One2Ten TiScribe Copper Fountain Pen

Kelvin at One2Ten sent this little pocket pen out for me to review so: Thanks, Kelvin! As always when reviewing something sent to me, I'm thankful but I do my best to be objective.

You'll notice right off that the pen is pretty seriously patina'd already. It had a bit of oxidation on it when it arrived at my door, but it's a prototype that's been handled a bit, I think. That's fine with me. I trust that your pen (if you back the Kickstarter) will arrive all shiny like a new penny. Mine has been banging around in my pocket for a week or so, but no damage to the pen or unfortunate uncapping incidents. It's a very solid knock-around pen for the EDC folks who want to toss a pen in their pocket with their change and pocket knife without worrying that it'll be messed up.

You can see the fresh copper at the threads and inside the barrel and cap. The rest has been oxidized by my hands and humidity. Cool.

Specs:

Capped Length: 4.45"
Uncapped Length: 4.15"
Weight: 26g (copper)

Package:

I didn't get packaging with this pen, and that's fine with me. Most packaging goes in the bin or in a closet, anyway. I don't know what will come with the final product.

Appearance:

It's a stylish little pen. The rings carved around the section of this pen are very nicely done, and the edges aren't sharp at all. I think they provide adequate grip without being slippery, but you're unlikely to be using this pen for long periods of time anyway.

 This is actually my first copper pen, and I really like that material. Copper is antibacterial, though I don't know if that is true of non-nano copper. If it is, though, that is a cool feature in a pocket pen. It's got a smell to it, as you'd expect of raw copper, but I don't find it objectionable.

The Kickstarter page says that the pen doesn't post because the threads at the end of the barrel were ugly. I believe it on a pen like this. The slight taper to the end of the pen looks nice and it feels much better in the web of your hand than a squared-off or threaded end would feel.

The barrel is seamless. The break between barrel and section is right at the last set of grooves, and you can't see it until you unscrew it. That's a really good trick. Well done, I say. 

Patina!

Fresh copper on the threads and the Bock nib.

The cap is fine. It's small enough to hold in-hand while you write with the pen, though the lack of post-ability will be deal-breaker for some. That Titanium clip is really stiff, but I didn't have any problem hooking it on to jeans or whatever. The single screw is a nice, minimalist touch. There can be a little bit of horizontal play in the clip, but not much. Certainly not enough to worry about it coming off of the cap.

That's as much play as you'll find, really. Hardly off-center at all.

Gratuitous patina shot.

Nib Performance:

It's a Bock nib and this pen writes just as it should. Smoothly and reliably. I can't see a size marking on the nib, but it seems like a fine nib. It's probably just below the collar of the section, and I haven't pulled the nib/feed to check it. I haven't even seen ink in the cap, which I fully expected to see in a pocket pen that's constantly jostled around. Good stuff, Bock.

How's it Feel?

It is smaller than I thought it would be, but my hands are bigger than the hand-model on the Kickstarter page. I think the full-sized version (now available on the Kickstarter as a free upgrade with multi-pen pledges) would be better for me, and I hear that lots of people have upgraded since that stretch goal was reached.

I only had a couple of non-size-related complaints, and both were minor. The first was that the barrel threads and the cap threads ran in the same direction. That meant that I was unscrewing the barrel most of the time when I wanted to unscrew the cap. Kelvin fixed that by threading them in opposite directions. He did that on the very day I suggested that, so thanks for listening to your reviewers, Kelvin!  That bodes well for things to come from One2Ten.

The other is that the threading between the cap and section could be smoother. It's sometimes difficult to re-cap the pen because they're not as smooth as they could be. This isn't likely to be an issue with the production versions, though, because they'll have much smoother threads than my prototype pen.

Comparisons:

I think the pictures say it all in this section.



Wrap-Up:

 When I've gotten a pen for free I try to refrain from buy-recommendations. The price seems reasonable to me, and it's in the ball-park of other machined pens out there. The workmanship of the pen is solid and well-done, and the creator seems to listen to the community. I'm interested to see how these fare out there in the market, and I'm really interested to see what comes next from One2Ten.


As with all reviews on pens that are sent to me for review, this review was not paid-for and the opinions expressed are mine alone. They're also based on my own experiences,  so your mileage may vary.



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