I Really Tried with the Ensso Bolt

I really tried with this pen. I gave it several chances, but after this last time, it still dried up somehow, and I'm not inclined to continue using it.

First, let me talk about the good aspects of the pen.

• I appreciate Ensso doing something different with a retractable fountain pen. There aren't many out there currently. The major ones are from Pilot, Platinum, and Lamy. They work similarly to non-fountain pens that either have a knock, or a twisting mechanism to extend or retract the pen tip. The bolt-action mechanism is definitely different.
• The pen has a simple construction and design. The Bolt has a very EDC-feel which will appeal to many with a minimalist style.
• The nib is smooth and well-tuned. The nib itself looks similar to the nib used in something like the Wing Sung 601 I bought a long time ago, but the feed construction appears different.

My personal preferences that don't mesh with the pen design:

• The pen body is quite narrow and has no curves or anything to provide a more ergonomic shape. This is intentional design on their part, but for me, it doesn't feel as comfortable to write with as a pen with a curved or thicker grip. Combined with the lightness of the pen, it feels like it might get away from me sometimes.
• I'm not a fan of the bolt mechanism. It does not feel smooth to me, and the extra lateral sliding you have to do to lock it into place feels extraneous compared to a simple knock. Of course, compared to the twisting mechanism of a Lamy Dialog CC that you need two hands to operate, it may be a wash, but even that twisting mechanism is one smooth, consistent motion, not sliding along a J-shaped path, back and forth.
• Since the nib housing moves freely in the pen body, it does not stay aligned with the bolt mechanism after you close up the pen. Ensso has instructions on how to twist the extended nib after closing up the pen to align it, but after trying to fix it once or twice, I resigned myself to it not remaining aligned.

These issues are things I could get used to after using the pen for a while. I'm fairly certain of that. But I won't have a chance to get used to them because there is a major problem with the pen that made me stop using it at all: It does not stay inked and working as expected. Leaving it sitting unused for a day or two or more will dry out the nib and require either rinsing the nib off to get it going again, or priming the feed, which has its own annoyances that I'll get to.

The first time I inked the pen, I used Herbin Vert de Gris, which is not the wettest ink, but not the driest, either. It's a pretty, dusky, gray-green shading ink. The pen seemed okay at first, and as I mentioned before, the nib was smooth and nicely tuned.

During the first writing session with the Bolt, I was in a video call, taking occasional notes, but I was fidgeting with the bolt mechanism, sliding it back and forth, partially to get it to smooth out, as Ensso mentioned it would over time, and partially because it is like a fidget toy. Who doesn't like playing with the knock on a retractable pen? 😀 After a bit of playing with the pen like that, the nib refused to write. It's like it dried out completely, and I had to open it up to try to prime the nib.

Here's where one of the design decisions for the Bolt is kind of questionable for me: When you open the pen, you're sliding the nib unit out, nib first, so if you touch it, you may get ink on your fingers. I ended up slowly sliding it out, nib down, catching the tip with the paper I was writing on, and grabbing the nib housing further up where it meets the converter. This is inconvenient, especially with how many times I had to open the pen up and fix the dried out nib. 😒

Since scribbling on the paper didn't get the ink flowing again, I tried priming the feed. When I prime feeds generally, I hold the pen nib up and I watch the feed as I slowly twist the converter piston so I can see when the ink starts to creep up into the visible part of the feed. But the design of the Bolt's nib housing has a secondary hole beneath the breather hole in the nib, and it's on top of the feed, not the underside which I usually look at while priming.

So ink started coming out of the secondary hole instead of where was looking, and it dripped onto the nib unit and the paper beneath the pen. Luckily the paper caught the ink spillage. In subsequent tries to prime the feed, no matter how slowly I would twist the converter piston, ink would spill unexpectedly out of that secondary hole (even though I was actually looking at it instead of the feed), making a mess of things, especially since the ink (no matter what ink) tended to stick/stain the nib unit, even if you wipe with a dry cloth right away. I did eventually realize that if I hold the nib downwards while I prime the feed, a drop of ink wouldn't accumulate at the second breather hole. But I found that out right before I cleaned out the pen for good. 😐

Getting back to the main point, I primed the nib and got it working again. Because I have many pens inked at once, the Ensso Bolt was often left unused for a day or more at a time. And almost each time I tried to use it after sitting idle for a while, it was dried out. The silicone seal appeared to be sealing fine; when I looked at it with light shining behind it, I only saw the smallest pinprick of light, which indicated to me that the seal was basically intact. Regardless, this pen kept drying out after lying idle.

I briefly filled the Bolt with Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-Guri. I thought perhaps a much wetter, well-behaved ink might fare better at keeping the nib working, but that didn't make a difference. It worked fine when I first inked it, but after being unused for a short while, it still dried up. 🙄

So I tried filling the pen with a specific ink formulated not to dry out, even if you leave your pen uncapped for long periods of time: Private Reserve Infinity Ink in Infinity Violet. I thought for sure this would solve the problem, but I was still annoyed because I didn't want to be limited to using specific inks with this pen. It also didn't help that I'm not really a fan of Infinity Violet because it lacks shading or any other fountain pen inky attributes to differentiate it from, say, a pigment marker ink.

My initial annoyance was premature, because after a couple consecutive days of seemingly working fine, somehow the pen dried out again after a few days of not being used. I gave it a couple chances with this ink. I would get the pen working, and it would be fine if I checked it the next day, but if I let it sit for a couple days or more, ink would dry out onto the nib tip and it would not write. Sometimes it seemed like after wiping the gunk off it would start writing again, but only for a few strokes, then it completely stopped writing and would not restart without priming. I think the silicone seal contributed to the "gunkage" because ink would likely get on the inside of the seal, dry up, and then layers of it would seem to get deposited on the nib tip as it breached the seal. That's my theory, at least.

So that's it for me and the Ensso Bolt. I gave it several chances with 3 different inks over a few weeks. It should not take this much effort to keep a pen in working order. Perhaps if you're the kind of person who consistently uses one fountain pen every day, the Bolt would not give you as much trouble. But if you tend to leave pens idle for a while, I'm guessing your experience may be similar to mine.

BTW, I did not try to put a different silicone seal onto the pen. Even if this would help, I'm wary that it would make much of a difference, considering the seal design is the same. In the best scenario, perhaps it works for a while, but after the wear and tear of the nib breaching the seal multiple times, I assume the seal would start to lose its efficacy, but don't take my word for it. Again, it's my theory, given what I've observed so far.

I would still be interested in other models from Ensso. Their more traditional styles of fountain pens look pretty nice, especially the cigar-shaped ebonite model. But unfortunately, the Bolt is not for me. I'm curious if they will come out with a second version of the pen that addresses some of these concerns. I would check it out. It's good to keep an open mind and give second chances.

Do you have an Ensso Bolt? How have your experiences been with it? I'd love to hear your stories, either here (I'd love to have you as a regular subscriber!) or on Mastodon.