winedoc/Danitrio $33 pen

[polyglot]

Got my black & gold one in the post yesterday and figured I'd try it out, this is what I found. There are a few good reviews of the pen already but I figured I'd add to the noise a little.

 

Fit and finish: 4/5. Construction is top-notch, noticeably better than either of my Parker (Frontier, Sonnet) pens, the latter of which retails for more than twice what the Danitrio sells for. Not sure how long the plastic clippy mechanism in the cap will last. The metal clip on the outside of the cap is a monster though!

 

Appearance: 2/5. All the materials are high quality, I'm just not as impressed with the styling as I thought I would be. The effect of black on gold with the very simple smooth lines is a bit pretentious, like it's trying to be bling but still looking cheap.

 

Size and weight: 5/5. I've been looking for a larger, heavier pen and this is it. It's thick, solid, cold and reassuringly metallic. This is clearly an indestructible pen and fits my large hands very well.

 

Ergonomics: 3/5. Nice metal section but the bit you're obviously meant to hold is a little low for my tastes... this is a big pen for big hands, and big hands need to hold further from the nib or suffer a steep writing angle (70 degrees). It writes fine when held at the obvious place, but feels better when held at a position slightly higher on the section (45 degrees held from just in front of the gold ring). Perhaps a symptom of these being NOS rollerball conversions, designed for a steep writing angle.

 

Nib performance: 4/5. It wrote straight out of the box, putting down a uniform medium line of about the right width. It's a little too dry with Noodler Black... but then compare it with my Sonnet that outright fails to write with that ink much of the time. No skipping at all, just the line gets quite faint. Load it up with Luxury Blue and we get a perfectly satisfying wet line without any excess ink on the page, which the Sonnet suffers from. The pen has very uniform metering of ink onto the page, quite independent of the ink's viscosity and flow characteristics.

 

My only problem with the nib is that it feels like it has a fair amount of drag resistance across the page, almost as if it wasn't lubricated by ink even though it's laying the stuff down beautifully. It's not scratchiness or toothiness, the motion is quite smooth, there's just resistance to motion. I guess that will go away to some extent once I've used it for a while and smoothed the nib out a bit.

 

Filling: converter included. It's a fairly cheap-looking plastic affair but does the job. If it dies, I'm sure it'll be compatible with the standard international ones and readily replaceable.

 

Value for money: 5/5. Not the prettiest pen and definitely not a fashion statement, this is a basic and very very functional pen for not very much money. Better writing quality than things costing twice as much. Indestructible. Did I mention cheap for a new modern pen?

 

Some writing examples; apologies for the handwriting and waffle, it was 2am when I did it. Not that my usual is much better I must also apologise for the softness of the images, I didn't have my good camera here and had to use a tiny aperture to get the brightness down on minimum flash power.

http://shed.brodie-tyrrell.org/files/danitrio/33_scrollpaper_.jpg

http://shed.brodie-tyrrell.org/files/danitrio/33_clairefontaine_.jpg

 

And a size comparison, uncapped. Front to back: Pelikan M400, Frontier Flighter, $33 pen (note the diameter!).

http://shed.brodie-tyrrell.org/files/danitrio/33_uncapped_.jpg

[lefty928]

Enjoyed your review -- I am glad I am not the only one who scribbles notes about a new pen when I first fill it!

[MYU]

Yah, that Danitrio is a tad fat compared to the Pelikan and Flighter. I agree it would look a little better with less bling, notably that huge gold dome on the cap. It didn't do very well with that Noodler's Luxury Blue--a lot of line density variation. You're right--that M400 does put out a great line--very consistent in width and density. Ain't it great having an "old" pen that writes so damned good?

[polyglot]

Actually the density variation on the Lux Blue is not quite as dramatic as it appears in my photos - my bad for poor colour correction. It does vary but it never quite fades out to the extent seen in the photos.

 

I actually prefer that variation over a flat, boring line of unchanging tonality and that ink varies in density on all of my pens, moreso on the M400 due to the slight softness of the nib. It seems that the ink follows the pen down the line due to high cohesion or something... lines are continuously pale except for the last 3/16" of each stroke where it becomes darker because the ink that was following the nib gets left on the page.

[southpaw]

Thanks for the review. The comparisons were a nice touch. ENJOY your new pen!

[daryllwin]

Hi. Could someone post the link to buy the pen please?

 

I can't seem to find the page to buy it.

 

Thanks!

[RMN]

Hi. Could someone post the link to buy the pen please?

 

I can't seem to find the page to buy it.

 

Thanks!

 

Hi. If I am not mistaken, Winedoc gets batches of pens every now and then. He then publishes this on FPN and if you are quick you have got one. This pen was offered 3 years ago so by now is gone (unless the first owner wants to sell)

You might look in the for sale section every now and then. I did see an offer around october 10th that was all sold within a day or so.

 

You could ofcourse PM Winedoc, who is a member here.

 

 

D.ick

[daryllwin]

Hi. Could someone post the link to buy the pen please?

 

I can't seem to find the page to buy it.

 

Thanks!

 

Hi. If I am not mistaken, Winedoc gets batches of pens every now and then. He then publishes this on FPN and if you are quick you have got one. This pen was offered 3 years ago so by now is gone (unless the first owner wants to sell)

You might look in the for sale section every now and then. I did see an offer around october 10th that was all sold within a day or so.

 

You could ofcourse PM Winedoc, who is a member here.

 

 

D.ick

 

 

Hi

 

Thanks for the info!

 

PMed him but no response. Guess he doesn't have any more.

 

Oh well.

[winedoc]

 

Hi

 

Thanks for the info!

 

PMed him but no response. Guess he doesn't have any more.

 

Oh well.

 

Sorry was a bit tied up over the weekend, but did respond to your PM today. thanks.

 

Kevin

[usqview]

left field- never mind

Edited April 8, 2011 by usqview