This is my first expensive pen. I wanted an American made pen and this is where I ended up. When I first got it, I was a little disappointed with the grittiness of the action and the pen would not write consistently. I put a couple drops of mineral oil in the action and just kept using it. After about 2 weeks of daily use, is has now broken in and is nice and smooth, I'm happy to say. As for the writing quality, I was about to buy a new refill when I came across a recommendation to write with it for 10 minutes straight to see if that would help. I scribbled hard filling a couple notebook pages with ink, and bam, it has worked perfectly ever since! Now this pen is a joy to write with, and it writes extremely well on multiple surfaces and types of paper. The fit and finish is superb and I am very happy with my purchase. I really like the DLC finish and the texture is perfect, and extremely well done. The only recommendation I have is if the bolt mechanism was polished from the factory, it likely would be a smoother action right out of the box.I went from a 3 star initial impression to 5 stars and highly recommended. I'm looking forward to using this pen for years to come.