We Be Pens: Cocobolo

            Today we are talking about a pen turned by a Maine pen maker: We Be Pens. A very heavy pen with a terrible nib.

Stats:

Diameter – Body 15mm

Diameter – Grip 7mm

Length – Body 120mm

Length – Overall (Capped) 135mm

Length – Overall (Posted) 154mm

Weight – 130g

Available Nib Sizes – Fine

Street Price – ~$40

Looks:

            We Be Pens are a Maine pen turning company. Ran from a small town near Bangor, Maine, they are known for making pens out of a variety of materials. A few notable pens of theirs are made from the wood of a local pizza shop, and an abandoned sail boat from Wiscasset, Maine. Today’s pen is made from Cocobolo wood, a typical material of kit pens.

            
            This pen starts with a boring black dome finial, which is screwed in place to hold down a very tight gold colored clip. The very tight clip ensures that the cap will not let go from whatever you clip it too, but good luck getting the clip onto anything. However only the cap will hold on. The body of the pen easily unscrews from the cap and will rumble around inside your pocket.

There are three center bands; a very small gold colored one, a black one, and a larger gold colored one. The black center band is made out of plastic and was not properly fitted to the cap, as it spins freely around with an audible rattling noise. The pen continues with the cocobolo wood, until an end piece. The end has threads that allow you to screw the cap to the barrel for posting.

           
            Unscrewing the cap reveals a very thin plastic section which slightly tapers to a gold colored band, followed by a very small steel nib. The nib is your typical Iridium Point Germany nib you’d expect from a lesser quality pen, and writes scratchy and dry. The nib and feed are friction fit and can be swapped for any other Number Four sized nibs. The body unscrews from the section to hold a large Standard International sized converter.

            The major downside of this pen is the weight. The body and cap of the pen are lined with metal, and the end of the pen is also solid metal. Unposted this pen is very back-heavy. Posting this pen is makes it unusable, as almost the entire weight is in the back of the pen. As you can see in the following picture: the pen's center of balance is very far back.

            Writing Experience and Writing Sample:

            
            Writing with this pen is not too great, because of how back heavy it is. Ignoring the weight the writing is bad. The nib is scratchy, dry, and often skips. Here is a writing sample of this pen. Notice that during the writing sample I hold the pen at a very low degree to the paper. That is because the weight of this pen, combined with how small the grip section is, makes using this pen difficult to use. 

            Final Thoughts:

            I would say this pen looks nice in the box it comes in; but the box is just cardboard. I have tried out several pens by this manufacturer and they all are relatively similar to this one. Kit pens are, in general, bad. Remember when buying fountain pens to always purchase them from brands that are trusted; and if you're purchasing a pen in a store, remember to always try it out before buying it. I cannot tell you to stay away from this brand enough.