A little bit of history: ‘Mr Pen’ is one of a number of business ventures owned by Ruislip-based company P. J. Ford & Associates Ltd, set up 1989. Their in-house Italix range of pens is already well-known thanks to the famous Parson’s Essential and, as we’ve already reviewed, the English Curate. Italix has now entered the budget end of the market with the Deacon’s Doodle – and of course, we had to put it to the test.
How it looks and feels: It’s a classic look in brushed stainless steel and it comes with a choice of nibs AND a converter. One might be concerned that a stainless steel pen could feel a little heavy, but this is not the case – the Deacon’s Doodle is pleasantly ‘there’ in the hand, but it’s no dead weight.
How it fills This one’s a straightforward universal cartridge-filler, but amazingly at this price point it comes with a good converter as standard.
Crucially, how does it handle? All our reviewers report that it performs well, offering a smooth writing experience and a fairly wet nib worthy of a much more expensive pen.
Pen! What is it good for? The Deacon’s Doodle looks and feels expensive, but – and you might want to sit down for this one – it costs LESS than £15.00!
There are gift set options which include engraving, intelligently aimed at the gift market; nobody would ever guess from its looks and performance that it is a budget pen.
VFM Frankly astonishing. If this pen cost £30 you would be delighted, but for £15.00 it’s a bargain.
If this isn’t quite your cup of tea, but almost… The Faber-Castell Basic is available in a stainless steel version of similar quality, but that’ll probably cost you a fiver more.
Our overall recommendation For a budget pen which actually writes rather well and looks a lot posher than it really is, this is pretty much unbeatable. Try one.
Where to get hold of one Straight from Mr Pen
This meta-review references:
- Scribble: http://scribbledemonboddo.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/italix-deacons-doodle.html
- Nikki: http://notesoflife.uk/2018/03/stationery-sunday-italix-deacons-doodle/
- Alison: http://www.her-nibs.com/2018/03/italix-fountain-pen-mr-pen.html
Thanks to Mr.Pen himself for sending some review samples our way.
DEACON’S DOODLE GIVEAWAY!
If you are based in the UK and you would like to win the gift set or the fountain pen on its own, all you have to do is answer these three easy peasy questions about the Deacon’s Doodle – all info found on the Mr Pen site.
1 How many nib options are there for the Deacon’s Doodle fountain pen?
2 How much does the fountain pen/ballpoint pen gift set retail for?
3 How much does the Deacon’s Doodle fountain pen weigh?
Two winners will be chosen at random after the closing date 27 April.
Send your answers to: unitedinkdomprizes@gmail.com