Bridging the gap between fountain pens, felt-tips and rollerballs at NSS

Yafa's new Yookers and Monteverde Engage entries at NSS

Pen aficionados know that fountain pens have been making a comeback of sorts over the last few years. At the summer National Stationery Show (NSS) currently underway at New York’s Javits Center, the Yafa pen company, which manufactures and distributes top pen brands, is showing a pair of new models that fill a gap between fountain pens and both rollerballs and felt-tip pens.

Yookers is a new brand for Yafa, that offers a felt-tip that takes either standard fountain pen ink cartridges or refillable fountain pen bottle ink “converters.” The pen comes in inexpensive plastic versions ($12, in three colors, and packaged with both a single cartridge and a converter) as well as three more expensive (around $50) metal versions, which come with converter only. All are available in broad, medium, fine and extra fine points.

“We’ve just launched them here,” said Yafa’s national sales/marketing manager Ross Cameron. “They can take any kind of fountain pen ink, and they’re good for somebody who’s heard a lot about fountain pens—which can be daunting, even though there’s definitely increasing interest in them.”

Cameron noted that fountain pens require some maintenance to keep ink flowing freely, but that Yookers pens are “more straightforward” in this regard.

Meanwhile, Yafa also introduced the Monteverde pen brand’s new “demonstrator” version of its Engage Ink-Ball retractable rollerball pen, which like the Yookers, employs fountain pen cartridges or a converter.

The Monteverde Engage Ink-Ball was initially released in Black Carbon Fiber version, with a Rainbow variant joining it earlier this year. Demonstrator fountain pens, by contrast, are distinguished by their transparent barrels, allowing for visibility of the cartridge or converter, ink and ink feeding system.

“It took a year of planning,” said Cameron of the Engage Demo, explaining that a specially-ordered black converter was required in order to match the other pen parts. But it’s the refillable, non-disposable converter that makes these pens environmentally friendly, he said, and allows the Engage to be filled with some 70 Monteverde fountain pen ink colors—instead of the customary black, blue or red inks limited for regular rollerball pens.

“It provides a crossover bridge for new people to enter the world of fountain pens,” concluded Cameron.

Yookers refillable felt-tip pens