After recently moving from the UK to Germany, this year I was involved in the Pelikan Hub Bremen, rather than the Preston Hub that used to be my home hub.
The Pelikan Hub took place in a Greek restaurant in the North of Bremen. The location was chosen as it was close to public transport and also offered a big car park.
Some numbers linked this Hub: Unfortunately, three of the participants who signed up didn’t take part. There were also another three people who didn’t sign up but wanted to come along. In the end, however, they couldn’t make it. That left us with five participants which means that this was probably one of the smallest Hubs…
Despite the small number of participants I enjoyed the Hub very much. I wonder how long other Hubs went on for. This one lasted around four hours.
Thanks to Pelikan the participants got bottles of the ink of the year, nice notebooks and postcards.
What has the world come to?? A blog post about a ballpoint pen at Bleistift.blog‽
Well, it is a very good looking ballpoint pen: Lamy’s xevo in lightgrey (I find the black version more boring looking, so ordered the lightgrey version).
I didn’t realise this until I actually held the pen in my hands: It reminds me very much of the beautiful Lamy Colani, with similar organic shapes. Especially the triangular front section with its flowing shapes, but also the matt-ish off-white plastic, bear some resemblance.
The pen is extremely well made for a pen in this price range. You can see the mould lines in good light, but that is not an issue. For comparison: on my xevo [1]I assume thanks to good quality control it will be the same on every xevo. the mould lines are not more obvious than on a Lamy Safari.
The clip is also very well made. It looks like solid sheet metal clip, but it is actually made by bending the material on the outside, i.e. it is not solid like the one you’d find on the Lamy scribble. Just like on the Lamy 2000, a mechanism holds the clip which means the clip can swing outwards instead of relying on the clip’s material to bend when clipping it onto something.
Size
Size-wise the xevo is quite big. It is roughly similar in size to a BIC four colour ballpoint pen and certainly bigger than many other ballpoint pens that aren’t multi pens, like the Caran d’Ache 849.
The xevo is so long that in my typical shirt pockets I have to clip it in towards the middle of the pocket. The middle tends to be slightly deeper. If clipped in on the outside (like the Perfect Pencil in the image below) it would only be clipped in for a few millimetres, so would more likely fall out or get lost.
Altogether an excellent and beautiful pen for the money. My one issue is that it only accepts Lamy M16 refills, so it is nearly impossible to use a gel refill. I discuss this in more detail in the video below.
Other blog posts
If you want to read more about the xevo look at these other blog posts about the xevo (listed in chronological order)
If you want a holiday in style (and with nice pencils!) check out the Grand Resort in Bad Ragaz, featured in the BBC TV series Amazing Hotels.
A night there can set you back £10,000, but this will get you 600 m2 of floor space and some nice pencils: You get three Caran d’Ache Edelweiss pencils in HB, a Staedtler Mars plastic eraser and a Pelikan ruler.
Luckily, these days the Caran d’Ache Edelweiss pencil is much easier to find than in 2012 when I did a review here on Bleistift – There seem to be several online shops inthe USA and in the UK selling this pencil now.
You can watch this episode on the BBC iPlayer (if your location allows). The screenshot was taken at 22 min and 58 seconds into the episode.
I believe that the use of the screenshot, taken from the BBC series Amazing Hotels, falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service
Coincidentally coinciding with Chinese New Year: a new addition to my Pelikan flock.
I couldn’t resist CultPen’s Pelikan discount offer and bought the ‘Traditional M120’. Upon arrival I filled it with Diamine Prussian Blue.
When I showed it to my wife, who usually loves Pelikan (except that blue M205 demonstrator I got in 2009), she compared the looks of the M120 to a Super5 and commented on the price.
When I ordered the M120 I didn’t think of the Super5 at all. Now that I made the connection it is so clear. Yes, they are similar, but putting them next to each other you realise how similar they are.
The colour of the M120 is beautiful, but the Super5 colours are beautiful as well. Pelikan and Super5 managed to find special colours that are the opposite of boring.
The Super5 is much cheaper, so unlike the Pelikan you don’t mind using it all the time. You don’t feel you have to protect it from scratches and the bad world out there. It takes cartridges – unlike the Pelikan which is a piston filler which always feels more high end. The Super5 is also special in a way: it is available without an Iridium point which makes for a nice and different writing experience.
Happy New Year of the Mouse to all Bleistift Readers. Enjoy your pens.