Loclen Spica

[lovingball]

Here I am again with another BP pen review, bothering those of you who loves only fountain pens, but unless someone is going to kick me out of this network, I am going to keep on posting about the pens I like the most.

This time there is a variation though, the review is also about a mechanical pencil and since it is not rare to find some reviews about pencils, I have recently read a couple of them here, I hope to draw the attention of some reader.

Here is the story about these two cool pens.

Great look, first of all:

It was a love at first site, when I saw the picture of this pen the only thing I knew was that I had to have it, no matter what. The design was different, innovative, the proportions very well studied and the all pen gave me the feeling of a nice solid object. I liked also very much the horizontal bold engraving on the top that said LOCLEN Italy. I thought it was really a nice and cool pen. So I ended up by ordering the ball point pen and her twin sister the mechanical pencil.

 

 

The finishing is amazing, you can tell here that each pen must be handled singularly, all edges are perfectly even, the chrome is bright and flawless, all engravings are beautifully made, I believe that the engraving on the clip are laser made, on the other hand the one on the top are milling engravings because they are quite deep.

Packaging and shipping:

I ordered the two pens online, the customer service was excellent. The package came after a few days with no problems. Nice packaging as you can see.

 

Handling and balance are just perfect:

The two pens weight the same, about 45 grams, they differ only for their internal mechanism. They are 120 mm long and as I previously said the size proportions of the different sections are very well engineered and they are able to give you a very pleasant feeling in writing. The perfect balance won’t wear out your hand even after several pages of good writing and you have the good feeling of keep on writing, even if you don’t have anything else to say.

 

Due to the size of the pen the refill is a D1 type, or mini refill which are very common, I also have a Cartier that uses this kind of refill. The good things to say about them is that they write very smoothly, the company recommends to use the Zebra 4C Refill that can be found in any Staples store. They write beautifully, the ink flow is consistent and you never have excess of ink at the top of the refill ball, so you can write for several pages with a perfect clean ball. I bet you that you won’t have the same result on a Parker refill.

 

Another good thing about these refills is that they use an internal mechanism that doesn’t require the traditional spring that you find on a G2 type of refill. This system is capable to create the conditions of having a much more stable structure between the refill and the front of the pen. The nice consequence is that you won’t experience any vibrations or oscillation of the tip of the refill during writing. Not at least with this particular pen.

The only bad thing I could say about these refills is that they last a little bit less than a normal G2 type, but honestly I don’t see that much of a difference and it really doesn’t bother me to change refill. I don’t know why, but it is a process that makes me feel good, it gives me the feeling that I have done a lot of good job and now it’s time to charge again my writing tool. However, they do last much longer than the Parker G2 gel.

Handling and balance are the same for the mechanical pencil. The two pens are the same, they differ only for the internal mechanism.

Leads are 0,7 mm, the mechanism is activated by a twist movement that you apply on the top sphere, the same like in the ball point model. Besides been part of the innovative design, I find these little spheres very useful for the twist action.

Excellent value:

Even though the pen is a handmade object and for what I understood its production is limited, the cost is very affordable. If the real value of a pen comes from the perfect relationship between quality and cost, I think that with this pen you can get the best possible value.

Conclusion and suggestions:

New and innovative design, a beautifully handcrafted object, excellent functionality and affordable price, these are the ingredients that characterized these two writing instruments.

I am very happy about my purchase and definitely a big fan of this Italian brand.

 

 

[zhryj]

Really a beautiful and cool ball point pen. Congratulations.

[lovingball]

Really a beautiful and cool ball point pen. Congratulations.

Thank you very much. I like it very much, the pencil also is very nice.

[rudyhou]

interesting design.

[Dragos]

It was when I came accros this review when I noticed the intriguing design of these Italian pens. Eventhough I am very much into fountain pens, I do like and have a few mechanical pencils, so I couldn't resist to the temptetion to order one. Now here I am with a sense of obligation to thank FPN and its member by letting me know about these pens. I think this is one of the best traits of this network, contributing to divulg information about new models and brands.

So thank FPN and here I am enjoing my new mechanical pencil.