Top Drawer Shop Colo Tino Review: A Brass Pocket Pen With Art Deco Character

Introduction

The Colo Tino from Top Drawer Shop is a pocket fountain pen with a clear point of view: industrial design language, precision machining, and a small batch production approach. Designed by Australian industrial designers Tino Valentinich and Michael Balovitz and precision machined in Austria and the Czech Republic, it is aimed squarely at people who like carrying a pen every day. The review unit is raw brass, but the pen is also available in aluminum and Italian resins if brass is not your thing.

Design and Build Quality

The Colo Tino is a 20th century art deco style design with a triangular faceted barrel, diagonal notches, and a rounded, torpedo-like finial on top. The flat facets give it a genuinely practical benefit: laid on a desk, it stays put and will not roll away, a small but appreciated quality in a clip-less pocket pen.

It is small, clearly meant to be carried. Next to a Pilot Metropolitan, it has about the same girth but is noticeably shorter. The brass version is heavy and solid, and the box includes a cartridge plus a snug canvas-type pen sleeve for pocket protection.

The finishing details impress. The facets have beveled edges rather than sharp corners, so even holding the pen higher up feels comfortable, and the step down to the section is not sharp. For a small-batch pen, the eye for detail is genuinely good. The section tapers down and is quite skinny, and the number five Schmidt nib sits at the end of it. The cap is a solid snap cap, and a small knurled turning knob at the barrel end serves no function except allowing the pen to post, which works quite comfortably.

What We Like

The design is the headline. The triangular profile with slightly rounded ends looks good and works well, and the flat facets mean the pen never rolls off a desk, which anyone who has watched an uncapped round pen hit the floor will appreciate.

The brass construction makes it heavy and solid, which is either a feature or a dealbreaker depending on your taste. Brass also develops scuffs and micro scratches over time, which many EDC fans consider part of the fun. One honest note: handling brass will leave your hands smelling faintly of metal, which some people dislike. If that is you, the acrylic versions sidestep it entirely.

It is also a complete package. You get a cartridge in the box and the pen sleeve, which keeps the finish protected if you prefer to keep things pristine, and makes accidental uncapping less likely.

Writing Performance

The Colo Tino uses a Schmidt number five medium steel nib and shipped with a black ink cartridge. As a writer, it is very pleasant: smooth, nicely tuned, and wet without being a gusher. The feed keeps up reliably, even during faster writing sessions, and it did not run dry during use.

There is little natural line variation, and this is not a flex nib, so squeezing out variation is risky and not recommended. Reverse writing produces a very fine line but runs dry quickly, so it is not really practical. Fast writing takes some adjustment because of the brass weight, and the section is skinny enough that many writers will prefer the pen posted, where it becomes genuinely comfortable.

Things to Consider Before Buying

The section is thin and there is a pronounced step down from the barrel. For larger hands, this pen almost certainly needs to be posted; once posted, it is comfortable, and you can even grip the barrel instead of the section. Smaller hands may get along fine unposted.

At an MSRP of $150 with an unbranded number five Schmidt nib, it sits on the expensive side, partly explained by small batch production. Many finishes are already sold out, so availability can be inconsistent.

Most importantly, the barrel is too short to fit a standard converter. If you want to use bottled ink, your realistic option is a compact converter sized like a short international cartridge. This is a cartridge-first pen, which fits its portable mission, but it is worth knowing before buying.

Buying Advice

If you love brass, EDC gear, or distinctive industrial design, the Colo Tino is easy to appreciate: it is well made, thoughtfully detailed, and a pleasant writer. If you have larger hands, prefer wide sections, write with bottled ink exclusively, or find $150 steep for a Schmidt nib, look carefully at the aluminum or acrylic variants and consider whether the pocket format suits you.

The cartridge-and-sleeve package makes it genuinely pocketable, and the faceted body means it survives desk life without rolling away. For the right buyer, it is a charming daily carry.

Conclusion

The Colo Tino is a fun, interesting pocket pen with real design pedigree and a nicely tuned nib. Its compromises, the short barrel, skinny section, and premium price, are the natural cost of its compact format and small batch build. For brass lovers and the EDC community, it is an easy recommendation.