Art Alternatives Pen & Ink Sketch Fountain Pen Set Fine,Black

I bought two of those pens to use for sketching/drawing purpose, one with a fine nib and and another with a broad nib. I wasn't sure what to expect at first, since "cheap fountain pen" can often mean "finicky fountain pen" at best, "useless fountain pen" at worst. Let me tell you right now, this is a pretty good fountain pen.The pen looks good overall, although you can see some lack of attention in the finishing, especially near the joints/trims. The body is made of matte black plastic, and is pleasant to the touch. It feels somewhat like suede. The grip section is made of the same material, and feels comfortable to use, even for longer writing/drawing sessions. The silvery trims are either cheap metal or plastic. There's nothing special about them, but they add a nice touch to the pen. The clip seems sturdy. The cap can be posted securely, and the pen and cap are light enough that it doesn't really affect the balance. The pen is long enough to use un-posted, but I have small hands, so I'm sure some people will prefer the extra-length. The nib has some small decorative engraving, nothing too fancy. I haven't had any success pulling it out, but I haven't tried that hard either. I haven't tested the converter yet, but I've taken it apart and all, and it seems like a sturdy converter. The pen came with a nice little pen roll, nothing fancy here too, but a nice little add-on if you want to carry your pen around (one of the pens came with what look like suede/cheap leather (darker brown), the other with a thicker faux-leather roll (tan-ish color), but I can't remember which pen came with what).Now comes the fun part. I tested this pen with one of the cartridges it came with (short standard international black cartridges, as far as I can tell). I writes so smoothly! I own a couple of other pens (Lamy, Sheaffer, etc.), and this is the smoothest of all (well, the broad nib pen made by the same company may be smoother, but they're pretty close). The line is a bit wide for what I expected a "fine" nib to be (I's say it's similar to a 0.7-0.8mm pen), but that could be a combination of ink/pen, or maybe my pen just needs some adjustment. The pen can write with the nib upside-down, and it produces a finer line that way (0.3-0.4mm).tl;dr: If you want a low-cost fountain pen to carry around, buy this one. It's smooth and nice, and comes with some black cartridges, so you'll be ready to go.

This pen works pretty well. I used the converter cartridge to fill it with walnut ink. I had some misgivings because walnut ink can have a small amount of suspended solids in it, which could clog a fountain pen. But it is working well. No clogs yet. I have run through two full cartridges of ink with it. Like a traditional fountain pen, it can be slow to start. A bit of damp blotter paper works well to combat this. The old "lick the pen" trick is not advised. Then again, maybe that's just my walnut ink. I haven't tried it with the included ink cartridges.As for writing, I like this pen a lot. The iridium-plated nib glides smoothly across the paper. I spent about an hour "breaking it in", just drawing long lines and squiggles repeatedly across rough paper, to smooth out any scratchiness in the nib. It writes so smoothly now that I wonder if it ever had any scratchiness to smooth out. My penmanship isn't the best, but once I grew accustomed to the pen, I could see distinctive lines developing in my writing style that I am apt to blame this pen for. If you want to develop some "classical style" to your handwriting, spend a few hours writing with this fountain pen.For artistic purposes, this pen's claim to be for drawing and/or sketching holds up. It doesn't skip or splotch, even when shading. Ink flow through the nib is relative to pressure on the paper, so some amount of control is achievable with regards to line thickness. It follows the natural motions of my hand to leave graceful curves on the paper. There are better pens out there, but this one does actually do most of what I need it to do. And when it won't do it, I find that adjusting my work to the abilities of the pen brings a new flavor to my work.Construction is adequate. The black rubberized texture does not appeal to me. It works well and it is inexpensive. I might buy another just to have two inks available. The included converter cartridge is what sold me on this pen and it lives up to my expectations. It writes well. It just has a "cheap" look and feel to it at first.

looks and feels cheap... but writes well