An Honest Review: Tombow Fudenosuke Pens

I might be a painter and a font hoarder but my handwriting is not the prettiest. I blame this on years of waitressing. So when I wanted to create beautiful bullet journal spreads I knew I would need to start practicing my handwriting again.

Brush lettering is different from regular cursive. In fact, in most cases your pen or marker will come off the paper more in brush lettering than your normal printing.

This is how you get the thin strokes mixed with the thick strokes and those pretty thin embellishments. While I still heavily practice and I’m not anywhere near some other bullet journalers this tip was the most helpful.

The other tip I saw was get the right type of brush pens. I did not listen to this advice right away because as I was practicing my hand lettering I didn’t think I needed the fancy pens.

I was wrong. My brush lettering wasn’t improving and I seriously felt like I was failing at lettering. So I took that last tip and I purchased the Tombow Fudenosuke pens.

My lettering completely changes and with practice I started getting better at it very quickly.

The Bounce Back

One of the first things I noticed with the Tombow Fudenosuke Pens was the bounce back on the tips of the pens. A big problem with brush pens is the tips don’t bounce back quickly from stroke to stroke.

When a pen doesn’t bounce back quickly it can cause thick upstrokes or uneven strokes all together.

The Tombow Fudenosuke pens bounce back extremely fast. So when you move from stroke to stroke you end up getting even lines and easily achieve those thin upstrokes and thick downstrokes.

The one thing to remember with brush lettering is it is much slower than normal handwriting. You should be taking your time with brush lettering and focusing on each individual stroke.

I find it actually helps to write out my quotes or words in pencil and tracing over the pencil. This helps me to focus on each stroke without accidentally misspelling a word.

The Frayed Tip

You won’t have this problem with these pens. In the months that I’ve used my Fudenosuke pen I have not had any issues with a fraying tip.

Fraying tips in brush pens are common for heavy handed people like me. So when I purchase a brush pen I almost expect the pen to fray after a few uses.

I am extremely pleased that this pen hasn’t actually frayed at all. I’m notoriously tough on my pens and have finally found a pen that can stand up to just how hard I am on them.

The Are Non Refillable

I’m not a big fan of refillable pens myself because it’s often a pain to refill pens. So for me this is not a huge downfall.

Though, I know lots of people prefer a refillable pen because it’s usually cheaper to refill a pen than buy new. Though for being a non refillable pen these pens are not all that expensive.

You can buy them individually or as a two pen set, so having that option is nice and can save a bit of money.

I personally will go through the hard tip faster than the soft tip because I prefer it. It’s nice to know I won’t have to worry about purchasing both.

Hard Tip

I have a heavy hand due to years of painting with oil. It was a struggle when I switched to acrylic paint later. It was even more of a struggle when I started hand lettering.

The hard tip Tombow Fudenosuke pen is fantastic for heavy hands. It’s easier to get the embellishes on the lettering and the thin lines through the upstrokes.

The pen is smooth and writes extremely well and is my favorite brush pen to use.

You can see here how the hard tip writes compared to the soft tip. It has much cleaner lines and achieving those thin upstrokes are a lot easier.

Soft Tip

Of course I have my uses for the soft tip too. For bolder titles on colorful backdrops the soft tip works wonderfully.

The soft tip actually brings a bit of softness to the letters and looks more like handwriting instead of a printed font.

Of course the soft tip requires a softer touch with your hand so if you are looking to make your hand a bit softer it’s a great pen to practice with.

As you can see with the two hellos the left is done with the hard tip pen and the right is done with the soft tip. It can be a struggle to get your lines smooth and thin with the soft tip. With a bit more practice I’m sure I can make the soft tip look absolutely stunning.

Are Tombow Fudenosuke Pens Worth It?

In my opinion they really are worth every penny. They really help in practicing and improving your hand lettering.

When I first started working with the Tombow Fudenosuke pens my hand lettering looked like this. My lines were not crisp and my font weights were off.

Quote from JK Rowling

Now my lettering looks like this. More even and thinner upstrokes. The Fudenosuke pen really did help me improve my lettering.

Tombow Fudenosuke Pens

I think the only major downfall to the Tombow Fudenosuke pens is they are not refillable. However, they are also not super expensive and last quite awhile.

The tip of the pen bounces back and doesn’t fray like other brush pens. Plus the ink is always consistent. They are worth purchasing especially if you are looking to practice your brush lettering skills.

What do you struggle with in brush lettering? Let me know in the comments below. Follow me on Pinterest for more like this and pin this to your lettering or bullet journal boards.

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