Pilot's Five Pen Roll Case

[Willieboy]

Folks, I received the pictured five pen roll case from Pilot and wanted to alert you to one critical observation.



As you can see, the individual pen pouches are quite short and do not fully cover and protect the cap of some pens. The pens are all pushed down as far as they will go into their respective slots. The pens, going from left to right are a Sailor Sapporo, Pelikan M200, Namiki Falcon, Pilot Stargazer and Pilot Custom Heritage 912. I wish Pilot had spent a tiny bit more on the interior portion of this case so the caps would be fully covered and protected. Levenger has a case out, their Bomber Jacket roll pouch that appears so skimpy pen clips don't even reach the interior material and clip on. Great concepts poorly executed me thinks.

Other than skimping on the interior leather, the Pilot case is beautifully made of gorgeous leather, making a nice resting place for one's valued writing instruments.

[tandaina]

Most of my own rolls don't cover the full cap, that's what the flap that folds down over the pens is for, to keep caps from scratching their neighbors. (I've seem rolls without the flap and won't use them!)

[Willieboy]

Yes, the Levenger roll I mentioned has no flap. Because the slots appear too short for the pens to clip on, the pens are free to fall out if the roll isn't tight... at least that's how things look from the pictures I've seen.

[tak87]

Own one too, and, agree about the "gorgeous" and "beautiful" part.

Although the observation about length of pouches is correct, I find the flaps to provide enough protection and calling it "skimping" a bit ... harsh?

Some users might actually prefer the pouches not to be too long, e.g. if you own pens without clip or if you prefer to insert the clip into the pouch too. I for myself am completely satisfied ... but then, I live in Japan and had the chance to try them out with my own pens before buying ... and I simply don't own so many long pens either.

Other than that, I think it's good someone posts about such stuff at all, so, this is not meant as criticism and just my personal view of it as an engineer having to trade-off between contradicting user needs everyday...

[Bisquitlips]

Thanks for sharing this. When you tentatively put several $1000s worth of instruments in a roll you need to be definitive!

[Pino]

After searching for a while for an easy carry pen roll, I purchased one of these Pilot rolls this past month.

If you fold it the way I think you're supposed to (more of a 3 fold rather than just roll it up in a cylinder), you'll find that the side with 2 pen slots will slide right in between the side with 3 slots. In doing so, the flaps will get pushed between any of the caps that stick out and there's no way they can make contact.

I have some pens in there that are almost the length of the case (M800, an Olympio XL) and I have no qualms about them getting marked up at all.