A few days ago, I made a post about my everyday carry things. In that post, I mentioned some pens I am using right now. Just for fun, I thought we'd look more at the three pens I mentioned in that post in three separate posts.
Up first... the Diplomat Viper.
Diplomat Viper
I bought this a few years ago because it looked fairly conservative and therefore could be used in a Japanese office without raising too many eyebrows, but also because it wasn't the standard black cigar-shaped Mont Blanc design that virtually all fancy pens imitate. The snakeskin pattern on this pen is genuinely striking and feels nice in the hand.
It has a magnetic cap, which turns out to be more fun than it sounds. The magnet isn't so strong that you would have difficulty removing the cap, but it is strong enough to keep the nib from drying out. It also doubles as a fidget device. Score!
The design is something of a homage to the classic Parker 51, which was one of the most popular pens of all time. Queen Elizabeth loved them and always used one. For much of her reign, Parker was the official pen supplier to the Royal Family.
via Wikipedia
When people think German pens, they probably think Lamy[1], but I think Diplomat is a great little company that makes solid, well-balanced writing instruments. The nib, which I think they do in-house is wonderfully smooth, and the ink flow is perfect.
Speaking of ink, the ink I currently have in this one is Pilot Blue-Black, a fairly classic business ink color.
Unlike many blue-black inks, it leans more towards blue than black, although as you can see in the photo below, that does depend on how thickly it lays down, meaning it might vary from pen to pen. It’s permanent and water-resistant. It is also incredibly cheap. You can buy a 350ml bottle of the stuff for only ¥1500 (roughly $10.50). If you are not a fountain pen person, you may not realize what a deal that is. The average ink in the fountain pen world might be around $20 for around 30 ml (roughly an ounce) and that may last a few years with moderate usage. That's already a pretty good deal, but 350 ml? That’s a decade’s worth of ink, easily. I love this stuff. I refill this small jar with the bigger one and refill the pens from it.
Is the Diplomat Viper the perfect everyday carry pen?
Maybe. In my pen rotation, I usually have a more conservative one that I can pull out at meetings and things. This fits that bill and also manages to be fun enough to use that I grab it even when I'm not in a business situation.
It’s stylish but subtle, well-built, and feels great to write with. It’s also low-fuss — no hard starts, no dry-outs, no fussy nib quirks. Just pop off the magnetic cap and write.
That’s what an EDC pen should be: not just something beautiful to look at, but something that works — quietly, reliably, and every single time. In that sense, this pen nails it.
And besides, who wouldn’t want a snakeskin fidget magnet in their pocket?
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David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Mastodon. |
Which was recently bought by Mitsubishi, making them now Japanese pens? I'm not sure how the merger will end up working. ↩