I had a thing for quality pens and paper growing up. I wanted to write something special with something special. For me, that involved finding the most unique pens and pencils, which was essentially anything my friends didn’t have.
As I got older, my thoughts were the same, but I also became more aware of the world around me, and that meant seeing what others were writing with. From that time period - which pre-dates this blog by a good ten years - two pens became seared into my brain: The Montblanc Rollerball, and the Caran d’Ache Ecridor.
Why these two pens? Because you can spot either of them from a mile away. Montblanc has its snowcap finial, and Caran d’Ache has its classic silver hex barrel. I was always drawn to the Caran d’Ache for its style. The Montblanc seemed boring (ballpoints and rollerballs that is, fountain pens are an exception), and they were everywhere.
It was only recently that I got my first taste of the Ecridor, and it lived up to everything younger me expected of it. First off, the barrel is perfect. Perfect size, perfect weight, perfect balance, perfect feel. The rhodium plating makes it shine, and the guilloche-style barrel design is the icing on a classic cake. Even the knock and clip are recognizable as Caran d’Ache standards.
What is often the kicker for more expensive rollerball and ballpoint pens is the refill. Fortunately, the Caran d’Ache Goliath refill is one of the best I have ever used. My Ecridor shipped with a black medium refill, and I don’t recall having a smoother, cleaner refill in any other ballpoint pen I have tried. Plus, I can write much finer than expected. I didn’t anticipate that at all. I’ll normally switch into a fine blue ballpoint refill as quickly as possible, but no rush with this one.
Adding a classic to your writing arsenal seems like a no-brainer, but this one comes at a price. At $120 it will take some thought to pull the trigger, and some commitment to using it. If that price is out of the ballpark, take a look at the 849 Metal-X series for a similar pen at one-fifth of the cost.
(Anderson Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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