Pentel Calme 0.5 mm Ballpoint Pen Review

It took me a while to come around to the Pentel Calme Ballpoint Pen. Why? Competition.

The $1 to $3 pen market is outrageously competitive, often to our benefit. Companies are willing to invest in barrel designs and ink formulations, all in an effort to make a name on the store shelves, and eventually our shopping carts.

The Calme is a fantastic pen. The barrel is super comfortable, including a half-length of the pen rubberized grip area. The knock is integrated to the clip, and it is smooth and quiet. You won’t be able to annoy your office mates with this one. And I love this limited Mauve Pink edition.

Writing-wise, the Calme uses Pentel’s Vicuna ink, their hybrid ballpoint ink formulation - aka, their uniball Jetstream competitor. This a solid refill. The lines are sharp, and mostly clean. Honestly, I have no complaints.

Except that other pens exist.

There were three pens I immediately wanted to put up against the Pentel Calme: the Zebra Blen 0.5 mm Ballpoint, uniball Jetstream 0.5 mm Ballpoint, and the uniball Jetstream Lite Touch 0.5 mm Ballpoint. To go ahead and spoil the results, I’d take all three of those pens over the Calme.

L to R: Pentel Calme, Zebra BLen, uniball Jetstream 4+1, uniball Jetstream Lite Touch.

The Zebra BLen is the closest in writing performance. 0.5 mm pens write fine lines to begin with, but Ballpoints - as compared to Gel and Rollerball inks - leave an even finer line. Both the Calme and the BLen have excellent fine lines, but I found the BLen more comfortable to hold, and have even quieter mechanics, which is a feature Zebra focused on for this pen.

Putting the Calme up against the Jetstream is where the ink begins to separate the pens. The writing experience is better with the Jetstream. The ink is smoother, darker, and cleaner. There is a reason this is my favorite Ballpoint pen. I will say that I might like the Calme barrel over the standard Jetstream Sport, but not by a wide margin.

The pen that makes all of these pens obsolete is the uniball Jetstream Lite Touch. uniball created a true step up in ink quality and color, and the only issue right now is availability. You can find them at importers like JetPens in the US, but not yet on the store shelves outside of Japan. Hopefully that changes in the next year or two because it is that good.

Where does that put the Pentel Calme at the end of the day? As I said before, it’s a good pen in a competitive category. If I were making a tier list, it would land in the B-tier through no fault of its own. It’s simply up against A-tier (BLen and Jetstream,) and S-tier (Jetstream Lite Touch,) competition.

At $2.50, I like it enough to own and use when the feeling hits, but I won’t need a stash of them around the house.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Spoke Design Clickstream Review

(This is a guest Post from Sam Alpert. Sam is a geologist, gamer, and general lover of all things with good, clean design. See more from Sam on Instagram @samalpert.)

Brad won’t write this so it falls to me.

If you’re reading this blog you’re probably aware of Spoke Design, Brad’s collaboration with engineer extraordinaire Brian. If not, check it out, they make awesome stuff.

They recently released a new pen called the Clickstream. Here it is in all its glory:

So why would the person who made the pen and runs the website need a review of his own pen? Because this one is different. This one is exceptional, even in a lineup full of home-run designs, this one stands head and shoulders above the rest; Brad won’t say that though, so I will.

What makes it so good? Let me tell you.

First, the shape. Classic, with the Spoke Design cutouts that mark their design language giving it a modern flair. The taper is perfect. I like a narrower grip in my pens, this has a sweet spot for everyone. Narrow at the tip, wider just behind it. No clip interrupting the clean curves, but flattened on six sides to prevent rolling. There’s something here for everyone, without compromise.

Second, the click. It’s incredible. The pen ships with a Soft, Medium, and a Hard spring - I immediately installed the Hard and never looked back. I love a good thunk when I click a pen, and the mechanism they chose for the Clickstream delivers. And again, if you prefer a more Pilot G2-esque click the Medium spring is there for you.

