[Pen Review] The TomBow Zoom 505 BW
I apologize for the delay on this one… I actually wrote way back around Christmas. We just got the pictures taken last week. D’OH…
My Christmas Pen Haul continues with the TomBow Zoom 505 BW. My wonderful husband ordered me this pen in the purple aluminum. He also ordered me the matching pencil – but I’ll review the pencil separately.
First off, the TomBow is a very nice cigar-shaped barrel. It’s a solid pen with a little less heft than the LAMY. My Zoom 505 BW combines the shiny sleekness of the purple aluminum with a black rubber, ergonomic grip and chrome/silver hardware and accents. It’s a pretty pen. It really is. The pen comes with .07mm gel ink that’s a little more difficult to refill than one might think. TomBow has a proprietary short ink refill which won’t really allow for “adapting” another type of refill – say my favorite Pilot G2 ink – to fit the barrels. Which makes long-term use a little more inconvenient. I haven’t found the ink refills available at the major office supply retailers – just online sources like JetPens and Goldspot. 
The ink itself comes in three point sizes: .05mm, .07mm. and 1.0mm in red, blue, and black. Though unimaginative in color choices, the ink itself is all I would like to see in gel ink and a rollerball nib. The lines are crisp and clean – no feathering, and very little scratching. The ink is smooth and dark with little or no skipping or stuttering. It’s a good quality ink. Though in the future, any refill will be in .05mm – in writing, the finer the point, the better. At least for me.
The TomBow is a good pen. It really is, but it’s not my favorite. There is too much of a change between the grip and the nib…there’s a distinctive ledge that digs in – if a writer is like me and tends to shift one’s grip up down as well as around the pen. The barrel is also almost too wide for my grip, not quite but right there on the edge.
That won’t keep me from using the TomBow. I will. It’s a decent, serviceable pen for short-term use. It wouldn’t be my first choice for hours of long-hand writing – not unless I learn to hold a pen in one position and leave it there, and I don’t see that happening any time soon.
I give it 3.5 out of 5 Bronze Pencils.
