For most of us Scriveiner Pens have been on our radar for the last few months due to their creations being reviewed on a number of high profile YouTube channels. As I documented in my article on the London Spring 2024 Fountain Pen Show, I caught up with them during a break in my trying to reduce my pen collection and had a decent chat. The result was the purchase of this pen.

Now strictly speaking this pen was posted to me as the few copper EDC pens Scriveiner Pens had left on their display were showing signs of pen show abuse and so they decided to not sell those particular ones. Unfortunately the same light scratch marks are on my barrel. Not an issue over time as it adds to the patina and wear, just unfortunate on a brand new pen.

Before the pen show I was nervous about the brand. Scriveiner had heavily marketed themselves with all sorts of claims while being a relatively new company that seemed to be based on Amazon and selling to the US. It smacked of a Chinese company pretending to be British. I was so relieved to find this was not so and did enjoy my chat with husband and wife owners Justin Lowes and Yanning Li plus one other who’s name alas I can not remember (and I can’t find her business card, apologies if you are reading this). My mind was put at ease as they covered trials and tribulations with some of their pens plus admitted they had hired a third party for marketing, hence the heavy handedness of the approach. The website has claims of over 500,000 pens sold worldwide, and while I still take that with a very healthy pinch of salt, a lot of their business is through Amazon and the recent marketing and passing pens to very well known reviewers was part of a move towards the actual fountain pen world.

First off I’m going to cover the material as the treatment it has undergone is slightly different from the norm. The cap, section, and barrel are all made out of brass with a hand brushed copper finish, but rather than being left to weather and patina (or be polished if that be the preference), here it has also been lacquered while leaving the brush strokes of the copper still visible. The net result is a lot of character that appears to react to light. What from one angle looks like lacquered in patina from another is bright and shiny. This drew me to the pen. The one down side is if you like patina on your copper and brass then you will be disappointed as you will not get none with the EDC.

Capped there is something almost Art Deco (Streamlined Modern) about the appearance part brought on by the skyscraper like lines on the clip (I seem to remember this actually represents a quill), while at the same time exhibiting some good old Bauhaus design of functionality creating form. I will keep out any argument over if contrasting schools of design can combine, needless to say it is an attractive pen and also slightly different from its rivals in the EDC/pocket pen market.

The cap removes in one and three quarter turns and is single threaded. It appears to be made up of five pieces. The ring at the opening that angles in slightly, with the emblem and Scriveiner impressed upon it. The main stretch of the cap, the clip ring, a top ring that secures the clip in place, and a finial disk containing the emblem.

The clip is a relatively simple though elegant affair. The nub is a half ball, which I assume has been soldered in place, certainly I can see no indications as to how it is fixed to the clip and I see no seams. It is stiff and I find I do have to pull it back slightly to go over thicker material, however this clip does work very well.

The cap posts very securely by screwing on to the barrel. Interestingly this is by just one turn, so less than when closing the pen. The barrel threads are quite subtle and at a glance more look like a decorative ring, a good example of how this can be done. Being copper and brass, posting really does back weight the pen and I also found it made it too heavy for me. Fortunately the body is long enough that many of us may not need the extra length the cap provides. There is one issue when posting the cap. The clip does not line up with or against the nib, instead it sits almost 90 degrees to the right, meaning if you do not counter-clockwise rotate you pen (which is most common) then it will dig in to your hand. Considering Justin Lowes described to me some of the design issues and resultant changes they faced I am surprised this got through to production. All I can think of is they have no control of the position of the threads within the cap.

Inside the cap there is a short gap then a black plastic sleeve which appears to have threads at the far side. This does not go right to the end of the cap. Net result, as is all too common with metal pens, there is ink evaporation. I would suggest a full converter will be empty in about 2-3 months if the pen is not used. Note my endoscope does not have a picture function hence the shots of its screen. (still can’t complain as it was free as a review item under the Amazon Vine program 🙂 ).

One catch with aforementioned plastic sleeve is it does not stop the cap being able to rattle slightly when the pen is closed and if posted and not fully tightened. In addition I think it could be harder than the top layer of lacquer and also appears to be a little rough or sharp at the leading edge, though this is not clear in the photos I took of the endoscope screen, hence the scratches.

Uncapped and you have a more traditional pen in both size and appearance. The width of the back of the barrel is the same as the back of the section and they are the same length. The threads work well as decoration as well as in function. The section is on the narrower side, particularly compared to the more ample nature of many a modern pen.

While the section may gently curve inwards till two thirds of the way towards the nib before curving out again, I find myself holding this pen further back due to its shortness. My fingers and thumb rest on the threads, but these being wide and shallow are barely noticeable. Net result I can get a comfortable grip on this pen even though for me it is a little too thin. Also, as mentioned before with posting, despite being a pocket pen I find the body to be long enough that I can wield the EDC without any need for the cap being placed on the back. My hands are of an average size so I feel those with larger (though not far larger) hands would also have no problem using this pen without posting the cap.

