Customer Reviews

Bought the pen, then read the review. Did have the initial inkflow problem, but have experienced this before with steel nibs, so decided to 'run it in'. This meant a couple of minutes trying to write on rough paper. No problems with inkflow thereafter, and writes well.

However, decided that a converter was required because of the cost of Zebra cartridges and no substitute cartridges that fitted. Found that a Parker (deluxe version) converter did the job. The cost of these is well above the pen, but a better option than cartridges.

Reasonable value for the price. The pen cost v cartridge cost equation doesn't cut it though.

I have used fountain pens in the past and I am glad to find some not so expensive, Love them.

bought one of these on impulse at the drugstore checkout, don't repeat my mistake!

I am writing a review for a $3.50 pen!

My experience so far? Fine! The pen took the cartridge easily, ink found it's way to the nib in short time, and I never saw any skips. I do not like the hard push and pull required by the snap-on cap, and the finish on the clip and plastic parts is third-rate.

It writes with a medium line, wet ink, and the lines are water-resistant.

I plan on having this pen around as a give-away, or as a FP for the car. Should be easily re-fillable.

I just wrote a review for a $3.50 pen!

This pens have a serious ink flow problem

My friend gave me one of these pens. He'd bought three and had trouble trying to get the ink to flow adequately. I took it home and flushed with dilute soap solution, like I normally do with new pens to flush out any manufacturing residue. After a thorough rinse and drying, I installed the ink cartridge.

Likewise, I couldn't get the ink to flow. Nothing but a faint line of ink would show. I even left it standing nib end down for a couple of hours, and the ink still wouldn't flow.

It looks like a nice pen for the price, but I can't recommend it. The Platinum Preppy delivers more reliable and better service than this. The other Zebra pens work well, but this one doesn't. Sorry.

This pen feels and looks really cheap, and it uses proprietary ink cartridges that only come in watery blue and black. There's no converter available, and it's not a candidate for ED conversion because of the metal body and gigantic hole at the end. Like many others here, I have trouble getting it to write properly.

i grabbed this on a quick office supply run at my local drug store and seeing that it was 3 bucks i thought i'd give it a try. typical zebra look which I like, cap posts with a solid click with no rattling. I had a slight problem getting the ink cartridge to go in all the way at first but once it was in there stayed in with no problem. my only criticism is that it skips rather often and is pretty unforgiving as far as to the position you have to hold it in to write with it, pretty much the same way every time, even if the surface youre writing on is flat. also, its pretty scratchy to write with, which annoys me as I'm really a scribbler and don't like having resistance when I write (you might). that being said, when it does work it lays a nice line and the ink is a nice black. for 3 bucks its a pretty decent fountain pen.

Like the other I have a hard time keeping the ink flowing. I think the air passage is too small.

If you can get it to write, it writes great. Smooth, wet, etc. But as soon as you stop for any longer than about two seconds, the nib is dry and it takes five minutes of shaking, fiddling, and pressing the nib every which way to get the ink flowing again. This would be a great pen if it would allow me to stop and think for a moment before starting on the next paragraph.

I see one glowing review here, but my experience is different. I loaded my pen with one of the supplied cartridges, and it just won't write. I left it nib-down overnight, hoping it would help ink flow, but it's still not working. A pen that puts ink on the page less than 25% of the time isn't much of a pen. This is a shame, since I enjoy several of Zebra's other products.

Well all the statements are true about feed being not reliable. Thats a challange. inserted 2mil piece of brass shim in the nibs slot, squeezed the tips togather with needle nose pliers then used a converter from a Lamay Safari (Tight fit) filled with private reserve DC purple the pen now works flawlessly (did a little nib smoothing too.) NOW the pen is as good as any and actually better than the Lamy the converter came from altogather took about 15 mins to make a perfect little knock-about pen. the flow problem is the ink in the supplied cartridge it is way too saturated with solids. empty the cartridge and refill with private reserve and the flow problem will disappear. In defense of the pen, I have had to do far more work on some really high dollar pen to get then working this good.

DO NOT BUY!

I picked up one of these for $4 at my corner drugstore on a whim. I work at a bank and I'm known for appreciating nice pens - and I've been wanting my own fountain pen for some time. When I saw this I was thrilled, I once used a Zebra M-701 for over a year at my old restaurant job and constantly received complements from customers. I thought the V-301 would be a solid pen that I could use at work instead of the ugly ballpoints which fill my teller window.

I didn't expect a $4 fountain to be amazing, but I did expect it to write. I've been fiddling with this thing for the last 2 days and it will not write a complete sentence without going completely dry. I feel like I'm going to cut through the notebook. I've been able to get ink flowing by twisting the ink cartridge, but it only works for a few more letters. This is my first fountain pen, but I've used them before. If there is something I'm doing wrong, or maybe the nib can be adjusted or something, then I'd love to be educated. In the mean time I'll be saving my pennies for a proper pen.

I bought this on sale at the local CVS. For the price, it seemed like a good risk; can't lose either way. I liked the looks of the pen and I have a Zebra ballpoint that's at least twenty years old that's always held up well. This pen, however, is junk. It's worth the $, I guess, so long as you treat it like a disposeable. The last thing the world needs is yet another size of refill cartridge, and this pen has it's own unique refill cartridge size. Thus, you can't refill it from the giant bag of refills you bought on ebay. You have to use the Zebra, and they're not cheap. In fact, it seems like if you buy the refills, they give you the pen. Also, the refills weren't available at the CVS, only the pen, which is a drag.