Obligatory lineup compared to some other great pens. Top: Tactile Turn Slim Bolt Action Ti. Bottom: Cortex edition Studio Neat Mark One.

Third, the material. I chose sand blasted titanium, the most popular choice according to Brad, and I can see why. I have had plenty of pocket knives with this setup, but something about having it on a pen gives it new life. The sandblasting adds just enough texture to the pen to give it a nice, tactile feel, without being rough. Additionally the weight of the titanium is just the best. While the aluminum body version has amazing colors, I’m here for the perfect weight that the titanium brings.

I’ve had many (read dozens) of machined pens come and go, both from Spoke design but also from many others including Tactile Turn and Karas Pen Co. just to name a few. None of them came close to the full package that the Clickstream brings to the party. They all had some minor quibble (too wide, too textured, loose tolerances) that I just can’t find on the Clickstream.

The essential comparisons: Top: Retro 51 Tornado Halloween edition. Bottom: Pilot G2.

The pen ships with either a Schmidt Easyflow 9000 or Ohto Flash Dry refill, but accepts any Parker-style refill (so if you want to spring for the now exorbitantly expensive uniball Jetstream refills you can,) just don’t forget the spacer that ships with the pen to install on the refill, this is part of the secret that takes the tip rattle out of the equation for this pen.

If you absolutely need a clip, or hate all the refill options then I agree, this isn’t the pen for you. But for anyone who just loves a good pen, this could easily be my one pen I use for the rest of my life. It’s that good.

The Spoke Clickstream is $69 for Aluminum, and $89 for Titanium models, and can be found at SpokeDesign.com.

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Laban 325 Fountain Pen Review

Founded in Taiwan in 1981, Laban has been present in the fountain pen world for a while, but only came on my radar in the last several years. In using the Laban 325, I can only wonder what took me so long?

I’ve had this pen inked up on and off for the past three months, and every time I pick it up and write with it, the same group of words come to mind. Solid. Nice. Pretty. Quality. Fun. What more can I ask for from a pen? Not much. The Pen Addict Review Crew have been reviewing Laban fountain pens since 2019, to generally high praise, and I’m only going to add to the chorus today.

Let’s start with what you see: the barrel. The 325 is on the larger size of the scale, especially given the cap overhang. The design works together as a whole, but the initial visual is that this is a big pen. When in user mode, aka uncapped, the 325 hits the perfect user length at just over five inches. The diameter befits its size, with a tapered section providing a nice grip area.

Aesthetically, the 325 features three distinct visual areas. With this Sun model, both ends use an Ivory marbled acrylic, with the heart of the barrel showing off a beautiful Orange cracked acrylic. Many of the 325’s are designed similarly, with different color acrylics taking prominence on the barrel.

LAMY Safari for scale.

Gold trim wins the day on the 325, with the clip, finial, barrel and cap bands, and matching gold plating on the steel nib. The nib itself is Laban-branded Jowo #6, and the Medium tip was perfect out of the box. This is an international cartridge/converter filler, and ships with Laban marked on the converter.

Writing comfort is perfect for me. To say that I don’t notice the pen when writing is a high compliment. When I’m putting ink on the page, I want nothing more to get into the flow. I don’t want to think about the pen, nib, ink, or paper. The 325 allows for that.

Should you consider trying out a Laban fountain pen, specifically the 325? At $128, it doesn’t have a lot of price competition. The entire $75 to $150 range is honestly a bit confusing. Benu, Narwhal, and Opus 88 do well here, fancy Kaweco’s live here, maybe some solid maker pens. The 325 is one of the lower priced Laban pens, and has some of the Leonardo Momento Zero feel to it for around $40 less. So yes, I think they are compelling.

L’Ecritoire ink, from Paris. Courtesy of a pen friend.

Laban makes several different styles of pens in their lineup, and given the feel and functionality of the 325, I’m interested in moving on up the price bracket to see if the value proposition continues to hold. Seems like a good plan for 2025.

(This pen was provided by Luxury Brands USA at no charge for purposes of this review.)

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Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!