No brand good quality fountain pen? | Muji Aluminium Fountain Pen Review
Launched in 1980 with solely 9 household and 31 food products, Muji has fought its way into become one of the top choices of japanese people when it comes to good quality items with no branding whatsoever. Of course, the fountain pen that they sell, unsurprisingly, the only fountain pen that they are currently offer should be in the same spirit of the company as well, or is it?
The fountain pen comes in a plastic wrapper with a minimum amount of words and instructions printed on the front and the back, and the word minimum would probably be repeated a few more times in this review, so bare with me here.
There is pretty much a straightforward design with this one: a snap cap that could be set behind the end of the pen as there is a small circle cut out for that very purpose. Both with and without the cap, it's pretty light in the hand without being back-heavy, and it also helps that the section is knurled so your fingers could have a good grip over the pen.
The nib is a no.5 size made by Schmidt, a german nib manufacture that also makes nib units for TWSBI, Noodler's and Franklin Christoph. It wrote right out of the bag and the experience is really similar to the usual european style of nib tuning: smooth and firm, with a moderate amount of ink flow. Some might say that it's meh but given the target audience of this fountain pen, I have no real complaint about the performance if the pen. However, after the initial $15 you paid for the pen, consider getting some more cartridges, converters and inks because they only give you 1 cartridge that comes inside of the barrel. All of that should not be more than $50 and it's a really good start for anyone who would like to dip their toes into fountain pens, as well as those who like to add a pen with a minimal aesthetic to their collection that can be a daily writer.
That being said, the pen also comes with a few drawbacks. The barrel wall is pretty thin compare to other aluminium pens, so the rish of getting dings and bents is there. The inner threading of the barrel is quite sharp, thus the squeaky noise from screwing down the pen may cause a bit of discomfort, but after a few weeks of use it should be fine, or some silicon grease on the threads should alleviate the issue.
Overall, I would gladly recommend this pen to anyone and it would make a good daily carry as well as a backup pen in your bag, while also being reasonably priced for the modern users. If you would like to go for a more mid-century minimal design, perhaps the review of the vintage Parker 51 below might give you some ideas ;)
Thank you for reading and I'll see you in the next one.
