Unboxing the Pelikan Souveran M400 Tortoise-White Pen

April 12th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

Today is my birthday and a milestone, as one of my gruffer friends put it. So I decided to do a video of the fountain pen I bought myself: the Pelikan Souverån M400 Tortoise White first manufactured in 2004.

Pen specifications and my notes:

Weight, construction, balance – light in the hand, easy posting, well-balanced – 10/10

Here’s the description of how the barrel’s sleeve is made:

“The production of the sleeve is an elaborate task, as the cotton material – its formula was developed specially for Pelikan – must go through many manufacturing steps in order to create this striped piece of material. It is bent, smoothed and its contours are diamond-cut. Next, the characteristic double clips at the back of the barrel and on the cap are integrated into the material. This is done with the highest precision in order to obtain a virtually seamless transition between the materials. The writing instrument is then polished to a high sheen before the slightly springy clip with its famous, stylized Pelikan is mounted.” (from the Pelikan website)

Filling system – differentiated piston mechanism, smooth operation, substantial ink fill, perfect flow and wetness – 10/10
Hand-finished 14ct/585 two-tone gold/rhodium nib, F – smooth nib, some springiness to it, shows off ink shading – 10/10

Design – brass components, diamond ground barrel, gold-plated brass trim, transparent tortoise shell sleeve, ivory white cap and piston – stunning – 10/10

Overall Evaluation – An extremely satisfying purchase – I keep staring at the pen and holding it in my hand. It’s an absolutely beautiful writing instrument.

 

 

Some Chinese pens

April 8th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

I eventually got around to inking and testing the three Chinese pens I unboxed in my videos. These pens are all in the Noodler’s Piston Fill and Ahab price range. Here’s how they fared.

1) The Noble Orange Marble Pen, Medium nib, came with a generic converter and can take an international cartridge

Nib – smooth writer – 7.5/10

Flow & wetness – 7/10 – Hard starting after three days of non-use – This isn’t too major an issue because a lot of pens dry up after three days of non-use and need to be primed.

Construction, build, balance – 6/10 – Well-made, sturdy pen, with a cigar-like girth, though the section color had a tendency to rub off – The pen was too heavy for me to use on a daily basis so I found it a new home.

Design – 7.5/10 – Wonderful translucency of marbleized plastic giving the pen a three-dimensional look, understated for what it was doing

Overall evaluation – For what I paid for it, this pen was definitely value for money, though other Chinese-made pens would probably fare better.

2) Huashilai 3000, white marbleized cap, Broad nib, came with a generic converter and can take an international cartridge

Nib – really smooth writer – 8/10

Flow & wetness – 8/10 – No flow issues on this pen and it writes a nice, wet line

Construction, build, balance – 7/10 – Sturdy pen that feels like it can take a lot of beating before giving out, hefty, cigar-like girth, not good for posting as the cap is the heaviest part of the pen and throws it off balance – Unposted, this pen can be used as a daily workhorse pen. Its main issue is the cap which fits too tightly onto the barrel. I imagine that, with time, the cap will ease up on its grip.

Design – 7.5/10 – Again, the translucency of the marbleized plastic give this pen a three-dimensional look. It seems to me rather flashier than the Noble.

Overall evaluation – This is another value for money pen. Given the quality and price-point, Huashilai is a decent brand and if I were in the market for another one, I wouldn’t mind looking into simpler designs in a less hefty make.

3) Duke 805 Beijing Opera, Medium nib, came with a Duke branded converter and can take an international cartridge

Nib – 7/10 – Out of the box, the nib was rather on the chalky side. I had to smooth the nib to give it more glide across the paper.

Flow & wetness – 7/10 – Again, out of the box, flow didn’t contribute much to offering a smooth writing experience so I spread the tines and hacked the feed.

Construction, build, balance – 8/10 – Everything about this pen seems durable and well-made except the section. The pen rests lightly in the hand and has decent balance, posted or unposted. The laque finish and the masks on the cap rival the quality of much more expensive pens.

Design – 8/10 – The pen is handsome and the Beijing Opera masks provide accent to what would otherwise be a plain, glossy black pen. The clip design is different from the other Chinese pens and looks similar to the Ahab clip design. If it looks so good, why doesn’t it get a 10? First, in terms of looks, I think I’d give a Parker Vacumatic, a Sheaffer in striated plastic and with a triumph nib, and a Pelikan M400 white tortoise a 10, so those are my benchmarks for design. Second, the nib is small in proportion to the pen and so looks “cute” rather than impressive.

