Zebra V-301 Fountain Pen Review

Above: Writers love them, but you can draw with fountain pens, too. Just airships though.

Every once in a while I purchase up a fountain pen just to see if my mind can be changed. I’m not a huge fan of fountain pens in general, but since the V-301 is marketed as a companion to the F-301 ballpoint and the M-301 mechanical pencil, and those are fun, cheap writing implements, I thought I would give it a try.

Verdict: This is also a fun, cheap pen. If you really like the 301 line, it’s worth a try. But it’s not a great pen, either.

If you like fountain pens, the price is low enough that the V-301 worth checking out. Here are my accompanying warnings:

The ink took a while to start flowing. As in, a few minutes. Make sure you push the ink cartridge in all the way, then be patient while you try some practice strokes on paper.
If you are using cheap paper, this ink will probably bleed through. I switched from my cheap test paper to a Mnemosyne notebook and got terrific results.
Don’t expect to be able to pick this pen up and immediately write with it. After letting it sit overnight (cap on, of course), I had to write the equivalent of about 4-5 letters before ink was flowing.

Of all the fountain pens I’ve tried, this one writes most like a non-fountain pen. It doesn’t make your writing look like something from an old manuscript, and the tip is just within the boundaries of what I would call “fine point.” Many of the off-the-shelf fountain pens you’ll find in stores put down a considerably thicker line.

I prefer this pen over the Pilot G-2, but it’s not nearly as good as the Uni 207.

While drawing, I noticed that the V-301 was not as forgiving of different angles as typical pens are. If you are a writer, this probably won’t be a problem. If you like to sketch, it might be a tiny bit annoying but in my experience it’s easy to remember.

I also noticed that when you post the cap (stick it on the non-writing end of the pen) it rolls around the pen axis freely. That is a pretty weird sensation, but I almost never post my caps, so it didn’t bother me. Cap sits on the paper? Fine. Cap held in opposite hand? Wonderful!

Thus ends this review.