rOtring Rapid PRO BP Review

Rotring started in 1928 with a tubular tipped stylographic fountain pen popularly known as Tiku. It was incorporated as Titenkuli Handels GmbH. Later in 1984, the calligraphic ArtPen was introduced, which was followed by more famous and most sought after 600 series pens. There were a few changes in name in between which can be seen in the historical timeline linked here. In 1998, it was taken over by Sanford US, a subsidiary of Newell Rubbermaid Inc. Newell owns other known brands like Parker and Waterman. Rotring stopped manufacturing fountain pens soon after this acquisition.
And yes of course, rot ring literally translates into red ring, which can be seen in almost all its writing instruments as an iconic hallmark.

                   The Rapid PRO look like a modern avatar of the renowned 600 ball points. With evolution, rotring has perhaps tried to make the rigid hexagonal shape slightly more giving to curvature, in the rapid pro. While writing this review, I could find a Japanese ebay seller list a few rotring 600 ball points. I am fairly certain that these are fresh production and not NOS.

The RAPID pro comes packaged in a grey-coloured triangular cardboard box with brand and product descriptions. The country of manufacturing is mentioned as Japan. I found the box, quite a welcome change compared to the earlier one. You may see a deserted G2 refill, lying beside the box. Nothing wrong with the original refill itself, this can be completely attributed to my new found love with Monteverde ceramic gel refills.

Both the Silver Chrome and Matte Black designs are beautifully made designs. The silver one portrays a shimmering exuberance, while the black one is quite subtle, albeit wielding the same power. The weight and feel of both pens is quite comfortable, balanced and not at all on the heavier side. Warning-Don’t let the technical specs fool you!

Both finishes have a smooth audible click of the plunger button, to expose the writing tip, through the concentric cone-cylinder tip. I couldn’t find a decipherable difference between the knock of the two variants.

I use black and silver alternately. The black one exhibits subtlety and seems to be quite capable of hiding in dark surroundings. Even the indented rOtring logo on the friction fit clip appears to be quite understated although firm. The silver version in contrast looks vivacious. The mirror finished clip shimmers along with the conical tip, while the relatively duller grey shine of the barrel complements both ends willingly.

The red ring adorns both the pens well, in between the section and barrel. You can feel a noticeable difference between knurling of both sections. It feels a tad sharper on the silver variant. Even the branding on the black variant is understated yet suave while the silver one carries the brand with quite some panache. I feel the concentric cones & cylinder at the tip add to the style and render firmness in character to these pens.

A plastic insert serves the threading between the barrel and section, which can be a bit of trauma to the classical pen fanatic, for an otherwise near-perfectly made pen. The inserts seem quite thick and hopefully should be able to sustain added pressure of the metal parts, incase someone over tightens the barrel.

The clip rounds back at the barrel with clasps from both sides, leaving a small gap in-between.

Both the posers together. Some measurements for your reference: 

• Length: 14.9 cm 
• Diameter: 0.9 cm 
• Weight: 24.6 g (Matte Black), 25.2 g (Chrome Silver) with refills

The weight of the pen along with the knurled grip, make the rapid pros a pleasure to write with. And with the monteverde ceramic gel refills, the rapid pros deliver pro performance.

The rapid pro has a relatively smoother surface and is around 2 grams heavier with a plastic section. It does feel more substantial than the latest rotring 600 (Both are made in Japan).

A short review of the rotring Esprit

For those of you who like slim and light pens, I the Esprit is a very nice pen. And it happily fits your MTN Pen holder. The Esprit was released as the next avatar to the numbered models, rotring 400 in this case. It was a finite displacement for the haloed red-ring from the section of 400 to its cap end, apart from the flattened ends. The fountain pen comes with a standard steel nib. A corresponding rollerball, ballpoint and a mechanical pencil were also released. The smaller sized telescoping Esprit Mini series came later and became Parker Esprit, soon after acquisition. Lamy CP1 pen does bear some common characteristics with the Esprit.

DESIGN (5/6)

The Esprit comes in anodised aluminium make with steel or plastic fittings. Till now I have seen two finishes of this - Tourmaline Green and Black. The minis came with a lot more colour options.

The pen is a slender cylinder with a lovely red ring at the finial. Once you pull the cap, it does come off with an audible click, and you have a ribbed metallic section. The grip section has a tapered end, and there rests the rotring steel nib.

The cap is light with a snap-on mechanism. A tension fit clip starts with the trademarked red ring at the finial. The clip carries the rotring brand name.

FILLING SYSTEM (5/6)

It’s an international cartridge converter system. The construction is good with a steel insert inside the section and another runs the threads for the aluminium barrel.

A Schmidt/FCD or rotring converter will fit snugly into the section vis-a-vis other standard international converters like Waterman. 

NIB - ALL THAT MATTERS (5/6)

The nib is made of stainless steel and comes in a standard rotring design. I came across only F & M widths for this pen. All these nibs have been wet and generally smooth.

         A no-frills design of the nib sans any breather hole gives it a characteristic industrial look, besides the metallic make of the pen. 

The branding and nib specifications are imprinted on either sides of the nib.

A standard black plastic feed sans any fins and a big feeder hole define its minimalism. 

PHYSICS OF IT (4/6) – RELATIVELY SPEAKING

The pen is light and slim. You can post the pen as well and it does not feel any more heavier than 15g. The grip section tapers away from the barrel cross section as it becomes relatively thinner. I feel that I am used to thicker sections for quite some time now.

• Uncapped Length ~ 12.7 cm
• Posted Length ~ 17.3 cm
• Nib Leverage ~ 1.6 cm

Uncapped and posted pictures of the Esprit beside a ruler run below for your reference. 

ECONOMIC VALUE(6/6)

I have no idea of its original retail price. I had bought the pen at a cost of USD 12 off ebay. Since it has been now discontinued, some stationery stores in Mumbai carry at least a few pieces of Esprit or a similar looking 400 model. 

OVERALL (5/6)

This steel nib has a hint of feedback with a nice wet flow. The medium nib is stiff and does not have any line variation among horizontal and vertical strokes. These wet lines take almost 35 secs to dry a wet Diamine majestic blue on MD paper. And I find some of the fine nibs running as wide as the mediums. 

Thank you for going through the review.

You can find some more pen and paraphernalia reviews here.

REFERENCES

rOtring Timeline

Tiku

600 series

Newell Rubbermaid Inc

Rotring 400

A Review of the rOtring Freeway

Rotring is a German company that never seems to need any introduction. Just for the sake of this post I am writing a few lines of history. It was started in 1928 with a tubular tipped stylographic fountain pen commonly known as Tiku and was incorporated as Titenkuli Handels GmbH. Later in the 1984, the calligraphic ArtPen was introduced, which was followed by the more famous and most sought after 600 series fountain pens (the architect’s fountain pen). There were a few changes in name in between and you can find their historical timeline here. In 1998, it was taken over by Sanford US, a part of Newell Rubbermaid Inc which also owns brands like Parker and Waterman. Rotring stopped manufacturing fountain pens soon after this acquisition. And yes of course, rot ring literally translates into red ring, which can be seen in almost all its writing instruments.

The Freeway was one such pen which was released when the company had already started diversifying into writing instruments. It is equipped with a rotring standard steel nib. A corresponding rollerball, ballpoint and a mechanical pencil were also released. 

DESIGN - THE BRUSHED METALLICS (5/6)

The Freeway comes in four different colours, all in matte finish - blue, ruby red, silver and black. 

An aluminium body renders substantial weight to this pen. The pen has a cigar shape with a rather conspicuous red ring at the finial. 

Once you pull the cap, it does come off with an audible click, and you have a beautifully brushed metallic grip section. The grip section is slightly tapered and at the end rests a stainless steel insert along with a steel nib.

The cap is substantial with a snap-on mechanism. A tension fit clip starts with the trademarked red ring at the finial. It has an engraved ellipse (no idea why!) with rOtring branding below. I had purchased a few freeways over a period of time and one of them had a slightly wiggly clip. A satin chrome trim gives the cap band some aesthetics.

