You get one for posting a photo on Pelikan’s Facebook page (for more details follow the link at the end of this blog post). I think there are still lots of calendars left. They have 500 to give away, but when I had a look at the submitted pictures this morning there were less than 100. If you want [1]You don’t need a Facebook account to take part, my wife took part and she doesn’t have a Facebook account – but you might need someone with a Facebook account to access the page, … Continue reading one of these calendars go to this page.
You don’t need a Facebook account to take part, my wife took part and she doesn’t have a Facebook account – but you might need someone with a Facebook account to access the page, I’m not sure about that.
I know that Bleistift is a pencil blog, so I usually try to keep fountain pen blog posts to a minimum, but today I can’t resist.
In December 2011 I bought a Noodler’s Ahab fountain pen [1]The Ivory Darkness version. Mine ended up being extra dark. and I didn’t use it a lot. Why? Because I was disappointed.
Why was I disappointed? That was actually down to my unrealistic expectations and wasn’t Noodler’s fault at all. When I read that it’s supposed to come with a flexible nib I expected some wonderpen that would be the fountain pen equivalent of my Brause 361 nib, i.e. I thought even relatively few pressure would make it possible to create a lot of nib variation. That wasn’t the case. The nib wasn’t much more flexible than M200 steel nibs from Pelikan in F or my Lamy 2000 M nib. My initial impression of the Ahab’s nib was probably also made worse by the fact that I often write on poor quality paper [2]Simply because many of the documents I get are printed on that kind of paper. and because I used an ink that tends to be absorbed into the paper instead of staying on the paper to form a crisp line once dry.
Left to right: M215 Orthogons, Konrad Galapagos Tortoise, M215 Lozenges, M215 Blue Barrel and Stripes
Enter the Konrad. The text from the leaflet that comes with the Konrad reminds me very much of the Citroën C5 adverts[3]“Not a single component of the Konrad pen is German made. Yet, its design is extremely German…”. I bought it because I like the look of it – no wonder: I like the look of Pelikan pens. I prefer the look of the round cap Pelikans to the crown cap Pelikans – and the Konrad has the round cap look I like. Unfortunately, the celluloid derivative used for the Konrad [4]In my case the Galapagos Tortoise. doesn’t look as good as the one on my Ahab, probably because it’s more translucent. This is however completely subjective and someone else will prefer the material used for the Konrad [5]I don’t and am thinking about getting the Ebonite Konrad once it’s available again. The Goulet Pen Company will have it back in stock again soon, but I’m undecided whether I should … Continue reading.
In terms of nib flex the Konrad and Ahab are great, I just have to accept that I need more pressure to make it flex compared to my dip pen nibs. On the maximum flex end of the scale they don’t really produce a wider line than a Pelikan M200 steel nib in F [6]There is quite some variation though when it comes to Pelikan’s steel nibs in F, depending on when they were produced., but they can produce a slightly thinner line on the minimum flex end of the scale. If you now think a Pelikan steel nib in EF will produce similar results you might be disappointed. On good paper (steel) EF nibs produce a finer line than F nibs, but on poor quality paper the difference can be hardly noticeable. The EF nibs do however tend to be very hard and there’s hardly any line variation, i.e. they are much less flexible than the F nibs.
M205 De Atramentis Schwarzriesling ink, Konrad Pelikan Blue ink, Ahab Noodler’s Baystate Blue ink — Please excuse the shape of the letters, I usually don’t try to vary pressure on purpose when writing
Pricewise the Konrad is amazing. I paid about £23 including shipping (~$35; €27), bought on eBay. That’s about half of what I paid for my last Pelikan M215, about £56 including shipping (~$87; €66), bought from Amazon Germany. There are similar offers for different versions of the M215 on Amazon UK, but just to spell it out, one reason why the Pelikan pens are cheap on Amazon is because they don’t come in the Pelikan gift box, they come in a cardboard box, similar to the one the Konrad came in. The body of the Konrad does not seem to be as carefully handled as the Pelikan, mine came with some scratches on the body, but nothing too obvious or bad. The Pelikan has some advantages, too. It comes with a metal sleeve on the body, the body and cap have a higher quality feel to them and ink flow is more controlled and there less spilling of ink when transporting the pen – but hey, the Konrad is only half as expensive, plus it can take all sorts of nibs.
I don’t and am thinking about getting the Ebonite Konrad once it’s available again. The Goulet Pen Company will have it back in stock again soon, but I’m undecided whether I should order because I might have to pay Customs Duty, Excise Duty and import VAT.
I bought these erasers when I was in Germany over Easter.
The manufacturers of both erasers like to emphasise that the erasers are phthalate-free. A while ago plasticisers were a big topic in the news in Germany. I think there might have been a scandal regarding plasticisers in toys – or maybe this started another way. Both erasers were €0.79 (~ $1; £0.63).
If you live in the UK you might like this: I noticed that The Pen Shop in Manchester (Trafford Centre) offers a 30% discount on Pelikan pens. The discounts are even better for Graf von Faber-Castell pens: they are 1/3 off. There is a good chance that other stores of this chain offer similar discounts. The Pen Shop is not cheap in the first place – which means that many of their Pelikan pens are not really cheaper than in some online shops. Some of their Graf von Faber-Castell pens are however real bargains I haven’t seen that “well priced” before (I don’t want to call them cheap). Unfortunately they didn’t have the GvFC mechanical pencil I am interested in.
These discounts seem to be across the range, i.e. including mechanical pencils, fountain pens, etc. Some of the (not so exciting) Pelikan discounts are available online, too, but the GvFC discount are unfortunately not available online.
The information I was given by the employee implied that the discounts would last until they sold these pens/brands off, but I don’t believe this as I was told something similar in the same shop in December 2009, but back then the discount were only for a short period of time.
In the past few days Pelikan has been in the (financial) news. Last year their turnover dropped by 13% and they lost more then ten million Swiss francs.
There have been quite a few changes for Pelikan in the past months: As mentioned previously they now manufacture the Porsche Design pens, but they stopped distributing certain Henkel products – Staedtler does that now …no wonder Staedtler’s glue in the Pencilmaker Set is from Henkel.
I hope Pelikan’s financial situation will improve again. It certainly wasn’t my fault – I bought quite a few Pelikan products (mainly fountain pens).
Continuing the Pelikan theme: you might remember one of my previous blog posts that included a video of Japanese politicians using a Pelikan. Well,something similar might happen in New Zealand soon: politicians there use Pelikan fountain pens, too. Simon Parker, New Zealand’s Minister of Justice, Minister for State Owned Enterprises, Minister of Commerce, Minister Responsible for the Law Commission and Associate Minister of Finance received a Pelikan fountain pen as a gift from the German State Secretary.
