The Well-Appointed Desk

Ana’s Review:

The Tom’s Studio Wren ($45) is a beautiful brushed aluminum pocket pen with a refillable Japanese-style fiber tip. The Wren comes in a variety of colors and contains a cotton fiber reservoir that can be filled from any bottle of fountain pen ink.

Above are images of the paperboard box packaging which include lots of helpful information about the pen and luckily is recyclable if you don’t keep your pen boxes.

Inside the box is a small bottle of ink and instructions for filling the pen.

There is a streamlined, ergonomic grip area on the barrel that tapers gently to the tip.

My first goal was to find an ink color that would best match or coordinate with the pen. I decided to go with a color a little bit darker than the pen since the fineliner tend to write lighter than when the ink is used in a fountain pen.

I chose Colorverse Able (No. 43) for the ink for the Sage Wren.

It took just a second or two for the ink to travel up the ink reservoir.

I stuck it back on to the nib end and it took a minute or so for the ink to use the capillary action to soak the nib tip.

 

In writing, the Able ink ended up looking MUCH lighter than I had hoped.

When you look at the swatch next to the writing you can see just how much lighter the ink appears in the Wren. So, if you decide to invest in the refillable Wren, plan on picking an ink color much darker than you want as it will appear lighter.

I decided to try to rinse the ink out of the cotton reservoir and refill it with a darker color. It was not difficult to rinse the ink out but I am not sure if I needed to let the reservoir dry overnight before refilling. But who has time for that?

So I refilled the pen with a darker more saturated ink: Colorverse Pillars of Creation (No. 88). It seemed like a good complimentary color to the light sage color of the pen barrel.

It took awhile to work out the green ink from the tip but eventually, with some scribbling I was able to get it to write.

The Wren did not show any sheening from either of the ink colors.

I did decide to compare the Wren to the more budget-firendly Kuretake Karappo Felt Tip pens (there’s another review of the Karappo here too..

The nib tip on the Karappo is a little bit wider than the Wren but they are quite similar. They both use the same capillary filling reservoir and the ink flowed with a similar color and coverage. The Karappo is sold in a set of 5 for about $15. Aesthetically, the Wren is much prettier but beyond that the two pens are quite similar.

Overall, I really wanted to love the Wren. Its pretty, pocketable and a clever idea but the ability to swap ink colors is pretty limited (it would probably be better to purchase new reservoirs than trying to reuse the old ones and it would probably also be more efficient to replace the nib tip as well.

I think the Wren is better suited to be used with one ink color like black, blue or blue-black rather than trying to get all fancy with it, especially at the price point. I would definitely be inclined to swap out the ink with a Platinum Carbon Ink so that I could use it with mixed media.

Now, its Laura turn!

So without knowing the Ana was going to come home with pens from Tom’s Studio, I decided to try out the Wren as well! I haven’t tried the Kuretake, but I did previously review the Meister Felt Tip Point, which was a roughly full size pen adaptable for cartridge or converter. I’m always a fan of pens that allow me to use up my ink stash (mostly likely stocked up beyond my life expectancy!)

I think I liked the Wren a little bit more than Ana did. Or maybe I just liked the concept a lot? I found the pen easy to use, and I loaded it up with Colorverse Photon ink. I did expect it would be a bit lighter than when I use it in fountain pens, but it still gave me enough color to be satisfied. I did notice that there’s no shading in the writing though.

I do think the pen writes nicely. The ink flows consistently and I do like the tip and how it feels on the page. I agree with Ana that it’s probably not the most convenient for changing out inks frequently. I did order more of the spare ink reservoirs, and I’m not too fussed about the changing color in the tip. I’m interested to see how long the tip lasts – Tom’s Studio suggested it’s about the length of writing up to 50 A4 pages.

I do like the pen, and I think I’ll get a lot of use out of it. But I do think the Wren has a few potential detractors. One – it is tiny. I don’t think there’s any way to use this pen comfortably without posting it. I have small hands and it’s “right-sized” for me, but I think those with larger hands might find it uncomfortable. Also related to size – that bit on the end of the barrel where you pull the pen apart. That section is really small and hard to grip, particularly if you don’t have small fingers!

The second detractor is the price. Don’t get me wrong – I love the anodized aluminum body and I’m not arguing that the pen is priced incorrectly. However, for what it is – a small EDC type pen that will need to have the reservoir and tips replaced on a semi-regular basis, I think it might be a bit pricey compared to some of the other offerings in the marketplace.

Your mileage may vary! (as a note I purchased my Wren with my own funds directly from Tom’s Studio. Shipping was prompt, but took a few extra days from the UK).

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Dromgoole’s for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.