The colours are really attractive but they can fade, come off over a period of time.

FILLING SYSTEM (4/6)

Nothing spectacular here as it’s an international cartridge converter system. A brass insert inside the section houses the feed system. The construction is simply solid. A Schmidt or rotring converter fits quite snugly with the freeway section vis-a-vis other standard international converters. 

NIB - ALL THAT MATTERS (6/6)

The nib is made of stainless steel and comes in a standard rotring design. I came across only F & M widths for the freeway. I never found any other nib widths for this pen, though the same nib had a wider variety of widths for the 600. All the nibs have been wet and smooth.

A no-frills design of the nib sans any breather hole gives it a characteristic industrial look, besides the metallic parts of the pen. 

The branding and nib specifications are imprinted on either sides of the nib.

A standard black plastic feed sans any fins and a big feeder hole define the minimalistic design. 

PHYSICS OF IT (4/6) – RELATIVELY SPEAKING

The pen feels substantial by itself but posting it makes it difficult to wield. It might feel a bit short of length. 

• Uncapped Length ~ 12.5 cm
• Posted Length ~ 15.5 cm
• Nib Leverage ~ 1.6 cm
• Overall Weight ~ 35-40 g

Capped, uncapped and posted comparisons with a m200 runs below for your reference. 

ECONOMIC VALUE(6/6)

I have no idea of its original retail price. I had bought the first pen at a cost of USD 6, and the subsequent ones at even lower prices! Since it has been discontinued, a lot of offline pen stores in Mumbai carry at least a few pieces of the Freeway and the Espirit. 

OVERALL (5/6)

This steel nib is a winner and is very smooth with a wet flow. The fine nib is stiff and does not have any line variation among the horizontal and vertical strokes. These wet lines take almost 35 secs to dry a Pilot blue black ink on MD paper.

Thank you for going through the review.

You can find some more pen and paraphernalia reviews here.

REFERENCES

rOtring Timeline

Tiku

600 series

Newell Rubbermaid Inc

Review of Pilot S20 & Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencils

A mechanical pencil was a totally utilitarian thing during my engineering days, be it for drafting engineering drawings or making graphs. Shortly after, their utility started diminishing when AutoCAD and other drawing software could address most of the design elements, although their luxury value started beaming. Like fountain pens. Sparsely used but heavily sought after. That reminds me that I am still typing this post on a laptop rather than using one of my FPs. Mechanical pencils can delve from cheap plastic to rugged metal to precious wooden designs. In my view, metal designs seem to showcase more of modern industrial utility whereas wooden designs foray more into the aesthetics part of it.

Mechanical Pencils  ^{A brief history in time}

According to wikipedia, the earliest form of a mechanical pencil was found in a ship-wreck (British ship HMS Pandora) in 1791. However, the first patent was filed in 1822 by Mordan & Hawkins in Great Britain. Later Mordan started manufacturing mechanical pencils under the company – “S.MORDAN & CO”. Leads upto 0.9 mm wide became popular by this time. By 1915, Japanese were into it and Tokuji Hayakawa started a company to manufacture mechanical pencils, which later came to be known as  “Sharp” due to its first product – ‘Ever-Sharp mechanical pencil’. After the entire pencil division was destroyed in 1923, by the Great Kanto Earthquake, Sharp relocated to Osaka  and forayed into electronics industry.

Pilot S₂₀ – 0.5 mm

The S20 came in a old black Z-CR-HN pilot case. A refreshing black faux leather case with a felt layer to host the pen.

A maple wood contoured design with a deep brown colour renders a very natural feel with a classical wooden look. The entire end cap section is made out of aluminium with a steel lead sleeve, till the seamlessly finished wooden grip section comes up. The grip section gradually gains diameter going upwards from the end-cap (0.8 – 1.1 mm) till it reaches a small aluminium band which says ‘S20’ and ‘JAPAN’ on opposite sides of the band. Then, it narrows down towards the push-button section, till it comes across a pilot branded aluminium clip and finally ends up with the aluminium(+ plastic) push-button.

There is a lead-indicator in the push-button. To set the lead indicator, you have to remove the push-button which reveals an ubiquitous mechanical pencil’s eraser and rotate the pipe end of the push-button. The eraser section once removed shows a hosted clean-out rod. Design does seem minimalistic with a subtle emphasis on simplicity. The weight feels quite evenly distributed and the length of around 15 cm is quite comfortable to write or draw for extended periods. Sweaty slips at the grip section should be quite rare or even a non-occurrence. The grip section feels very firm.

The pencil itself comes in two wooden variants – Red and Brown.

The mechanism operates with a audible click sound at the push-button and is quite error free. It’s quite comfortable to use for long writing or drawing sessions. As per my experience, putting additional 4-6 leads inside the lead reservoir tube will not cause any blocking problems at the sleeve end. The S20 ends with comfortable aesthetics.

For the disassembly part, the end-cap with the sleeve can be easily unscrewed from the barrel and the push-button and eraser-sections can be pulled out easily. I did not attempt any further disassembly, as the parts of the barrel seemed tightly fixed.

Rotring ⁸⁰⁰ – 0.5 mm 

As evident from the above picture, the lead sleeve does not come out unless you rotate the top knurled section which rests just below the gold-trim of the push button. So a completely retractable mechanical pencil with an all metal construction. Mostly constituted out of coated brass, the 800 has a weight of around 25 g compared to S20’s 18 g. To draw a comparison, both of them will be heavier than a Pelikan M400 or a Sailor-Pro gear slim fountain pen. It is available in two themes – silver and black.

Design seems utilitarian, industrial with a subtle emphasis on its high-end design. It’s somehow evidenced by the gold trims to differentiate it from a 600. The sleeve comes out smoothly on half a rotation of the knurled switch. With a feeling of balanced heaviness and assurance, the pencil seems superior to many. The hexagonal cross section of the barrel prevents it from slipping from inclined planes and the knurled grip does the same for your fingertips. The tip apparently can wiggle a bit compared to other fixed sleeve-pencils (like 600), but does not really do so while in use.

Very uniform yet very attractive to use. The pencil can be disassembled easily by removing the knurled grip section to reveal the inner tube. Cleaning can be done if required. The eraser cap and eraser section can be pulled out. The clip mentions ‘rotring’ while the backside of the hexagonal body says ‘JAPAN’ quite elusively.

In Conclusion

A mechanical pencil will typically cost around 50 cents in my part of the world. But these two are beyond just mechanical pencils, perhaps a work of art and even a draftsman dream.

Writing

Feature	Pilot S20	Rotring 800	Additional Comments
Length	Fixed Sleeve ~ 14.6 cm	Retracted Sleeve ~ 13.5 cm Extended Sleeve ~ 14.3 cm	Quite Comfortable with respect to both length and weight
Weight	18 g	25 g
Design	Maple wood and aluminium construction with Lead Grade Indicator at top cap - Red and Brown Variants	Brass construction, Gold Trim, Matte Finish with hexagonal anti-slip faces on barrel, Knurled grip - Black and Silver Variants	- Both are ‘Made in Japan’ by the way
Barrel	Contoured Wood – 0.8 – 1.1 cm	Knurled brass – 0.8 cm diameter	- Both engage the writer in a non-slip(y) way
Tip	Fixed Sleeve, Loud Click, Aluminium/Steel lead sleeve	Retractable Sleeve, Gold trimmed sleeve
Mechanism	Hard Click	Soft Click
Lead Capacity	~ 6 -8 without blocking	~ 10 without blocking
Economic Value	Retails at $33, can be obtained at around $ 20-25 with ship	Retails at $70, can be obtained around $60 from ebay-sellers	- You can get a mechanical pencil at 50 cents!! - However, these are more than just mechanical pencils, perhaps a draftsman’s dream
Box	- Pilot Box	- A triangular cardboard box

Thank you for going through the review.