If the past couple of weeks have been any indication, you can’t write off pens in the sub-ten dollar range. I’ll freely admit that the the beginner fountain pens that are mentioned on top 5 lists offer more, but I have been blown away by these three to ten dollar pens. And that’s not just because of price; all of these are legitimately good pens. And I think that trend continues with the Monami Olika.
The Olika is an unique pen is a couple of ways. Firstly, it’s made by a Korean stationary company, which is not as common as I thought it would be. The second is the feed material, which is a fiber wick, as opposed to the normal plastic. This makes the process of changing ink in the pen longer, and may have contributed to some of the hard starts I had with the pen, but overall works quite well.
The pen comes in ten different colours, and the included ink matches the colour of the pen. It takes standard international cartridges, and comes with three, which is great added value.
The pen body is made of plastic, which makes is a fairly lightweight pen at 12 grams. It’s a bit light for my liking, but it’s comfortably balanced. The body is moulded to be thinner in the center, which contributes to the overall comfort of the pen, and the colour is translucent and, as mentioned before, comes in ten varieties.It’s not so clear that you can see the ink level in the pen, and there’s nothing fancy about the design. It’s really simple, and I really like that.
The cap is a snap cap which can be posted. The weight of this pen is not so much that posting the cap makes much of a difference, but the extra length is nice. It’s made of the same material of the body, but is more transparent. A bit of a confusing design choice in my opinion, but it fits with the pen. It also holds the plastic clip, which feels fragile and doesn’t really hold to pockets that securely.
The Olika comes with a black rubberized grip, which has a wide diameter and is fairly comfortable. The material makes it easy to hold on to the pen and I didn’t experience any cramping or discomfort while using it.
However, the writing experience is a bit of a mixed bag. There’s no aspect of it that is objectively bad, but there are elements that I certainly don’t care for. The pen comes with a steel nib, with an option for a fine or extra fine. I tested it with the included ink and fine nib in my Rhodia Webnotebook and was impressed with a couple of things right off the bat. Firstly, this pen is silky smooth. I had no feedback off the page and the nib just glides. Secondly, the included ink is super fast drying. I expected, especially considering that the colour is so dark and rich and the line is so wide, that it would be average at best. But no, this ink stunned me, and as a lefty, I’m really happy for that. There were a couple of hard starts, but once the pen got going, it didn’t stop. However, the line width is very wide for a fine. stacking it up against Japanese Fine nits and German extra fines, I found that it was much wider. Some might like this, but it does not suit my writing style at all. As much as I like the experience, the line width really hampers my ability to like this pen.
Overall, the Olika is great. The style and the design are excellent and makes this a really good pen. Is it for me? No. It doesn’t fit my style. But I cannot deny that it is a great pen and one suitable for everyday use. And for $5.50, I’d call it a bargin.
I purchased this pen with my own funds.
The Pen Lover's Nook 