When we talk about beginner fountain pens, the main defining factor is what makes it a beginner’s fountain pen is the price. Yes, ease of use and quality of the pen matters, but when it comes down to it, we pay a lot of attention to how much it costs. Typically, under $50.00 is considered reasonable for a beginner pen, but when we talk about the best, most lists will have the Lamy Safari, the Pilot Metropolitan and the TWSBI Eco. And justifiably so. They would top my list as well. But all three are $25.00 to $30.00 dollar pens, which may still seem intimidating, despite the fact that they are well worth it. So, I wanted to see if any of the more affordable options are any good. May I present the Faber-Castell School fountain pen.
Faber-Castell is a Germany company that’s fairly renown when it comes to stationary, so I shouldn’t be surprised to find that they have a beginner’s fountain pen available. Not only that, but a quite affordable one as well. The pen has a resin barreled body that makes a light-weight pen, weighing in at 12 grams. The body is cylindrical, broad and almost as long as the Lamy Safari. I have a black one, which has a lacticed pattern on it. While I don’t care for the pattern, it is a nice touch for something that doesn’t cost too much, and you can get it in blue and red, without the patterning. It’s a limited selection, granted, but also a standard one, and honestly, I do like how it looks. It’s nothing special, but it doesn’t look cheap.
And it doesn’t feel really cheap either. It’s not the lightest pen I own, the balance is really good, and the body has a smooth finish. It feels like a good solid pen.
The grip section is reminiscent of Lamy’s moulded grip. It has two flattened edges, though these aren’t as deep as the ones on the Safari. It still aims to teach the standard grip and be most comfortable when using that grip. I tend to like this style of grip and this one isn’t an exception. Additionally, the grip is rubberized, which makes it easy and comfortable to hold on to. It’s large enough to accommodate my hand and all in all, it’s a solid grip.
The cap is made from the same material and in the same style as the pen body. It carries the silver clip, which works fairly well, though I would prefer it to be a bit more secure. It’s a snap cap which holds to the pen securely, and I found that I didn’t have to worry about the cap coming off when carrying it. However, it is easy to uncap and recap. The cap is postable, which is a nice feature and doesn’t affect the writing experience all that much.
Now the writing experience of this pen is a bit hard to place. It is only, so far as I can tell, available with the medium nib from the JoWo company. Which means that it starts at a disadvantage with me and my preference for extra-fine nibs. It takes standard international ink cartridges and converters, and I tested with one of the provided six cartridges loaded with Faber-Castell’s Royal blue ink in my Rhodia Webnotebook. Overall, it isn’t a bad experience. The line is smooth and doesn’t skip or have any hard starts. It’s a rich and dark line, but it’s also too wide for my writing style and I found that I had to force myself the write bigger. This is fine for someone that tends to like medium nibs, but it certainly isn’t for me. The dry time is a bit concerning, but a known quick drying ink should improve that.
This pen is really good. There is nothing objectively wrong with it, and it comes with a lot of ink to start out, and at around $10.00 it’s certainly a value pen. It’s also certainly not for me. The writing experience itself was good, but the medium nib makes me want to avoid it. I think the main thing that you lose with this pen is customization. This pen gives Pilot, Lamy and TWSBI a good run for their money, and gets impressively close to their standard. But all of those pens have options. There are a lot of colours to chose from and a buyer can find something suited for their tastes. You can get different nibs with other pens, which I really miss with the Faber-Castell School Fountain pen. If you already have opinions on what you like in a fountain pen, this one won’t have that much value to you. But with that being said, I would recommend this pen, mostly as a first fountain pen. While it doesn’t blow me away, it does what it is supposed to do and it does it very well at a very good price.
This pens was purchased at full price with my own funds.
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