Conklin All American Fountain Pens Reviews

I picked up the Conklin All-American because I've enjoyed my Duragraph and because I wanted to give Conklin's Omniflex nib a try. I have been overall very pleasantly surprised with this pen. It's beefy but not terribly long, has a nice heft to it, and an elegant, understated look.

THE GOOD
I know many people have had trouble with the omniflex, and I certainly wouldn't try and minimize their difficulties, but in my case it's been a very nice nib. The feed is very wet as one would expect with such a thirsty writer. I've never had the nib run dry. And while this is certainly not a vintage wet noodle nib, I can get a good amount of line variation out of it. And since I try to write very lightly already, I find I can use this as a daily writer without difficulty.

I also really like the Conklin spring clip. I can see why the company patented it. It's so handy and simple that I find myself attempting to squeeze the tops of some of my other pens when clipping them! I especially wish my Duragraph had this style clip. Not sure why they haven't added it to that line as well.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD
The above said, I do have a few very minor issues with the pen. First is that the cast "Conklin" logo on the clip and the engraved markings on the barrel are flipped 180 degrees from one another when the pen is capped. If you can read one the other is upside down. I suppose it means they read together when the pen is posted, but it's going to spend more of it's time capped and it makes more sense to me to have them read correctly that way.

Another is that the nib unit in mine is installed in such a way that the nib doesn't align with the barrel engraving. It's almost 90 degrees off which seems a bit sloppy. I know I can fix it, I just wish I didn't have to. As to the nib itself, my only quibble would be that I wish the tipping was ground smaller. It's basically ground as a medium nib and I wish it was a fine.

Finally, if you tighten the cap fully (clip and engraving aligned) it really locks on the barrel. I expect this will do an excellent job keeping the nib from drying out, but it can be quite a push to loosen. I've been worried I'll bend or snap the clip a couple of times.

Certainly, these aren't major issues and don't really detract from the usability but I would expect a bit better finish in a nominally $95 pen. Still, this is an excellent writer and I'm quite happy with my purchase (expecially since I got it for about 50% off! :-) )

It is a thick pen but it is light and the material is awesome. This is my first brand name pen it it write great. I would recommend it.

Really excellent pen for the money. Nibs have improved a lot since the first ones. Very happy with my Conkklin purchases. Will buy more.

I’ve been a fan of the Conklin All-American for some time now, this one is my 3rd. I especially like the shape, size, and smooth lines. I expected the brown to be a different shade, and there to be a bit more turquoise, however that doesn’t detract from the pen. I find that this is a relatively common experience when making a purchase based on an image on a screen alone. Finally, I was pleasantly surprised to find, especially for the price, that this is a limited edition numbered pen.

Great customer service. The nib that came with the pen was scratchy and skipped. Pen Chalet took care of it right away by sending me a replacement nib, which is working great. I really appreciate the speed and ease of working with their customer service department.

IMHO I think these pens are one of the best values there is. Slightly oversize, very comfortable in the hand. Excellent writers, I have several of them and have not had to do any nib tuning at all. I love these pens.

Nice solid body, it's a pretty thick pen. The clip is attached to a spring or something so you can actually press one side to open it. I really love that detail

The color is slightly more muted than I expected but I still love it the details are pretty intricate.

The threads are fantastic and smooth

Included Conklin converter actually screws into the body. I've read it can fit international standard but I haven't tried that yet.

I dont post this pen. Without post it's pretty balanced has some nice girth. But posted it'd be too heavy.

I got the medium nib it wrote smoothly but it was very very wet so I swapped it out with a #6.

Feeder looks to be the same as any other jin hao pen surprisingly. I couldn't find any spare Conklin converters to buy online

If I bought again I'd probably buy fla fine nib price is pretty high for this pen I'd probably save for a Vanishing point but I got this at an unbeatable price so I'm very pleased with the pen and it's aesthetic.

Very happy with the All American. The pen is on the large side, which suits me well. Well balanced, and very comfortable to use for long writing sessions. Seems well constructed and durable as well. This was my first purchase from Pen Chalet, and the experience was very positive.

I normally do not write with large pens but this pen is so well balanced that it does not make my hand fatigued at all no matter how long I write.

It's a Conklin......nuff said!