Long time no update! Had a long weekend so now I am back with a brand new fountain pen, this time from Esterbrook!
After thinking I was done with fountain pen reviews, Esterbrook caught me red-handed with a pen they released around the end of October, The Esterbrook JR Pumpkin Latte. As always I shall provide all the links, the information I can find and give my opinion on if I recommend it.
To start, I did order this from the official Esterbrook website. The price was $225 which includes the MSRP of $50 for the journaler nib, which I will get into a bit later. The shipping cost was $9.95 for USPS 2-day priority which is how this lovely pen got here on Fountain Pen Day! [Happy belated Fountain Pen Fay to all the lovely fountain pen users out there!] The price overall I feel is great considering a custom nib and beautifully designed pocket pen.
To give a quick rundown of what the "JR" stands for, it is a revival design of the 1940s and 1950s Esterbrook J. It is a pocket pen and is made to be compact for on-the-go writing, which is me in a nutshell, always writing everywhere. Side note when I think about it JR could be short for J revived or J revival, which makes sense!
Before we finally get to the pen I have to say I love their packaging, like this is the most simple, compact but elegant packaging I had so far. It came in a bubble mailer with an Esterbrook illustration for Nouveau Bleu, inside was the cardboard sleeve that has an Esterbrook nib logo, and inside is this nice red fabric box. It has a magnet on the flap and inside is some paperwork and the pen. The pen did not come in plastic which is a huge plus as we all know that gets tossed all the time. It came with the Esterbrook converter already in the pen and one black ink cartridge.
The pen looks better and a lot more stunning in person! The pictures on the site do not show how the latte swirl is shimmery! This is just a fresh new take on the milk getting incorporated with the espresso and I am living for it. The brown used is very nice and the gold eternity on the finial, gold cap band with Esterbrook neatly placed in the middle of the gold clip with the gold trim and flat gold end really bring it all together with the eye-catching orange hugging the gold eternity on the finial.
Going back to the pen size this is a bit longer than a Sailor Pro Gear Slim but lighter, making this a very optimal pen to stick with your Traveler's Notebook while you go on adventures.
Now the major reason I jumped on this release was that I had been wanting to try out The Journaler Nib. This nib is ground by Gena Salorino at Custom Nib Studio and it is a medium stub nib based on the vintage Esterbrook 9314M nib. I personally never had a vintage nib and found this quite interesting as Gena described it as "smooth and friendly enough for everyday use, gives your writing some flair, all without being too huge for practical writing." which sounds so amazing, as a person who journals every day like clockwork. I love nibs that can show off certain little things in my writing so that when people look back at it, it looks a lot more expressive.
I only had it for five days at the time it comes out, but I love it so much I would buy another pen just to have this same nib again. I mostly use fine to medium nibs as those mostly make my handwriting look neat, but adding the stub characteristics of the thicker vertical lines and thinner horizontal lines makes the words on the page look neater somehow as if that's all it needed to balance out. Below will be a comparison with Pilot Custom 823 Medium nib and the Esterbrook JR Pumpkin Latte Journaler nib.
Now to finish this I will have to give two recommendations, one for the pen and one for the journaler nib. I recommend the pen if you prefer slimmer and smaller pens. I do know some people feel like they need a heavier or larger pen to have more control, just beware that is small. Besides that, if you love coffee colors as much as I do, add to the collection! Nothing better than matching your go-to espresso-based drink to your stunning writing utensil.
For the nib, I absolutely recommend at least trying it cause this is amazing. If you bounce around from fine to medium nibs, like I do, please do give this a try. It might be a great joy in your collection.
Thank you for reading as always, and until next time, stay hyped!
No comments:
Post a Comment