Tag Archives: Tactile Turn

Tactile Turn Mover and Shaker Pens–Long Term Review

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As with most things in life, you can blame a lawyer for what happened.

Anthony Sculimbrene, of the terrific, and refreshingly honest gear review site EverydayCommentary, hosts a giveaway every May and November. By donating to a cause of his choice, you earn a chance to win bundles of goods assembled from the many items he’s been given for review.

Note: At the time I donated, he was asking people to donate to Wounded Warriors; however, after recent controversy with the group, he’s asked that donations be made to a different organization.

I ended up winning a titanium Tactile Turn Shaker ballpoint pen. I liked the pen enough that  when some others came available on Massdrop around Christmas of 2014, I bought an aluminum version of the slightly longer Mover. (More on that in a minute.)

The pens are machine made in Texas and feature the signature “turn”, a thin machined groove that acts both as decoration and as a tactile grip.

Close up of the "tactile turn" on both pens. (Shaker, top; Mover, bottom.)

Close up of the “tactile turn” on both pens. (Shaker, top; Mover, bottom.)

They are thicker than standard ballpoint pens which, as a fountain pen user, I like a lot, and they also take a significant number of refills which lets them serve as more than one type of pen. The Shaker comes with the Schmidt Easy Flow 9000 refill and the Mover comes the the .38 version of the Pilot G2 refill. I swapped the latter out for .5 refill.

The Shaker is 5.06 inches long and weighs 1.375 ounces (39 grams). The Mover is 5.55 inches long and, being made of black anodized aluminum, weighs only 1.128 ounces (32 grams).

The Mover (top) and the Shaker (bottom).

The Mover (top) and the Shaker (bottom).

Although I don’t pocket carry them, they have served as part of my everyday work kit almost every day since I got them. The black anodizing has held up well and the only scratches on the titanium of the Shaker were a result of my own stupidity. (For the record, I don’t blame a lawyer for that.)

The only trouble I had was with the Mover. The Schmidt push button mechanism had a distinct grinding noise when it was pushed and once every dozen uses it would lock up and have to be pushed again to free it. Will Hodges, the owner of Tactile Turn, sent me a replacement, but I’ve always felt those were the weakest link in the design.

Also, I have some trouble with the naming convention. Although they are variations of the same pen, they have different names.  Trying to remember which pen is the Mover and which pen is the Shaker frequently sends me back to the internet or to my notes. I often wish they’d been named something like the Shaker and the Shaker L. (Yeah, yeah, I know: Small = S = Shaker and Massive = M = Mover but so what?)

They will stay in my pen case for a long time, but, unfortunately, supplies are limited if you’re interested in getting one. Because of the problems with the Schmidt mechanism, Hodges has decided to discontinue the pens and instead produce a new pen design with an in-house designed and built mechanism.

The new pens look great and I’ve already ordered one via Kickstarter. I blame a lawyer for that.

 

Tactile Turn Gist Fountain Pen–Initial Impressions

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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.

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.

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.

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.