Kanwrite Desire- A Beautiful Entry Level Fountain Pen

[Samrat]

Hello everyone,

 

Today I'm going to review another piece of beauty from Kanwrite, the family stationary business house from Kanpur, UP, one of the front runner in furthering the cause for quality Indian fountain pens at affordable prices. Their latest offering is the Kanwrite Desire, a 3-in-1 filling system pen at less than 500 INR (less than $10).

 

My previous review of Kanwrite heritage, an affordable piston filler is here.

 

Mr. Sandip Awasthi, who presently runs the operations, is one business magnet who actually is very friendly towards his customer's opinions and feedback. The CAB material of Heritage was stirring up some mixed reviews and acceptance. So, the Indian fountain pen lovers from a few whatsapp groups, urged him to look for acrylic, ABS plastic and ebonite as material for his great offerings. The kanwrite nibs have already revolutionized Indian fountain pen scenario by virtue of their consistency and tip variety, and I felt his pen designs have great potential as well. So he has presented us with molded acrylic design for the first time in Kanwrite Desire and soon we expect him to offer this material across all his models.

 

Just a bit about CAB and the molded acrylic material- CAB is "Cellulose acetate butyrate" , more softer, ink and environment friendly, durable, less prone to crack, but has funny smell and can attract scratches far easily. On the other hand, in Acrylic- polish and finish is better,there is no smell, surface colour finish is more symmetrical and it is far resistant to scratches.

 

1. Appearance & Design: The Desire is a classic cigar shaped pen, with slight tapering towards both top and bottom ends. Both the ends are rounded. It is a simple design with great feel in hand. The cap has a rounded dome shaped finial at the top, chrome coloured clip and two chrome rings of about 1 mm width separated by about 2 mm distance at the bottom end. There is minute gap between the finial and body of cap, accommodating the ring of the clip. The clip descents straight for about 12 mm from the junction of finial and cap body, then curves outward, ultimately curving back and touching the cap again. This design makes the clip sturdy and springy. I personally would have liked a straight clip. Kanwrite is written on the clip, though I didn't like the plain font. No other branding on body or cap. The polish on both the CAB version and the molded acrylic model is good, but as explained above, when compared side by side the acrylic one appears more attractive. The cap is a screw-on cap, takes about two and half turns to open. The section is 27 mm. long, smooth tapering towards the nib, with a #5.5 chrome nib attached to it. The cap threads don't bother during gripping the section, unless one grips pretty high up.

The pens come in a paper box, which reminds me of my school days. I would suggest Mr. Sandip to think of a bit better boxes as the pen itself is great for both students and professional users.

 

 

Kanwrite Desire- The brown swirl is CAB and Black one is molded acrylic, side by side the black appears more attractive

 

 

 

2. Construction & Quality: The construction is very good. These pens are available in both CAB and molded acrylic, both material appears sturdy. The polish is very good on both the models. Variety of colours are available, both single colours and attractive combination of swirls. The nib is very good quality screw-in kanwrite nib unit, which is reliable for giving out of the box good performance. As of now, this model is available with 'M' nibs by default, but all nib grades like F, B, BB, F flex, M flex, B flex, M stub, B stub etc are available as extra nib units with Mr. Sandip, at some extra cost . These nibs can be easily swapped with similar sized Kanwrite or other nibs, though I haven't given it a try. There is some simple design engraved on the nib along with the word 'Kanwrite' and a logo, which again may be improved further. As such the nib looks great. The trim quality is very good and extensive use with sweaty hands haven't induced discolouration or rusting in my Kanwrite pens. Kanwrite seem to have solved the problem of good trims in Indian pens to a great extent. I wish them all the best in achieving further improvements in their designs and material. For a sub 500 rs. pen, this pen exudes great quality.

All threads works perfectly, without any tightness or loosening.

 

 

 

The caps, look for the curved clip design and end rings

 

 

 

3. Filling System & Maintenance: This is a 3-in-1 pen, one can use the converter, international cartridges or use it as simple eye-dropper. The converter supplied with the pen is a piston converter,similar to the ones coming with Jinhao pens. It is a bit of disappointment by its appearance, though works fine and when we consider the unit price, its the only possible way. The is no leakage or difficulty while using the plunger. There is even a small spring inside the converter to break surface tension of ink. As an eyedropper, I didn't encounter any leakage in my two pens. The nib and feed can easily be pulled out. Cleaning this pen is very easy.

