Pelikan M205 Star Ruby, M400 14K 0.9mm CI, inked with Pelikan Edelstein Star Ruby (Ink of Year 2019)

It has been almost nine months since I posted anything here. I have been slack, content with just putting images up on my instagram account. But the Pelikan Hubs and the arrival of my latest pen have inspired me to write a few words.

The M205 Star Ruby is the namesake accompaniment to Edelstein Star Ruby, the 2019 Ink of the Year. It is a transparent red pen with silver trim. But in a deviation from all past M205s and as an ode to the “star” in Star Ruby it has sparkles in its material. Not just a few but lots. They are not apparent in my Lightbox image below but scroll down to see the image I took with the pen in direct sunlight - so many sparkles. I must admit that I am not 100% onboard with sparkles in a Pelikan pen - it seems so not Pelikan.

I expect this model will sell well based on the reaction it received when I showed it to people at the Brisbane Pelikan Hubs. It seems to appeal to ladies, with more than one making the comment that the material will match well one of their sparkly red nail polishes!!

I am still waiting for the nib I ordered with this pen - a M405 Medium. (I don’t use steel nibs). This nib says B for broad but is a custom grind by Max Schumacher to a 0.9mm cursive italic.

The 2019 Edelstein Ink of the year Star Ruby.

It is a vibrant red with just a touch of fuchsia in the undertone. I have heard reports of it staining M605 White Transparent barrels - which is not a good sign from a manufacturer of expensive clear demonstrators.

Pelikan M620 Athens, M620 18K Fine, inked with Sailor Jentle Epinard

The M620 Athens is such a pretty pen. The combination of the blue and light green longitudinal stripes make for an interesting contrast.

My M620 18K nibs are in the main excellent writers and this fine is no exception.

Sailor Epinard is a khaki green that while shading little, and lacking any sheen still holds my interest. It might be the smell - Sailor inks have a very distinctive chemical smell which strangely I have anyways liked.

Pelikan M1000 Black/Green Striated, M1000 18K Broad, inked with Noodler's Sequoia Green

My only M1000 sized pen makes its way back into my rotation. It will joined next month (Edit: released September 2019) by a M1005 Stresemann. In true the M1000 size is too big for my hand but I love the look of these large pens..

The M1000 sized nib is lovely soft springy writing instrument. This particular broad nib is so wet that it is almost too wet. 

Yes this ink is green - a very dark green, though it could pass for a black ink if you didn’t look closely. Some small amount of shading and nothing in the way of sheen makes this ink rather mundane in my opinion. It would show better from a more interesting nib.  

Pelikan M800 Grand Place Special Edition, M800 18K Fine, inked with Diamine Graphite

The M800 Grand Place is handsome looking pen. The shade of brown, caramel with a blue ringed highlight really make for an intriguing pattern. 

Just a garden variety M800 18K Fine nib. It is a recent model and therefore writes with a wet, smooth but not very thin line. 

Diamine Graphite is pretty much what you see is what you get. It is a dark grey colour with slight shading and no sheen at all. Not the most exciting colour in the world.

Pelikan M120 Green-Black Special Edition, M101N 14K Fine, inked with Rohrer & Klingner Verdigris

As one school goes out of rotation my other one comes in. The M120 Green-Black doesn’t have the same presence as the Iconic Blue, but is a serviceable pen nevertheless. 

The image of the olde style M101N nib doesn’t do it justice. I think it is my fingerprints reacting with the light box lighting make this nib seem tarnished - it is not, it is a mirror image gold nib. This nib writes with a decently fine line and lovely to use.

Verdigris means green grey, but this ink looks like what I would call a steel blue. Don’t get me wrong I like the colour of this ink very much. This ink shades well, and is very suited to the office. I will enjoy using it this week as I wade through another five days of earning the money to buy yet more pens and ink. 

Pelikan M205 Toledo Red, M400 14K 0.6mm CI, inked with Diamine Beethoven

Into rotation comes one of my simpler pens - the M205 Toledo Red is a good looking with silver trim and a bright red-orange body. No longer made by Pelikan this pen always makes me feel happy.

My most recent Richard Binder custom grind, the M400 14K 0.6mm Cursive italic has only been on my collection for 11 months. It is on the crisper side of cursive and is a great little nib.

I am still working my way through the Diamine music inks, this one being the lovely forest green that is the Beethoven, maybe it is a pastoral green rather than forest. The nib makes this ink look very good with plenty of shading.  

Pelikan M800 Royal Gold Raden Limited Edition, M800 14K Extra Fine, inked with Montblanc Albert Einstein Grey

My most expensive and blingiest pen - the M800 Royal Gold Radeon LE makes its sixth time into the rotation in the 18 months I have owned it. There is not much I can say about this beautiful pen other than I never tire of just gazing at it. 

The image of this nib complete with scratches really shows what a hard life it has had before coming into my possession. It is a rare nib being a M800 size in 14K gold.  I have looked for one on the secondary market for years without success, and this one just come along as part of a pen purchase together with two other custom ground 18K nibs. This nib writes with a super fine (for a Pelikan) line. It has just the right amount “tooth” for me. Being 14K gold it is a perfect candidate to be modified to produce line variation via flex. Currently I can’t see myself shipping this nib off to John Mottishaw to get the nib thinned, but I will never say never.

This super fine nib does not do much for Montblanc Albert Einstein Grey. This ink does exhibit some nice shading but as I have said in the past - all grey inks shade.

Pelikan M620 Chicago, M625 18K Medium, inked with Noodler's Q'Ternity

Is Chicago a grey city? I have never been there so I don’t have first hand experience. The pen that bears it’s name is grey, and silver and black in a marble effect. I like the look of this pen, but I have heard people comment that this pen is at best stately. Pelikans tend to err on the conservative side so they shouldn’t be surprised. 

My only 18K full rhodium trim M600 nib, it is a medium and is only an ok medium nib at that. Not much more I can say about it.  

Noodler’s Q’Ternity was yet another dig at the US Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing (QE). As a piece of political commentary it is fine, as an ink it is ordinary. It suffers from the common trait of Noodler’s Archival inks of being feathery. It especially seems to not work well with Tomoe River paper. Colour wise it is an OK blue-black. 

Pelikan M600 Tortoiseshell White Special Edition, M620 18K Fine, inked with Diamine Wagner

Now and again I manage to match pen colour and ink colour. This is one of those occasions where by chance I get a match. The honey coloured tortoiseshell of this pen is lovely, and is complemented by the white of section and cap and the gold of the trim.  

The nib in use today is one of my three M620 fine nibs (18K gold, two tone). Like almost all of my older Pelikan nibs this writes with a finer line and generally performs perfectly.

As I said at the start of this post, this colour of ink is a pretty good match for the pen colour. But what is this colour? It’s a sort of mustard gold colour. Don’t get me wrong, I like this colour as it does shade slightly, and is quite different from most of my inks. 

Pelikan M805 Vibrant Blue Special Edition, M805 18K Medium, inked with Diamine Chopin

The M805 Vibrant Blue is still one of my favourite pens. The blue colour is just so vibrant. 😀 

This full rhodium trim medium nib arrived in my collection with the M805 Royal Platinum Raden. It is an ok nib but really lacks personality.  

Speaking of lacking personality, Diamine Chopin is probably the most boring of the Music Series inks. Yeah it’s not doing it for me...

Pelikan M101N Lizard Special Edition, M101N 14K Rhodium Fine, inked with Rohrer & Klingner Helianthus

My only rhodium trimmed M101N makes a return to the rotation after an absence of almost five months. I have heard rumour that the 2019 M101N will have rhodium trim.

