If you believed, they put a man on the moon
The Moonman M2 eyedropper fountain pen has been attracting quite a bit of interest recently, so I thought I’d join the bandwagon and find out what the fuss was about. In trying to write this post, it has has turned into a bit of a hybrid of a review and an account of my first encounter with the world of eyedropper pens. Please read on to find out how I got on with it.
My Chinese pen history
Chinese fountain pens are cheap and widely available. I own a number of them. Aside from the amazingly bonkers Snake pen, made by Jinhao, most of mine are copies or derivatives of western pens. Despite being fuelled by naive optimism, none of them have had much merit beyond being cheap to buy. To give one example I brought a Baoer copy of a Starwalker. The nib is reasonable enough, but sadly it’s more Mont Clonk than Mont Blanc, requiring a prodigious amount of plumber’s PTFE tape to make the section and barrel fit together. Of the other Chinese pens that I own, all of them have needed a tweak or two to make work well. At the prices you pay for these pens, you’re not going to get much in the way of quality control, but the flip side is that it’s a real lottery as to whether you get a good ‘un or a dud.
Thankfully that might be starting to change. Frank Underwater has done some great work to highlight and introduce a new wave of Chinese pens that seem to be challenging stereotypes and injecting design and quality along the way. The Moonman M2 is one such of these…
Eyedroppers
In case you didn’t already know it, an eyedropper is a pen that has no filling mechansim. The barrel itself holds the ink, giving you a much higher ink capacity than a pen that fills by a piston or converter. Ever since I came across the concept, I’ve been slightly unnerved about trying one. Most seem to be conversions of standard fountain pens and depend on how well you can seal the joint between the section and barrel. In the same vein, I’ve never understood why you’d want to do this with a pen where you can’t see the ink. Fine if your pen is transparent or translucent, but otherwise, why bother? Surely part of the point is to be able to see your ink of choice sloshing about (and know when it’s about to run dry)?
Is it a demonstrator if there’s no filling mechanism to ‘demonstrate’?
I’m also very fickle and like to switch inks around on a regular basis. Having a huge ink capacity is not necessarily a bonus – it just means I have to write a lot more before I can change ink.
The ‘open-plan’ approach also means that while you can vastly increase ink capacity, failure of the seal means a lot of spilt ink! Thankfully there seem to be more pens coming out that are intended to be eyedroppers from the outset. As a result these come equiped for the purpose. The Moonman M2 falls into this category, being made of transparent acrylic and set up to be an eyedropper from the outset.
On to the pen itself.
Presentation
In keeping with the clean and simple design of the pen, it comes with a perfectly presentable cardboard sleeve which sports the Moonman logo. It contains a case made of similar plastic to the one that you get with a TWSBI Eco. The box contains a striking red foam insert into which are cut slots for the pen and a glass eyedropper. The pen fits snugly, meaning it can be a bit of a struggle to extract, but that’s no big deal. If you’re anything like me, that’s the last time the pen will see the box anyway.
I was too keen to try the pen out and forgot the unboxing shot until after I’d filled the pen. I hope you like red.
Size and shape
The Moonman M2 is basically a classic, pointy-ended torpedo shape. Absence of a clip enhances the clean lines. I’d call it medium-sized in terms of length and diameter, coming in at around 14cm long when capped and 13mm in diameter, with a screw cap (no clip). Being made of plastic, it’s not too heavy. My not-very-accurate kitchen scales tell me that it weighs in at 14 grammes. To put it in a more real-world context, it’s similar in proportion to a Lamy 2000, just a lot pointier.
The nib is a fairly standard looking gold-esque #5, stamped with the immortal words “Iridium Point Germany”. It’s probably meant to inspire confidence that you’re getting a certain level of quality, but it always makes me think someone is trying too hard to make the point.
Look and feel
I really like the clean, sleek looks of the M2. Coupled with the way the acrylic has been milled, it looks very smart. In place of finials and end caps you get tapered, polished acrylic, which catches the light nicely.
Catching some rays with Diamine Firefly
The other thing of note in the appearance of the Moonman M2 is a bright red anodised ring which bears the company’s name. This won’t be to everyone’s taste, and some will argue that it interferes with the overall clean look of the pen. I quite like it and certainly don’t find it offensive. This marks the step-down from the barrel to the section. Because of the overall proportions of the pen, this is quite moderate and the threads for the cap are also fairly unobtrusive. I’ve had no issues of discomfort when holding the M2.
