The Tactile Turn Gist is an odd pen. Part of it looks new. Part of it looks used. Some it is rough and I had to put grease on the grinding.

I won, for various complicated reasons, a Tactile Turn Shaker after donating money to a veterans’ charity. I liked the pen so much that I bought the larger “Mover” version. Both pens quickly entered my daily use rotation both at work and at home.

Tactile Turn’s signature technique is to grind a spiral texture where the fingers grip the pen. It looks cool and provides a good grip.

When the Kickstarter for Tactile Turn’s first fountain pen launched, I couldn’t resist and ordered one. I chose the version with a polycarbonate body and zirconium grip section and finial because I thought it balanced looks and price.

The Gist on a Rhodia notepad. Note how the body is shinier than the cap. 

Because the Kickstarter was popular, there were some delays, especially when equipment started breaking and suppliers stopped supplying promptly.

When i finally received the pen my reaction was a mix of “that’s cool” and “hmm, that’s peculiar”. The machined polycarbonate cap and body have different looks. The body looks polished and shiny whilst the cap looks flat, as if it hadn’t been polished before being assembled and shipped out.

The two looks of the two parts of the pen.

This is a small thing, and it definitely means I won’t be afraid to use it, but I usually prefer to rough up my own pens rather than having them pre-roughed.

The gold bock nib is pretty good, but I had to straighten the tines slightly.

I thought it might be a bit small, but it’s a comfortable size. Unposted it’s 4.64 inches (117.8 mm). With the cap posted it’s 6.1 inches (155 mm). The cap posts solidly and the pen is light enough it comfortable to use.

The zirconium looks great but makes me wish the pen had a black steel nib rather than a gold nib. The zirconium section is grippy and easy to use.

The Bock nib and the zirconium section and finial.

My only complaints, thus far, are that the threads for the cap are rough. I had to slather some silicon grease on them to smooth them out and eliminate most of the grinding sound.

For a first attempt at a fountain pen, it’s a valiant effort, but I’ll need to use it some more before I can give it a proper review.