Packaging – 9/10 – I don’t care much about packaging. What’s important to me is that the packaging protects the pen. In that respect, the Duke box is excellent. And for those to whom packaging does matter, the box is pretty and makes the whole deal a nice gift. The velvet lining inside prevents scratches, though the crumpled look seems a tad old schoolish to me. (I’m sure that, minus the box, the pen would cost even less than it did.)

Overall – Duke has a better reputation than Huashilai and Noble, this last being among the obscure or generic Chinese fountain pen brands. As I mentioned in my video, some discussion online pointed to a collaboration between Duke and German pen manufacturers. I tended to expect more from this pen because of that, so having to smooth out the nib, spread the tines, and hack the feed were a source of disappointment. That said, it’s still a good pen for its price.

Note:  To get an idea of what the pens look like, you can refer to these videos: Noble, Huashilai, and Duke.

 

Surprise Noodler’s Ahab Pen!

March 6th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

Over the last two weeks, I was dealing with the inconvenience, aggravation, and cost of car repairs. The repairs aren’t done yet as of this writing but, last night, to avoid getting stressed over the inevitable, I chose to make like a cabbage in front of the television.

That was the context of my receiving a tweet that I had won an FP Geeks contest for a Noodler’s Black Ahab – the Ahab Executive pen. I have an Ahab Demonstrator that I like so much I was planning to get another in a different color from Goulet Pens. So this contest was a most welcome thing and like Goulet Pens, FP Geeks rocks–but more about that in a later post. Eric Schneider over at FP Geeks, referred me to this video on the Ahab by Noodler’s designer, Nathan Tardif. The video is about 53 minutes long, but like Nathan’s other videos, it’s good, informative stuff. And FP Geeks has an extensive review of the Ahab here.

I had the Ahab shipped to a friend who’s arriving in the Philippines at the end of March so it’ll take a while before I can do a video of it, but here’s my experience so far:

1) The Ahab is a fat pen. I’d say comparing it to a cigar wouldn’t be far off. This makes it usable by most adults, especially because, despite its size, it’s light. As for looks, you can’t go wrong. It’s a stream-lined pen with a no-frills cap and clip, so it works for the conservative pen user. For the more adventurous, it comes in a variety of demonstrator, solid, and streaked colors.

2) Cleaning the pen and changing inks are no-hassle tasks because the pen can be completely disassembled.

3) So that’s what I did.  I disassembled the pen to clean it. Having read about some misadventures with the Ahab, I thought I should proceed with caution. Some people have reported difficulty taking apart the filling mechanism because of a tight o-ring. What’s needed here are patience and gentleness to push the plunger through. In any case, I cleaned everything with soapy water. To make sure there were no oils or bits left over from manufacturing, I took a soft brush to the feed before rinsing. After air drying the pen and its parts, I put a bit of silicon grease on the o-ring in the filling mechanism, reassembled the whole thing, and filled it with J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage.

The nib was surprisingly close to butter super smooth and wrote a generously wet line. It’s a mani-flex nib so it can be used for daily writing or for fun. And it is a substantial improvement over the nib of the first edition Noodler’s piston fill flex pen. Not only that, the nib is huge and works with the size of the pen itself. And if the nib gives up before the pen, the Ahab can take Knox K35 nibs which come in six sizes: EF, F, M, B, OB, OBB.

4) The pen holds a ton of ink as is and it can hold even more ink by turning it into an eyedropper.

5) The mechanism itself is efficient. Push the plunger down and pull it up to fill the pen.

Overall conclusion:

If you’re already into fountain pens, give this $20 one a try. It’s a well-engineered, budget pen, designed with the end user in mind. You can tinker with it to get it writing the way you want it. You can tinker with it just for the fun of tinkering. You can use it for daily writing at your normal speed. At the same, its flex lets you play with italics or fancy penmanship when you’re in the mood.

If you’re looking for a starter pen, get this one. It isn’t a major investment so if you decide fountain pens aren’t for you, you won’t be out by too much. And not only is it a reliable and fun pen to write with, you get to see how a fountain pen works. There’s just one disadvantage here: you’re liable to get addicted.

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A last note:  I realize that cost is relative. People buy good, disposable gel pens and roller balls at an average of about $1.50. The thing with me is that I tend to lose my disposable pens and that adds up. Because I value my fountain pens for the pleasure of writing with them and just how pretty they look, I don’t misplace them or drop them in my bag to get beaten up. Also, even a small bottle of 30 ml ink lasts for pages, pages, and more pages of writing. (The downside of that is that when I don’t like the color, I’m stuck with it. My simple solution has been giving away ink samples to new fountain pen users.)

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Correction: The almost “butter” smooth was an over the top evaluation; having written with the pen for one fill, I’d say it’s almost “super” smooth and that Lierre Sauvage works excellently in this pen.

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