Currently Inked January 2025: Four Fountain Pens and Inks Worth a Look

Introduction

This month’s currently inked lineup covers four pens that have each had several weeks of real writing time, so these are follow-up impressions rather than first-look takes. Everything here was tested on Tomoe River 68 gsm paper, the go-to surface for showing off shading and sheen. The spread turned out to be a good mix: one pairing that worked flawlessly from the first fill, two that needed some tuning to reach their potential, and one machined pen with great looks but real reliability headaches.

Ensso Bolt Brass

The Ensso Bolt is a machined retractable fountain pen that uses a bolt action instead of a click mechanism. The first production run was titanium; this second batch switches to brass, and the look and feel of the metal is genuinely appealing. The build quality is impressive, and the extra fine steel nib, which is roughly a western extra fine, writes wet with an architect-style feel similar to a Vanishing Point nib.

Two problems stand out, though. The silicone gasket that seals the nib when retracted tore on the first unit, requiring a replacement (three gaskets come in total, one installed plus two spares). Worse, even with a fresh seal, the nib dries out after a couple of hours retracted. Testing it with Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black, one of the most reliable everyday inks available, confirmed the issue is the pen, not the ink. A sheening ink like Diamine Majestic Blue made it worse, gumming up the wet nib.

There is a workaround: cycling the bolt action a few times primes the feed and gets ink flowing again, but it adds friction to a pen meant for daily carry. The conical nib also rotates on its friction fit over the feed and drifts out of alignment. Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black itself is a well-behaved, no-nonsense utility black, and Diamine Majestic Blue remains a gorgeous, richly sheening blue worth a spot on any shelf.

Faber-Castell e-motion Dark Brown Pearwood

This was the easy winner of the month. The e-motion in dark brown pearwood is an all-metal pen with wood accents and an extra fine steel nib, and since the very first fill it has worked without any fiddling. No alignment fixes, no flow adjustments, nothing. That consistency alone sets it apart in this lineup.

The ink pairing is Colorverse Ginkgo Tree, a heavily shading orange-yellow brown that shades even through a wet extra fine nib. It came as part of a set with a 65 ml bottle and a smaller 15 ml companion called Golden Leaves. Brown ink fans will appreciate how this one performs; it competes closely with Diamine Tobacco Sunburst as a favorite brown for shading, color, and everyday usability.

The polished metal sections do attract fingerprints, which is the only real complaint. Beyond that, this is the combination that shows what a well-sorted pen and ink matchup can be: great weight, reliable flow, and a distinctive shade on the page.

Narwhal Horizon Polar Knights

The Narwhal Horizon Polar Knights is a well-built pen with real heft, thanks partly to what appears to be a largely metal piston mechanism. The cool-tone primary manipulation resin is beautiful, the ink window is generous, and the rose gold trim and rose gold plated fine steel nib look excellent.

The nib, however, arrived with baby’s bottom: an over-polished tipping shape where the two tines curve inward, so ink struggles to touch paper and strokes skip, especially on downstrokes. It was hard to detect right after inking because a saturated feed masks the symptom, but in longer writing sessions the hard starts showed up nearly every other line.

The fix is straightforward. Light horizontal passes on micromesh, with no pressure, gradually flatten the tipping until the tines meet the paper cleanly. After tuning, the nib writes wide, wet, and closer to a medium than a fine. The ink here is Ferris Wheel Press Magical Metropolis, a limited edition collaboration with a Ginza bookstore. It is a very saturated dark purple with striking gold sheen, closer to a LAMY Dark Lilac style than the green-sheened purples. It is thick and viscous, writes almost black when wet, and performs best in a drier pen. It is getting hard to find, but the brand’s EU shop has had it at the original price, which beats the inflated reseller listings.

TWSBI Eco Indigo Bronze

The TWSBI Eco in Indigo Bronze was a gift, and the bronze plated trim genuinely classes up the standard Eco formula. This one carries an extra fine steel nib, a true western extra fine rather than a Japanese-style fine, which is a welcome change from the 1.1 stub on the household’s other Eco.

Out of the box it had the familiar Eco traits: dry writing, slight scratchiness, and a tine misalignment. A short tuning session, aligning the tines, a touch of smoothing, and opening up the flow, transformed it. Tuned, it is a genuinely excellent writer and would have taken the month’s top pairing if the Faber-Castell had not been flawless from day one.

The ink is Endless Alchemy Molten Bronze, a medium brown with bronze character and light shading, packaged in a distinctive science-lab style 45 ml bottle with a small nub on the bottom. The nub comes with a holder so it can sit at a whimsical angle on the desk, and the bottle leans conveniently to help fill larger pens. It has been great for letters and journaling, and the bronze-on-bronze color story works beautifully.

Buying Advice

If you want zero-fuss reliability, the Faber-Castell e-motion pairing is the safest bet in this group. The TWSBI Eco Indigo Bronze offers excellent value if you are comfortable spending a few minutes tuning a dry nib. The Narwhal Horizon rewards buyers willing to check or fix baby’s bottom, and delivers a striking resin pen afterward. The Ensso Bolt is the hardest to recommend for daily carry right now: beautiful and well-machined, but the sealing mechanism and friction-fit nib need refinement before it can replace a proven retractable daily driver.

Conclusion

A strong month overall. One pairing worked perfectly out of the box, two others reached excellent form after light tuning, and even the problem pen taught useful lessons about gasket seals and conical nibs. The Faber-Castell e-motion with Colorverse Ginkgo Tree takes the pairing of the month, with the tuned TWSBI Eco and Endless Alchemy Molten Bronze a close second.