Thursday, October 2, 2014

Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens

I like cute pens, which is why I was attracted to the Stipula Passaporto when I was browsing JetPens (you know, something I spend endless hours doing).
Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens
ABOUT

Body Material: Resin
Trim: Metal
Length (capped): 3.62"
Length (uncapped nib-end): 3.42"
Length (posted): 4.94"
Barrel Diameter: 0.56"
Section Diameter: 0.36" - 0.45"
Nib material: Steel
Weight: 20 g
Fill type: Cartridge/Eyedropper
Price: $90.00USD
Where to buy: JetPens

PACKAGING
Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens
For the size of the pen itself, the packaging of the Passaporto seems too large. The pen comes packaged in a hard red box with cut corners, inside a metallic cardboard sleeve. The red box has the Stipula logo in gold on the top, with gold edges around it. Inside, the pen and a glass eyedropper is nestled in place on a very soft bed. I like the inside of the box quite a bit, and I really like that Stipula included a glass eyedropper for turning the pen into an eyedropper!
Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens
APPEARANCE
Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens
The Passaporto is a very small, compact pen. Think pocket-sized! It has a clear resin body - barrel, cap, and section, with a silver center band that has the Stipula leaf logo on it. The feed is in a black collar so you can't see the feed itself. The body is round and thick, with rounded ends. The section is smooth and narrows towards the nib.
Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens
The threads on the outside are metal. Stipula is etched on the barrel very tastefully - such that you can see it but it doesn't affect viewing of the ink inside. Most important, of course.
Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens
NIB & PERFORMANCE
Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens
The nib is pretty plain and I find it rather underwhelming in appearance. It's a double broad steel nib that says Stipula on it. There are four leafs on it as well.

The nib tines appeared to be quite tight, but I don't like to adjust anything until after I've reviewed the pen - it seems only fair to review the pen as it arrives from the company, right? Therefore, onward. The pen was turned into an eyedropper and was filled with the lovely Montblanc Lavender Purple ink.

I found that the pen didn't write all that well - it was on the dry side and it skipped. I like the broad line the nib put down, although I think if it had been more wet, it would look even better. When I wrote with it, I exerted slight pressure on the nib and it made the lines a little wetter and it wrote nicely. In the writing sample, the wetness was pretty satisfactory when I used that slight amount of pressure. Without pressure, the nib would just dry out. Annoying.
Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens
After adjusting the nib a little (making the nib wetter), it wrote much more pleasantly and I liked the performance of the nib much more. It also stopped skipping, which was a relief.

IN HAND

The Passaporto is a very small pen, of course, so don't be surprised that it'll be hard to write with unposted, even if you have small hands! It is a postable pen, so you'll want to do that. My complaint with that is the cap doesn't post very securely. I found that even when posted, the cap would wiggle off as I wrote. Annoying? Yeah. Very annoying. I could feel it wiggling off slowly so every now and then, I'd have to push it back on. I also tried twisting the cap slightly when I posted it. This helped a lot, but you must remember to do this!
Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens
Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens
The pen itself is comfortable to hold though, that's the thing. It's not too small when it's posted, it's quite nice. It's comfortable, light, well-balanced. The threads aren't a bother, which is good, since they are pretty much inevitable.
Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens
PROS & CONS
Review: Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen - Double Broad @JetPens
OVERALL

Overall, once the nib was adjusted, I really liked it. I also really liked the look of the pen, especially as an eyedropper. It's great that Stipula included a glass eyedropper along with the pen! Be aware that the pen needs a good flush with water and some dish soap/ammonia before using it, and the tines might need a bit of loosening if it writes dry and skippy. Easy to fix. They're cute pens and worth a look at.

4 comments:

Tanja said...

I love how they add that glass eyedropper :D
The pen itself looks interesting. Bit expensive though :/

Azizah Asgarali said...

It is super cool - I love the ED too! It was also much better after the nib was adjusted, but I prefer to review them prior to adjustment... seems more fair for others who might have the same experience. Definitely $$. I saved for awhile for it.

Mike said...

And....they don't sell any Stipula things any more aside from one color of ink. The price of this pen is what kept me from buying one before.

Maja said...

I have two Passaportos - an ebonite one that has no barrel-end threads, and a blue resin special edition made for FPN (The Fountain Pen Network) that has a threaded barrel-end. I have no idea why Stipula doesn't make threaded barrel-ends for all of their Passaportos -- it's such a small pen! I have to wrap a small strip of Saran Wrap on the barrel end of the ebonite pen to make posting possible at all. I found a post on FPN that indicates that the first generation of Passaportos came with threaded barrel ends, but that the company dropped this design feature in later pens (with the exception of some limited editions pens). Very strange...

Anywhoo, thanks for the thorough (as usual ;-) review and nice photos!

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