In the hand I find this pen to be a little too thin for my personal tastes, but I still find it very easy to get a comfortable grip. While heavy, unposted it feels balanced with the weight on the rear of the middle finger. Testing it on a finger I found the actual balance point was midway along the barrel.

The nib is a size #5 steel unit from Schmidt. I went with a fine nib and it was smooth out of the box though a little dry. Not enough to require shimming though.

The filling system is standard international cartridge or converter. The pen comes with a threaded Schmidt K6 installed and apparently this was chosen due to previous issues with the pen during the design phase when they tried the more common K5. Still it is a reliable unit so should not be an issue. The pen also should have come with two cartridges in the box. Mine did not.

Weight wise the pen is 50.3g, the cap 18.8g, and the body 31.5g, so heavy for a pocket pen.

I do like this pen though I also have a few concerns, and those alas reflect poorly on the company and I hope I am wrong. At the show I was told they would not sell the two pens on display due to scratches and instead they would post me a new one. This was done and done quickly, so on the surface all was good. However the pen that arrived had the same scratches on it as I saw at the show, in addition to which the lack of both cartridges and paperwork indicate this was a box that had previously been opened for use somewhere. All indications are I received the same pen I tried at the show and the box that went with it. All without Scriveiner checking the contents. A shame really. Fortunately I have more cartridges than I will ever need plus I was always going to use bottled ink, so they are not missed.

The packaging itself is a branded cardboard box where the lid lifts off to reveal a pen tray, under which I found a branded polishing cloth and also should have been the usual warranty type paperwork plus a pair of short international cartridges, which having watched other reviews for confirmation, would have come in a branded cardboard sleeve.

So how have I used this pen? Simple it entered the destructive world of the pen attached to my Midori Traveller Passport. As I detailed in my Feb 2023 article on the search for the next pen for the journal, anything chosen had a rough time with being bounced around in my cargo trouser pocket. Caps would come off, cartridges and converters would disconnect, ink would be forced in to the cap. So how did this pen fair. About the only issue so far is on one occasion the body it did unscrew from the cap, however most the time I find I can close it tight enough that there are no indications of movement and you still need a little effort to unscrew the cap. Sure we are only about three or four weeks in to use but so far so good.

And my thoughts…. Well so far I am actually enjoying the pen. The scratches are a bit of a annoyance, but I suspect I would have caused them over time due to the rough edge to the cap. It is a heavy pen, but I like the fact it is long enough to use without posting so I can just leave the cap in the pen hoop on my journal and not have to either struggle to remove/replace that as it is a tight fit. Also it does not have the same issue as the Kaweco Sports and the Gravitas Pocket Pens where their bodies are too short for anything more than a quick note when unposted. Additionally I do like the finish. Sure it is not solid copper but the colour and brush finishing works really well.

There is one thing I have not yet mentioned. Price. Annoyingly the Scriveiner website will only show prices in dollars, despite being a British company, and those are also without taxes. Key thing though is their pens are very much on the cheap side. We’re talking around £45 to £70 depending on model and finish. The EDC model is £50. There is a big catch though if you do not live in the USA. The website will only sell to the USA. In the UK the only way to buy their pens is through Amazon, and there it is not clear you can access their entire range by selecting the nib type you wish to look at or that the pens shown are groups of models not just finishes.

So would I recommend a Scriveiner pen? Well for the other models I can not comment unless I try examples, however the EDC is a good pen for a good price if you want a small pen to go into a bag or pocket, plus it is long enough to be used without the cap. Just bare in mind it is a heavy pen in brass and copper finish forms. There are enamelled aluminium bodied variants at just 28g, so almost half the weight, though they are about the same price and hard to find on their Amazon webstore.

Pros:

• Stunning finish.
• Slightly different looks.
• Subtle posting threads.
• Comfortable threads make for a comfortable hold.
• Very good price for what you get.

Neutral:

• Might be too thin for some people.
• Heavy pen in the brass and copper brushed finishes.
• Marketing is heavy handed and some of it needs taking with a pinch of salt.
• Size #5 nib – only mentioned because someone will say ‘ah but X pocket pen has a #6’. For me this is a non-issue.
• Ink evaporation, though no worse than many other metal pens out there.
• Will not patina over time.

Cons:

• Missing cartridges and paperwork hint at a lack of attention to detail and more on box shifting.
• Scratches on barrel make it seem I was sent the demo pen they originally said they would not pass on.
• Posting does make this pen very back heavy (in copper/brass guise).
• Rough edges to inner cap sleeve, which may be the cause of the scratches.
• Posted the clip will be either be against or pushed in to your hand (may vary from pen to pen).

Writing Sample

Comparison Pictures

First with the ubiquitous Lamy Al-Star/Safari.

Next with some of its rivals that have seen service on my Midori Traveller Passport Journal. From left to right, Pilot E95S/Elite, Ion Infinity 2 Pocket Pen, Scriveiner EDC, Shibui North Pocket Pen, Gravitas Pocket Pen, Kaweco Sport.