Jump to content

The X-Pen Silhouette Fountain Pen


Jamerelbe

Recommended Posts

I’m really pleased to be able to provide a review on this pen – it was not on my radar, I hadn’t even heard of the company that manufactures it, until Kevin from www.JustWrite.com.au sent it through to me to do a review. To be honest, Kevin didn’t have particularly high expectations either – x-pen, a fairly new Israel-based company (est.2003), are better known for their ballpoint and rollerball pens – but I’ve been really impressed with its performance. It’s not a perfect pen – I’ll try to outline my quibbles fairly in the review – but for AU$45 (plus postage), I think it’s pretty good value for money.

______________________________________________________________________

1. Appearance & Design (9/10) – An attractive ‘windowpane check’ design, with plenty of chrome highlights

Let me take a step back for a moment, from the pen to its packaging. Cheapskate that I am, most of the pens I’ve been buying in recent times are cheaper Indian or Chinese pens, that arrive in a simple plastic sleeve – unless I want to pay extra for a generic box. With this pen, the packaging comes as part of the deal. The box itself is enclosed in a matte-black sleeve, with the word ‘x-pen®’ emblazoned on its lid in large silver writing. The same logo appears on the lid of the box also – but in addition to the large silver logo, the box is literally covered in recurring diagonal lines of glossy black text against the matte-black base colour.

http://i.imgur.com/vF6EcpB.jpg

The inside of the box lid is lined with white satin – with the x-pen® logo again prominent – while the floor of the box is a white felt material. Included with the pen is a single international ink cartridge – but no converter (grrr! – more on that later)… and a card assuring the buyer that ‘All of our x-pen® writing instruments are life time guaranteed against mechanical failure [etc]’ – which is always nice to know!

http://i.imgur.com/SQPWrlp.jpg

Now to the pen itself: The basic design of the pen is simple but elegant (am I overusing that phrase?): constructed entirely of metal, the main body of the pen is coated with some kind of (anodised?) matte-black finish, which in turn is overlaid with horizontal and vertical gridlines to produce what the manufacturers aptly describe as a ‘windowpane check’ – large, rectangular squares that run the length of the pen. The pen lid clicks securely to the grip section, and can easily be rotated to ensure the lines line up. The manufacturers have provided a larger ‘window’ on the pen cap to allow for the owner’s name to be engraved – personally, I find the break in the pattern a bit of a turn-off ,but that’s only a minor quibble. The top 18mm of the cap and the bottom 15mm of the barrel are chrome coated, and appear to be manufactured separately. The clip seems relatively sturdy – not at all springy, but clips without difficulty onto a shirt pocket and holds on fairly firmly.

http://i.imgur.com/n3IxFsi.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/Pqmk1XS.jpg

The one possible deal-breaker for some – though I had no issue with it personally – is the chrome grip section. I found it quite comfortable to hold, and the ‘step’ up to the barrel was not at all sharp or unpleasant – but I can imagine the grip becoming a little ‘slippery when wet’.

http://i.imgur.com/8CwCSB3.jpg

2. Construction & Quality (9/10) – Seems a very well-made pen

I was really impressed with the build quality of this pen. It seems very sturdy, though the balance of the pen is somewhat weighted toward the back. The cap is designed to post on the rear of the pen, which back-weights the pen even further – but again, I didn’t find it at all uncomfortable to write, either way.

http://i.imgur.com/N5FFfY8.jpg

If I wanted to quibble about anything at all, it would be that there’s a very slight gap between the matte-black portion of the pen cap and the chrome portion that tops it off – the latter has a marginally smaller diameter – but this really is very minor. I haven’t had the pen long enough to ascertain whether the ‘windowpane’ finish – either the lines or the underlying black finish – is likely to chip away… But it certainly doesn’t look like a cheap ‘paint job’, so here’s hoping!

3. Weight & Dimensions (9/10) – A mid-sized pen in almost every way!

In keeping with its metal construction, the pen is not lightweight – weighing it at 27.6g capped, or 20.9g uncapped. The Silhouette measures 134mm capped, 119mm uncapped, and a whopping 160mm posted – but because it’s fairly slender (~11mm diameter) it doesn’t feel unwieldy to write either way.

The grip section tapers from 10mm near the ‘step-up’ to the barrel, down to 8mm near the nib – I tend to hold it towards the step, and find that pretty comfortable.

4. Nib & Performance (9/10) – A surprisingly pleasant experience to write with

The nib was the biggest surprise for me: stamped with some simple scroll work and the ominous words ‘Iridium Point’, I wasn’t expecting to be impressed – but I really was! There is only the one nib option in the x-pen range right now – a stainless steel, iridium-tipped ‘medium’, or so their website claims – but I found it laid down a reasonably fine line. That’s my preference anyway, so I wasn’t disappointed with that.

http://i.imgur.com/P2uuA9N.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ETeujib.jpg

According to an article in the October 2013 publication of the ‘Pen World’ magazine (which you can find on their website), the fountain pen feeds and nibs are “produced in-house [in Israel?], with the iridium-tipped steel nibs undergoing a twenty-five step production process” – and though the nib looks pretty generic, it was beautifully smooth with a generous (but not excessive) flow of ink, right out of the box. Not a hint of scratchiness – just enough ‘feedback’ from the page to know that I was writing. I really didn’t want to put the pen down!

http://i.imgur.com/Mn1u1OP.jpg

5. Filling System & Maintenance (6/10) – Nothing but a lousy cartridge provided!

I really like this pen, so I wish I could be more generous here – but for $35 I think x-pen could afford to provide a cartridge converter. I don’t need a large ink capacity in a pen to keep me happy – so a cartridge / converter system won’t automatically get a points deduction from me (I reckon 8/10 is fair!) – but it browns me off a bit when companies try to save costs by throwing in a lousy short standard international cartridge and leaving it at that. For goodness’ sake, Jinhao and Baoer provide a cheap but functional cartridge converter with their $5-15 pens – surely it’s not too much to ask of x-pen?!

That said, any standard international converter seems to fit (for which I’ll probably add a “+1” before adding up the final score), so I chucked in a cheap Chinese one filled with Pelikan Royal Blue ink and went for my life – no flow issues, no hassles, just a great writing experience.

6. Cost & Value (9/10) – Not quite a budget priced pen, but really worth the outlay

I’ll admit, I’m at a slight disadvantage here: I didn’t pay for this pen, and don’t know if I’d have been willing to shell out AU$45 for it if I’d seen it on the JustWrite website. But having had the opportunity to ‘play’ with it, I have to say I’m really impressed. I would certainly consider buying it as a gift to give away – as long as the intended recipient shares my taste in finer nibs.

7. Conclusion (Final score [sUM/6]: 8.6667)

Recognising that my scoring system is highly subjective, I want to reiterate that this was a pen I really enjoyed writing with – and look forward to keeping in regular rotation. I wasn’t expecting much from it, but boy did it deliver. The only thing that prevented it from getting a higher score was the fact that I had to supply my own cartridge converter – and maybe that’s an unreasonable expectation on my part? If you’re not a fan of chrome grip sections – or if you prefer a broader nib – this won’t be the pen for you. For anyone else, I’d say go for it, and give the Silhouette a try. For a lower-midrange price, the nib on this pen punches well above its weight.

Edited by Jamerelbe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 1
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Jamerelbe

    2

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Sorry, had the wrong price on original post: it's AU$35 for the ballpoint, AU$45 for the fountain pen. This pen was provided free in return for an impartial review.

Edited by Jamerelbe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33501
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26627
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...