Seeking What's Worth It
The Viper is the latest in a long line of boldly-designed fountain pens from Diplomat, a brand with over 100-years of experience under their belt. In addition to manufacturing fountain pens, they are credited with being one of the first ballpoint pen manufacturers in Germany. They also introduced their region to ink cartridges, which were far easier to use than the filling mechanisms of the era.
I must have done some good deeds in a past life because the retractable fountain pen market is on the rise. This week we have the Ensso BOLT Retractable Fountain Pen: a Kickstarter project that launched back in January 2024 that secured full funding and completed fulfillment by the end of July. Not a bad turnaround for a Kickstarter. And sure, it was successful on paper, but how is the pen on paper? Well I've been using the pen for a couple months at this point, and I've got opinions. Let's take a look at the Ensso BOLT.
Well, I asked for this. Lets take a look at the Endless Creator Retractable Fountain Pen.
Let's say, hypothetically, that you have a lot of pens. Like, so many pens. Let's also say that you want to keep at least one of those pens close at hand on your desk, but you worry about it rolling away or getting shuffled under some notebooks (of which you also have many), and storing it nib-up in a pen cup tends to drain the feed. In that (hypothetical and not at all a self-insert) situation, you might just be interested in the Penwell.
The Poor Penman 