Ooly Splendid Fountain Pen

[Bookman]

INTRODUCTION

 

I bought my first Ooly Splendid fountain pen a couple of months ago at BookWorks in Pacific Grove, California. I had never heard of the brand before. Besides, I was there to drink a latte and shop for books; I wasn’t expecting to find any pens. Through its see-through-plastic packaging it looked like a decent little semi-disposable pen. So I bought one. The price was $8. It was my first made-in-China fountain pen. I have not seen Ooly pens at any other brick-and-mortar. They are obviously mass-produced, and so if not right away they eventually should become available somewhere besides BookWorks in Pacific Grove, California, and online at Ooly.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

 

 

The Splendid pen was neatly and securely packaged. I thought the cartridge-installation instructions on the outside were a nice touch yet at the same time superfluous: even for a neophyte, the operation seemed self-explanatory and inevitable. As I walked from my car toward the Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey I opened the package and installed the cartridge without missing a step, stopped momentarily to jerk the pen downward over a trash can a few times until I saw ink fly, then continued my walk, and as I did I touched the nib to a sheet in my little Fabriano notebook, the ink was ready, and I scribbled and drew zig-zags with the smooth nib and even flow that rivalled the Pilot Petit1's. I clipped the pen to my shirt pocket and kept walking.

 

I was prepared not to like this pen because the sales clerk told me that every BookWorks employee who had tried it loved it and inspired them to start looking at other fountain pens.

 

 

 

 

APPEARANCE & DESIGN

 

 

 

 

The shape is a slightly curvy variation on the cigar pen. The clip bows out from the cap a distance of 3 mm before returning home, creating an interesting parabola to look at. To post, the cap slides on and doesn’t snap or lock into place. It does, however, slide on securely: it isn't going anywhere. To close, the cap does indeed snap into place and it takes a bit of extra oomph to get it closed. The resulting closure is reassuringly tight. The grip is cylindrical and rubber with tiny dimples. A combination of the shape, the size, and that dimpled rubber grip make this a comfortable pen to write with for long or short periods.

 

An inconvenient hole at the end of the barrel prevents the Splendid from being turned into an eyedropper.

 

 

 

 

CONSTRUCTION & QUALITY

 

This is a solidly built pen made from cheap plastic. There’s something about the tactile experience of the Splendid pen that is noticeably different from the Kakuno, Varsity, Preppy, and Petit1. Those pens all feel like training-wheel pens in their own ways and not quite authentic fountain pens, and this is apart from their cheap plastics and the feather weights. The equally cheap-plastic and featherweight Ooly Splendid feels like a fountain pen to me. That clip, however, suffers from the bowed design. It doesn’t grab its target as securely as it might’ve if the clip had been designed to be more flush to the cap.

 

 

 

 

WEIGHT & DIMENSIONS

 

Here are the all the semi-disposable pens I’ve mentioned. My kitchen scale is on the fritz, and so I don’t have the precise weight of the Splendid pen. It is noticeably lighter than the Preppy, roughly the same weight as the Kakuno, and slightly heavier than the Varsity.

 

 

 

 

 

Closed or open, the Splendid is the second longest of these pens. I find it more comfortable to post the cap, but it it is not uncomfortable unposted. Nevertheless, I believe small-ish to medium size hands might find the unposted Splendid more inviting.

 

 

 

 

 

NIB & PERFORMANCE

 

 

 

 

All three of my Splendids wrote straight out of the box, so to speak. All three nibs are smooth, clearly with perfect tine alignment. The ink-flow is generous but not overly so. The nib is denominated an F, but writes more like a Japanese M. The nib bears a resemblance to the Varsity’s.

 

 

 

 

A NOTE ABOUT COLOR

 

 

 

 

 

The Splendid comes in six colors: Black, Blue, Green, Pink, Purple, and Red. I have blue, purple, and red. The inks supposedly match their pen colors, but they’re not matchy-matchy. The red ink in the red Splendid is redder than the red Splendid. I like the red ink a lot. I wish it came in a bottle. I doubt Ooly makes its own inks, but I don't know who actually makes them The blue is turquoise blue. If you like turquoise, you’ll love this ink. And the purple isn’t purple, it’s maroon even though the color in my photo might not capture it accurately. Not that there’s anything wrong with maroon. Some of the nicest people are maroons.

