Stipula Passaporto Fountain Pen Review
29 February 2016
The Stipula Passaporto is a very small pocketable fountain pen. I picked up mine from Massdrop and it’s a slightly different version to the one you can find elsewhere. This version has threading on the end of the barrel so the cap can be screwed on to post: the usual version doesn’t have this and the cap is prone to falling off. Also, apparently, the section and threading is stronger on this version, a reproduction of Stipula’s original design.
Price: I paid $65 for this pen on Massdrop
Nib options: fine, medium, 0.9mm italic
Barrel options: blue, red, clear
Filling system: standard short cartridge or eye-dropper
Size: 9.2cm long capped, 8.8cm long uncapped, 12.5cm long posted; 1cm diameter
Weight: 14g
This is a short pen. Capped, it’s nice and compact. It’s an awkward short fat shape unposted. Even when posted it’s none too long, though comfortable enough for short periods of writing. Unfortunately it’s fiddly getting the cap to screw on.
There’s no clip, which I prefer with pocket pens. The Stipula logo acts, just about, as a roll stopper.
I used my pen as an eye-dropper. There are o-rings that form a tight seal but being a coward I also put a little silicon gel on there. It’s always fun to see ink sloshing about in the barrel of a pen but, to my eye, the plastic of this pen looks very cheap and it doesn’t make for an altogether topnotch ink sloshing experience. Stipula went for a frosted kind of effect but I don’t think it works.
The steel italic nib on this pen is smooth but very dry. I’m not the only person to have found this. I tried it with a few different inks and although some are better than others, it’s always too dry to be much fun. Other nib sizes may bring more joy. (I’ve seen some people absolutely love their Passaportos.)
This pen was disappointing. It looks cheap, the cap is a pain to post (and post it you must, given its size) and the nib is dry. Approach with caution.
Pros
Cute little pocketable design
Standard cartridge or eye-dropper filler
Cons
A pain to post
Cheap looking plastic
Very dry nib
That’s a shame – these were very popular on FPN back when I was a regular lurker there, and the solid coloured versions looked very nice indeed.
I bought two Stipula Passaportos when Massdrop first (re-)released them, and was very happy with both – though admittedly, I had to put a bit of work into the italic to get it to flow. Now it’s one of my wetter pens. Sorry your experience has been so disappointing – other than that, though, your summary of the pen (both pros and cons) would match up with mine pretty closely!