I like the way Tradio pens look and write, especially the EnerGel, so I decided to add a black Tradio Pulaman to my fountain pen collection. The fountain pen features an angled, flattened point on both sides of the tip so you can have thinner or thicker line widths as you change your grip and pressure on the point.
I wouldn't
call this a fountain pen, although "strange rollerball" doesn't work either. It's an interesting take on the gel ink/felt tip pen, and as it's refillable it's a keeper. Perhaps the best thing about Tradio pens is their design and color selection, while the pen part itself is just a fine writing cartridge. What I find interesting is that the refill itself is almost the entire Tradio Pulaman fountain pen (and Stylo, as well). The Tradio's cap and barrel are almost non-essential, you could just buy the refill, keep the clear cap (which is actually not that bad looking, style-wise), and use that as an efficient if different-looking gel ink pen.
Hi Diane,
ReplyDeletePentel do make a proper fountain pen as part of the Tradio line. Link is: http://www.stationeryart.com/writing-instruments-fountain-c-21_24.html.
I found the pen a pretty wet writer with just the slightest hint of flex. It comes with a Medium point but i reground mine to an extra fine point. I have to bear down pretty hard to get it to flex. I doubt if it was meant to even flex at all, but i was curious and a bit of a flex addict.
I reviewed it once at my blog and will probably do a followup later with a better writing sample: http://sibehzai.blogspot.com/2010/12/pentel-tradio-1845-fountain-pen.html.