying. The Aria pens come in slim, black cardboard boxes which are easily recyclable. Inside the box is a tube, capped with thick rubber caps which are reusable. Thumbs up on the packaging.

These pens have beautiful tapered lines and an upscale look but in their heart, beats a Bic Stic refill. Why did they choose to make a high end body for such an inexpensive ballpoint pen? Why do people climb Mount Everest? Because they can. Because it’s a challenge. I think making a ballpoint pen appealing enough to entice a very picky fountain pen user is a suitable challenge.

The refill is friction fit into the barrel and can easily be removed with a pair of pliers. So, if you prefer a different ink color or a different nib width, it’s easy to swap out the refill.

On the end of the Aria, there are threads that mean that the cap can be posted and it won’t fall off.

The Aria is quite long. It’s 15cm (almost 6″)  long capped, 14.5cm (5.7″) uncapped and 16cm (6.25″) when posted.

The brass model is very heavy. Capped or posted the brass Aria weighs 66gms and 58gms when uncapped. The matte black aluminum model is much lighter at 21gms capped/posted and 20gms uncapped.

I’m including our usual fountain pen weight chart for reference to exactly how heavy the brass Aria is.

I don’t suspect anyone needs an in-depth review of how the Bic refill writes but I wanted to test how the pens felt with the weight of the aluminum and brass.  The Aria pens are narrow, like a ballpoint pen. For me, the brass pen was too heavy. But I have tiny, childlike hands so the weight of the brass and the longer length of the pen caused the brass Aria to be a bit too top heavy in my small hands. For larger normal adult-sized hands, this would probably not be an issue. The aluminum pen is much lighter and I didn’t have issues with the weight balance.

Compared to other non-fountain pens in my collection, it’s clear how long the Aria pens are. Shown above, from left to right: Baron Fig Squire, Retro 51 Tornado Popper, and the brass and matte black aluminum Ensso Aria.

The Aria is the only of the pens that it capped. The threads keep the caps on tightly. If you’ve had issues with the Schmidt refills leaking in your bag or pocket, the capped Aria may be a reasonable upgrade.

The Aria is a very pretty pen. If we have to have a ballpoint pen, it might as well be one as lovely as the Aria. The price is reasonable too, for a metal machined pen.

Ensso has kindly given us these two pens to give away to TWO lucky giveaway winners.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and let me know which Aria style you like best: brass or matte black aluminum. Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Sunday, March 28, 2021. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 5 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Ensso for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Pen Review: Ensso Aria (When A Bic Stic Won’t Do) appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Recently we were sent a few Drehgriffel from Leuchtturm (24.95 each) for review. These fun ballpoint pens are made to look sort of like pencils.

Drehgriffel is German and loosely translates to “twist stylus.” This pen style is a revival from the 1920s and it is made from precision-milled aluminum and brass. The Drehgriffel has a spring loaded twist mechanism – to open and retract the ball point you simply twist the end cap (which looks sort of like a combination of ferrule and eraser). The pens come in tons of fun colors; we received the Sage (green), Nordic Blue and Bellini (orange) for review. The pens come loaded with a blue ink, and refills are available in either blue or black.

The pen is lightweight at 14g, and is fairly short at 5″/12.5cm long. It is slightly longer than some of my favorite pocket pens, and very similar to the Caran d’Ache Nespresso I reviewed a few weeks ago.

L to R: Franklin Christoph Pocket 45, Caran d’Ache Nespresso, Leuchtturm 1917 Drehgriffel, Kaweco AL Sport.

The Drehgriffel writes smoothly without a lot of skipping. It’s lightweight and the hexagonal body is nice to hold in your hand. The variety of colors make it a fun pen to carry, and the fact that it is refillable is so much better for the environment (as opposed to disposable ballpoints.) In general, I gravitate more towards fountain pens, but sometimes a ball point pen is the best option. I can totally see keeping one of these in my wallet for on the go writing needs.

So now comes the fun part, the GIVEAWAY! Leuchtturm has generously offered these Drehgriffels to TWO of our lucky readers.

THE DETAILS: Two lucky winners will be selected from the comments on this post to win their choice of Drehgriffel in either Sage, Nordic Blue or Orange, as well as a package of refills in blue or black. Supplies are limited so we’ll ask for first/second choice and go with first come, first served.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell us if you have a favorite Leuchtturm 1917 product. Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by midnight CST on Friday, March 26, 2021. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Saturday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 7 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purposes of this giveaway. Please see the About page for more details.

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However, I still held off purchasing because it was a ballpoint. So you can imagine how tickled I was to receive the Nespresso as a present this holiday season!

The aluminum barrel of the body is actually made of recycled ‘Arpeggio’ capsules, creating a purple body that is super smooth and sleek. The body is Caran d’Ache’s signature hexagonal shape. I should add that all of the packaging for the pen is made of 100% recycled materials as well!

The pen comes with Caran d’Ache’s signature Goliath ink cartridges which are available in 3 tip widths, and 4 colors (mine is in blue). According to Caran d’Ache, the Goliath will write up to 600 pages of A4. Although it writes fairly smoothly, I may be consulting the refill queen to find out if I can add a gel refill to this baby and make it all mine.

I will say that there are uses for ballpoints – sometimes a fountain pen just isn’t the best for every situation. I’m excited use my Nespresso at those times!

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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