As a brand, I am mostly familiar with Aurora's modern offerings, but as a company with nearly 100 years in existence, they have quite a reputation and back catalog to pull from. The Aurora Duo Cart is a prime example of that.
First manufactured in the 1950's, the Duo Cart was created as a response the the world-famous Parker 51 from a design perspective. It was also created to be more portable as one of the early cartridge based pens. And yes, it held two small cartridges in the barrel in a special holder, hence the name Duo Cart.
There is no need to carry two cartridges in the barrel these days, especially with the converter that ships with the pen. I filled mine with Pilot Blue Black ink, and got to writing.
The Duo Cart is only available with a medium steel nib, and it writes wonderfully. If this were my pen, I would be grinding it down to something much finer or stubbier, but it is as nice of a medium writer as I could hope for. The ink flow is true and it is dead smooth out of the box.
I especially love the style of the Duo Cart. Aside from the flat ends, it is nearly identical to my Parker 51. In fact, when I had them sitting side by side on the desk, I had to double take to make sure I picked up the right one. Uncapped, the Duo Cart has much more of the hooded nib exposed than the 51.
One issue I noticed with the Duo Cart, and I read Matt experienced the same with his, is that the cap doesn't lock down in place as tight as I would like. It slides on, but there is no snap or firmness. This would be a perfect carry pen if it weren't for that.
That said, this is an excellent all-around pen. It's fun, functional, and beautiful. At around $150, it competes with popular gold nib pens in that range. Would I tell you to buy the Duo Cart over the Lamy 2000? No, but this is a pen nice enough to be competitive in this category.
(Kenro Industries provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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