 

 

 

FILLING SYSTEM

 

The Splendid is a cartridge-only pen. The cartridge is proprietary; the cylinder is clear hard plastic, but otherwise has a standard design with a nipple and it snaps into place like most cartridges.

 

 

 

COST & VALUE

 

I thought this pen was a decent, though not exceptional, value when I paid $8 for it. At $4.95 it’s exceptional. Of course you have to add shipping, but this is a wonderful cheapo pen.

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

I recommend the Ooly Splendid fountain pen. It is sufficiently different from the other semi-disposable pens that you owe it to yourself to add this to the bunch. Buy two or three. I like the red and the maroon (purple).

[Old_Inkyhand]

Thank you for this review! It seems to be a really interesting pen. I love the packaging - a cheap plastic pen in a cheap plastic sleeve, but hey, it is THE SPLENDID PEN! There is hope and pride in this label. It is so optimistic. Like a proud mother which believes that her child is the cutest and smartest kid in the world. I have a Kakuno and I am more than happy with it. I'd like to give this one a go.

[FOUR X FOUR]

Well if it makes it to Jacksonville, Florida I'll give it a shot. Lately I've been buying a lot of cheap pens to use with more saturated inks. By the way, I didn't mean cheap, as in cheap. I meant it as in, less expensive.

[jchch1950]

Are the cartridges available?

[bfoutch]

Cartridges (5 per pack) are available in many colors to match the pens. Ooly.com offers free shipping for $30 plus orders, so you can buy all six colors of the pen and get some refill cartridges and pay no shipping.

$4.95 for each pen

$1.95 for each 5-pack of cartridges.

[DonatOOLY]

Hello Bookman. My name is Don and I work at OOLY. Thank you very much for the review on our pens; we're very impressed with how honest and thorough it is. We'd like to know if would be interested in reviewing some of our other products. If so please email us at contact@ooly.com

 

Thanks again.

 

Don

[mitto]

Looks good. Thanks for the review.

Edited July 26, 2017 by mitto

[cattar]

I bought an Ooly on a day I found myself without a pen. It's $5 at new seasons, also at amazon. Comes with 2 cartridges. I usually have at least one loaner pen in my bag along with may pens.

 

The Ooly has a wick feed, like a Pilot Petit1.

So far I've run Ooly and Callifolio inks through the pen. I've rinsed between brand/color changes, and have not rinsed between the changes.

Rinsing the pen keeps the wick wet so it takes a couple days for the new ink to get down to the nib.

Not rinsing when changing between those inks brands/colors worked well.

(Use an art syringe or a pipette to refill cartridges from bottle inks.)

 

The nib seems about a .05. It's smooth and has a hint of spring to it. Not as stiff as Petit! or Preppy nibs.

 

The cap needs a distinct push to snap on or off. It seals well. The pen sat for a few weeks and wrote immediately when put to paper.

 

Plastic is softer than the ABS/polycarbonate of Petit1 or Preppy. The Ooly pen shows more scratches.

 

People I've loaned the pen to like it - it's comfortable to hold, looks good, writes well. It seems a good starter pen or travel pen.

Edited September 19, 2017 by cattar

[Bookman]

6 MONTHS LATER: ORIGINAL OOLY SPLENDID REVIEW REVISITED

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

I've been writing with my Ooly Splendid fountain pens for about six months, and I thought it was time to bump this thread and say whether my original observations and experiences, or my thoughts or feelings about the pens, had changed since then.

 

They haven't.

 

(I now have one Pilot Kakuno, two Pilot Petit1s, three Pilot Varsitys, three Platinum Preppys, and three Ooly Splendids. That's more disposable and semi-disposable fountain pens than I need—than anyone needs. But I'm keeping them anyway.)

 

 

 

APPEARANCE AND DESIGN

 

The cap still snaps closed and slides on to post securely. No change since day one. The clip still doesn't clip securely to a shirt pocket, but I get around that by toting the pens in my backpack when I take them away from home. The dimpled, rubber grip is still an appealing feature of this pen that makes it comfortable to write with for long periods.

 

The Ooly Splendid would be a better pen and a better value if that hole in the end of the barrel could be eliminated so that it could be used as an eyedropper.

