New Pen Review!

Today I will review a great, low-cost pen. It is a Reform 1745. Reform was a German pen maker, which competed pretty much head to head with Pelikan, until Pelikan triumphed and Reform went under. In addition to the 1745, which is a piston filler, occasionally surfacing you might also find a Reform Bremen, which is sort of like a dressed up Sheaffer No Nonsense with a nicer nib. There are a few other Reform models which sometimes surface on eBay as NOS models. The one I am reviewing came to me NOS, with the sticker still on it.



The pen is 12.95 cm (5.1 in) capped, and 14.88 cm (5.86 in) posted in length, and the diameter is 1 cm (.390 in) at the body, and .86 cm (.340 in) at the section. It is a small pen, but not uncomfortable to my large hands (I can span 11 white keys on a piano between my thumb and pinky). The pretty plain green and black gives the pen a businesslike appearance.



The nib, you ask? I was told it is a medium nib; however, the line it writes is smooth, wet, and the same size as my Phileas F and my Pelikan M200 F. And, not only is the nib smooth and wet, but it also has a bit of flex. It is no wet noodle, and you will not get huge shading or line variation, but there is some, which is definitely not common at this price point. The nib unscrews from the section, like a Pelikan nib, but a Pelikan nib does not fit. I have not tested my Reform Kalligraph to see if its nib will fit, because the pen is appreciably larger, and the nib would seem outsized on this smaller pen.



I do not have any way to measure the ink capacity of the pen, but, being a piston filler, it hold appreciably more than your average universal converter. It seems to hold more than my Parker 51 Aero also, and those are noted for large ink capacity.

If you think you might like one of these, I have 6 available, at a cost of $17.50 each, which includes uninsured shipping to the US or UK. You can email me at pensguitarsandcoffee@gmail.com for Paypal instructions, or to check shipping if you are not in US or UK.