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Art Alternatives Pen & Ink Sketch Bundle
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Art Alternatives Pen & Ink Sketch Bundle
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283 requests
Product Description
Ideal for sketching and entry-level writing, this bundle combines the Pen & Ink Sketch Fountain Pen set from Art Alternatives with the ever-popular Rhodiarama Webnotebook. In addition to the fountain pen, the Art Alternatives set includes a converter, three black ink cartridges, and a faux-suede roll case Read More
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keyboard_arrow_downHueston
128
Sep 24, 2015
This is quite the odd bundle. A very nice notebook combined with a pen that has probably one of the scratchiest iridium nibs around. I bought this little pen a while back for around $10 usd, they're sold mostly at art stores. It came with ink packs and a decent cartridge converter that held a decent amount of ink. The carrying roll it came with was made of cheap leather and was not a very good way to store this pen. The pen itself has a solid feel and a nice soft touch rubber coating. Pretty nice for $10 right? NO. This pen has one of the worst nibs i've tested and would not recommend it to anyone getting into the world of fountain pens. The nib is super scratchy and paper often gets stuck between the tines. It takes effort to get this nib to behave and for a inexperienced beginner it's probably not something they would now how to do. Even if you manage to get a good nib or fix it yourself you still have to deal with that nasty rubber coating that gets sticky and worn after a couple of month's use. There are plenty of cheap fountain pens out there that out perform this pen. The notebook is nice though!
Jacob_Tailor
6
Aug 14, 2017
STAY AWAY from the pen. It looks and feels very cheap. The clip is wobbly and didn't sit properly when it arrived, making part of the pen peel off. The snap cap is loose, but at least the pen stays closed. The converter doesn't sit firmly either, you can hear it move around and hit the inside of the pen if you move your pen quickly. Lastly, the nib. I got the broad nib, and it's very scratchy. Well I guess it's good if you want your creations to be experienced by blind people as well, because it leaves scratches in the paper that you can easily feel with your fingers. Funnily enough, writing with the nib upside down makes it feel way more smooth, so that should give you an idea how it feels like to write with this. I would definitely NOT recommend going for this drop.
guzmanistan
21
Nov 5, 2017
Jacob_TailorCAME HERE TO SAY THIS!!
Saw the pen and had to zoom in to make sure - but I bought this same exact pen (under a different brand) - the nib is awfully scratchy...like I ripped paper writing accidentally. This is an awful experience to introduce someone into writing with fountain pens. Just get a Lamy to start and you'll never look back.
Saw the pen and had to zoom in to make sure - but I bought this same exact pen (under a different brand) - the nib is awfully scratchy...like I ripped paper writing accidentally. This is an awful experience to introduce someone into writing with fountain pens. Just get a Lamy to start and you'll never look back.
KAPS1M0
378
Sep 24, 2015
This seems to be quite the odd bundle indeed. I haven't handled the pen but here are my thoughts:
The notebook is excellent, as expected from Rhodia. Nothing more to say there.
The converter seems solid, but it doesn't look like coming from a respectable maker (say Schmidt). And the cartridges are always useful and convenient to have because they are refillable using a syringe. The wrap could be useful too, even though it probably is cheap.
The pen though, that is really strange. It looks cheap, especially the clip. And I can understand by looking at the writing samples that the nib is no good either. The Fine writes like a Medium and none of the 3 nibs writes a nice and clean line.
And I'm thinking that at least the body has a nice design size-wise and should feel great at hand. Nice grip diameter and the coating should make it even more comfortable. But @Hueston says otherwise, so that thought goes down the drain, too.
What does this all mean? That this drop could be nice for someone who already has fountain-pen experience. Someone who wants a notebook, a pen wrap to try out, a converter and three (not a whole pack) cartridges for backup. And a cheap pen to test some nib-grinding on. Or other experiments that could damage a pen.
In my eyes, that is a small target-market.
The notebook is excellent, as expected from Rhodia. Nothing more to say there.
The converter seems solid, but it doesn't look like coming from a respectable maker (say Schmidt). And the cartridges are always useful and convenient to have because they are refillable using a syringe. The wrap could be useful too, even though it probably is cheap.
The pen though, that is really strange. It looks cheap, especially the clip. And I can understand by looking at the writing samples that the nib is no good either. The Fine writes like a Medium and none of the 3 nibs writes a nice and clean line.
And I'm thinking that at least the body has a nice design size-wise and should feel great at hand. Nice grip diameter and the coating should make it even more comfortable. But @Hueston says otherwise, so that thought goes down the drain, too.
What does this all mean? That this drop could be nice for someone who already has fountain-pen experience. Someone who wants a notebook, a pen wrap to try out, a converter and three (not a whole pack) cartridges for backup. And a cheap pen to test some nib-grinding on. Or other experiments that could damage a pen.
