REVIEW – I’ve been a fan of Baronfig’s products for some time, having reviewed their original Squire rollerball pen, Vanguard Softcover Notebooks, and Confidant Hard Cover Notebooks, all of which impressed me. Baronfig recently launched its Squire Hex, a new six-sided variant of its original Squire pen. Let’s check it out. Gadget on!
What is it?
The Baronfig Squire Hex is a minimalist pen with a six-sided design, a twist-to-open mechanism, and a rollerball tip ink cartridge.
What’s included?
The Baronfig Squire Hex Rollerball Pen arrived in simple packaging that mimics the pen’s six-sided shape. The package’s exterior depicts a simplified artistic rendition of the pen inside. There is no way to view the actual product from outside the package. While I typically don’t care for this style of packaging, I think it’s acceptable for products like this that aren’t sold in stores. On the plus side, most of the packaging is made from cardboard, which is recyclable if this is important to you (and it probably should be).
The Baronfig Squire Hex’s six-sided cardboard packaging is fairly protective. Made up of an outer full-length tube and an inner half-length tube, the Squire Hex itself sits snug within a block of foam inside the half-length tube. This allows the half-length tube portion of the package to double as an upright pen stand (as demonstrated above) that you can use at your desk or workstation.
Tech specs
- Shape and material: Six-sided industrial-grade aluminum unibody design
- Surface finish: Smooth satin
- Type: Twist-to-open
- Exterior color options:
- Blackout (reviewed here)
- Cobalt
- Cactus
- Ink cartridge: Replaceable rollerball cartridge with 0.6mm wide stainless steel tip
- Weight: 0.85 oz
- Dimensions: 5 in x 0.4 in
- Location of manufacture: USA
Design and features
My very first impression of the Baronfig Squire Hex Rollerball Pen: Smooth. I was quite impressed by its simple design, with its six-sided shape and satiny smooth anodized black coating over its aluminum unibody case. The Baronfig Squire Hex derives its name from its shape—it has six flat, equal-width sides that result in a hex-shaped cross-section.
This shape, coupled with its aluminum silver twist top, roughly mimics the appearance of a pencil. Plus, the Squire Hex’s six flat sides prevent it from rolling off uneven surfaces, which is a functional design bonus.
Baronfig’s products are all designed to have a minimalist style, to be “Tools for Thinkers designed with a philosophy of simplicity, usefulness, and community,” and the Squire Hex lives into that philosophy perfectly.
Case in point: only two logos are present on the Squire Hex, “BARONFIG” in block capital letters on one of the six sides (seen in the image above), and a sword emblem on the opposite side (seen in the image below). These two simple, understated logos appear to have been precisely laser-etched through the Squire Hex’s black anodized coating and directly into the Squire Hex’s aluminum case, then perhaps backfilled with some type of white pigment. The upshot of this is that the two logos aren’t simply painted or silkscreened onto the body. They look and feel as though they will last a long time without wearing off, if ever.
Why the tiny sword emblem? It’s a symbol that represents Baronfig’s tagline for its Squire series pens, which is, “The pen is a mighty sword.”
With a twist-to-open mechanism, operating the Baronfig Squire Hex is simple: just twist the silver aluminum top clockwise relative to the main body, and the ink cartridge’s tip extends from the end of the pen. The twist motion is very smooth, and the tip locks into its extended position with a very slight and satisfying click feel. The ink cartridge is a replaceable rollerball cartridge with a 0.6mm wide stainless steel tip.
The above photo illustrates an exploded view of the components of the Baronfig Squire Hex. It consists of four components: the main body, the twist top, the ink cartridge, and a spring. If you should need to replace the ink cartridge, accessing it is simple: just twist the aluminum top counterclockwise and unscrew it, then remove the cartridge and spring. Reverse the order of these steps to replace the cartridge. The ink cartridges for the Baronfig Squire Hex are the same rollerball cartridges that are compatible with the original Baronfig Squire. They are sold by Baronfig in black, blue, red, and green ink colors in 3-packs for $15.
The Baronfig Squire Hex is made by machining a single piece (thus the term “unibody”) of high-grade aluminum. It only weighs 0.85 ounces and feels very balanced in the hand, which makes writing feel smooth and easy.
At 5 inches long, the length of the Baronfig Squire Hex seems to fit into a nice sweet spot. It is a bit shorter than the average pen, yet longer than the average “pocket” pen, or stubby travel pen. You can use it to jot notes at the office all day, then slide it into your pants pocket or go-bag as part of your mobile EDC gear. Also, since it has a “twist-to-open” and not a “push-button” (AKA “clicky”) mechanism, there’s no need to fret over it opening accidentally and ink-staining the pocket of your favorite tech khakis or the inside of your EDC organizer pouch.
Performance
Whether writing in one of Baronfig’s notebooks, like the Confident shown in the photo above, or any other paper, the Baronfig Squire Hex’s weight, balance, and length make writing with it virtually effortless. Let’s see how it performs from an ink standpoint on three different types of paper.
The above pair of photos illustrate the result of writing with Baronfig Squire Hex on a Baronfig Confidant notebook page. The lower image is the reverse side of the page, and you can see that there is essentially no bleedthrough of the Squire Hex ink with this paper, which is a bit heavier weight than many other similar notebooks. The Squire Hex’s 0.6mm stainless steel rollerball tip produces what I consider to be squarely in the “medium” tip width category and definitely not a “fine” tip.
The above pair of photos illustrate Baronfig Squire writing on a Moleskine notebook page. Again, the lower image is the reverse side of the page, and in this case, there is a significant amount of bleed-through of the Squire Hex ink through this paper. This is not unexpected, considering that the weight of the Moleskine notebook paper is thinner than that of the Baronfig Confidant paper, but this is more bleedthrough than I expected would like to have seen.
And finally, the above pair of photos illustrates writing on a generic 8.5 x 11″ notepad that you would find in just about any store. As you can see, the bleedthrough here is severe—it even bled through the back of the page so much that it left behind on the page beneath it two rows of dots resembling Morse code. That’s a lot of bleed-through. But it sure did feel smooth while writing with it.
What I like about the Baronfig Squire Hex rollerball pen
- Weight, length, and finish feel very smooth and balanced in the hand
- Minimalist styling
- Twist-to-open is easy to use and secure
- Easy to replace the ink cartridge
What needs to be improved?
- Significant to severe ink bleedthrough depending on the type of paper used
- A bit on the pricey side (but it may just outlive every other pen you own)
- Might be nice to have a removable pocket clip
Final thoughts
The Baronfig Squire Hex Rollerball Pen is a worthy addition to Baronfig’s Squire pen line of products. Its lightweight, six-sided unibody aluminum design feels very balanced in the hand, and the twist-to-open mechanism is quick and easy to use. It’s also a great intermediate length for anything from a long day of note-taking to sliding in your pocket as your EDC pen. The Baronfig Squire Hex Rollerball Pen is a bit on the pricey side at $79, but for a pen of its quality, durability, design, and ergonomics, it’s worth a serious look.
Price: $79.00
Where to buy: baronfig.com
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Baronfig. Baronfig did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
