Muji Aluminum Fountain Pen Review

Fountain Pen Struggles

I was setting up for a Muji Aluminum fountain pen review and for the first time spilled ink all over my hands. I look like those colloidal silver overdosed people.

This has got to be the fountain pen rite of passage or something. I was trying to fill the pen from a tiny sample bottle of ink that came with some kind of plastic bulb that I couldn’t figure out how to use. It essentially went like this:

Me: (pen doesn’t fit into bottle) uh. uh. um. okay. uh. (tries to fit it again knowing it will not fit. it does not fit.) oh. uh. (stares at bottle and pen) okay. I’m gonna – okay. (searches online and finds nothing) what if I use this plastic bulb thing that it came with? (sprays ink everywhere) OH GOD. okay. OKAY. (frantic wiping) Okay what if I just fill the converter by itself? (lowers it into bottle and the ink displaces EVERYWHERE on the counter) OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. FUCK. UH. OH MY GOD (shuffling in place frantically not knowing what to do)

To cap it all off, one of my cats – Anchovy – jumped on the counter in the middle of all of this, went to step in the puddle of ink, so I lunged at him and grabbed him, and a glass of water spilled all over everything.

It was, in every sense of the word, a clusterfuck.

At one point, King Bacon poked his head into the kitchen, stared at me, and then quietly retreated without a word.

I could go on, but you get the gist.

A tip from me: wear latex gloves, if you have some, when filling a pen.

Why put myself through this?

Some people test out different brands of what they like and then write with those going forward. I did that over a decade ago; I had settled on my favorite gel pen brand, 0.5 mm Inkjoy at the time, and stuck with them. The environmental impact nagged me, though. I write a lot and consequently run through pens every month or so. I know that most environmental damage comes from large corporations at this point, but I still felt guilty about the waste I was generating and that my dollars were supporting it, so I decided to try fountain pens.

Here’s the thing about fountain pens: they’re a niche hobby. I attempted to cruise online pen forums, r/fountainpens, and did what I could on Youtube, but when you’re new to a hobby that is relatively small compared to others, it’s hard to know the nomenclature. I still have no clue what that plastic bulb is that came with my sample ink for filling. None. Zilch. Zero. I don’t even know what keywords to search online, and I’ve tried.
Now that I’ve established how much of an utter beginner I am, here’s my thoughts on the Muji.

Muji Aluminum Fountain Pen Review

I bought the aluminum Muji Aluminum in Extra Fine (EF) point from Amazon as the third “beginner” pen I decided to invest in (I purchased three beginner pens in EF, F, and M). As fountain pens go, it’s not a bad starter and the low price point ($15.28 at the time of writing) makes for a low barrier to entry. It looks wonderful and it is well engineered; everything is precision engineered, as I’ve come to expect from products made in Japan.

I bought the Schmidt Universal Fountain Pen Ink Converter to pair with the Muji since I don’t want to use cartridges with my pens (again – trying to minimize waste and cost) and it works perfectly. It looks great – it’s slimline and stylish – and the all metal appearance adds an air of class to it that you wouldn’t expect from a pen that is less than $16. I’m not a fan of a few key things about it, which I wish I had known in advance.

Texture

One of these is the texture of the brushed aluminum, which actually bothers me. I’m very sensitive to textures as someone with ADHD and the texture on this pen, for lack of better description, makes my hands feel dry. It’s hard to explain, but I have to focus on not paying attention to the texture when I handle it because it makes the skin on the back of my neck crawl. I highly doubt that other people have this issue, but want to mention it for those that may have similar texture responses.

Nib

The EF nib is also relatively scratchy compared to how smooth the other beginner pens I tried, which is the other item I wish I had known in advance. Over time it seems to have grown smoother, though sometimes that scratchiness comes back, and has been very pleasant to write with, so it might have just needed some breaking in. I can say confidently that the Muji EF nib writes in-between a 0.3mm and 0.5mm pen – at least, in my experience.

Ink Flow

Even though it has become smoother, the ink flow isn’t consistent. Sometimes it flows out nicely with a consistent, rich color, and other times it looks quite faint. I have it inked with a lovely ink – Colorverse Mariner 4 – which is a blue-black. It’s a great ink and I have no idea why the Muji flow is so variable with it. It will start out fully saturated and then wane over time until I put the pen down for a while.

Final Thoughts on the Muji Aluminum Fountain Pen

Overall, I think I do recommend the Muji if you’re looking for a stylish introduction into fountain pens. It holds its place as #2 on my list of favorite beginner fountain pens so far (ironic that it has silver when it is a silvery color.)

My list of favorite pens for beginners so far, from most to least favorite:

1. Lamy Safari (review)
2. Muji Aluminum
3. TWSBI Eco (review)

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