Pen Review : ASA Patriot

Lately ASA has released lot of pens and believe they will be coming up with lot more in near future.

And today I am reviewing another great pen by them which is ASA Patriot.

ASA Patriot

I had my eyes on Gama Eyas / Gama Hawk for a quite a long time because i wanted an ebonite pen with the rounded top and bottoms. I was just about to buy the pen and then ASA came out with this beauty named PATRIOT and i quickly grabbed the same.

DESIGN & BUILT:

The pen is a regular sized pen and comes in 5 color options, shiny black, matte black, light brown rippled, dark brown rippled and green rippled finish. Its a regular sized pen which comes with JoWo nib options of F, M , B and 1.1 Italic size. The pen that i reviewed today comes with 1.1 Italic nib.

ASA Patriot with 1.1 JoWo Itaic nib

It has a clean and minimalist design. The pen open in 2 and half turns which I beleive is the highlight of the pen being an Indian pen.

The top and bottom of pen are rounded which are quite nicely done and has been paid lot of attention as it is a handmade pen.

ASA Patriot – Top of Cap and Bottom of Barrel – Rounded

ASA Patriot – Uncapped

The section of the pen is finished in black shiny finish which is quite okay and provides for sturdy grip. However i would have liked it even more if the section would also have been given a matte finish.

Below is the image which shows the pen broken down in to parts, which shows the Schmidt K5 converter also.

ASA Patriot – Taken apart

The Clip is chrome finished and quite sturdy and the O ring of the clip is well hidden by the rounded cap top. (Update: The clip is push type thus no O ring and that is the reason for uniformity in cap and cap top). Also i got an option to engrave my name on the pen and i opted for the same to be done at the cap which really adds to the beauty of pen.

ASA Patriot – Sturdy Clip

ASA Patriot – Name Engraving

As mentioned  earlier the pen is the regular sized pen and below are the few images to show the comparison against various pens.

ASA I Can vs ASA Patriot vs Pilot Metropolitan vs Sheaffer No Nonsense – Capped

ASA I Can vs ASA Patriot vs Pilot Metropolitan vs Sheaffer No Nonsense – Uncapped

This i a well designed pen which is just a class apart in built quality. Actually its a no fuss design.

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Balance:

I loved the pen just because of the look but when I hold the pen it just feels that this pen was made only for me. It fits so perfectly and yes it has and amazing balance. The size is approx 145 mm when uncapped and when capped it is 136 mm including nib.

Like most of my pens I love the writing with the pen without cap posted at back.

ASA Patriot – Writing Un-posted

And also the cap easily fits the back and yes it fits perfectly but i was bit reluctant to post it for long because I beleive inner thread of the cap will spoil the matte finish. And yeah cap posting ads certain heft to pen which lot of people might like but not me.

ASA Patriot – Writing Posted

Overall love the pen in my hand. AMAZING.

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NIB AND INK FILLING MECHANISM:

I ordered this pen with 1.1 Italic nib which is a dual tone steel nib from JoWo. It is one of the smoothest italic nib i have come across. Not a hint of scratchiness. Love the way it writes.

And yeah the nib by itself is beautiful and adds to the aesthetics of pen. The feed is also from JoWo and is made of ebonite plastic.

ASA Patriot – JoWo 1.1 Italic Nib

ASA Patriot – Nib Side View

ASA Patriot – Nib Feed Bottom View

The nib feed mechanism fits perfectly inside the section. Actually it flushes with the sections and becomes a unitized mechanism. Below image explains it a little bit more.

ASA Patriot – Nib Feed View

The ink filling mechanism is 3 in 1 which means you can use cartridge, converter with this pen and also use this pen as an eye dropper.

This come pen with Schmidt K5 converter at additional cost and i decided to go with the same.

ASA Patriot – Ink Filling Mechanism

Overall it gets full marks for the nib options and ink filling mechanism. Below one more image shows the closeup of the nib. Looks beautiful.

ASA Patriot – Nib Close up

Further down below is my hand written review in detail which also highlights the written sample.

ASA Patriot – Handwritten Review Page 1

ASA Patriot – Handwritten Review Page 2

ASA Patriot – Handwritten Review Page 3

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CONCLUSION:

This is one no fuss designed pen which plain yet elegant and oh yeah fits perfectly in to the hand. I would definitely recommend to people who are in a lookout for the their first premium fountain pen under Rs. 2000 (INR).

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Pen Review : Click Tulip Piston Filler Fountain Pen

Unique Pens recently came out with new fountain pen which is a quite subtle design. I quickly grabbed the pen as soon as Mr. Subramanian of ASA Pens shared the image of the same with me. Below is my review of the pen which i have been using for past 2 weeks.

Click Piston Filler

Design & Built:

I purely bought this pen for its looks and after my first demonstrator which was Galactic, i wanted to explore the territory of demonstrator pens.

This pen is a small sized sleek piston filler pen. It comes in 5 translucent colors, Clear, Blue, Red, Green, & Brown. Out of all those Clear looks the best because it shows you the actual color of the ink sloshing inside the pen. It also comes in solid colors by the name of Tulip.

The pen is made of ABS plastic which is quite okay. it is an elegantly designed little pen which will be suitable for people with small and regular size hands. The pen is prone to smudges  if you have oily hands.

Click Majestic – Uncapped

The cap has metal gold plated crown shaped cap which is quite firmly placed on top of cap.

Top of Cap

There is center band with 2 grooves also running around again in golden color. There is also inner lining of plastic inside the cap, probably to keep ink from drying out.

Click Majestic – Cap with Gold plated clip

The pen opens in 2-3 turns and top of grip section also has gold plated metal ring which ads to the beauty of pen. The only let down i see the gold paint over the engraving done at the barrel which doesn’t appeal to me.

Barrel and Piston Filling Mechanism

Also in above image you might see one more gold plated band which separates the barrel section from the piston filling mechanism. I must tell you that i love the piston filling mechanism better than eyedropper.

This pen can be easily cleaned as it can be easily dismantled into individual parts.

The build quality of pen is just okay as the ABS plastic used looks flimsy even though it might take lot of falls and has certain bit of flexibility also. It gives you a feel that if you try to manhandle the pen it will come apart. So i did not messed around with the pen.

Uncapped Pen Close up of cap opening and Nib

The bottom of pen and top of cap are flat and are pretty neat and clean.

Flat Ends

Overall the design is good and build quality is acceptable for price range of Rs. 150 (US $ 3). I must add that the build quality is far better than Hero Demonstrator B001 pen I have. Also it can be compared to plastic used in Jinhao 599 pens.

Size & Balance:

The pen is i would say for only small and regular sized hands. As the cap posting is not good so the you will not be able to attain the long length which can be used by bigger hands.

Though the pen is light weight, i still believe that there is certain lack of heft in the pen. Section grip is smooth acrylic which is of correct size and might trouble some with sweaty hands.

Click Majestic – While Writing

Only drawback it has is that the cap can’t be posted as it comes out easily when you try to post the cap. Thus recommended for small or regular sized hands.

Overall its nicely balanced pen.

Below are few images showing comparison in sizes with other pens.

ASA Spear vs Pilot Metropolitan vs Click Majestic

As you can see the in the image above and below it is a tad smaller than Pilot Metropolitan aka MR.

Uncapped – ASA Spear vs Pilot Metropolitan vs Click Majestic

ASA Spear vs Pilot Metropolitan vs Click Majestic – Cap Comparison

Nib & Ink Filling Mechanism:

The pen comes with dual tone fine nib which writes pretty well and actually it never skipped during my course of writing with this pen for past 2 weeks. The nib writes western fine and the feeder is made of ebonite. The dual tone nib really complements the gold metal trims of the pen and the nib also has got some variations, it is not flex but yes it has got certain variations if you even write with just a bit of pressure applied.

Dual Tone Fine Nib

Nib & Feed – Side View

View of Feed – Regular designed feed

The ink filling mechanism is the Piston Filler this is my second piston filler pen and actually i love this most as compared to other mechanism of ink filling. The best part about the pen is that it can be easily dismantled for cleaning.

The pen comes in only one nib option and certainly nib can be changed aftermarket if someone desires. The stock nib writes medium wet and easily dries up in Delhi Summer weather within 8-10 sec and yeah a lot depends on ink also.

Below is my Handwritten review showing the writing sample

Page 1 – Handwritten Review

Page 2 – Handwritten Review

Yes there was certain burp which happened for first time(See Page 2) in past 2 weeks but but hasn’t happened since then.

Page 3 – Handwritten Review

Conclusion:

Well made Indian pen for Rs. 150 ( US $ 2.5) which writes quite well. Surely recommended to people who want to try out fountain pen or grab value for money fountain pen which writes quite well. It is a brilliant pen for its price. Cant beat the beauty of this pen at this price range.

Note: Similar iterations of the pen have been floating around in circles by Oliver Pens Chennai & by name of Romus Demonstrator

Pen Review – ASA I.CAN (Beyond bang for buck)

Out of my recent acquisitions of 5 pens, the pen i am reviewing today is one of the new introductions by ASA Pens which adds to the growing list of their lineup.

ASA I.CAN – Jumbo Sized Ebonite Pen

DESIGN:

The pen is a quite long comparable to likes of Gama Kuyil and also it seems to be inspired from Gama Kuyil and in many ways it betters the look and feel of Kuyil. The grip section i feel is better than the kuyil. The barrel is just a bit thinner than Kuyil.

ASA I.Can vs Gama Kuyil – Capped

ASA I.Can vs Gama Kuyil – Uncapped

The top of cap of ASA I.Can is bit longer and it gives the pen a distinct look. It comes in 5 colors matte black, shiny black, green-black mottled, brown-blk mottled, light brown-blk mottled finish. As it is a big pen, it surely won’t fit in a shirt pocket.

ASA I.Can – Long Pen

The cap length is almost as long as cap of Kuyil but the clip is a carry over from ASA Spear and suits the pen very well which i would say is quite decent and subtle.

