For those unfamiliar with Drillog, it’s a Japanese CNC-machined dip pen designed to look like a drill (hence the name) and advertised as being machined with “aircraft grade precision” (hence a hefty price tag). The pen launched last year on Kickstarter, and with as much hype as this product received, I couldn’t NOT back it. I’ve had my Drillog machined dip pen in hand for a few weeks now, and wanted to provide my initial impressions of this niche product that, while certainly interesting, I unfortunately can’t recommend until the manufacturer either works out the quality control issues or provides additional clarity on what ink and/or techniques need to be used to get the advertised performance.
As a preliminary note, I backed this product on Kickstarter and paid full price for it with my own money. I was not asked to review it or promote the Kickstarter in any way. You’re reading this as an unvarnished review from someone whose information comes from personal experience and the Kickstarter page, with no communications with the manufacturer.
My experience with dip pens and calligraphy is rudimentary at best, so I came to the Drillog as a true novice, and mainly saw this as a tool that could help me sample inks and experience writing with more “high-maintenance” formulations without having to worry about cleaning them out of a fountain pen. I was especially intrigued by Drillog’s claim that a single dip can “fill a sheet of A4 paper with writing lines”, even though I could never really see myself actually using it for that long of a session. So does Drillog live up to the hype and promise? In short, no.
The top two writing samples were done with Ink Institute’s “Cat at Dawn,” a shading ink that’s on the watery side. The top paragraph was written with the Drillog, and I circled in red the two points at which the nib ran dry and I had to re-dip the pen. The middle paragraph was written with a glass pen, using the same ink. The last paragraph was written with Noodler’s Blue, a slightly thicker, more saturated in that performed better, but I still didn't get close more than a quarter page.
“Ink Retention Structure for Uninterrupted Writing”: I’ll start here because this is what drew me to the Drillog in the first place. I write very small and like to take notes and make annotations in tiny handwriting, so there was something attractive about the (theoretical) ability to quickly switch inks and play around with different colors in my journals and notebooks without having to flush and refill multiple fountain pens. And to be honest, the Drillog does allow you to do that, to a point. My issue is that despite testing a half-dozen inks with this thing, I’ve never been able to get more than a quarter page of writing out of the .5mm Drillog, much less the full “A4 page” touted by Shion, the manufacturer. That’s similar to what I get out of a $25 glass dip pen, which writes a much wetter line and lays down more ink. I’ve also experienced consistent hard starts and other problems with getting my Drillog to write, often having to dip the pen multiple times to get it started. Upon close inspection, the tip of my pen appears ever-so-slightly bent or curved, and one side of the pen won’t write at all because ink doesn’t flow through the grooves. While I plan to reach out to Shion to request a replacement (or an explanation), I’m disappointed something like this made it through QC at this price point.
The drill-bit-like grooves in the nib are designed to hold a large volume of ink and, theoretically, allow you to write for a full A4 page before having to re-dip the nib. I’ve been unable to duplicate that in real life.
Ability to Use All Sorts of Inks and Easily Change Them. Drillog doesn’t expressly represent that the pen is intended to be used with fountain pen inks, but let’s be honest, that’s why many people ordered this pen and there needs to be more transparency around what users can reasonably expect. Jacob (writing at Fudefan) has done more extensive testing with the Drillog, and remarked that the nib appears to be sensitive to surface tension/ink viscosity, with certain inks performing better than others. Drillog also has a proviso on the Kickstarter page stating that “the area that can be written on may change due to the ink drying up.” I don’t know what they’re specifically referring to here, since there’s no context for the statement, but I suspect that because many fountain pen inks are water-based, with varying degrees of viscosity, surface tension, and saturation, thinner ink formulations may dry out on the nib before you have the chance to write the nib dry. This could be the source of the issues I’ve had with my pen, though I suspect that it has more to do with a manufacturing issue given the hard starts and scratchiness. Given the massive discrepancy between what I’ve experienced and what was advertised, I can’t get past that, especially where I can get similar performance in a less expensive product.
Performance aside, the Drillog is visually stunning, and a gorgeous piece of machining.
Comfortable and Convenient Nib Holder. I give credit where credit is due, and one area where Drillog did a nice job was the design of the nib holder. I opted for the longer round barrel, as opposed to the spiral or grooved designs, and I love the cap, which means that I can transport this dip pen easily to pen shows. Honestly, this is why I’ll probably hang on to the Drillog - so that I can sample different inks after hours in my pen show notebook. That said, you can find inexpensive capped glass dip pens by Moonman and other brands for much less money, and even if you have to buy a few to find one that works reliably, you’ll have spent much less money than on the Drillog.
Takeaway and Final Thoughts
I hate to say it, but I consider the performance of my Drillog dip pen to be unacceptable for the price. At ¥25,692, which equates to roughly $225 at today’s exchange rate, that’s a huge premium for a dip pen that promises performance based on precision engineering - the source of the astronomic price tag - but fails to deliver a writing experience consistently better than much less expensive options. If I paid $50 for this pen, I might say it was “ok” and recommend that people pick it up if they’re interested in using it for testing inks or are looking for a machined dip nib with a very small tip that might be advantageous for certain types of lettering and other artwork requiring a great degree of precision. That said, I’m not sure what this offers the typical writing and ink enthusiast over a glass pen or inexpensive traditional XXF calligraphy nibs, other than the Drillog will last much longer and comes with a capped holder (which is quite cool).
This purchase was intended as an experiment, and I went into it suspecting the Drillog would likely not live up to the lofty promises, having read a handful of online reviews and comments similar to my own. Still, I expected more than this. I’ve also had the opportunity to test a handful of early-release “tester” Drillogs sent to other bloggers and reviewers, all of which worked much better than the one I received. That leads me to suspect that these review units were subjected to a higher level of QC testing than the ones that ultimately went out the door to paying customers, which is disappointing. A quick scan of the comments on the Kickstarter page confirms that I’m not the only one who’s had problems. I’ll be keeping on eye on Shion and Drillog to see if there are manufacturing tweaks made to a “version 2.0”, and whether they offer to take back any malfunctioning pens. So far, I’ve not seen any outreach in the Kickstarter comments.
UPDATE: Following this review, Drillog reached out, confirmed that it looks like something is wrong with my pen from the writing sample, and offered to send a replacement. I plan to take them up on it and will report back on how the new nib functions.
Disclaimer: As noted, I purchased the product featured in this review with my own funds, for my own personal use. All opinions expressed here are my own. This post does not contain affiliate links, and I was not compensated in any way for this review.