Click, Ebonite Teal Blue Fountain pen -review

“Handmade Ebonite Teal Blue Fountain Pen MEDIUM Nib 3in1 Ink Filling New In Box”
That’s what the description on eBay said I have bought. It is an interesting fountain pen this, smells like old wellington boots, isn’t blue nor teal but some sort of greyish black and dark green pattern. I figure you could say that 3 in 1 is accurate, you can use cartridge or converter and apparently you should be able to eyedrop it.

WHAT IT IS
It is a classically shaped fountain pen in ebonite material with a Medium #5 iridium tip standard steel nib from India. I have heard a lot of pens from India. Not only that many “popular” brands moved their made in France or made in the UK to India, but also for having a rather huge market in their own right. So, with the pandemic and nothing to do late one night, I sent this guy an offer – not too cheap but very much in the range of – yeah can be a dud and I will get over it in a day or two.

The pen came, smelled funny but nowhere close to the stink of A Noodlers pen. It was very light, looked very bland, even cheap in good light where the lack of luster in the material came to its… ehr … anti-right? So with a bit of a hmmm, I started to unscrew the section to check it. An international standard that takes long cartridges is a nice touch. That I screwed for half an eternity sure speaks well for the chance to make an eyedropper out of it. I didn’t and simply put a cartridge of Pelikan 4001 Königs Blau, or Royal Blue and started to wait for it to start writing.
The pen is 144 mm capped, 136 mm uncapped and if you do try to post it (not advisable since it posts like crap on a stick, i.e. not something you like to really test out with live fire so to speak) it gets around 173 mm.
The pen is lightweight at 18,02 g capped and with a international short cartridge loaded and 9.95 g without the cap.

LOOKS
The pen is a fairly straightforward affair; flat top and bottom, a slight tapering the last third or so of the barrel. The cap has a clip, metal that forms a small drop like pellet. Clip is springy. The cap has the word “CLICK” and “INDIA” engraved and filled in with black. Not looking fancy at this stage. In somewhat poor lighting the pen is almost black, or very dark green with a slightly lighter shade of green pattern swirls. In good lighting, it’s a green on green pen. Nothing teal nor blue about it. Uncapped the grooves and grip comes down from the section. The grip is tapering down and flares out to a small ledge just before the nib. Grooves are somewhat sharpish and just where I want to support my grip so I can’t really avoid them. The steel nib has engravings and stamped “M”, “Click” and “India”.
To be fair, this isn’t the pen you bring to someone to show off. It is however quite discreet and would work well if you want to fly under the radar with your pen.

WRITING
OK, you can say what you want, but it is difficult to make the cheap standard Iridium nibs from Germany or wherever to truly feel very special. There is a lack of ‘feeling’ for lack of a better word. The nibs are usually very stiff, and not like a hard nib from Japan, but stiff like, it’s not the instrument really you were looking for. The grip is not slim, but it is not in any sense anything particular.
What is special is however the amount of love someone has given this pen. Like the Scrikss 419 that surprised me, this pen writes really well. It’s a smooth nib, no real sweet spot. Just a well tuned cheap nib. The flow is good and quite generous. My biggest surprise is that the M nib feels like a juicy EF or Fine nib. It has hardly any feedback and glides effortlessly over the Rhodia pad.
Well done!
To bad that the pen dries out after less than one hour in the stand, I have to shake it alive to get going. And this has been from the start, cleaned the nib and the nib housing but still – it dries out super quickly. If you plan to use it for only quick notes, this will defeat that purpose. For longer sessions though, no problems, thanks to the good flow the pen starts pretty quickly with a few shakes and once you get going – keep writing.

VALUE
Sometimes I really wish I could just skip this section, but alas – the pen cost me roughly 35€ or close to with import and shipping. It’s not a whole lot, but for any cheap pen, import fees usually kills those deals. Considering that you can get a TWSBI Eco for almost that money, few pens in this segment will ever prove to be really valuable. This pen has a few things going though, it is rather discreet (except the smell) has a very fine tuned nib, can be made into an eyedropper for a large capacity. Is big enough to take a long cartridge, also, you can do the old spare cartridge trick and drop one down the barrel and then pop one in and have the extra as a spare when you run out of ink. So, worth it? This is really tricky and I would say, nah? 3/5 in worthiness? OK, admittedly, had it been blue I would say yes. Now I’m sort of on the fence. On one hand, it works well in an office situation with large capacity of ink, being discreet and also works well on cheap copy paper. On the other hand it feels and looks cheap. On the third hand it might be the pen for someone wanting a fountain pen for sketching and doing art. Due tot he fine line and the good flow and smooth nib, this might be a great opportunity. I’m on the fence here guys – and I can’t truly make up my mind here.