Just before I left for the San Fransisco Pen Show, I was browsing through new pen products on various retailer sites (yes, I know I was about to go to a pen show, but I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t miss anything new). I came across Yookers pens on Pen Chalet’s site.
Besides having a name that forces you to smile each time you say it, the pens were fascinating. Felt-tipped pens that used fountain pen ink. Obviously I needed to find this pen at the show and I did at Yafa’s large table.
I loved gel pens and felt-tipped pens all through my childhood and I was constantly searching for more colors. There were never colors enough to satisfy me. But this pen can do all of the colors!
The Yookers felt-tipped pens are available in a surprisingly large number of choices and combinations: plastic or metal, various colors, patterns, and four different tip sizes. Here are the two that I picked up. On the right is the plastic Yookers Yooth pen (MSRP $12, $9.60 at Pen Chalet) which is also available in blue and white. The left pen is a Yookers Metis (MSRP $53, $42.40 at Pen Chalet) also available in Grey Brushed Lacquer and Black Grid on silver.
Each pen style is offered with any of the four tip widths: 0.8mm, 1.0mm, 1.2mm, or 1.4mm. Replacement tips are available – $8 for plastic pens and $17 for metal pens (MSRP). They are expensive relative to the pen because the replacement tips consist of the entire section. You can’t just pull out the tip and replace.
The plastic pen is approximately the size and dimensions of a Lamy Safari while the metal pen is smaller. Both versions post nicely and feel good posted or unposted. Metal pens have screw caps while the plastic pens’ caps pull to open. Metal pens include a converter while plastic bodied pens include a cartridge.
So how do these pens write?
Very well! I filled a converter with ink for each, installed the converter in the pen, and before I finished closing the ink bottle, the tips were saturated and ready to go. Neither pen ever skipped or ran dry although occasionally the ink would start to look slightly lighter. If I gave the pen a slight shake, the color returned to normal – I’m not sure if this was because I was writing quickly or if I had started writing as soon as I inked them.
So what happens if you want to change colors? If you ink up with black ink, does that lock you in for the life of the pen (or at least that tip)? I had inked the larger 1.4mm tip size with Aurora Black, thinking that would be a fair ink to test the ease of cleaning. Above is the inked tip. Below is the tip after rinsing under running water for 1 minute.
Rinsing brought the pen back to completely clean! Writing with it after the cleaning process showed that no ink was left in the tip – only water. I would recommend letting the tip dry after rinsing before using the next ink – otherwise, you will have a watered-down version for a while.
- Paper: Nanami Seven Seas Writer ($26)
- Pen: Yookers Yooth ($9.60) and Yookers Mentis ($49.40)
Disclaimer: Some of the items in this review were provided for free for the purpose of this review. Other items in this review were purchased by me. For more information, visit our About page.
Have you tried any of the fountain pen inks with glitter, like Emerald of Chivor, in these pens yet, by any chance?
@Amy they’re felt tips. I don’t think glitter will pass through that. In fact I think you will clog them with glitter ink and ruin them.
I like the idea of this, but I have a question. With the 1.4 tip, did it ever even out, begin to write with a constant, even line? I would love a pen like this to use with my fountain pen inks if it works really well.
Ordered. Thanks for the review.
A converter fits the Yooth Pen? And which converter? Would love this pen for work use.