This pen was given to me for review by Ellington Pens, but they had no say in the content, nor did they view the review content before this posting.
Ellington Pens has a somewhat controversial reputation in the fountain pen world. I will set that aside for now and focus on the pen itself. I would like to touch on the controversy briefly, but I will save that for the end.
I don’t focus on packaging in my reviews, but I will say that the box that the pen arrives in is suitable for gifting. Ellington has enclosed a converter, instructions/warranty paperwork, and a box of 3 small cartridges. Two are black, and one is blue. The included cartridges look like they are international short size, but not quite. The opening is slightly smaller than ISC (International Short Cartridges), so they don’t work in other pens (except maybe Jinhao). Using an ISC in the Ellington Pens Urban Hunter model will likely lead to a mess inside your pen since the cartridge will be pierced, but the seal will be loose and possibly leak ink everywhere. I used the cartridge just to give the pen every chance to perform at its peak. This is where things got a little weird. When I use cartridges, I don’t expect the pen to write straight away. I usually leave the pen nib down for at least a few hours before I use it to give the ink a chance to flow through the feed and to the nib. I used the pen the following day, and it wrote somewhat on the wet side for an extra fine nib. It was a good surprise. The bad surprise was that the ink in the cartridge was completely gone. It had taken all the ink in the cartridge to fill the feed. That has never happened in any of my pens before. Keep in mind, I rarely use cartridges, but the times I have, I have never seen an entire cartridge of ink disappear like that. I looked in the cap to see if the ink had leaked, but everything was dry.
To test another cartridge, I used a Conklin cartridge in a Kaweco Sport and did the same thing. The next day, only half the cartridge was gone. Interesting. I was able to use the Urban Hunter to write approximately one A5 page before the ink ran out, and I had to pop in the second black cartridge. Curiously, as I have been using the pen, it has only used up half of the cartridge, and I’ve written more than one A5 page.
The pen is slightly on the heavy side, being a metal pen, it was to be expected. According to Ellington’s website, the pen weighs 32.5 grams. A lot of that weight is in the cap’s pummel-looking finial, making the pen top-heavy if you decide to post the cap. The pen borrows its look from Pelikan without being an outright copy, but it’s impossible to escape the comparison to Pelikan. No one will mistake it for one, but the inspiration is obvious. The striations of the barrel are not transparent as the barrel is stainless steel, per the website. Going back to the finial, I can’t get over the signature 8-sided finial. I feel like it was an afterthought. As if they started with a base pen design from a Jinhao catalog and said, “Make it with a bolt on top and make it look like a crown.” Looks are in the eye of the beholder, and the finial just does not do it for me. It gets worse when you notice that the “crown” does not sit straight on the pen. The clip seems to protrude just slightly, making the finial look crooked. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. I tried removing it and reseating it, but it always goes to that off-kilter look. This is not something unique to Ellington Pens. I have seen this off-kilter finial in handmade pens from India. These are mass-produced pens, and I find it odd that no one has seen this in manufacturing QC because I am not the first to mention it.
Overall, the pen writes nicely. It has just the right amount of feedback, and the flow is generous for an EF nib. I used the pen at work for over a week in my interstitial journal and in writing a couple of A5 pages for this review. It is a good writing pen.
The price of the pen does not seem to reflect the prices of similar pens in its price range. As of this writing, the Urban Hunter full retail price is $49.95 plus shipping. For around $50 or less, you can find fountain pens with a little more to offer. I am not saying the pen is bad, but the value is lacking. If you can find the Urban Hunter or one of its other colorways for around $30, I would say that is a fair price.
Here lies the controversy that has more to do with the company than with the pen itself. The company has no heritage. It feels like a corporate gift from an Amazon FBA company. Is that a bad thing? Perhaps not; new fountain pen companies emerge every day that have no heritage. There are pens available that have a corporate gift feel while also retaining a sense of heritage. (Cross, Sheaffer, and Parker come to mind).
In my opinion, Ethan Ellington has a higher chance of being a pseudonym or marketing persona. Digging around UK corporate records, the name Ethan Ellington does not come up, although Gemini AI would have us believe he in fact exists. Ellington Pens is a registered trademark of Paxwell Online Limited. In turn, someone named Jamal Ahmed Muse is the owner of Paxwell Online Limited. Here is where things get interesting. Mr. Jamal Muse, of DigitalBrand.Builders has a YouTube channel where he runs a business teaching people to start businesses and “exit” them for profit. On his channel, Mr. Jamal Muse speaks about how he was a math teacher, which coincides with the story of “Ethan Ellington” being an educator and a post on Fountain Pen Network by “Ethan” himself stating he is a “mathematician by trade.” There is also a video that shows Mr. Jamal Muse traveling to China to speak with his supplier, Maggie, who we find out represents Jinhao. Inherently, there is nothing wrong with this business model, but the fact that I had to use A.I. to dig deep enough to get to all this information raises the question of why so much smoke and mirrors? I think I know the answer, but I will leave that to you, my dear reader, to decide. Here is what ChatGPT said after I asked it if Jamal Muse from DigitalBrand.Builders is the same Jamal Ahmed Muse from Paxwell Online LTD:
“Possibly — in the broad sense that both involve Chinese pen manufacturing
Many ecommerce entrepreneurs do source generic products like pens from Chinese suppliers (including Jinhao or similar factories), negotiate prices, and then sell them under their own brand — that’s basically the standard “private label” model. But:
- There’s no known public record or announcement linking Ellington Pens specifically with Jamal Muse or DigitalBrand.Builders.
- Ellington Pens doesn’t publicly list any OEM partner, and their marketing claims a design‑origin story separate from known factories like Jinhao.
- The community chatter about Ellington “looking like a Jinhao rebadge” is opinion‑based — not official sourcing documentation. Reddit
So the practical conclusion is:
✅ Yes, Ellington Pens could be a type of pen product sourced from Chinese factories like Jinhao (common in ecommerce). Reddit
❌ No verified evidence currently shows that Jamal Muse’s videos are about Ellington Pens specifically — no brand name on‑camera, no formal business tie‑ins, nothing concrete in public filings.
TL;DR:
Ellington Pens is an ecommerce pen brand that likely sources Chinese‑made pens (potentially similar to Jinhao products). That’s exactly the sort of model Jamal Muse shows in his China sourcing videos. But there is no direct, verifiable connection tying Ellington Pens to Jamal Muse’s business activities specifically — at least not in the public record. Trustpilot“
Inktronics 