In my eyes, that is a small target-market.
Jordie
13
May 21, 2017
Please give us the shipping cost up front, instead of it being a surprise! Information we need for an informed choice.
thanks
boop
5
Sep 24, 2015
Not so crazy about the pen, but I love the notebooks! I noticed these are available UNLINED which is nice because I've only seen these Rhodiarama webbies with lines. I wish the drop would be for the notebooks alone!
KAPS1M0
378
Sep 25, 2015
boopThere've been quite a few drops of the Webnotebooks. Go to their pages and hit the request button!
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/rhodia-webnotebook https://www.massdrop.com/buy/rhodia-notebooks
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/rhodia-webnotebook https://www.massdrop.com/buy/rhodia-notebooks
Molizmo
1
Apr 15, 2016
Ive just received my shipment. A little surprised to find that the notebook has lines - which in a Pen and Ink sketch bundle I would expect plain paper. I will make use of the notebook but it is not what I wanted
peterdraws
0
Dec 4, 2016
MolizmoInteresting. Thanks for this; I would be in if the book was unlined, or if there was a way to get an unlined one.
evebb
2
Mar 18, 2016
The books look amazing! I also wish there was a drop that featured only the books, with the color choices, and blank paper option. (Same as this, no pen, and possibly bundle of 2-3 books? Same size too?) They are so hard to find!
edit: This bundle would be awesome with a Pilot Kakuno! They are colorful, smooth, can be used for sketching and writing, and about the same price as the Art Alternative pen. In my experience, they are the comfiest FP I own.
edit: This bundle would be awesome with a Pilot Kakuno! They are colorful, smooth, can be used for sketching and writing, and about the same price as the Art Alternative pen. In my experience, they are the comfiest FP I own.
FONE
22
Mar 16, 2016
So glad for these discussions sessions. Saw the pen and thought that maybe it would be interesting to try to grip, but going to stay away after the feedback.
Did a request on the A5 Rhodia bundle, though. Been wanting to try these notebooks!
Did a request on the A5 Rhodia bundle, though. Been wanting to try these notebooks!
BlueberryBear
27
Sep 28, 2015
I bought 2 of those pens, the fine and broad ones, on Amazon at some point, thinking "Eh, cheap fountain pens! Maybe they'll be good everyday pens!". They both came with a pretty cheap feeling wrap (both of my wraps were different, one very soft and suede-ish in feel, which was actually kinda nice, but didn't look like it could handle being carried around all the time; the other like thick faux-leather with threads sticking out of the side of the fabric...), and a bunch of cartridges, although the ink in them wasn't any good...
The pens themselves looked okay, especially for the price I paid for them. The matte rubber-ish coat on them actually felt nice, but it was already starting to come off when I got the pens, near the base mostly, and that only got worse when I started using them. The fine pen wrote out of the box, and although the line was a little wide for a "fine" pen, it was pretty good, and actually pretty smooth. The broad nib, however, didn't write at all... I took me a couple of hours of playing with it to actually get the thing to work, and even then, it often has hard starts and skips. When it worked though, it was amazingly smooth.
So yeah, I wouldn't recommend getting those pens, unless you know what you're getting into. Maybe you'll get a really good one, maybe not. I haven't tried the webnotebooks yet, but they seem really nice. I'd suggest buying the notebook alone, and maybe getting something like a Platinum Preppy, or a Pilot Metropolitan or Kaküno, if you're looking for an everyday pen that won't ruin your wallet and that will actually work. (Although, at the lowest price point, this drop is pretty much like buying a webnotebook at full price, and you get the pen for free-ish, which isn't too bad either.)
The pens themselves looked okay, especially for the price I paid for them. The matte rubber-ish coat on them actually felt nice, but it was already starting to come off when I got the pens, near the base mostly, and that only got worse when I started using them. The fine pen wrote out of the box, and although the line was a little wide for a "fine" pen, it was pretty good, and actually pretty smooth. The broad nib, however, didn't write at all... I took me a couple of hours of playing with it to actually get the thing to work, and even then, it often has hard starts and skips. When it worked though, it was amazingly smooth.
So yeah, I wouldn't recommend getting those pens, unless you know what you're getting into. Maybe you'll get a really good one, maybe not. I haven't tried the webnotebooks yet, but they seem really nice. I'd suggest buying the notebook alone, and maybe getting something like a Platinum Preppy, or a Pilot Metropolitan or Kaküno, if you're looking for an everyday pen that won't ruin your wallet and that will actually work. (Although, at the lowest price point, this drop is pretty much like buying a webnotebook at full price, and you get the pen for free-ish, which isn't too bad either.)
ChingerAle
1
Sep 26, 2015
I bought one of these pens for my very first fountain pen and it never worked properly. It was and is completely useless don't look for this to be a very good every day pen.
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