I'm a fan of Retro 51 pens. I've reviewed several of them here - the
classic lacquer Tornado in kiwi, the
green crocodile Tornado, the
Tornado in stainless steel, and the
Tornado in natural bamboo (yes, the panda face one). No surprise I ended up with the fountain pen as well, right? Here is the very cool, antique-looking
Tornado Lincoln EXT fountain pen from JetPens.
ABOUT
Body Material: Metal (antiqued copper)
Trim: Antiqued copper (thanks Keith!)
Length (capped): 0.54"
Length (uncapped nib-end): 0.48"
Length (posted): 0.63"
Barrel Diameter: 0.47"
Section Diameter: 0.39" - 0.47"
Nib material: Steel
Weight: 32 g
Fill type: Cartridge/Converter
Price: $50.00USD
Where to buy:
JetPens
PACKAGING
The Lincoln EXT arrived in the classic Retro 1951 packaging; a very cool 1950s diner-looking cardboard tube. Pop the top off and the pen was inside, held in place with foam. I like the packaging - it's fun, unique, and minimal. Plus, if you really don't want it, you can just recycle it. But it's quite cute, so chances are you're going to want to keep it.
APPEARANCE
The Lincoln EXT is an antique looking fountain pen but feels solid and tough. It's a metal body pen with blunt ends. It's not very thick and the whole body has a brushed antique copper finish. The body is smooth and the clip matches the finish of the body. The finial is very simple, flush with the flat end, and looks like brushed nickel.
The top of the cap has the classic Retro 1951 knurling that I love. Uncapped, the grip section is fairly short and is black plastic. I don't care much for plastic grip look but at least it's a small portion.
Overall, I am a fan of the appearance and despite having read a few negative reviews on this pen (based on nib performance), I went ahead on picked this from
JetPens because I love Retro 1951 pens and I loved the appearance.
NIB & PERFORMANCE
The nib is large and fits the pen perfectly. Anything smaller would have looked silly. It's a Schmidt steel nib in medium. It says iridium pointon it and has some simple flourishes on it. I inked it with the obvious: Diamine Ancient Copper! I didn't flush it or tweak the nib at all. I wanted to see how the nib would perform straight out of the box. Er. Tube. To my very pleasant surprise, it was great! It was smooth, reliable, consistent, and fairly wet. It doesn't skip and it's not scratchy. It's hard to complain about that. I would love if there was a broad nib available, but the medium is pretty solid. The nib is not flexible and although you could squeeze a little bit of line variation out of it, it's not really designed for that.
The pen I received dispelled my concerns of previous reviews I had read. Either I lucked out or the other bloggers received duds. This Lincoln EXT is pretty great.
IN HAND
This isn't a particularly huge pen, nor is it all that heavy, so unposted, I find it very comfortable to write with. It has good weight and balance. Even posted, I am able to write comfortably with it. After awhile, it becomes top heavy, but in general, I don't write with my pens posted anyway.
I like the metal warming up in my hand, and I enjoy the smoothness of the body in my hand. The threads of the section are very smooth and not at all uncomfortable while writing. I find the plastic grip to be a little slippery in my grip
PROS & CONS
OVERALL
I've had a very positive experience with this pen, so I do feel comfortable recommending this to others. I've never had anything but a positive experience with Retro 1951 pens and this one is no different - although this is my first fountain pen from the company. At $50.00USD, you could pick it up, and should it need some work, follow some online tutorials to tweak the nib (because at most, I think you would just need to
make the nib wetter, or
smooth it a little, and you could follow a guide on
fine tuning and adjusting a nib).
I received this pen free of charge for the purposes of this review. I was not compensated monetarily for my review. Everything you've read here is my own opinion. There are no affiliate links in this review.
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