Guider Pen Company is one of the three fountain pen companies of Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh State of India. Other being Ratnam and Ratnamson. Guider Pen is owned by G. Lakshmana Rao currently.

Guider Pen Company was started by G. Subbarao in 1946. And they manufacture the pens from various materials like ebonite, acrylic and also celluloid.

This review is about one of the acrylic pen from their stable called “Acrylic Medium“. Quite an unusual name. Right ?? I thought so. This pen came in box with cardboard sleeve with no branding. The pen was purchased via discussion with him over whatsapp after he showed me the current stock and I selected few and ordered all in all 6 pens which was easy. However challenging part was asking names of each pen that I bought from him.

Guider Acrylic Medium – In the Wild

DESIGN & BUILT: 5/5

This is an exquisite looking pen from Guider. It come in various beautiful acrylic colours and I got two pens in different colours, one being green as shown in the picture and the other one being white pearl colour. This is a medium sized pen which is beautifully finished.

Guider Acrylic Medium – Uncapped

The pen is classic design with Parker style arrow clip and two centre bands. The trims used are golden colour and they beautifully complement with the green acrylic. The fit and finish of the pen is amazing with no visible lathe marks and even the two bands are equally placed.

The pen is thickest at the centre of barrel apart from cap and tapers down to rounded bottom.

Guider Acrylic Medium – Capped

Guider Acrylic Medium – Uncapped

The cap clip has conical dome shaped crown above the clip band in the same acrylic.

Guider Acrylic Medium – Top Crown Shaped End and Rounded Bottom

The cap has no breather hole like many Indian Pens. The pen opens in 2 & 1/2 turns which is unlike many ebonite pens made in India. I see the momentum going towards less threads now. Branding is only done on the clip and the nib.

Guider Acrylic Medium – Uncapped : Close-up showing the clip in vintage Parker style

Guider Acrylic Medium – Cap Top View Showing Branding on arrow clip

Guider Acrylic Medium – Cap Side View showing the centre-bands

Guider Acrylic Medium – Cap Inner View

I really like the built quality of the pen, acrylic used is strong and it has taken one or two falls and yet nothing has happened, however I need to be more careful as it is acrylic. Beautiful product from Guider and full marks to Guider on turning this beauty.

Below are few images showing the comparison between Guider Acrylic Medium with other pens:

Guider Acrylic Medium vs Jinhao X-750 vs Lamy Safari – Capped

Guider Acrylic Medium vs Jinhao X-750 vs Lamy Safari – Uncapped

Pen is just slightly bigger than Lamy safari by almost 7 mm .

Kudos to guider for such a beauty.

BALANCE : 3.5/5

The pen is around 125 mm including nib and fits perfectly in my small hands. The pen is very well balanced when writing unposted. The pen cap doesn’t post deep and thus making it a large pen when cap is posted at back at 173 mm and honestly, to me it feels a bit uncomfortable and awkward even though it is surprisingly balanced. i would have preferred more if the cap would have posted more deep.

Guider Acrylic Medium – Writing Unposted

Guider Acrylic Medium – Writing Posted

The pen being acrylic doesn’t weigh much. Below are the images showing the weight of pen with or without the cap.

Guider Acrylic Medium – Weight without the cap and with ink filled

Guider Acrylic Medium – Weight with the cap and with ink filled

Few Specifications of the pens are as follows:

Length of Pen – Capped = 146 mm

Length of Pen – Uncapped including nib = 125 mm

Length of Grip Section = 18 mm

Length of Barrel = 91 mm

Length of Pen – Cap Posted = 173 mm

Dia. of Barrel @ centre = 13 mm (avg)

Dia. of Cap = 14 mm (avg)

Dia. of Grip Section = 10 mm (avg)

Weight of Pen including Cap and Ink filled = 23.53 g

Weight of Pen without Cap and Ink filled = 14.47 g

NIB & INK FILLING MECHANISM: 3/5

Nib is #5 Gold Colour Steel Nib which writes fine and was a big, bigg, biggg disappointment. I will actually give only one mark for the nib for actually being there. The feed is ebonite.

I actually grinded the nib to oblique italic to suit my handwriting and now it writes like a dream with amazing ink flow via ebonite feed. I am actually really fortunate that nib grind turned out to be blessing in disguise for the shitty nib provided along with this pen. I have been writing with this pen for past one month and it has not burped on me even though i have been careful of topping up the ink when ink level goes really low.

Guider Acrylic Medium – Nib Unit Top View

Guider Acrylic Medium – Nib Unit Side View

Guider Acrylic Medium – Nib Unit Underside View

The pen holds approx around 2 ml , an advantage being of an eyedropper fill mechanism.

Guider Acrylic Medium – Eyedropper Ink Filling Mechanism

I wish the nib could have been better.

Below is the handwritten review showing the writing sample also:

Guider Acrylic Medium – Handwritten Review -Page 1

Guider Acrylic Medium – Handwritten Review -Page 2

Guider Acrylic Medium – Handwritten Review -Page 3

Guider Acrylic Medium – Handwritten Review -Page 4

CONCLUSION: 11.5/15

I recommend this beautiful pen to people who can tune or change the nibs on their own, not that the nib is difficult to change, it actually is an easy job provided you have a standalone spare nib and also to people who don’t mind using the Pen with euedropper fill mechanism.

I bought this pen for Rs. 1000 (approx 15 usd) including shipping which was not a bad deal.

What I Like:

Classic Design Well Finished Beautiful Acrylic Material Lot of Ink Capacity

What I don’t Like: