Recently when browsing on the fountain pen Reddit community I stumbled upon a post where people were sharing their most expensive fountain pen failures, and their cheapest successes. One of the cheaper pens a couple of people said they had been the most impressed by was the Faber-Castell Grip, which I’d never even heard of before. So of course, I had to check it out immediately! 

I’ve always associated Faber-Castell more with art supplies than pens, and only recently discovered that they make fountain pen inks (in some beautiful shades, I might add!), and so was very interested to find out they also make pens. The Grip is one of their cheapest offerings, but I was really impressed by how good it looked, and the sheer range of colour options offered. I bought the Silver Glam edition for £18 on Amazon, although it was difficult to choose! 

The Silver Glam edition is a gorgeous metallic silver colour with a glittery iridescent finish that I really like. The pen has lines of distinctive bumps all along the pen body, which is presumably where the ‘Grip’ name comes from. The grip section is slightly indented, like a less severe version of the Lamy Safari, and the pen has a secure slip cap. 

It came with both a blue ink cartridge and an empty cartridge, but since it fits a standard converter, I used one I already had, inking it up with Diamine Aurora Borealis. Once I started to write I could immediately see why someone would describe it as their cheapest success pen, because even with a fine nib, this pen is an incredibly smooth writer! It also feels nice in the hand, as it’s large enough to use unposted (although you can post it – it just becomes a bit back heavy), and the molded grip section is comfortable in the hand (although I imagine it could be divisive, just like the Lamy Safari grip). 

My one criticism after using it now for a few weeks is that sometimes when I’ve used it a lot, the grip section has somehow started to unscrew from the pen, as you can see in the image below.

Whether this is just from the action of writing, or from taking the cap on and off a few times, I’m not sure, it was just something I’d noticed had happened after a bit of use. If it’s from the action of writing, it might be from the way I’m holding the pen, although I’d say I have a fairly standard grip. Or perhaps my particular pen is slightly faulty in some way.

Overall though, my first experiment with Faber-Castell’s fountain pen offerings has been very favourable! The Faber-Castell Grip is an incredibly smooth writer, comes in a range of fun colours, and has a great entry-level price point. I’d never even heard of this pen before, which seems crazy, as I think this would fit right alongside pens like the Pilot Kakuno and Lamy Safari in terms of great beginner fountain pens, and I’d highly recommend it!

So have you tried the Faber-Castell Grip? What did you think? Have you tried any of Faber-Castell’s other fountain pens?