Fpnibs Marbella

February 16, 2019

Besides selling and grinding fountain pens and nibs, FPnibs started to sell their own branded pens. There are two models available: Ronda is larger and fits JoWo No. 6 nib units, Marbella is smaller and fits JoWo No. 5 nib units. Here you can see a comparison of both models (click to enlarge):

The pen arrives in a nice black card box with the model name written by a pencil on the top. Cool. A converter is included, a nib has to be purchased separately. (This is Ronda but the packaging of Marbella is exactly the same.)

Here I am going to review the Marbella pen. It is on the smaller side - here you can see a comparison with some other smaller pens from my collection. Left to right: Jinhao 992, FPnibs Marbella, Pilot 78G:

Marbella is currently available just in one finish - very attractive orange-ochre-brown pattern with pearlescent effects. I like the design very much. My only complaint is the FPnibs logo which is printed in white. Some more decent design would be beneficial.

Manufacturing quality is great. Everything fits, threads are smooth (and short - it takes about one twist to uncap the pen), polishing is perfect. There is one strange detail: The cap contains a spring-loaded inner cap with a fairly strong spring. When untwisted, the cap jumps off the pen. And when I want to close it, I have to push the cap against the barrel to enter the threads.

The pen is small, but writing with it is surprisingly comfortable. The threads have flat tops (see the image below) so holding them is absolutely no problem. The pen is very light which I like. I prefer not to cap my pens in general and this pen is long enough for my hand. But it can be posted if you wish.

Length: capped 145 mm, uncapped 125 mm, posted 159 mm.

Weight: complete pen 21 g, uncapped 13 g, cap 8 g.

There is a lot of nibs available. FPnibs sell JoWo units No.5 in steel, 14kt and 18 kt gold from extra fine to 1.5 mm stub. Plus dozens of grinding options (XXF, crisp italics, obliques,...). This is probably the widest nib selection available in the universe.

For my pen, I chose the medium in steel. The nib is very smooth with great ink flow which is my common experience with JoWo nibs. I own all steel JoWo nibs from EF to 1.1 stub and all are reliable great writers. They are stiff, do not expect any springiness.

My conclusion: I have to say I prefer Ronda over Marbella. Its dimensions fit better to my hand plus there is no strange spring inner cap. But Marbella has some benefits too. I definitely like this material more and its minimal weight is also attractive to me. Marbella is definitely a sweet pen deserving my recommendation, especially if you have smaller hands. It looks great, is perfectly manufactured, has enormous nib selection, and it is really affordable (30 Euro for the pen, plus the nib, tax and shipping, some 60 Euro in total).

February 17, 2019

Thanks so much for providing this excellent review! It answers a lot of questions I had and reaffirms my decision to include one of these in my next fpnibs order.

Regarding the unattractive brand logo, Pablo said in a YouTube comment that he can remove it at the request of the customer.

February 17, 2019

Thanks so much for this review - I've been eyeing both models off, but hesitating to commit - I like the look of the orange material better too, but suspect I'll prefer the size of the Ronda. Decisions, decisions... Thankfully I've got time (trying to enforce a buying hiatus right now)!

February 18, 2019

I just ordered a Ronda to use with a Jowo B unit that Pablo ground to an architect point for me last month. Looking more closely at this review I'm a bit disappointed to see that the Ronda has metal section threads, so I presume eyedroppering would not be a good idea. I hope the converter can keep up with the demands of the Broad Architect nib. If it provides enough flow with the 1.1 mm stub, it should do well enough with my nib.