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Click Aristocrat Review


vojtahlad

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This was an impulsive purchase. The pen was advertised in ASA Pens Bulletin and I liked how it looks. The price was very friendly so I purchased it. It is a bit strange that you can not buy a single pen you have to buy three of them.
The name is a bit mystery for me. I don't feel much aristocratic when I look at these pens. They are nice, colourful, likeable but not majestic or posh.
click-aristocrat-001.jpg click-aristocrat-002.jpg click-aristocrat-003.jpg click-aristocrat-004.jpg
First impressions: After unwrapping (ASA Pens wrap very carefully into mighty layers of bubble wrap and strong envelope), I had mixed feelings. On one side, the used plastic is quite mediocre. On the other side, the manufacturing seems to be nice, I was unable to find any problem or imprecision. I was very pleased with the weight - pens are very light. My scale showed some 18 grams with a filled converter. You barely feel it in your hand.
click-aristocrat-005.jpg click-aristocrat-006.jpg click-aristocrat-007.jpg click-aristocrat-008.jpg
Design and quality: The design is fairly conservative. The company declares inspiration by Parker Duofold which is clearly visible. It is not a copy, just a Duofold-like pen. Both cap and barrel are cylindric with tapered finials. The section and cap finial are black, the rest of the pen is available in six colours: orange, brown, blue, black, white, and red.
The pen offers three types of filling - cartridges, converter or eyedropper. All the necessary equipment was contained in the package. Every pen contained (simple sliding) converter plus there were three long international cartridges and a simple plastic eyedropper. Barrel thread is fairly long and covered by silicon grease so I trust it will seal when used in the eyedropper mode. I have a bad experience with ED pens in general so I have no desire to try it.
click-aristocrat-009.jpg click-aristocrat-010.jpg
After a week of using the pens, I discovered a crack in one of the three sections:

click-aristocrat-cracked-001.jpg click-aristocrat-cracked-002.jpg
I don't know if it was there and I did not notice or if it developed later. I complained and the seller promised to send me a replacement section. The other two sections seem to be ok. When fiddling with the section, I learned that the nib and feed are interchangeable with Jinhao X450/X750/159.
Dimensions: This was a surprise for me. I have another Duofold-inspired pen - the Kaigelu 316. When I grabbed Aristocrat the first time my impression was "It is like my Kaigelu but smaller." When I compared the pens later, I discovered that the dimensions are almost identical. The weight difference fooled me - Kaigelu is much heavier. Here you can see the comparison:
click-aristocrat-011.jpg click-aristocrat-012.jpg
Length
Capped: 139 mm
Uncapped: 130 mm
Posted: 170 mm
Weight
Capped: 18 g
Uncapped: 11 g
Cap: 7 g
The cap is threaded requiring about 1.5 turns to take off. It can be posted but I can not recommend it. The posting is quite shallow which leads to a very long pen with poor balance.
click-aristocrat-013.jpg
Nib: One size fits all, there are no nib options. It is declared to be F-M, its behaviour corresponds to European F. All three nibs are fairly consistent - the orange one is a little bit wider, the blue one a little bit thinner but nothing serious. There is a light feedback which informs you a pleasant way that you are writing. The nib is a bit springy, the ink flow leans to the wetter side (regarding it is an F nib).
To sum up: The nib is not stellar in any particular discipline but it is on the positive side in all of them. The combination of its features is quite pleasant and I like to write with these pens. I did not experience any problems - no hard starts, skipping or ink flow wobbling.
click-aristocrat-014.jpg click-aristocrat-015.jpg
One more comparison with Kaigelu 316: its nib is much nicer looking, longer, totally stiff, smooth and writes a wider line (between medium and broad). I prefer the Aristocrat nib by a big margin.
How it writes: I like writing with this pen very much. It is lighweight and medium-sized which fits my hand perfectly and makes it comfortable for long writing. The nib simply works and works.
click-aristocrat-016.jpg click-aristocrat-017.jpg
Cost and value: The price for the set of three pens was 12 £. You will get a lot of performance for such a small amount of money.
Conclusion: Very pleasant and affordable workhorse pen. It does not fascinate by luxury design but it can deliver a lot of work as an every day carry pen. And because you have to buy three you can give some to lure somebody to fountain pens.
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Thank you very much for this review, I'm likely going to get one of these.

 

I like this design, especially the orange one, a bit reminiscent of the "Big Red" Duofold.

 

Apparently they're India made and can be found on eBay for about $12 per one.

Edited by WJM
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If you like the bodynof the pen but want a wider range of nib choices, check out the Darjeeling on fprevolutionusa.com - it's essentially the same pen body, though I'm not sure about the grip section and nib assemblies. I have two, and am very happy with fit and finish, while the FP Revolution nibs make the writing experience outstanding.

 

Edited to add: FP Revolution were quite happy to tell me, Click manufactures the Darjeeling for them, and that it's essentially a slight redesign of the Click original.

Edited by Jamerelbe
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  • 2 months later...

Thanks a lot for the great review! Nice pictures as well.

I am considering to buy this pen, so I wanted to know does the nib offers any flex i.e. does the nib offers any line variation?

 

thanks in advance!

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The nib is not an absolute nail but do not expect much flexibility. The line variation is minor. You can see it in the writing sample - the three lines on the right side were written under pressure.

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The equivalent version of this pen that's marketed by Fountain Pen Revolution (fprevolutionusa.com), the FPR Darjeeling, allows a number of nib options, including a flex nib - and is currently offering a 'Buy One Get One Free' deal (as of today, 17 January 2018). Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, ASA Pens doesn't offer a flex nib option.

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Thanks a lot for the great review! Nice pictures as well.

I am considering to buy this pen, so I wanted to know does the nib offers any flex i.e. does the nib offers any line variation?

 

thanks in advance!

Not exactly. But the nibs are springy, so its possible to get line variation. Just don't expect semi flex performance. From F-M, it'll go to B upon application of pressure. However, with time and continued pushing the nib tines will eventually spread-not noticably, but it'll result in an unmanageably wet writer and you'll have to realign the nib to make it dryer(or is it drier?), which is easy 😁
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  • 1 year later...

When fiddling with the section, I learned that the nib and feed are interchangeable with Jinhao X450/X750/159..

 

About that.

 

Yesterday I tried to swap the Click nib for a Jinhao #6 nib. The feed is identical to Jinhao feeds and the nibs are the same size but the Jinhao nib fit in the Aristocrat was very flimsy, not close to tight enough. No idea why, perhaps the nib somehow differs in size or shape from the Click nib, which I just couldn't notice.

 

Another thing is the feed and that's not just the Click pen... Is it just me or these plastic feeds that are commonly used with #6 nibs are really to small for these nibs? Each time I do any nib swapping with them I have a really hard time finding the proper alignment of the nib and feed. It's possible but really a PITA. I don't recall having this problem with Kaigelu 316 and Wing Sung 626, which both use the same feed but a smaller nib.

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