The Well-Appointed Desk

I recently stumbled across the Nemosine Singularity fountain pen on Amazon and decided I’d take a chance. Its a line of Taiwanese-made pens with German nibs for $15-$30 depending on the reseller, nib and finish. I purchased the red plastic Singularity with the F nib and bought an extra 0.6mm italic nib for $7. The pen came in a simple white cardboard box but included a piston-style cartridge converter and six cartridges. At the price point, few other pens offer these extras. I really was taking a gamble as I’ve never seen one in person nor had I done a lot of research about it but I felt hopeful that the German nib and high-quality reputation of Taiwanese pens would make the Nemosine and pleasant surprise.

It has a lightweight plastic body with chrome trim and clip but its surprisingly quality looking. Its a fairly lightweight pen but a lot nicer looking in person that I thought it would be. The red plastic is fairly opaque making it look a little like resin, enough to fool non-pen geeks into thinking its a much pricier pen than it is.

The real shocker for me is that the nib is silky smooth and beautifully etched with decorative designs. It looks Art Deco and really adds to the experience. Both the Fine nib and the 0.6mm italic nib worked amazingly well. I would compare them both the nibs used in Kaweco Sports and that’s high praise coming from me.

The only issue I had was that the pen leaked on me. I think it was because I swapped out the nib several times to test (with the ink cartridge converter filled) so I may have shimmied it loose. It leaked all over my hands when I uncapped it and the chrome ring that holds the clip to the cap is not air tight so the ink leaked out there as well.

Assuming that the leaking was my fault, I recommend giving one of these pens a try. I especially like that I was able to get a small italic nib which I love to bits. For the next couple weeks though, I will be using the pen at home until I determine if I was the reason it leaked.

As for the name Nemosine, all I could find is a Latin quote “nemo sine vitio est” which translates to “No one is without fault.” Does anyone else have any idea about the brand name?

Check out these other reviews as well:

• Pocket Blonde
• Inktronics F Nib and 0.8mm review
• Create Write Drink and nib swapping between the Nemosine and TWSBI Vac 700

I finally broke down and decided to try the Fountain Pen Revolution staple, the Dilli. I bought two models, the fine firm nib ($15) and the flex nib ($18). Both pens are translucent plastic bodies with solid black cap end and piston-filler end. These are piston fillers only and do not accept cartridges.

My impression when they arrived is that they look cheap. The edges where the plastics meet are not smooth joins, the plastic feels low quality and even the nibs are a dull silver. The clips are metal but a very light metal. One good tug on the clip and I think I could easily bend it out of shape.

The flexible nib is a split nib, similar to the Noodlers Creaper. Each pen measures 5.5″ capped, 5.875″ posted (and the cap will post) and 4.75″ unposted. They are very lightweight (14gms capped), comparable to a Kaweco Sport (13gms) despite being an 1.5″  longer.

My initial feeling was that I was not going to like these pens based solely on their humble looks. I decided to go ahead and ink them up though and withhold final judgement until I got ink on paper.

I tested the flexible nib version first, being most curious about how well it would work. It is very smooth on paper, surprisingly so but its very stiff. If you are looking for a flex nib for a heavy hand, this would be a good option to try. I have a very light hand so this was too stiff for me to use and get the line variation I like in flex nibs. Alternately though, with a light touch, it worked like a fine nib pen and still wrote ridiculously smoothly for the price.

The firm nib was a bit wider fine than I am accustomed to, closer to a medium nib in my opinion, but it wrote very smoothly. I thought these nibs would be comparable to a Platinum Preppy but they are much smoother. Surprisingly so.

Overall, I don’t think I’d buy anymore of these. Sadly, the feel of a fountain pen in my hand is a huge part of my writing experience and these just continued to feel cheap — and I understand that they are cheap pens but for a few more dollars, there are other budget-priced pens available. If you are looking for flexible nibs, Noodlers Creaper/Ahabs are available in much more interesting material colors and perform quite similarly. As for another standard fountain pen option, there are others in the under-$50 range I would recommend over the Dilli.