Hi everyone and welcome back to AWG.

I’ve been showing a good number of pens on the channel but what are the nitty gritty bullet points to check off whenever you’re out and about shopping for a pen. The things I’m about to list out down below are things I personally look at when I have a physical pen in my own hands, and not online photo shopping, thus that would be a topic for another post :)

Metal details

The plating is unquestionably the most obvious eye-catcher any writing instruments maker would focus on. They add breaks to the different parts of the pen and reflect the light off the different angles, thus it could also be a point of branding.

The clips would usually be mirror shined and I personally would look at the underside of the clips to see if there is any pitting or flaking of the plating material.

The bands are also key pointers as brand engravings and ornamental strokes could really show off how dedicate the brands are to show off their attention to details - the edges of the lettering or the faint textures of the bands can be inspected with a loop or an x2 camera on your phone.

Finishing

The next touches should look at are the transitions between the metal details and the main bulk of the pen. As for shiny finishing, the surfaces should bring the pen to a mirror shine and the reflected light should not look warped. You’ll know, just by looking at them.

The matte finishing on the other hand, from photos and videos it might be hard to figure how well they are done, as some of these are rubber coated and the quality isn’t that great and the outer layer might melt in a few months time leaving sticky residue on the surfaces; but on the other hand resin matte finishing of high end pens will leave your fingers longing for more of the pleasant touch.

Threads

This is one of those details that would be neglected in the heat of the moment, but throughout your days handling your pens, it would definitely show. Good threads make the pen effortless to operate, and the most important thing of all - they should not make squeaky screeching noises.

Capping mechanism

Similar ideas apply here - smooth operation makes everything better. Even if it’s just a simple snap cap, the sound of the snap should feel good, and thus not making the action of capping the pen into much of a daily struggles

Section

This part of the pen would be the one handling the most pressure from you holding it, this it should be the part that feels the most comfortable to your finger tips. Moulding seams and the edges of the parts would be the details you should pay attention too as well.

Nib - Writing tip

The most important part of any writing instruments - if you mess this one up, your pen is pretty much unusable other that being a pretty paperweight. When you’re out and about pen shopping, please do ask the sales assistant to give you a good piece of paper to test the nib on, or bring with you the most favorite types of paper to use. A decent nib should already being able to produce a pleasant feedback from dry writing, and from any direction the feeling should be smooth and it will range from “blunt pencil lead” to “finger on a phone screen” if I have to describe it in a way most people could also relate to.

Feed

This part should also be inspected when you take a look at the nib of the pen, but most of the time it could only be done by using the pen personally. The underside that you could see is usually for decorative purposes, but most stores would sometimes be willing to let you water dip a pen to see how the ink flows out - the feed should hold the water in without any leakage, and also is able to let the nib flow on the page effortlessly without you having to press or force it to write in any way.

Filling Mechanism

There is a plethora of filling mechanisms invented throughout history, thus it should be a topic for another day, but the one thing in common is that they should function without any struggles or inconsistency, to prevent the pen from leakage or the pen not being able to fill when you need it to.

Line Produced

A pen with everything in place should be able to write on its own weight, while also produce a consistent line from the moment of it being fully filled or to the last few drops of ink. For broader nibs, it is a given that the feed and ink filling system should be able to keep up with the large volume of ink it can dish out in a few lines and gives you no skipping marks or ink blobs. The same goes for flexy nibs as well, the whole mechanism should be able to keep up with the sudden change of line width, keeping your writing experience uninterrupted. If a pen could perform well enough for you to write it dry then I think both of us know that you have yourself a good writing instrument indeed.

Overall, the points above are just my personal experience going out there and trying out different writing instruments, and they might not be the case for everyone, and some may have their own ways to see if a pen is good or nah. Thank you for reading and see you in the next article.