Monday, August 8, 2022

REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN

REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN
The first half of 2022 has been a hectic one for me. Between ramping up the pace on my PhD project, teaching courses, grading papers, guiding student interns, and preparing for my first scientific conference last month, little time (and energy, to be honest) remained to direct towards new reviews - sorry! 

Anyway, I decided to pick up again with a review of a product that I really, REALLY like. Somewhat contradictory, for someone who keeps telling himself that he doesn't like pocket pens, I do find myself -surprisingly often- enjoying the heck out of them! Over the last few years, there has been a surge of fascinating and novel pocket pens, but probably one of my favorite ones to date is the one we'll be looking at today: the Ensso Piuma Pocket
REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN
The Piuma Pocket perfectly embodies what I like to see in a pocket-sized pen: no compromises (or at least, as few as possible!). Ensso went with sort of a top-down approach here: taking their known and loved full-sized Piuma fountain pen and turning it into a very pocketable design. But it's not just a scaled-down version of a full-sized pen, nor is it an exercise in pushing dimensions dangerously close to the edge of usability (like what you see on the extremely small Ensso XS or Kaweco Lilliput). The Piuma Pocket doesn't trade off portability for comfort; you're not confronted with a pen that, even posted, is barely long enough to hold comfortably, has a ridiculously narrow and short section or a tiny #5 nib. Instead, Ensso created one of the shortest pocket pens out there, simply by clever implementation of a postable cap, and by taking design elements that work (such as the overall cigar shape, or fantastically comfortable grip of the full-sized Piuma fountain pen) and building a pen around that. 
REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN
The overall shape of the Piuma Pocket is indeed very reminiscent of the Piuma. The barrel is short and the cap takes up most of the length, as if they took the full-sized Piuma and cut off half the barrel. The Piuma Pocket looks rather stout because its diameter is almost identical to that of the regular Piuma, so  it's quite a bit wider than your average pocket pen. The back of the barrel has a short, threaded section, with very shallow and unobtrusive block threads that don't break too much with the overall clean design of the pen. Talking about the threads: they're short and smooth, making capping and posting the pen swift and easy.
REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN
L to R: Kaweco Sport, Schon DSGN P6, Ensso XS, Ensso Piuma Pocket, Ensso Piuma, Lamy 2000, Lamy Safari
REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN
L to R: Kaweco Sport, Schon DSGN P6, Ensso XS, Ensso Piuma Pocket, Ensso Piuma, Lamy 2000, Lamy Safari
REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN
Even though I did say that Ensso didn't go above and beyond to create the smallest possible design, they still somehow managed to make the Piuma Pocket very, very small! At 9.3 cm capped, it's shorter than Ensso's own XS or a Kaweco Sport, and just a hair taller than the super-compact Schon DSGN P6! Even better: when write-ready, the posted cap on the back boosts the length of the Piuma Pocket up to a whopping 13.9 cm. To give some perspective, that's half a centimeter longer than the P6, and about the same size as a capped Lamy 2000! 
REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN
Posted, the Piuma Pocket transforms into a very large pen!
So, maybe it's even a bit too long? They certainly could've shaved off a few millimeters and still end up with a perfectly comfortable pen for most, if not all, hands. As mentioned, the Piuma Pocket does look and feel noticeably wider than most pocket pens, because it takes over the exact diameter of the regular Ensso Piuma, which is around 15 mm at the widest point. The Piuma Pocket feels incredibly solid in the hand. It seems like they took extra care machining all parts with thicker walls for extra robustness, never a bad idea for a pocket pen! So, regardless of which metal you choose, these pens have some noticeable heft to them (aluminium: 24 g, titanium: 38 g, brass: 67 g). There's now also an ebonite version though, which weighs in at a dainty 12 grams - for those who like the design of the Piuma Pocket, but not the heft.
REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN
The Ensso Piuma (left) and Piuma Pocket share an almost-identical section design
Take the cap off, and you're greeted by an almost one-to-one copy of the section found on the regular Ensso Piuma. And that's where I think this design really shines. Could Ensso have slimmed the Piuma Pocket down to make it even more portable? Sure, but I'm glad they didn't trade writing comfort for that extra bit of pocketability - I highly doubt that those few millimeters in diameter wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Instead, now you're getting a proper, full-sized section that is extremely comfortable in the hand. The pen in its entirety is just very comfortable to hold, and plenty long enough of course. There's a slight step behind the section and threads, but the edge is sufficiently rounded off for it to not be all that intrusive in my grip. In terms of writing comfort, this pen is a 10/10 for me. 

Of course, one limitation can't be circumvented when designing a pen of this size, and that's the filling system. With barely any space to spare, standard international cartridges are the only way to go on this pen. Pretty much par for the course on a pocket pen, and so not a dealbreaker for me, but note that even something like the Mini converter from Kaweco simply won't work (Kaweco's old aerometric mini converters should fit, but they're... well, not great). 
REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN
The new ebonite Ensso Piuma and Ensso Piuma Pocket
REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN
The ebonite pens have a similar machined satin finish as Ensso's metal pens
HOWEVER! Ensso did just release the Piuma and Piuma Pocket in ebonite. The ebonite version of the Piuma Pocket comes with an O-ring attached to the barrel threads, so it lends itself perfectly to eye-droppering!
REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN
On the other hand, because Ensso started from the full-sized Piuma, they did manage to fit in a full-sized #6 Bock nib on the Piuma Pocket. We're seeing somewhat of a general trend towards pocket pens with larger nibs. I fully agree with that change, as I generally find Bock's #6 nibs offer a better writing experience than their #5 counterparts. They also offer the Pocket with a titanium nib as an add-on, which bumps the writing experience up another notch (at least, if you're a fan of the slightly bouncier feel of Ti nibs). I reviewed this particular pen with a fine titanium nib, and while it's noticeably stiffer than some titanium nibs I've come across in the past, it did come perfectly tuned to my liking, straight out of the box. It's pencil-like (as all titanium nibs are) yet surprisingly smooth, and has a nice rich ink flow.
REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN
Am I inclined to call the Ensso Piuma Pocket the best pocket pen I've ever used? Yes! I know that's a substantial claim to make... but it simply ticks all the right boxes for me! It's a pocket pen that doesn't feel like one when you're writing with it, exactly how it should be! Construction is super-durable. Form, or rather size, does not overtake function here, and yet it remains just as pocketable. And as the cherry on top, you get a large #6 nib. With the added introduction of an ebonite version, you've also got plenty of material options to pick from, depending on your personal preferences.

Ensso typically makes their pens available in batches, so most models are only available periodically. At the time of writing, the titanium Piuma Pocket is available for pre-order at a nice discount (89$ from 139$) - which is a great deal for a solid titanium pocket pen. The new ebonite Piuma and Piuma pocket were just released on Kickstarter and are now available on the Ensso website for pre-order. Their full retail price will be 172$ once they are released (premium Japanese Nikko ebonite is expensive!), but you can still get in on the pre-order Kickstarter price of 79$! 
Note: Ensso is a sponsor of The Pencilcase Blog. This product was provided by Ensso, so I could write this review. I was in no way influenced in the making of this review, the opinions shared in this review are completely my own! This post does not contain affiliate links.
REVIEW: ENSSO PIUMA POCKET FOUNTAIN PEN

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