Review: Edison Pearlette

The Numbers:
Weight: 18g
Length (capped): 131.7mm
Length (uncapped): 120.6mm
Price: USD$150 from various retailers
Body Material: Acrylic
Nib Material: Stainless steel
Filling Mechanism: Cartridge and converter or eyedropper
Colours: Various

Intro:
Picture this, I was overseas in Hong Kong. It was late at night. I was browsing Instagram on the hotel wifi. I saw a sales post there. My eye was instantly drawn to the two Edison Pearlette fountain pens on sale. “No!” I told myself. “No, impulse buying.” I slept on the decision and promptly emailed the seller for either of the two Edison Pearlette with a perference for the one with the F nib. Can you imagine trying to co-ordinate a purchase over email while travelling. Long story short, I wasn’t able to purchase the one with the F nib and picked up this particular Edison Pearlette instead.

Performance:
The Edison Pearlette is a custom acrylic fountain pen made by Edison Pen Company. They are a custom pen company who also makes a line of production pen available at various retailers. The Pearlette is one such signature line fountain pen.

The Pearlette is not a large pen. The body reminds me of the Nakaya Piccolo but with a taper towards the end of the barrel. You cannot go wrong with this pen body shape. It is one of my favourites. Comparing the length of the Pearlette to the Piccolo, they are the same length but the girth of the Piccolo is wider than the Pearlette’s. This is one of the problems I have with the Pearlette but more on that later. Being made of acrylic, the Pearlette is a light pen. The particular acrylic used for this Pearlette is the Flecked - Aztec Gold Flake, it is a beautiful brown and orange specked material. At times, under the right light, it would seems as if the pen is glowing from within. Pairing it with a gold clip is the best choice. The acrylic is machined and hand finished to such a thinness, especially on the cap, you can see through the material! The workmanship on the Pearlette is flawless

The gold clip is a simple tapered one that has a decent amount of flexibility to it. The cap comes about 1 and 3/4 revolutions. The turning is smooth and easy. The cap can be posted to extend the length of the Pearlette. Now this is something I wouldn’t ever do on my Nakaya pens. Back to the Pearlette, the grip section is where I have the most problem with this pen. It is way too narrow even for me to hold it comfortably. I understand that this is meant to be a small fountain pen but the girth doesn’t have to be sacrificed right? Personally this is a deal breaker for me. I can’t write for long periods with the Pearlette without feeling uncomfortable. However, that’s just me so your mileage may vary. The Pearlette takes a standard international cartridge and converter plus it can be turned into an eyedropper pen, thanks to the acrylic body. If you turn it into an eyedropper pen, the ink capacity just went off the roof.

Next comes my next problem with my particular Pearlette, it was sold with a #5 two-toned stainless steel EF nib by JoWo. However I think the seller might have modded the nib previously. The nib wrote very very dry when it first arrived. I begged a local pen shop for help and they managed to straightened the nib. It improved the flow dramatically but not enough for my liking. I mean it is a simple fix of buying another nib for the pen. However with the grip being the way it is, I think it is rather pointless for me to keep the pen.

Conclusion:
The way the pen wrote was no fault of the Pearlette’s design but I just wished the grip section is wider. If it was the same width as the Nakaya Piccolo’s, I think the Pearlette would have been a great alternative to the Piccolo. Of course, I don’t think Edison Pen Company would have to copy the Piccolo’s design without adding their signature touch to it. It is a conundrum but as the Pearlette is now I can say it is not a pen for me.

Pros: