on saleDiplomat Viper Fountain Pen - Blue

Love the pen. Magnetic cap is nice feature. Pen writes smoothly and doesn't dry out over a week of nonuse. Reverse writing also fairly smooth and consistent. The included ink is a nice blue-black. This is a very nice daily use pen at a great price.
Patrick

It says “DIPLOMAT” on the pen, but it doesn’t feel like my other Diplomat fountain pens. There’s more “feedback” than what I get from its stable mates in my collection, and the nib is stiff with very little line variation. The loupe -aided visual inspection of the nib reveals no misalignment or burrs on the nib, but my entry-level Magnum feels nicer to write with. It’s perfectly usable as is, but I hope it’ll get smoother with more use.
Fit and finish is very good, no scratches or scuff marks on the anodized finish. The grip is aluminum, as is the rest of the pen, but it’s pleasant to hold. The anodized finish provides enough grip to keep your fingers in place.
The only two parts that are not anodized are the hooded nib, and a chrome ring on the body, which contains the magnets. The magnets are quite strong, and keep the cap in place. After not writing with it for a couple of days, the first couple of words worth of ink comes out fairly dark and concentrated, but it has always written from the first stroke.

If you've been following Diplomat's products in the US market for a while, you know that they're all about making products that successfully mesh tradition with innovation. Regardless if it's an Aero, Elox, or Traveler, you're going to get a fountain pen with a lacquered, anodized, oxidized or thermally colored metal body, with a JoWo steel nib and feed. 14k gold nibs are available for some models. The Nexus is a barrel filled pen that has an anodized aluminum or aluminum & acrylic demonstrator body with a unique shut off valve, with the same #6 nib options as Aero and Elox. The Magnum is the entry level pen, with a plastic body, a #5 JoWo steel nib, which seems to be a bit bouncier than regular JoWo steel nibs. All the pens mentioned so far follow the same simple, basic design, and differ only in materials used for the pens' body & cap, nib size, and color options.
And then...there is the Viper. Engraved and anodized aluminum body without an ink window, with a grip section anodized in the same color but not engraved. The Diplomat logo is pressed into a metal insert finial of the cap; the end of the barrel is square and unadorned. Edges of the barrel and cap are not sharp, but also not rounded off. Cap band and stiff clip are the same color as the rest of the pen.
One of the features of the pen is the fine/medium hooded, relatively stiff, steel nib, which protrudes 2.5mm (3/32") beyond the tip of the grip section. Ink is provided by standard international cartridges (one is included), or an included converter.
The other star of this pen is the magnetic cap. The Magnets are located in a silver/chrome ring on the barrel, where barrel and grip section meet. I don't know what grade of magnet they used, but when you cap your pen, that cap will try to slip out of your fingers on that last 1/4 inch of travel towards its home! There will be no doubt in your mind that the cap is on all the way, guaranteed!
How does it write? Good enough right out of the box. Thanks to the anodized grip, there's just enough texture there to minimize finger slippage without machined grooves. There's some feedback, but my nib was neither misaligned nor scratchy. Ink flow is dry, but satisfactory; I write mostly on employer provided copier paper, and while there is some bleed through, there is very little feathering, making my medium sized handwriting perfectly legible.
So, why only four stars? Price, mostly. The Viper's direct competitors from a different German manufacturer are 1/2 or 1/3 of the price.
As far as actually writing is concerned, I'd put this Viper up against one of the competitor's pens with a Fine nib any day, but it's out of its league against any of the Diplomat pens I mentioned above; I doubt that the Viper has a JoWo nib! I can't compare it to a competitor's pen with an EF, M, or B nib, because the Viper only comes with the FM nib; as far as I can tell, I can't even remove the nib, or feed, from the grip section of the Viper. That means I'm not going to use "difficult" inks in the Viper, because cleaning the pen is limited to bulb syringe and pen flush.
Will I keep it? Yes.
Would I loan it to someone else? Yes.
Would I buy another Viper? No.
Would I buy another Diplomat? Yes, absolutely, just not another Viper.