 

 

 

CONSTRUCTION AND QUALITY

 

I generally don't let pens clack against each other or run around loose like teenagers on Saturday night, not even disposables and semi-disposables (pens, not teenagers). In six months they only picked up a few scratches or scuff marks. I recently used some Happich Simichrome Polishing Paste on them, and they look as good as new.

 

No disposable or semi-disposable fountain pen of mine gives me as much pleasure to write with as my least expensive "real" fountain pen, which happens to be a Pilot Metropolitan I bought for $6 at Staples. But I would rather write with one of my Ooly Splendids than any of my other semi-disposable pens.

 

 

 

NIB AND PERFORMANCE

 

The Ooly Splendids' nibs are as smooth as ever. The flow is just the way I like it, slightly wet.

 

This pen would benefit, however, from a choice of nib sizes similar to the Platinum Preppy's.

 

 

 

FILLING SYSTEM

 

I don't mind cartridges for semi-disposable pens. I don't use these pens nearly as often as I use my better pens. One cartridge fill/refill lasts quite a while.

 

 

 

COST AND VALUE

 

The last time I checked the Ooly website, the Splendid sold for $4.99, plus shipping. But with "real" fountain pens available at that price directly from China with free shipping, it's tough to argue you'd be better off buying an Ooly Splendid than a Jinhao x450 or a Baoer 388. But if you're in the market for a knock-around semi-disposable pen, I still recommend the Ooly Splendid.

Edited October 29, 2017 by Bookman

[mallymal1]

Nicely done Bookman...appreciate the update. Thank you.

[Bookman]

  On 10/29/2017 at 7:26 PM, MalcolmH said:

Nicely done Bookman...appreciate the update. Thank you.

 

You're welcome.

[Aquaria]

I have the pink and purple Splendids, and was happy with their performance.

 

Like many inexpensive Chinese pens, it uses the Parker/Lamy size converter, for those of you who don't want to refill the cartridges.

[jchch1950]

Thanks for your information.

[Bookman]

  On 7/27/2018 at 8:13 AM, jchch1950 said:

Thanks for your information.

 

You're welcome.

[adatse]

That Ooly Splendid looks very similar to the Monami Olika

 

https://www.jetpens.com/search?q=Monami+olika&v=2

[Bookman]

  On 8/7/2018 at 2:07 AM, letterByOwl said:

That Ooly Splendid looks very similar to the Monami Olika

 

https://www.jetpens.com/search?q=Monami+olika&v=2

 

More than very similar, the Ooly Splendid and Monami Olika are clearly the same pen. The shape, the packaging, the nib, the fiber wick "feed," the dimpled rubber grip, and the clip all say so. I'm not sure why, but I feel a little violated. Yet I'm glad JetPens sells the Ooly Olika. Or is it Monami Splendid? Good little pen.

[funkthumb]

I just picked one of these up at Chapters in Canada ( our version of Barnes and Noble ). Very surprised at how fantastic this little pen is! In Canada it was $8.50. The second cheapest pen I own but I would write with this over any of the other Chinese "cheap" pens I have. An eyedropper option would be nice, it would add more writing time and a little more weight to the pen. I'm also happy to see that in 6 months I will probably still like my newest acquisition! Btw, I took a few pictures before realizing that I should check for a review first - you beat me to it by almost a year! I hadn't ever heard of this brand before. Good review, thanks.

[Ghost Plane]

  On 8/19/2018 at 12:03 PM, funkthumb said:

I just picked one of these up at Chapters in Canada ( our version of Barnes and Noble ). Very surprised at how fantastic this little pen is! In Canada it was $8.50. The second cheapest pen I own but I would write with this over any of the other Chinese "cheap" pens I have. An eyedropper option would be nice, it would add more writing time and a little more weight to the pen. I'm also happy to see that in 6 months I will probably still like my newest acquisition! Btw, I took a few pictures before realizing that I should check for a review first - you beat me to it by almost a year! I hadn't ever heard of this brand before. Good review, thanks.

Welcome to the board.

[goodpens]

I believe the cartridges for this are proprietary. Does anyine know if there is a suitable convertor?

[minddance]

Yes they are really quite smooth and nibs well-rounded. Not the easiest pens to wash and dry thoroughly?