Zebra V-301 Fountain Pen Review

At the checkout line at a local Walgreens, I saw a Zebra V-301 Fountain Pen for $5.45 (US Dollars).

Although I am new to fountain pens ( I have a whole set of them coming from JetPens soon) I thought I'd try this out before my order from Jetpens arrives in the mail.

However, before I continue the review... and in case you're wondering, heres a look at what I am expecting to arrive, and will be reviewing soon!

Parker IM Fountain Pen with Gold Trim - Medium Nib - Black

Lamy SafariFountain Pen - Extra Fine Nib - Shiny Black Body

Lamy SafariFountain Pen - Fine Nib - Charcoal Black Body

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ZEBRA V-301 GRIPES

Back to the Zebra Pen now.  My main gripe with this pen is the nib of the pen. For starters, the nib is made of stainless steel, and in my opinion is way too soft. But I think that this is probably due to the fact that its supposed to flex to  how you hold the pen.

Secondly, my other major gripe with this pen is the ink. The Ink cartridges are proprietary and are not universal. Basically, once the ink is finished, you'll have to buy directly from Zebra if you want to refill 

it.  Getting the ink in however, is pretty easy. Simply push down on it, and screw it inside the barrel. Easy for a beginner to Fountain pens like me! 

Thirdly, my MAJOR gripe with this pen is the fact that it skips when you write. Right out of packaging, I expected this to work fine, but it did not. It was very scratchy and did not put down a nice line without extreme effort and scratching in my notebook to get it to work. I guess what this means is that the ink flow is very terrible with this pen. However, on plain copy paper, it seemed to have written better, maybe this is because the surface is smoother?  Also, the line it put down was very thick, and to make matters worse, the packaging did not make it clear what kind of nib it was. 

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ZEBRA V-301 LIKES

At the end of the day though, this pen is beautifully constructed, and that my friends is what I really like! The silver plasticy look is what caught my eye, and what made me purchase this pen in the first place.  It is constructed of stainless steel and has a durable plastic grip. (I find the grip annoying, it hurts my fingers)

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ZEBRA V-301 FINAL VERDICT

My final verdict is that for $5.45 this is what you get... a entry line, well constructed, but terribly functioning fountain pen. 

2/5 PENS