A Pelikan Pen

A couple of weeks back, I ordered a Faber-Castell E-Motion 'Dark Brown Pearwood' fountain pen, from the reasonably local Pen Shoppe store. Weak website, but great service and selection in-store.

Around the same time as I ordered the E-Motion, I also ordered a Lamy Studio with a 1.1mm Italic nib. I cancelled my orders for both these pens today, each for a different reason. It's pretty unusual for me to cancel an order of anything, let alone a pen, but in the end I decided I didn't want another fountain pen with a steel nib (E-Motion), and I was certain that I would find a 1.1mm line (Studio) too thick for my small handwriting.

Instead of the two pens discussed above, I will soon be ordering a Pelikan Souverän M400 White Tortoise/Honey fountain pen, with Extra Fine 14K nib. I did look at this pen at the time I bought my Montegrappa Micra, but the one in stock at the Pen Shoppe had been carelessly written with, and the nib was skipping and very scratchy. I will probably be ordering the Pelikan online.

Inky Goodness

I stopped by a small office supplies store today, after remembering that I had seen some older merchandise in there. I figured they may be worth checking out in my quest for coloured fountain pen inks. I was in luck, and found nine packets of Pelikan 4001 ink cartridges!

On the packet it states the inks were made in West Germany. As West Germany and the DDR started reunification in 1989, these are *old* Pelikan inks. Sadly, over time about a third of the ink in each cartridge has evaporated.


The nine packets consisted of four colours:
• 1x 'Rose-Coloured'
• 2x 'Light Green'
• 2x 'Umber'
• 4x 'Sunflower Yellow'

So far I have only tried the Sunflower Yellow, and it is beautiful. It is a very intense yellow-orange shade, very pure and bright. No muddiness, no brown tones, no red tones - a very true, vivid colour with great flow.