Tiffany & Co. Sterling Silver Roller Ball Pen Review

Tiffany & Co. Sterling Silver Roller Ball Pen

I received this pen as gift and while it was a lovely gesture, I didn’t like the pen.  Touching a perfectly polished piece of sterling silver was unpleasant for me.  I tried using it but found that I was spending more time polishing it with the robin’s egg blue Tiffany sleeve than actually writing with it.

Recently, upon cleaning out some drawers I found the pen again and started using it.  This time I told myself I wouldn’t endlessly try to polish the pen I would just use it.

The pen is a very simple straight sterling silver cylinder with a clip that has been engraved “T & CO”, “925” (92.5% silver), “1837” (Tiffany’s founding year).  Around the bottom of the cap reads “Tiffany & Co. 925” and “Germany”.

Tiffany & Co. Sterling Silver Roller Ball Pen

The pen weighs 27.4 grams and measures 14cm long and 1cm wide.  This is a pretty thin pen but I have found it comfortable enough to write with for a longer period of time.

Tiffany & Co. Sterling Silver Roller Ball Pen

I believe that this pen is manufactured for Tiffany & Co. by Waldmann of Germany.  The grip section is a seamless resin with a stainless steel (?) point that does not match the sterling silver on the cap and barrel.  It is quite noticeable to me that these two silver colored metals do not match.

Tiffany & Co. Sterling Silver Roller Ball Pen

The Tiffany branded Schmidt rollerball refill writes well but it’s nothing noteworthy.  I am going to see if I can find a fineliner refill for this pen.

Tiffany & Co. Sterling Silver Roller Ball Pen

The more I use the pen the more I like sterling silver as a pen material.  Sterling silver evolves sort of like a urushi lacquer and I like that.

From what I can tell these pens cost about $200 which isn’t a terrible price for solid sterling silver though this isn’t something I would buy for myself but I like it nonetheless.

I think I see a sterling silver Yard-O-Led fountain pen in my future.

S.T. Dupont Liberte Ballpoint Pen Review

I have never been a fan of non-gel ballpoints; the ink is generally inconsistent and not particularly vivid.  I have received ballpoints as gifts on a number of occasions and on a pen blog it would be wrong to ignore them.

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The S.T. Dupont Liberté ballpoint is made from a brass barrel finished in black lacquer (not the more expensive Chinese lacquer S.T. Dupont is famous for) with palladium accents.  The tapered design is elegant and the top of the cap its faceted with “D” in metal.  Even though this is a lower end model for S.T. Dupont it still costs a whopping $480 retail.  The Liberté is a fingerprint magnet and that drives me nuts but the fit and finish is exceptional.

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The Liberté weighs in at 1.16oz which makes it a heavier pen but in my hand it is incredibly well balanced.  The body of the pen attaches to the cap with threading on the INSIDE of the barrel (see below).  To deploy and retract the ballpoint you simply twist the pen.  The twist mechanism is both very smooth and very crisp.

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The ballpoint is an S.T. Dupont branded EasyFLOW Schmidt refill that is unusually smooth.  It is so smooth in fact that I felt inclined to write in my normal cursive-esque hand.  Unfortunately the look of the ink is unusually hideous.  The easyFLOW refill always starts up without delay which is nice but when the ink looks this washed out and faint who really cares?

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With a better refill The S.T. Dupont Liberté would be a great ballpoint pen that quality-wise is superior to many pens in the same price-range (the modern version of the Montblanc Meisterstück and the Cartier Diabolo come to mind).