I recently spied a package of multi-colored fountain pens at my local bookstore. I’ve looked at them several times, and finally decided to purchase them on Monday.
They are called "Color Write Fountain Pens" , made by Ooly. This company makes a variety of fun art supplies suitable for the hobbiest.
There are eight pens in the set, and they retail for $14.99. That’s about as cheap as it gets for a fountain pen, under $2 each. At that price, I wasn’t expecting anything super fabulous. I figured I could use the ink cartridges in a better pen, if they totally didn’t work.
I decided to try the yellow-green pen first.
The pen body feels like a kind of rubbery, soft plastic. The texture makes it easy to grip without the pen slipping around. The cover and clip are made from the same plastic.
When the cover is removed, you can see that the nib is mounted in white plastic.
The nib has no markings at all. It also has no breather hole.
On the back of the nib, you can see that there are no fins.
An ink cartridge of a color to match the pen body comes inside of the pen.
The instructions on the back of the package indicate that you are to turn the ink cartridge around and push it into the plastic nib carrier. There is a piercing mechanism inside the head. However, it is made from plastic and it wouldn’t poke through.
I ended up getting it to work by screwing the nib back into the barrel.
It took a bit of patience and scribbling, but I got the pen to work. While I’m not thrilled with the quality, I wasn’t expecting that much. And it turns out to be better than expected!
I love the color of the ink. It is vivid yellow-green!
It turns out that you can get a package of replacement ink cartridges for $4.99. There is one cartridge of each color in the box. So, if you already have a good fountain pen that will use Olika cartridges, you can just buy these!
In summary, the pens turned out to be about what I expected for the price point. I’m not sure how long they will last and how long they will write, given the construction.
But the ink colors are really nice! I will be playing with these in my spare time just for some nice, brightly colored fun tangling!