ASA I.CAN – Cap with silver clip

The Nib is silver colored monotone nib.

ASA I.Can – Silver Colored Monotone Nib with good design

The pen barrel comes with the engraving in cursive “ASA I Can – India 2015” which looks really nice.

ASA I.CAN – Engraving on Barrel

The bottom of barrel and top of cap are both flat.

ASA I.Can – Flat bottom and Flat Top

Below are certain images alongside the Pilot 78G to give an idea about the size of the pen.

ASA I.Can vs Pilot 78G

ASA I.Can vs Pilot 78G – Uncapped

Overall I would say I am quite happy with the decision to buy the pen purely on design basis.

BALANCE:

This pen is a writers delight. It so light for the size of pen and you can keep writing on and on without even a slight hint of tiredness due to the size and weight and on top of that it hold large amount of ink. I prefer writing with large pens and that too unposted so i was quite happy with the pen.

ASA I.CAN – Writing Unposted

It becomes too long (but not heavy) if the cap is posted. That i would say depends upon preference and i my preference is to write with pen unposted.

ASA I.Can – Well balanced Pen

I would day it has an amazing posture and balance and looks so beautiful in hands just because of the color.

NIB AND INK FILLING MECHANISM:

The pen comes with silver monotone stock fine nib as is the case with Galactic. It writes pretty fine and has a regular ink flow. In my run of writing 7 pages on trot it never skipped once. Loved the stock nib.

ASA I.Can – Stock “F” Nib

ASA I.Can – Stock Ambitious Nib

The feed is also made of ebonite and is of regular design.

ASA I.Can

My all pen nibs are checked and smoothed by Mr. Subramaniam before dispatch and thus the quality of products especially the pens are top notch. The ink filling mechanism is an eyedropper (a separate eyedropper came with this pen) and thus pen is able to hold massive amounts of inks and it will not require regular inking up the barrel.

ASA I.Can – Opened

Even though stock nib writes superb the pen comes with an option to upgrade the nib to German JoWo M and B Nibs.

WRITING:

The stock nib writes western fine and it is well behaved wet writer. Below is my brief handwritten write up about the pen.

ASA I.Can Pen Review – Page 1 – Written with certain pressure on rough side of a paper

ASA I.Can Pen Review – Page 2 – Written with less pressure applied to pen on smooth side of paper

BOTTOM LINE:

Recommended to people who are looking for long pens and who love to write for longer duration yet not burning a hole in a pocket. I love it more than my Lamy Safari. Yes it definitely is a bang for buck. (Rs. 800) and there is always an option of upgrading to JoWo nib with extra 450 bucks still making it cheaper than Lamy ‘Plastic’ Safari which doesn’t even come with converter.

Pen Review : Gama Airborne

The pen I’m about to review to review always amazed me by the looks.  However i always Google about the pen before buying any pen…  But to my surprise this pen was never reviewed in detail,  so I decided to go ahead and thought about purchasing the same… (Edit : It has been reviewed by Hari here on FPN ) So following is my review of the pen.

DESIGN :
One of the most beautifully designed pen I’ve come across. Very slim profile pen. Easily fits in the pocket. Long cap rounded at top with gold plated clip which really complements the pen color.  Made of ebonite, comes in 5 colors shiny black, matte black, green rippled, brown rippled, and light brown rippled.

This pen comes with  stock gold plated nib which again complements the design. I believe brown and gold color really go along very well.

The pen cap opens with 5 turns just like many Indian ebonite pens.
The clip is bit flexible and as mentioned earlier is good plated with no inscriptions, looks wonderful.
The top of the cap is rounded and the bottom of the barrel of pen tapers down to sharp narrow rounded profile.

The pen size is comparable to Pilot Metropolitan in length but in thickness this pen is of slim profile. Below are the images of pen compared to metropolitan and Gama Kuyil.

I would say I love the design of the pen.

BALANCE:
Made of ebonite the pen is light weight. Regular sized pen perfectly balanced pen whether cap is posted or unposted. Perfect sized pens for small hands,  can easily be carried in pockets.

NIB AND IN FILLING MECHANISM:
The nib is western fine and writes pretty well for a stock Indian Nib. It gives a little feedback but I actually kinda love this nib because I only use two pen which write fine,  Gama Airborne and Pilot Metropolitan medium nib which writes western fine. Gold plated no. 5 nib looks very good.

Has an ebonite feed. And the ink filling mechanism is an eyedropper which actually gives advantage to pen for retaining good amount of ink as it is a slim pen.

I actually like the stock nib which was treated by Mr. Subramaniam before dispatch.

WRITING:
It writes western fine and gives pleasure to write the fine text. Below is my hand written review of pen showing the snake of writing.

CONCLUSION:
Its a must buy pen for ₹575/- as its in last production run and it actually works and writes pretty very well. Edit: its out of stock. I have bought three of these, one of which was forcefully grabbed by my wife.

UPDATE : Its again being manufactured. Just have to drop email to ASA Pens.

Hope you enjoyed the review.