Some people complain that the ink flow is not good. I didn't experience that, but then, I didn't use it that much. I didn't really like the way it felt in the hand. My cap posted just fine; nice and tight, despite other's experiences. I think the reason I didn't like it was because it was so light. I normally write with a Pelikan Pelikano, which isn't a heavy pen, either, but the Zebra felt lighter. Also, the nib didn't have enough bite--it just kind of slid along. Also, since you can't put a converter in it, you're limited to the Zebra cartridges, and the black ink that is in them is not a nice dark jet black; it's kind of weak.

What do you want for $2.99? Well, if it took regular cartridges, I might have kept it. But since the cartridge is unique and probably patented or proprietary in some way, you're stuck in the same annoying way that you are with computer printers. The hardware is cheap and nearly free, but the ink is expensive and a pain to get. Perhaps this is Zebra experimenting with "software." The only problem is, it would have to take off in order to work, and it won't. Too bad.

I just picked this up from W*******s, with all these bad reviews in mind, and was somewhat surprised they really carried it. I popped the ink cartridge in, tapped it a couple times on a hard surface (cap-side down), and it wrote. It writes surprisingly well: the nib has a pleasant friction to it, and the ink flows freely for me. I left it uncapped for about a minute and tried writing, it still wrote, which is more than I can ask from a fountain pen. It writes in the expected range of angles for fountain pens (I have quite a few fountain pens). One star off for the styling, however, I don't like the way the pen looks capped. This will replace my "cheap, take anywhere, maybe give away after a while" fountain pen since I gave away my Petit1.

I picked this up on a drugstore run, but like most other reviewers, I wasn't able to get it to do much at all. I wrote four words with it once, all in a row, but then it just stopped. No amount of shaking, rolling, or nib manipulation got a good inkflow. This pen makes me sad.

This isn't a bad pen FOR the $. Still, it can be improved. As Zebra's first entry into the fountain pen, it's not all that bad. The hard part is getting the pen to START WRITING. Once you get the pen to start writing, it flows continually. Very smooth writing afterword.

I too had a bad experience -- unlike the one good reviewer's. It does not want to write for me. It works about 15% of the time.

Wow! I'm really taken with this fountain pen. I bought it on faith when it first showed up on JetPens, without any reviews or cartridges or recommended converters... because what's to lose, for $3.20? It is a pleasantly wet writer, and I would say the nib is between medium and fine. I thought I'd get a standard international converter to fit, but was surprised to find my Platinum converter was the most snug, best fit. (Darn. Of course that one is pricey.) I've been using it for about an hour now with no leaks. The weight and balance are good, and I like the design of the pen. Not fussy. The writing is already rubbing off the metal barrel, but that's fine by me. It's distracting anyway. I am really pleased with this pen, and I hope JetPens will stock more of them soon, because I'm now buying up the last one in stock!

I bought this on impulse from a drug store because I had no idea Zebra made a fountain pen. I love the body; good weight, feels good and it's cushioned, which is something that's hard to find in a fountain pen these days. But it's got terrible ink flow, it skips, the nib dries almost immediately, and I really dislike the wetness and control of the ink. It spreads and feathers too much on the line. The one good thing about the ink; it doesn' smear. I think Zebras got a good start but they really need to fine tune this product a bit.

Avoid: Looks cheap, feels cheap, writes cheap; a waste of money at any price.

It takes weird cartridges and can't be dropper-modded (there's a huge hole at the end of the barrel).

Aesthetically, it's terrible. It's lightweight, the plastic has burrs on it, the grip has uncomfortable knurling, and the screw-in is weird and squeaky. The cap has some kind of spring-action nib-protector that's not well aligned, so even trying to pop the cap on is an unsatisfying chore.

The nib on mine is scratchy and oriented at a funny angle. It quit writing on day two, and never recovered. I'm sure your nib will vary; I can't imagine the quality control on these things is up to a very high standard.

I am experiencing the same skipping problems that other users have. The cartridge requires a lot of pressure to "snap" into place and it never starts up without problems. Even when I pick my pen up to dot an "i" or start the second word of a sentence, it still skips. If you are looking for an inexpensive pen, I would recommend a Plantium Preppy.

I have always preferred to write with fountain pens. What I did with this pen is wrap some black electrical tape around the body to get a good grip i.e a 1/4 inch piece flat (straight around the barrel) at the bottom and the top just beneath the black plastic piece with the hole and then slant wind the tape from top to bottom. .Now my fingers do not slip on the metal body. The next thing I did was to get a syringe for about a dollar and refill the cartridge as it emptied..
I wrapped it with tape because I do not grip the pen at the serrated section but further up on the barrel. It would be great if the serrated black section would be extended up about 2 or so inches but since I have solved my problem, the pen is fine with me. Love it.

I have always preferred to write with fountain pens. What I did with this pen is wrap some black electrical tape around the body to get a good grip i.e a 1/4 inch piece flat (straight around the barrel) at the bottom and the top just beneath the black plastic piece with the hole and then slant wind the tape from top to bottom. .Now my fingers do not slip on the metal body. The next thing I did was to get a syringe for about a dollar and refill the cartridge as it emptied..
I wrapped it with tape because I do not grip the pen at the serrated section but further up on the barrel. It would be great if the serrated black section would be extended up about 2 or so inches but since I have solved my problem, the pen is fine with me. Love it.

I feel like the V-301 is misunderstood and gets a bad rap. Part of its problem is that it's priced and merchandised like a novice pen, and it's not ideally suited for that. I found that mine took several days and a some nib adjustment to overcome its hard starting, but once it was broken in, it actually became quite reliable. My Preppy also took some time to break in, and still doesn't write as well as the Zebra.

The ink is definitely watery and more gray than black. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just not a good thing if this is your only fountain pen.

But if you have multiple pens and you like Zebras, then the V-301 is quite a nice daily writer. Your day won't be ruined if you lose it and it is a much nicer looking pen than the Preppy, Petit1, or especially the Varsity. You may even come to love this pen if you give it a little bit of your time.