Dryden DesignsReplaceable Nib and Converter for Dryden Bamboo Fountain Pen Edition

For me, this pen was a disappointment, as was customer care, but I gave 1 star for the bamboo, which was pretty and lightweight. This pen is described as smooth writing with no skipping and a medium nib, none of which were true of the pen I received. The pen was hard-starting, dry, skipped more than it wrote, and the nib was a #4, which I would consider fine, not medium as advertised. In addition, the grip is depicted as a nice cobalt blue color, but in reality just looked like cheap black plastic. After a week of trying, I finally re-checked this description to make certain I didn't misunderstand details, imagine my surprise to also then find it priced over $16 below what I just paid. Having received 3 follow-up emails from them, and since they tout themselves as putting the "care" in customer care, I wrote to let them know my concerns. Their "caring" response was not to offer a solution, but rather a simple reply that they were sorry I wasn't happy with the pen.I wanted a reasonably priced reliable fountain pen for travel, one I wouldn't be heartbroken to lose. I've since replaced this with a Jinhao with a truly medium nib that starts and writes beautifully at less than half the $27 I paid for this one.---------- UPDATE 4.17.2018 (Dryden Modern Classic) ----------After a response from Sarah Dryden (not the original CS contact I dealt with) expressing her belief that this was an anomaly, I accepted the offer to try another pen. I did ask to try a different style due to discomfort from the pronounced step between barrel and grip and she gladly offered a list of pens in stock to choose from. I chose the Modern Classic in pink (https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0774TL84N/ref=twister_B01N308Q9M?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1), not a color I would ever normally choose, but the light bright color will make it easy to find in my travel bag and it turns out it is an attractive eye-catching pastel, much prettier than the photo. On close inspection, greater care could have been taken in polishing the metal clip, which is so tight and inflexible I'm afraid to try using it, but overall it is quite nice looking. More importantly, however, as to functionality; this pen is a world apart from my 1st experience w/the Bamboo pen, so I believe Sarah Dryden's assessment about the first one being defective was likely accurate. The Modern Classic starts easily, writes wet, and has a truly medium nib (marked 10 vs 4), mostly smooth with only the faintest bit of scratchiness. I very much appreciate Sarah Dryden for her caring efforts to make things right. I'm pleased with this pen and look forward to taking it along in my travels.

I've waited to write this review until I had run several cartridges of ink through this lovely fountain pen. It comes in a beautiful gift box if that is your intent but I bought it for my personal use. A fountain pen is a personal totem, it speaks to you and becomes part of you and goes everywhere with you This pen is not expensive but it is valuable and a great value. This one is now a constant companion.

This pen falls into a trend I am seeing far too often here on Amazon. The item works AMAZING out of the box . . . and then fails only a few weeks to a month after the return window is closed. So I'm now stuck with a useless item that I can't return.The good: this pen does write fabulously for its price point, it was very enjoyable for the first 5 weeks I had it.The bad: horrid build quality. The nipple inside the nib that the ink cartridge docks to loosened up within a few weeks and started dropping ink cartridges inside the pen, creating a tsunami of ink that went EVERYWHERE, as in ruin clothing and stain your entire hand 'everywhere'. I tried many different cartridges, thinking maybe it was a defective ink cartridge, but to no avail.It is to the point where when I put a new cartridge in the pen, it has come loose within a few hours. It is now completely unusable, and I am, imagine that, just outside of the 1 mo return window.Utter waste of money. In the bigger picture, I hope that Amazon will try to address the ongoing issue of vendors who are creating items intended to exploit the limited return window that Amazon adheres to.

I recently purchased two Dryden Luxury Fountain Pens, one for myself, one for my wife. Though it is still early in the game I haven't been disappointed.First of all, the advertising is correct. This is an elegant-looking pen presented in an attractive gift box, both bamboo. The bamboo is well-finished in a sort of eggshell finish and the decorative accouterments are of a gold-colored metal, well-designed and tasteful. But be warned; this doggy is SMALL. It measures less than 5" from nib tip to the back end of the pen and it doesn't post--which means that you are writing with a pen that totals less than 5" long. In comparison a cheap Pentel ballpoint with the cap posted measures just a hair under 7". I have a medium hand for a male: if this pen were any shorter I'd have a hard time writing with it.The nib (quite small but in proportion to the rest of the pen) is advertised as a "medium" but is actually somewhere between medium and fine. It is not the smoothest nib on the planet but it writes smoothly enough and will undoubtedly get better with time--they all do. It looks suspiciously like one of those Jinhao nibs (probably expected in this price range) so time will tell the tale of it's longevity (or not). It is certainly not as smooth as, say, the nib of a Pilot Metropolitan, a pen of similar price and design.Function? Well, I plugged a Mont Blanc black cartridge into the Dryden and it fired right up. It does come with a converter but I wasn't impressed with how the converter looked (may be just great) and there have been reports of leaks. the Mont Blanc cartridge fits well. It started writing after only a couple of swipes at the paper and so far writes "first time, every time", though in fairness the longest I've gone without writing with is is three days. It puts down a medium-fine line with no skips, though I'm not a fast writer--if you go for speed there may be problems.BOTTOM LINE: A pen in line with the price paid for it. You aren't getting the quality of Sailor, Mont Blanc, etc. but then again you are paying pennies instead of hundreds of dollars. But it writes well enough and is a handsome little devil. The bamboo presentation box is a nice touch, as well. So far, I'm satisfied.

I tried inserting these cartridges in several fountain pens, but the neck is too long and the ball cap doesn't click, so the ink doesn't flow. In the picture, on the left is this cartridge, on the right there is an international ink cartridge. The neck is 1-2 mm too long.

Unfortunately, although these cartridges were advertised as 'short international standard size', they seem to have a slightly longer top casing than all other standard sized cartridges which I have successfully used in the past and so they did not fit my pen. This was a great pity because the vibrant colours looked absolutely wonderful!

I find most cartridges are messy and don't hold their ink for long before it leaks out of the pen but these are different. The ink runs smoothly and doesn't spit or blot as you write. It dries quickly and allows correction fluid to cover it up when need be (most other inks won't allow this). Most importantly I can change out an empty cartridge without getting ink on my hands because a drop has remained behind. I really love these inks and you can also get them in some lovely colours for artwork.

Lovely colours it seems. Arrived quickly. Sadly my Rotring Art pen is leaking badly due to cartridge not seating properly in the pen. Watch out!

The flow of ink from the cartridge was weak. I had to shake the pen to get any and it didn't last. I swapped the cartridge for a filler with a plunger which works much better.