It’s a Moonman, in case you were wondering
Filling
Not surprisingly, filling this pen is pretty straightforward. Put some ink in the barrel and that’s about it. The key thing to remember is that everything needs to be done ‘upside down’ to avoid messy accidents and spills. Keep things ‘nib up’ until the whole thing is assembled. I haven’t tried the glass pipette (eyedropper) that came with the pen, preferring to use a syringe. I’ve no reason to doubt that the eyedropper works, but I prefer the control you get with a syringe.
You can get a good 2.5ml of ink into this pen without any trouble, although there’s probably a little bit more headroom to be had. The top of the section protrudes into the barrel when you assemble the pen, so if you’re over-enthusiastic with the filling you may find yourself re-acquainting yourself with the principles of Archimedes and with ink everywhere! I’ve erred on the side of caution and managed to avoid that so far.
It’s probably the right point to talk about Leak Prevention System. OK, there isn’t a system as such, but the Moonman M2 does come with two silicone O-rings installed to keep the ink where it’s meant to be. One is around the top of the section, where it screws into the barrel and the other at the top of the nib unit.
The second O-ring is very fine, so you will need to keep a particularly close eye on it if you remove it for any reason. I took it off mine and put it on a piece of kitchen paper (white, textured background – brilliant thinking). I then spent several minutes trying to work out where I’d put it!
Spot the O-rings. (If I had remembered to draw in some arrows, they’d be easier to see!)
In use
I wasn’t certain whether the O-rings would be enough to seal the pen, so my first fill of the M2 was with water. I left the pen nib-down overnight and was pleased to find that there was no hint of any leakage. Buoyed up by this, I took the plunge and inked the M2 with Sailor Jentle Yama-dori. It didn’t take much more than a couple of inversions and gravity to prime the feed and start the pen writing.
The Moonman M2 is available with two choices of nib size – 0.38 or 0.5mm. These sizes equate roughly to extra fine or fine. Given how much nib sizes vary in reality, I love the aspiration that nibs can be produced to this level of precision.
I chose the 0.5mm option and it’s a pretty solid fine. It’s not the smoothest nib I’ve ever used, but I wouldn’t say mine was scratchy either. I might try smoothing it out a little at some point, but for now I’m happy enough the way it is. I’ve had no issues at all with skipping or hard starts, so all good there. Opinion seems to be generally favourable about the quality of the nibs on the M2, and my experience backs that up.
I’ve written a fair number of pages now on Tomoe River, Clairefontaine and TWSBI paper and the M2 has performed pretty well on all of them.
Testing the Moonman M2 – Sailor Jentle Yama-dori on Tomoe River
Cleaning
One potential concern about a pen like this is whether it will be easy to clean and how likely it is to stain. So far, no problems. I cleaned out the Yama-dori I first inked the M2 with and the barrel cleaned up with no issues at all. The nib and feed took a bit more work, but came out with a clean bill of health. A bulb syringe is a helpful tool for this. Ditto the section, although the O-ring on this could have a tendency to trap ink, so might need particular attention. I’ve since filled the M2 with Diamine Firefly and again the pen cleaned up after this without issue. I’ve currently got it inked with Diamine ASA Blue and all looks good so far.
Price and availability
The M2 cost me £12.98 on eBay including shipping from China. The US price is just shy of $16, so pretty comparable. There are some being re-sold from the UK, but at around twice the price I paid. Delivery took just over a week, which was more than acceptable.
Overall impressions
The Moonman M2 is a great pen in its own right, and wipes the floor with all the other Chinese pens I’ve tried. Factor in the price and it’s an absolute bargain. I love the design, materials and the quality of the finish. As a first choice for an eyedropper I certainly could have done a lot worse. I don’t really need a pen that can hold this much ink, but I’ve enjoyed being distracted by the sight of ink sloshing around in it. The way the acrylic refracts/reflects light, really adds to the overall effect. As a bonus, it’s certainly helped overcome my concerns about using eyedroppers. All I have to do now is remember to handle it differently to all my other pens!
Gratuitous ink shot
Slightly unnerved 