Parker Urban Duo Gift Set with Ballpoint Pen & Fountain Pen| Muted Black with Gold Trim | Blue Ink Refill & Cartridge

By comparing this 'Urban' pen with my older 'Cross' fountain pen I can only surmise that Parker are further ahead with this technology - I found the quietly elegant appearence of the pen underlines a complex, 'ergonmically sound' design; I love the balance of the pen, the pen grip distance from the nib, the satisfying metallic weight of the pen (with the cap placed snugly at the end of the barrel) - all of which serve to support accurate, expressive and smooth writing.The superior (cf 'Cross') writing experience improves with the quality of the paper used, but this is a minor point for me as I had excellent results on both a 'pukka jotta pad' and my journal.The flow of ink through the fine nib is managed signicantly better than my outgoing 'Cross' fountain pen - the colour of the ink can now be better appreciated and the ink lasts longer, compartively. The fine nib provides a sharp, clean yet vivid writing experience with the stainless steel nib underpinning a smooth, free-flowing writing style. I clean my own regularly before refilling the cartridge, as such I rarely have a patchy ink flow experience. When I haven't used the open for several days I do have to press slightly (and I do mean slightly) harder to invigorate the ink flow, but once it starts flowing I haven't experienced any problems.In an age where we are remembering how to better protect our planet, a fountain pen makes sense.When I purchased the pen it was available at a modest discount, which gives an acceptable cost/performance ratio - for me. I use it with a dedicated, twist action, refillable cartridge and Parker's blue/black ink.I have updated this review (Dec 2020) after using the pen frequently over the past year. So far it's still proving to be a lovely experience and, when writing, I genuinely get a little thrillas I use my Parker Urban fountain pen.Heartily recommended, a year on.

Have missed not having a fountain pen after I dropped my really nice Waterman Expert fountain pen a few years ago. Decided I could not afford over £100 so went for this Parker Urban fountain pen at under £25 and what a bargain.The pen has a high quality feel and writes so smoothly that I would recommend to anyone as an everyday writer that looks like it should cost a lot more than it does.

A lovely pen , feels nice to use , only down side is you can’t put the lid on the other end of the pen whilst in use . A small biggie but otherwise a lovely pen .

Bought as a gift for the wife, she likes fountain pens, so do I but every time I go to mine the ink has been used, she loves the colour of the pen don't know if she has used it yet but mine has been hidden😆

This arrived very promptly & so far, I love it. I have pink Parker cartridges and the pen itself is a really lovely rich raspberry colour. It's lovely to use and the ink flow has been great so far. It's a beautiful thing and great value for a well balanced, solid feeling pen. It has a fine nib, which is exactly what I was after.

After a couple of months of use the black lacquer under the clip has already started to flake off. Another niggle is the nib often dries up and I end up dipping it in water to get it flowing again.

I often receive compliments from people who usually look stunned, before asking how much I paid for it. The ink is very good quality although since buying new ink (cheap black Parker cartridges) the ink dries up frequently, although this is probably the fault of the ink rather than the fountain pen.

Smooth, and holds better than previous version. However, would be even better if it is metal mid-section.Sometimes the ink skip because of rough paper, but other times it’s because it runs out of ink; can’t really see the ink level when uses really dark black. However, it writes smoothly again once the ink is refilled.