Disclosure: This product was gifted to me by Scriveiner with no obligation to review. This post also contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. As always, my opinions are my own.
Today we’re looking at the new Daily Slimline fountain pen by Scriveiner. The company reached out to me asking if I’d like to try it, and, having liked their past offerings, I decided I’d like to give it a look.
First Look
I chose the pen in the Matte Black colorway, which is exactly as it sounds: the whole pen is simply decorated in a smooth matte black, and I have no regrets about choosing this one. The overall fit and finish look good.
Compared to Scriveiner’s other offerings, there’s not a lot of adornment on this pen. There’s a simple Scriveiner logo on the cap band and finial, and I think they look good. They’re well-defined, and I’ve always thought the Scriveiner logo was especially well suited for finial decoration. Again, not a lot, but what’s there is nice.
The clip, which has always been my favorite aesthetic trait of their other pens, is a lot simpler this time around, but it still follows their design ethos. I don’t like it quite as much as the others, but it flows well with the rest of the pen overall. Functionally, the clip feels firm, but it’s not hard to remove or clip to the pocket, and it holds well. As a bonus, it makes a very satisfying snap when unclipped. We like that here.
Above, we have the new Daily pen next to their other offerings (the Classic and EDC), as well as a pair of other common pocket pens suited for daily carry. Right away, you can see the new Daily pen isn’t all that much slimmer than their Classic pen (10.55mm vs 2mm at the barrel), and is actually slightly taller than the Classic. The weights are also similar (1oz vs 1.3oz), although in the hand the Daily pen feels just slightly more balanced when capped. Uncapped, both pens weigh .6oz and feel very similar in the hand.
The pen has a snap cap that secures well and, like the clip, makes a very satisfying light snap when the pen is closed.
Inside the pen, you’ll find the converter that isn’t the Schmidt K6 threaded converter found on their earlier models, but instead a threaded converter of Scriveiner’s own design. With that said, it’s functionally identical to a Schmidt K6 (with the same fitment) and appears to be well made regardless. There’s also an O-ring where the barrel connects to the grip section, and I like that a lot. It stops the barrel from unscrewing too easily, and that’s something I’d like to see more on metal pens.
The Writing Experience
The cap can be posted on the back of the pen, but I don’t feel that the hold is good enough for me to trust it completely. It also makes the pen feel very long in the hand. Personally, I think the pen is a good and comfortable length unposted.
Like the converter, the nib is also no longer the Schmidt #5 nib found on Scriveiner’s earlier pens. I reached out to Scriveiner to ask about the new nib, and they’ve claimed it is manufactured in China to their technical specifications. A minor shame because I liked the Schmidt nibs, but the new nib isn’t bad either. It’s reasonably smooth but noticeably stiffer than the Schmidt nibs. Whether you like that or not is going to be down to preference, but it feels miles better than many of the less expensive, soft metal and easily sprung Chinese nibs available. It’s a decent nib.
The writing experience is good. It’s not the smoothest nib and has a small degree of feedback, but I wouldn’t call it scratchy. As I mentioned earlier, the nib is also quite stiff, so it doesn’t respond a lot to extra pressure. When writing with the nib in reverse, you get a much finer line. It was very scratchy, but that’s not out of the ordinary for most pens.
The ink flow is good enough, and for the most part, it’s a comfortable writing experience, but it did get a little uncomfortable to write with after 2 pages. As someone with larger hands, I would attribute this to a combination of the slender size and balance, neither of which has ever been an issue with their Classic model.
The Verdict
When the Scrivener Daily Pen was offered to me, my first thought was along the lines of them already having a daily pen. What would be different? Once I got the pen in, my thoughts didn’t change a lot. It’s a little hard for it to compete with the pen they already had. It’s decent, but personally, I was still missing out on the Schmidt hardware from the Classic pen (mostly the nib). I spent the first few days with the pen trying to find a justification for its existence, and in the end, I came to one conclusion: if the pen ends up being around half the price of their Classic model, I can recommend it, because otherwise, there’s no reason not to go for the Classic model instead. Honestly, that’s a much nicer pen.
The good news is, it did end up coming out at just over half the price, and that makes it much more desirable as a low-cost, simpler, more modest pen. Having said that, I would love to try the rollerball or ballpoint, because those would let the great body of the pen shine more on its own merits, and I have a feeling they would tick a lot of the right boxes that would make it more competitive with the more expensive models and more appealing overall.
Links!
The Pen:
Scriveiner Daily Slimline Fountain Pen — Amazon
Featured in the Photography:
Waterman Intense Black — Endless Pens | Amazon
B6 Tomoe River lined notebook by Sterling Ink
Leather cover by Galen Leather
Pen holder by Fountain PENdulum
MVLXLX 12 pen case — Amazon
Current text: Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery — Amazon
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