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42 of 44 persons found the following review helpful.
Shockingly good for a disposable!
By G. A. Jandl
I picked up a couple Varsity pens as a lark a few weeks ago. When I got rid of the pen from it is packaging, I immediatly noticed how light the pen is. I personally am a fan of light pens. Heavy ones may seem impressive when capped, but I find them suboptimal for actual use; they drag your pocket down and cause hand fatigue after long use, or even moderate use if the pen is not utterly balanced. Much of the point of writing with a fountain pen, to me anyway, is their ease and expressiveness.
When I posted the cap and took the pen for a spin, I was shocked! Frankly, I was expecting a scratchy, skippy horrorshow of a writing experience. Instead, I was treated to a smooth, somewhat expressive line of dark black. The point could be a bit finer. It's marked 'M', and advertised as "fine", which is reasonably accurate, as Pilot nibs seem to run to the fine side.
My only real gripe with the pen itself is that the "clip" is rather closely worthless. The ink window may or may not be worthless, as well ... either that, or the ink capacity is exceptional. Granted, though the pen has seen every day use, it hasn't been *heavily* used, because of the one severe gripe I have.
The ink, altho dark and somewhat quick drying, isn't even permanent sufficient to address envelopes, let alone write anything genuinely important. I would in particular caution versus writing any checks using this pen! Granted, the tremendous majority of fountain pen ink is regarding as waterproof as tissue. None the less, given that the pen is not refillable (not withstanding the hacks a good deal of have attempted), it would have been nice for Pilot to use a more lasting ink.
Finally, I can't help but comment on te inDUHvidual under who gave the very low review because "they are tipped with Pilot's trademark rollerball". This makes it clear (as if the rest of the review did not) that this person has perfectly no clue when it comes to fountain pens. Virtually all fountain pens have a little steel ball welded to the nib. This happens before the nib is split, so the "ball" is genuinely two halves. On a cheap steel tip like the Varsity, it's not such a big deal -- it basically makes it posing no difficulty to create a smooth writing pen. But on a gold tipped pen (as most are over $150 or so), it's vital, or the point would wear in no time.
38 of 42 people found the following review helpful.
Great, smooth writing fountain pen!
By Linda
I use fountain pens everyday, so I recognise what I am talking about: This is a great fountain pen for every day writing -- one that you will not care gets lost or damaged due to it is very low price (unlike the intermediate (non fixed edition) fountain pens, which may cost over $100 -- and occasionally much more). The Pilot Varsity pen lays down a outstanding fine-to-medium line of ink, and the nib (IE: the writing tip) does not arid out too fast when left uncapped -- and the pen seems to write for a limitless time with it is huge internal ink reservoir. Fantastic buy; and with no muss-'n-fuss of having to refill the pen either! [One of the reviewers under stated that these Varsity pens are not "real fountain pens" but are "in fact ballpoint pens": This is NOT unfeigned in the slightest, so I assume the writer of that review ought to have gotten his pens confused, since all of the Pilot Varsity pens are perfectly TRUE fountain pens.]
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
A smooth writer and a outstanding pen!
By Linda
I use fountain pens everyday, so I know what I am talking about: This is a great fountain pen for each day writing -- one that you will not care gets lost or damaged due to it is very low price (unlike the intermediate (non fixed edition) fountain pens, which may cost over $100 -- and now and again much more). The Pilot Varsity pen lays down a outstanding fine-to-medium line of ink, and the nib (IE: the writing tip) does not arid out too fast when left uncapped -- and the pen seems to write evermore with it is big internal ink reservoir. Fantastic buy; and with no muss-'n-fuss of having to refill the pen either!
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