 

 

Filling syatem

 

4. Weight & Dimensions:

The dimensions are as follows

 

Length capped: 140 mm.

Length uncapped: 128 mm

Length without nib : 110 mm

nib length: 18 mm.

cap length : 67 mm

Length posted: 160 mm

Section diameter : 10 mm-8.5 mm gentle tapering

Weight: 20 gram un-inked

 

This is very lightweight pen. Balance is good both posted and without posting.

 

 

Comparison with lamy Safari, capped

 

 

Comparison with lamy safari, posted

 

5. Nib & Performance: Kanwrite nibs are very good performer. The tipping is very good and most of the time they perform well & smooth out of the box. On the few instances when meshwork was needed, only minute adjustments produced excellent performance. I have never encountered flow related issues in kanwrite nib-feed combo. They are wet writers, but the flow is superbly regulated. Its not an overstatement to say that one can buy Kanwrite pens just for their nibs. Most kanwrite nibs have a bit of feedback, which is again their specialty. If you have used their nibs for sometime, you can actually detect their characteristics even with closed eyes, just from the tactile sensations.

 

 

 

 

6. Cost & Value: This pen cost rs 350 (about $5), but if you are looking for the same flashiness of a $5 Chinese pen, you'll be disappointed. This is a simple quality product that will last long, give you great performance with extensive rough usage and a reliability in nib performance unmatched by most makers.

 

7. Conclusion: The Desire is an entry level pen with great potential and performance. The design is simple but elegant, the looks are attractive, the nib is standard kanwrite quality. Its not some flashy cheap pen only for the students, It is quality product at an affordable price. This pen has the potential to entice all fountain pen lovers with its simplicity and VFM nature. Its very much 'Desirable'.

 

 

 

What I expect: This same design would be executed with better materials like premium acrylics, premium ebonite rods etc. The price may go up according to the material, but there is potential in this model to do better.

 

One thing about Kanwrite ethics: It is one of the most reputed companies when it comes to business ethics. They never market the products they manufacture for Noodlers or other companies as OEM makers, not even as personal gifts to friends. Even if there is no such agreement preventing them from such sales among friend circles, by virtue of ethics, they don't. They don't increase price just because a product is selling well in the market.

 

Disclaimer: I bought both the pens as I liked them, and even paid for the shipping amount twice, as the acrylic version came out a few weeks after the CAB version. I review Indian pens out of my weakness for these, and I don't get any favor whatsoever for reviewing these. My taste may not be similar to other members, and some may not concur with my views. Everyone is welcome to give genuine feedback about their own experiences with these pens.

 

Contacts: Whatsapp no Rohit Chaurasia +91 7309034825

Amazon link: Kanwrite

Website (no purchase link) : Kanwrite

 

Edited October 23, 2016 by Samrat

[Sanjay13leo]

Amazing pictures

Honest review

Great job

Looking forward to view more and more reviews

Keen em coming

[visvamitra]

Thank you for exhaustive review. I believe it's much more interesting than the pen you review

[Samrat]

  On 10/23/2016 at 3:00 PM, Sanjay13leo said:

Amazing pictures

Honest review

Great job

Looking forward to view more and more reviews

Keen em coming

Thanks a lot...

[Samrat]

  On 10/23/2016 at 3:21 PM, visvamitra said:

Thank you for exhaustive review. I believe it's much more interesting than the pen you review

Thanks...

I welcome your taste in fountain pens...though I would love to hear what is an 'interesting' pen for you? Then I'll review them as well if they are affordable enough for me....

[Tas]

A wonderful review of what looks lie a Pilot 78G and Noodler's Ahab lovechild.

 

Had I been starting my fountain journey I would definitely have bought a couple of these to play with.

 

[Tanmay Awasthi]

Brilliant review. Making notes of the improvement required. Hopefully our relationship will continue. Again a very informative and great review Sir.

[Benpiggy]

Thank you for the detailed review.

 

I wonder if one can purchase pens / nibs out India?

 

Regards, ben

[Tanmay Awasthi]

  On 10/23/2016 at 6:59 PM, Benpiggy said:

Thank you for the detailed review.

 

I wonder if one can purchase pens / nibs out India?

 

Regards, ben

[Tanmay Awasthi]

Yes Sir we can ship outside India too. Please mail us your query at kanpurwriters@gmail.com we'll revert on it.

Edited October 23, 2016 by Tanmay Awasthi

[Sagarb]

Superb review Samrat...amazing photography. But I think the converter used in Desire is a slide converter, not piston. We can find this kind of converters mostly in Indian FPs like Camlin, Montex, Pierre- Cardin etc.

Edited October 24, 2016 by Sagarb

[Simulacrum]

Is there a website to purchase these from ? Has anyone used one of these with a BB nib? How does the BB nib compare with a TWSBI Broad nib for example ?

 

Nice review!

[Benpiggy]

I contact the gmail address and the gentleman was very helpful, e-mail a list of price etc. They have more variety of pens and nibs (even 14K nib) than shown in the website.

 

Hopefully they will in the future include everything in the website.

 

I brought a combination of BB, B, Bstub and flex to play with (#6 nib).

 

For the DESIRE, it takes #5 nibs.

 

For the BB nib (#6), it is a bit thinner than the Sheaffer Prelude B, slightly wider than the JOWO B still nib, much thinner than the Sheaffer 18K B nib or the Pilot C nib - so do not expect a paintbrush.

 

Hope this is of help

[Sasha Royale]

$7.44 for my CLICK neo-Tulip fountain pen has proven to be excellent value.

[MontPelikan]

Hello,

 

a little video review of this pen could be found here:

 

 

Thank you for watching!

 

MontPelikan

[KellyMcJ]

Those are really gorgeous pens!

[Debarun]

  On 2/16/2017 at 5:14 PM, Benpiggy said:

 

 

For the DESIRE, it takes #5 nibs.

 

 

One Kanwrite 35 mm fine nib unit is perfectly fitted in my Desire. Is it #5 or #6 according to the western scale?

Edited October 12, 2017 by Debarun

[Debarun]

This pen particularly the nib unit is really really good. It actually provides smooth, hassle-free wet writing.

The grip section design has changed now which actually gives me better comfort.

I am very much with the author for this pen. I do not know why this pen did not receive that much acclamation that it deserve.

Now the Indian price is INR 550 + 18% GST, excluding postal charges.

[writerstephen]

Excellent review. I however, viewed your pictures with some surprise, as I actually own a variant of this pen--the color is green, but it is undoubtedly the same pen. Much to my chagrin, I didn't pay $5 or $10 for it; I paid close to $60--the pen was marketed as an "Esterbrook Circa 1937" exclusive to Fahrney Pens (fahrneypens.com). I thought it looked quite attractive, and I was only mildly disappointed with it when it arrived. The clip was chintzy and I ended up removing it. I used a different converter than the one supplied because I couldn't smoothly slide the piston up and down when filling. But I love the smooth nib and I thought the finish was quite attractive.

 

I am quite annoyed that these American retailers are reviving defunct brands, buying Indian or Chinese pens for pennies on the dollar, and charging customers 500% or more markups. Seems to be happening more and more (See the Stipula Splash).

 

[hariharan]

I cant agree more with Samrat on the pen, Kanwrite nib and the owner's ethics.

 

My first interaction with Kanpur writers was when i met them in a pelikan hub. He changed the scratchy nibs of my ratnam ebonite pens and the nibs were amazing. I immediately ordered few low end pens, in the range Rs.80 to Rs.200. All of them were exceptionally good for the price i paid.

 

Desire was introduced around that time and i went for the black with a B nib. i thoroughly enjoyed it. I had paid Rs.350 then, and the pen made every pennny worth ,whether its the finish, size, balance, flow, writing performance...wow. i can never stop admiring.

 

Recently when i went through the pics, i was so attracted with their royal blue and bought one. The price , as someone mentioned is increased, but its worth more.

 

The blue reminds me of the Platinum 3776 Chartres blue (though the design is distinctly different)