My Thoughts on the Penlux Concerto (I Love It!)

I’ve been making an effort to explore more new-to-me pen brands instead of sticking with my tried-and-tested favourites, and Penlux’s Concerto caught my eye recently. Penlux are a Taiwanese brand who make a range of piston-filler pens, and the Concerto range features collaborations with Lennon Tool Bar, one of my favourite ink brands. That was enough to pique my curiosity, and I took advantage of Muze Pens‘ Black Friday discount to order the Concerto in Amber with its matching Lennon Tool Bar ink, Eternal Tear.

Unboxing the Concerto

The Concerto comes in an attractive golden yellow box along with its matching ink, all wrapped in a black card slipcover. This is a piston-filler so it doesn’t need an included converter, and apart from the ink and instruction/warranty card, there are no other inclusions in the package.

The Penlux Concerto – First Encounters and Vital Statistics

The Concerto is on the short side compared to many of the pens I use; compared to common Jowo-nib pens, it’s significantly shorter than an Esterbrook Estie, a little smaller than a Radius Settimo, and about the same length as an Esterbrook Model J (although the barrel is a little slimmer). It’s about the smallest I can go while finding a pen comfortable, but I do tend to prefer my pens on the large side. As a bonus, it posts easily, which solves any issues with comfort for me.

Stats

• Length, capped: 137mm
• Length, uncapped: 124mm
• Length, posted: 152mm
• Weight, capped: 21.6g
• Weight, uncapped: 16.9g
• Filling system: pistol fill
• Nib: Jowo #6
• Uncapping: 2.5 full turns

The pen is made of a rich translucent brown resin, with subtle swirls and patches of chatoyance; it’s a really lovely pen looks-wise. There’s a trim ring at the end of the section, before the nib, and a cap band marked with the Penlux brand name; all the hardware is gold-toned on the Amber model, and the clip is finished with a rolling ball. The metal piston mechanism and reservoir are faintly visible through the resin, although not to a demonstrator level.

If I have any gripes, it’s that the resin cap on the piston knob isn’t seamless with the rest of the body; on my pen, the pattern doesn’t align with the main barrel, and the metal of the piston knob also makes the resin look lighter here than on the barrel. However, this may be an issue with my pen only. Either way, it’s not a dealbreaker.

The most striking thing about the pen, for me, was how pleasing it is to touch; the deep glossy finish on the resin invites being handled, and it looks much more luxurious than the price tag would suggest.

Like many resin pens in the modern market, the Concerto is fitted for Jowo nibs – branded with Penlux’s logo – and is available in the typical range of nib sizes in gold-toned steel or 14K gold options. The steel nib options will probably cost you around USD 160 for the set, while a gold nib pushes the set price to just under USD 500. The Concerto uses the standard removable Jowo nib unit, so you can swap nibs out quite easily.

Writing with the Concerto

I inked up the Concerto as soon as I received it, with the paired collaboration ink from Lennon Tool Bar – this is Eternal Tear, a rich brown with warm undertones and a bit of shading. (Shown here on Lennon Tool Bar ‘Egret’ paper, a soft and toothy 65gsm paper formulated by LTB to suit shading inks.)

I’ve been using it ever since, and thoroughly enjoying it – enough that I reinked it this month instead of rotating out to a fresh pen and ink as I normally would. I chose the steel flex fine nib, which is a misnomer and is better described as an elastic or soft nib; this is typical of Jowo “flex” nibs, and I knew what I was getting – this is typically one of my favourite steel nibs and the nib on my Concerto was no exception. It wrote smoothly with a bit of bounce, and worked well out of the box with no tweaking required.

It’s worth noting that the section is around 20mm long, perhaps slightly longer, which is relatively long given the pen’s small size – this is longer than an Esterbrook Estie’s grip, for instance. The threads at the base of the section are also quite low-profile with minimal step-down, which means this is likely to be quite comfortable for many users.

In Summary

Pros:

• Well made, with a good writing experience out of the box.
• Attractive and pleasing to the touch.
• Good price, competitive with comparable pens.

Cons:

• Limited availability; Penlux isn’t found in many pen stores.
• Piston knob resin on my pen isn’t seamless with the rest of the body.
• No ink window to check fill levels.

Overall, I’m really happy with my acquisition. The Concerto is a really nice little pen; I’m thoroughly enjoying using it, and it’s definitely left me with a positive impression of the brand that has me eyeing other Penlux pens with some interest.