Pen review: Golem Pens Spindle

I could be changing my name to RumPENstiltskin tee hee

Once upon a time at the beginning of August, yours truly received a pen in the mail from a far away land some people call Canada. The pen was sent to me for both review and enjoyment purposes, and I’m a firm believer you can’t have just one or the other. My sincere thanks go out to Dr. Brownie who made this happen.

Without further ado, I present to you — Golem Pens Spindle in Fruit Punch finish.

The packaging (after unboxing from the… shipping box).

I am personally super happy the pen arrived in a coozy and not in a huge metal or plastic box that I would inevitably hoard. I swear there is no more room in my house for pen boxes. I have two bins full of them, more of them scattered under the bed (wife hasn’t noticed), the closet is overflowing, and I am sure I left some in my parents’ home when I moved. So thank you, Golem Pens, for ensuring this pen arrives and stays safe in a coozy that is both pretty and very much utilitarian.

The goodies and the main goodie!

The Spindle is a flat top pen with the slightest concave dip at both ends. This model tapers on both ends starting from the bottom of the cap. There are two steps from the body, one being a diminutive step towards the threads, the next being the almost imperceptible transition towards the grip. I can’t tell if there’s any taper on the grip section because my eyes aren’t as good as calipers, and I do not own calipers. The grip ends in a lip that will stop your fingers from sliding onto the nib because no sane individual wants to hold their pen by the feed.

I’ve tried and it’s not what it’s cracked up to be.

The pen arrived without the nib as I was going to use one of my own billion spare Jowo nibs. I opted for a Nemosine 0.6 stub — which I also feel like it may be my favorite ‘stock’ stub nib — but I do think this pen would look better with a yellow gold plated nib. Odd, because I don’t care for yellow gold.

Writing sample on the right hand side. If anyone can make mistakes while copying a book it will be me.

As y’all know, I am not one to talk about sizes and dimensions since numbers don’t mean anything to me. The pen is of average size, smaller than a banana, and I almost thought it wouldn’t fit a standard international converter, but it does. It doesn’t feel like a small pen as the overall diameter doesn’t belong on a small pen. If your hands are super huge — if you’re the Hulk — you may not like it. For regular size handed people, though, this pen is top notch.

I have long fingers, yet the pen fits just fine.

I’ll break my impressions into the YAY and the MEH bits.

The triple YAY: the weight, the balance, the comfort. I am super happy that the threads are very well polished, crisp but not sharp, which means that capping and uncapping the pen feels super smooth. I don’t really mind when there’s some resistance in threading as I usually just slap some silicone grease on the threads, but that ‘hack’ wasn’t necessary. Honestly I’ve uncapped and capped this pen more times than I needed to just because I like it so much. The pen is perfectly balanced, there’s no drag on any end, and writing feels effortless. The protruding lip doesn’t dig into the fingers; it does it job of preventing slipping well without making it obvious it’s there.

The second YAY: the blank by Turnt Pen Co (‘Fruit Punch’) is aptly named, although I would venture to say this should be named Joker’s Fruit Punch because of the green bits. I mean if there was anything green in my fruit punch (which I usually just call Pina Colada), I’d think it’s a smoothie. Silly jokes aside, I absolutely adore the idea of the grip, the top and the bottom ends being made separately from a purple-y sparkly goodness that reminds me of raspberry chunks.

The third YAY: the pen stands on its own. Honestly, kudos. I don’t care to post pens but my inner teenager gets giddy when my pens stand upright without help.

Side note: I prefer to keep it standing up to putting it aside as it wants to roll away into the fruit bowl. I’d recommend placing the pen against a pen pillow if you’re not a teenager and you keep your pens lying flat on the desk.

The MEH: if I have to pick one thing that I dislike about this pen, it would be the fact there are slight imperfections/scratches at the ends of the pen where it had been mounted on the lathe. That’s it. It’s a tiny visual imperfection that takes a point off an otherwise super beautiful pen; otherwise, I have no negative comments on it. I mean, you can also say it’s there to remind you of foam that collects on top of a fruit punch if you were to stir vigorously, which I chose to believe.

The neutral: the pen doesn’t post. Honestly, to me, this is a plus because I cannot stand posting pens (including those that you ‘have to’ post but as the second best chaos blogger on this platform, I have the authority to voice the opinion that you should not post even Schon DSGN Pocket 6, let alone a full size pen). I know some people may think of this as a downside but… come on, it stands on its own.

The fit and finish: super solid and gorgeous. You can’t even tell this pen wasn’t made of one solid block of acrylic, the polish is that well done. There are two spots on the entire pen where the Fruit Punch acrylic is see though, but not enough to show ink level (which I’m fine with, it’s not supposed to be transparent anyway).

JUST LOOK AT HOW IT LOOKS IN THE SUN MY GOSH.

After seeing the pen in the sun, it was decided unanimously: 10/10 would lick, 5/7 would cromch. You can see the small imperfection on the top and the bottom, and the rest of the gorgeousness everywhere.

Takeaways and where to buy: I’d recommend this pen. Well, not this one as it’s mine and I am not giving it up, but Golem Pens have other pens for sale if you’d like to check them out (no affiliation except the fact I like the pen which you kinda know already). The link to the page reroutes you back to their Instagram page which is helpful as you get to see their other pens. And they also link their side project that showcases other pen makers. Super helpful info.

I admit I may be addicted to custom made pens at this point. Especially if they’re sparkly and in your face.

Side note: I can’t believe I have to say this but I didn’t really try to bite this pen; fruit punch or not, I still prefer just bananas in my coffee. What’s your favorite fruitlike pen?