Faber-Castell Loom Fountain Pen Review

I’ve made no secret of my love for Faber-Castell fountain pens. The Loom is one of their cheapest and comes in a range of bright and cheery colours. What’s it like?

I was able to get this pen at a discount thanks to Cult Pens’ support of the site. These are my own honest opinions.

This post was edited on 28^th December 2016 to reflect the fact that the nib is available in a range of widths not just medium as I originally thought. Thank you to Michael Simon and notesoflifeuk for letting me know in the comments.

Price: £25
Nib options: medium stainless steel only stainless steel in extra fine, fine, medium and broad
Barrel options: the barrels are all the same silvery colour but the caps come in orange, blue, silver, and violet or, for about £6 extra, piano white, piano black, lime green or plum
Filling system: standard international cartridge/converter
Size: 13cm capped, 12cm unposted, 15cm posted, 1.2cm diameter
Weight: 34g

The Loom’s barrel is incredibly simple. Some might say boring. I would be one of those people. I perhaps has to be because of the jazziness of the cap. Anything other than the plainest barrel would make the combination all too much. Perhaps. But what it means is that if you like to write without posting the cap, you end up writing with a very uninteresting pen.

If you like to post, and when the pen’s capped, it’s a lot more interesting, though. The oversized cap comes in a range of bright and cheery colours such as this orange one. There’s the rather classy Faber-Castell branding on the side and a sprung clip. It makes the pen look fun and modern and the kind of thing people of my advanced years would say appeals to youngsters.

Extra points for using standard sizes cartridges or converters. This opens up a wide range of readily available inks.

The section is a gently terraced shape that provides a comfortable, secure and unobtrusive grip. It’s the same colour as barrel. The Loom’s a very light pen and so feels comfortable in the hand whether posted or not. However, the plastic cap and metal barrel, while being made from the same materials most pens are made from, manage to feel quite cheap. Of course, this is a cheap pen. It doesn’t manage to hide that fact very well.

It might seem I’m being a little down on this pen and it’s true that, for me, it doesn’t come anywhere near Faber-Castell’s Basic, which is a similar price. Perhaps the more conservative nature of the Basic appeals to the more conservative nature of me. However, the Basic manages to feel like a much more luxurious pen than the Loom.

What all Faber-Castell’s fountain pens have in common, though, is the nib. All their pens, from the Basic at £25 to the oak Ondoro at over £100, use the same steel nibs. What is very special about this is that Faber-Castell’s steel nibs, made by Jowo, are just about the smoothest and most reliable around. They are absolutely at home in their most expensive pens and so what you get in the Loom is a beautiful nib for an exceptional price. What a shame, then, that Faber-Castell only offer the Loom with a medium nib.

The Loom isn’t the pen for me because I like to write without posting the cap and I find the barrel just too plain and uninspiring. However, it writes beautifully, uses standard cartridges, and has a colourful cap and a useful clip. I’m trying to resist the urge to say it would be a particularly good pen for children but I can’t: the Loom is a particularly good pen for children. But I don’t want you to feel it’s not for you if you’re a big grown up person. Go wild.

Pros

Excellent nib
Standard cartridge/converter
Good value
Good clip

Cons

Very boring barrel design
Only available with a medium nib