Hi everyone! Just wanted to put a little reminder out there that the Dudek Modern Goods T-shirt campaigns running through Teespring.com are almost to a close! We've hit the goal on our Simple Grey tee and are still a few slots away from hitting the goal on the Sawblade tee.
Both of the campaigns end this coming Wednesday around 10:30pm PST (USA).
Here again are the two offerings (click on shirt to go to campaign):
Simple Grey
Sawblade
Thanks again everyone!
The Pilot Timeline is an entertaining pen. What makes it a bit unique is how the tip extends and retracts as it is a mesh between a traditional twist barrel, but coupled with a sort of telescoping effect. Pretty wild, right? JetPens was kind enough to send me over this Timeline as a sample for review.
Thanks JetPens!
From the outside, the Timeline is a very handsome looking pen in my opinion. The barrel is a glossy black with chrome accents and a smokey plastic grip section. The shape of the pen is very unique. It is sleek but with a pretty large helping of "futuristic" design. I'm thinking more the sterile, robotic, spaceship type futuristic as opposed to the post-apocalypse type of futuristic. More 2001: a space odyssey and not Mad Max. I think we all get the picture...
Even the packaging it comes in is futuristic. Pilot did a stellar job on the presentation for sure.
The pen comes in a simple, glossy white box wherein you find a glossy white tube (or capsule) that simply has the "Timeline" logo printed on the front. Inside the capsule the pen is seated upright securely between two foam rings, one at each end of the tube. Upon opening the capsule the pen is standing tall and at attention firmly held in place like an important component or instrument. I'm really getting quite hung up on this futuristic thing, but Pilot set the stage so well I can't really help myself.
The pen has a nice weight distribution and is very well balanced. It does not feel awkward or heavy in the hand one way or the other. It isn't heavy, but feels sturdy. Pilot has a hard time making junk, don't they?
The barrel is fairly wide (likely to house all of the twist/telescoping mumbo jumbo going on inside) which does make gripping slightly uncomfortable. The grip section being plastic isn't the most pleasant of grips, but may just be due to me having larger hands.
The pen is quite short, but in a good way. It fits nicely in a shirt pocket and the clip pushes all the way up to the top so it is almost hidden when tucked away. I really like this more conservative design element as it adds to the sleekness. Even while put away it does not distract by towering out of your pocket like a show off.
Referring back to the mechanism, to extend the tip you simply grab the grip and barrel with separate hands and twist the two parts in opposite directions. With the grip section being a smoked plastic, you get to see some of the moving parts in action.
As this model is ballpoint, the refill quality is to be expected I suppose. More your typical ballpoint: not terribly smooth, space in the letters, boring ink. Gets the job done though. Pilot does make a gel pen called the Ageless that is very similar (although I think the Timeline looks way better) and I wonder if the refills are compatible? I may have to do some investigating on that as swapping in a gel would be amazing.
When I learned of the Namiki Falcon, my first thought was that I knew I wanted one. Actually, my first-first thought was, "that nib looks weird". Alas, I was still smitten enough to go forward and purchase one.
I picked up this Falcon from my friends over at Pen Chalet who are definitely becoming a household name in the community. Although a bit newer to the pen retail game, these guys deliver excellent customer service and a great selection of writing instruments. They actually have a great deal going on right now for the Namiki Falcon (this exact model) for about 25% off of retail. Couple that with an extra 10% if using the promo code CLICKYPOST and you'll end up with a pretty sweet deal on one of these.
Upon choosing which Falcon to buy I went with the shiny black resin barrel and the rhodium accents. I must say, this is a smart looking pen and it feels great. Being resin it is pretty lightweight, but feels quality and very sturdy. There is also a metal barreled version (which I was highly tempted by), but at $100 more I thought I'd stick with this one to see what I felt about it.
I've never owned a flex nib fountain pen and I'm not certain that the Falcon is a "true" flex, but all I know is that it feels like it has considerable give which creates a very fluid and enjoyable writing experience. The nib is quite springy which is a different experience for me as nearly all of my other pens are quite stiff and sharp in their lines. I like it.
The Falcon comes fitted with a 14k gold nib which, at the price, is pretty excellent. I'm finding that Pilot/Namiki is slowly becoming one of my favorite fountain pen brands. My experience with my Falcon and two Vanishing Points (still need reviewing) has been superb and I know that I will likely further my collection with more of their models. Not to discredit the European brands like Pelikan or Lamy, but I'm finding the overall quality control of the Japanese pens to be a slight bit higher overall, meaning the writing experience out of the box has never left me wanting. (See M205 review for the opposite...)
I opted for the M nib as I was figuring standard Japanese sizing, but in using the pen I think I would enjoy an F nib more. The medium writes rather broad, and by so doing doesn't quite provide the same line variation I was hoping for with the nib. I'll have to do some research to see if the nibs are swappable (very likely) as I'd like to try out a fine at some point.
All broadness aside (not a complaint, but preference), the Falcon writes beautifully and is like silk on the Tomoe River paper I've been using it with. Of course, going for the really good stuff doesn't really provide a great everyday look at how it's going to perform, right? Well, I can safely say it performs equally as well on Rhodia, although I found the dry times for the M to be a bit long.
I did find that on rare occasion of maybe 5 times within a page the nib had a little trouble on some of the vertical letters like "I", "T", "L", and the like. It wasn't happening on every word so not a complete bother and I'm willing to give the nib a bit more time to break in to my writing style.
The Falcon can take either the Namiki cartridges or a converter. Mine came with a blue cartridge so I popped it in and have enjoyed the ink color. Not anything mind blowing, but a nice, rich blue with some great shading. For convenience, I may pick up more of them to use instead of a converter, but we'll see.
Overall I'm extremely pleased with the Falcon and look forward to continuing my experience with it. If an F nib finds it's way to me there will likely be a follow up comparison review.
Again, check out Pen Chalet's current offer on the Falcon as it is a great price.