I’ve said before I’m a bit skeptical of some Kickstarter projects just because they can sometimes be a bit of overkill or just unnecessary products, but this pre-production sample of the Rollgut Pen Wrap and Paper holder is really a unique product with great design and high quality materials that is worth checking out. Thanks so much to the project founder for sending over this sample to share for review.  Before we jump into a closer look at the features, here is a link to the Kickstarter campaign page.

The wood core of the Rollgut measures 7 inches long and depending on the version is made of either Beechwood, Serviceberry, or Olive.  The wraps on each vary as well and come in either Vegan Leather, Durable Sailingcloth, or a Woven Fabric. Below is a sample of each of the different woods and fabrics since mine is a production sample, but seems to resemble the sailingcloth and beechwood.

You can also see the elastic closure straps on these that help keep the wrap closed around the wood core.  There is also a button on top as well as a hinge along the edge that you might be wondering about so lets take a look at that next.

Visually, I love how the button acts as the center of the “R” logo that represents the Rollgut name, but it has a more functional purpose it acts as a release for the hinged clamp that runs along the wood core to hold sheets of A5 paper rolled up in place.

Here is what that hinge looks like, and the paper clamps underneath it on the other side.  This view also gives you a good idea of how the wrap works and how the metal bar at the end of the elastic strap kind of buckles into the metal clips at the end of the wrap material.

Above is the other side of the metal clamp where the top edge of your paper slides in once you press the button on the side.  Releasing the button clamps down and holds your paper in place, while you can also tuck the corners of the paper into the corner pockets at the other end of the cloth wrap material.

So here is the Rollgut with some A5 paper and a lovely hand written note detailing the production of this awesome looking product.  At this point you can also get a good look inside the wood core cut out that allows for storage of writing tools and other accessories.

In order to give you an idea what fits inside the Rollgut wood core, I put this Lamy Safari fountain pen in there.  Lengthwise its a pretty tight fit and has about 1/8″ to 1/4″ to spare.  You can definitely fit multiple skinnier pens or pencils in here, but in terms of a fountain pen like this, it will be the only item you can fit other than a very thin pen or pencil or some small paper clips a USB or compact flash card might also fit depending on the pen you have in here.

The metal sleeve on the body of the Rollgut easily slides up and down the length of the wood core to help make sure that whatever you have in there can stay put when the entire thing is unwrapped.  The inner edges of the metal sleeve are fairly smooth, but if you have a more delicate pen body that you are putting in there, you might want to be careful if you are worried about it getting scratched up.

In addition to holding your pens, pencils, or anything else for that matter, the Rollgut has some magnetic spots on the ends of the walls to help secure smaller loose items like paper clips or anything magnetic so they don’t immediately fall out upon unrolling the whole thing.  Overall I’m very impressed with the quality of materials, the craftsmanship, and the look and feel so if this suits your needs, I cant imagine you would be disappointed with the final product as long as it keeps true to what I’ve seen with this prototype.  The Kickstarter campaign for the Rollgut is right here and about half way to its funding goal.

©2017, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.