Sheaffer 300, M-Nib, Glossy Blue

[tsdesai]

It is the first, expensive fountain pen I bought for my birthday in 2017. I have been using it almost daily since then. I have bought other pens after this, frankly speaking, by whims. Many turned out to be great and others, not so much. Here is the review of the Sheaffer 300.

 

Design:

The pen is made of metal barrel and cap with a plastic section. The blue colour of the pen gives it a very elegant look while the chrome trim complements it well in my opinion. It is a snap capped pen which closes very securely. The clip of the cap is quite springy and could be easily clipped to jeans' pocket. Due to its heavy weight, it may not be practical to carry it in shirt pocket, but I have not yet tried it because I use t-shirts without pocket for work. It can be posted (it has a snap-cap mechanism for posting too) but becomes very back heavy. People with large hands might not feel the imbalance but I do. Without posting, however, it is very balanced. The section, as commented by the Nibsmith, feels like it is made up of cheap plastic but for me it provides good grip. There is slight stepdown from barrel to section which doesn't feel bad. The nib has nice scroll work on it with the branding and indication of the nib size. It has a cartridge convertor filling system. The converter is very well made and fits snugly into the section.

 

Performance:

The nib is smooth and stiff and moderately wet. In my short experience, I tend to do like stiffer nibs more. The feed provides nice ink supply without any skipping while writing. The pen writes under its own weight which is how a fountain pen should be able to write I suppose. The cap provides good seal. I have kept the pen unused for a week when for a vacation and it wrote without any skips.

I have so far used Waterman Mysterious blue, Noodlers black and Diamine Misty blue ink in it, all of which performed well. The one week gap was when it was filled with Noodlers.

 

I think this can be a good candidate for a first fountain pen for people who plan to upgrade. It could also be a daily carry if one works on a desk and likes heavy pens. In similar price range, it is certainly better than the Lamy Safari which is awesome for carrying around but feels like writing with a plastic nib. May be I got a bad piece of Safari. I can't say about other pens in this price range because I do not have any.

 

I also had tested a few of my pens for long writing sessions by writing two pages of a long notebook in one sitting. The Sheaffer 300 wrote very consistently while Safari dried out after 1.5 pages. The tests were done with Waterman Mysterious blue.

 

Being a snap-capped pen, I do not know how durable the capping system is. May be people who have used the pen for long time can tell. I have been using this pen since one year and it is in very good condition.

 

Images:

The qoute, written with Waterman Mysterious blue

 

Oh, the typo !!! * It really is ...

 

 

 

Size comparion: Lamy 2000, Sheaffer 300, Platinum 3776.

 

Edited January 6, 2019 by tsdesai

[Dr. Saleem Ali]

Congrats .Nice pen .But pens fall from jeans pocket so be careful.

[SoulSamurai]

I have a black Sheaffer 300 with a chrome-colour cap. It has the most pleasing weight and balance of any pen I own. The cap snaps in place in a surprisingly satisfying way. However, the nib is mediocre and the pen dries out too quickly, so unfortunately I don't use it.

[tsdesai]

Congrats .Nice pen .But pens fall from jeans pocket so be careful.

Yes they do. I keep them inside the backpack while commuting. Can't loose them.

[tsdesai]

I have a black Sheaffer 300 with a chrome-colour cap. It has the most pleasing weight and balance of any pen I own. The cap snaps in place in a surprisingly satisfying way. However, the nib is mediocre and the pen dries out too quickly, so unfortunately I don't use it.

Oh, this means my experience with this pen may not be consistent with all other pens of the model. I have two Sheaffer pens which are awesome.

[SoulSamurai]

Oh, this means my experience with this pen may not be consistent with all other pens of the model. I have two Sheaffer pens which are awesome.

 

Yeah, I think modern Sheaffer pens are not that consistent; I have a VFM that is great (writes smoothly and does not dry out) despite the nib slit being cut a little off-center, while the two 300s I bought (one was a gift) had a significant difference in nib performance.