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My Thoughts on the Endless Phantom Retractable Fountain Pen

I'm not really one for writing reviews but here goes. 

I was backer #82 so I got the early bird deal with a free bottle of ink. In total I paid: $39 for the pen + ink, $15 for the UltraGrind Blade nib, and $10 for the Stealth Black trim (plus $8 shipping to the UK)

The Good

I want to start off by saying how impressed I was with the packaging, the cork box the pen comes in doubles as a pen rest if you flip it over and the blade nib came housed in a 3D printed and laser engraved holder which looks sick as hell. 

The pen itself looks really slick, the tapered body with the angles on the knock and the front gives it a sort of sci-fi look. I'm glad I got the black trim too, I think it's the most premium looking option. 

The pen may be a little light for some at 20g but I don't think it's too light, or that the lack of weight makes it feel cheap as I've seen some people say.

The blade nib is fantastic, a super smooth writer with some nice line variation. The downstrokes may be a little wider than other blade nibs but I like that for an everyday pen. The line width also changes depending on writing angle unlike some other blade nibs I've tried in the past.

The medium nib, as has been noted by others, is more like a fine. That being said it's also super smooth and lays down plenty of ink, no real complaints there.

The Not So Good

The nib bounces, that is there's some flex in the mechanism of the pen that means as you put pressure on the nib the body moves relative to it. Kinda hard to explain but it gives a slightly mushy feeling. I don't mind it too much but others might. If you've used a cushioned tip mechanical pencil it's similar to that. 

The clip flexes side to side too easily for my liking, it has a nice spring to it normally but the slightest force on the side will move it and probably scratch the pen over time.

The pen comes with a pretty nice converter, it has a slide to fill mechanism like the Kaweco converter but it's done in a slightly different way so the mechanism can push on the top. The pen uses international standard converters/cartridges but requires them to be a specific length, obviously the included converter is longer than an international short cartridge so the "solution" was for Endless to include a small metal cylinder in the box which you can use as a spacer between a short cartridge and the mechanism. I understand not wanting to use proprietary cartridges like Pilot but surely there is a more elegant solution that won't get lost easily. I haven't tried it but I hope international long cartridges are the same length as the converter. 

Speaking of the converter I have a complaint which I'll put here because it may be user error since I didn't flush the pen with soapy water before inking it and there may be manufacturing oils in there still. But I've noticed that ink sticks to the side of the converter despite the agitation spring (this also sticks to the side of the converter). I've had a couple of instances where it'll write a couple of words then just stop until I shake it. I believe ink is getting caught at the top of the converter when it's laid on its side and not moving to the bottom when writing. 
I'll give it a clean once my current fill of ink is done and update this review if that fixes it.

The pen does rattle a bit if you shake it but not too much more than a Majohn A2 does, when the nib is extended though it's pretty bad, the knock is loose at that point and doesn't stay in the down position like the A2. It's not very noticeable while writing but unless you apply pretty much zero pressure when putting the pen to paper expect a rattle whenever you do. Also quick scribbling out makes it rattle. 

The Bad

This is probably what most of you came here for. The seal isn't great, so much so that the blade nib I spent $15 is entirely useless. I'm not sure why but the tip of it sticks out of the seal when the nib is retracted which pretty much defeats the point. It's not as bad with the medium nib although the seal still doesn't close fully, the nib ends up pushing it open. I noticed that partly extending and retracting the nib could sometimes fix the issue, I believe what's happening is that as the nib retracts it's pulling the seal inwards rather than the seal sliding along the nib. 

I've emailed Endless about this and hope there's some kind of fix because I'd like to be able to use the blade nib. I'll update my review if and when they respond. 

I've not done any long-term dry out tests yet but with the M nib it's lasted a day without use and still written (at least a few words, see my comments on the converter above)


Conclusion

There you have it my thoughts on this pen, would I recommend it? At $39 with a standard nib, sure I think that's a fair price for a slightly flawed product. At full retail price? Not unless they fix the seal placement issues 


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