Like the M101N Lizard this is my only rhodium trimmed M101N nib. I have thought about buying a spare just to get some variety, but have not because I had assumed that sooner or later Pelikan would release another pen using the rhodium M101N nib.

Helianthus is the scientific name for Sunflower, and this ink does well to capture the colour (my scanner tends to produce darker than real life yellow tones). I do not have many yellow inks as it is not the most user friendly colour. Luckily I can use it at the office as I rarely need to photocopy any of my papers of notes.

Pelikan M120 Iconic Blue Special Edition, M415 14K Fine, inked with Noodler's 54th Massachusetts

I am happy to see this simple blue pen back in the rotation. It was my cheapest purchase of 2018, and my delight with it way outweighs its cost.

This nib arrived in my collection for Christmas 2010 with the Pelikan M415 Tortoiseshell Brown has just clocked up eight years in my possession. It is a lovely wet writing European fine nib - set that way by the vendor Richard Binder.

Noodler’s 54th Massachusetts is very nice blue-black ink that leans to the black side. Unlike quite a few of my Noodler’s blue-blacks, this one doesn’t seem to feather. I get some good shading from the wet fine nib and some very faint red sheen on the heavy sections.

Pelikan M405 Dark Blue, M400 14K Medium, inked with Kyo No Oto bengarairo

The M405 Dark Blue arrived safely yesterday from Germany. I had purchased it days before its sibling the M805 Dark Blue, but it had to come from further away. Like the M805 this is an older pen, it has two chicks on the cap top so is from no later than 2004. It has seen some use with some scratches apparent under intense light. I am just glad to have this pen in my collection.

To match the old pen, this is an older nib, which means that while it is marked as a medium, it writes with a line width closer to a modern fine. It is a smooth writer that just works.

Well I have finally gotten to the end of my Kyo No Oto inks. The last ink is the latest release, bengarairo which means red iron oxide. My sample is browner than what I expected. like all brown inks it shades well.

Pelikan M800 Tortoiseshell Brown Special Edition, M800 18K 0.7mm CI, inked with Kyo No Oto No.08 urahairo

You would think that a brown stripe pattern would be boring, but no I find the brown tortoiseshell pattern to be brilliant. The M800 version coming into rotation today has more dark lines than some of my M400 versions - just a great looking pen.

This nib is the other John Mottishaw grind I received with the purchase of the M805 Dark Blue. It is pretty crisp and makes a vertical line around 0.7mm, and horizontal lines are hair width. The tines of this nib were slightly misaligned on arrival, but a bit of fingernail action soon fixed that. I love a crisp cursive italic, and this example is bound to be a favourite.

Yes, I am back on the Kyo No Oto inks, trust me I only have one left to come into the rotation then you will not see them here for years. This lovely shading light green ink is called urahairo which means “under the leaf”.

Pelikan M805 Dark Blue, M800 18K 1.5mm Stub, inked with Kyo No Oto No.02 imayouiro

This pen, the latest addition to my collection only arrived at 2 pm today. I had been looking for an M805 Dark Blue to go with the M605 version that has been in my possession for a couple of years.

I was fortunate that this pen came with not one but two John Mottishaw nibs. This one is a triple broad nib converted into a stub with a line width of about 1.5mm. The other nib is a 0.7mm CI. This nib is quite old indicated by the two chicks and the markings. It writes superbly.

Kyo No Oto No.2 imayouiro is named for the Safflower which is a thistle with an orange flower that was used to make a pink ink. This ink reminds me of iroshizuku kosumuso. It is a lovely shading pink ink. This is my final pen rotation for 2018. Roll on 2019.

Pen additions to my collection - 2018

I added ten more pens to my collection in 2018, an increase of one from 2017’s nine.

The continuation of Pelikan’s white M600 special edition series, this time in Turquoise was the first purchase of the year.

I don’t usually collect the M200 series of pens, but a silver trimmed clear demonstrator was too nice to pass up; so my second addition was the M205 Demonstrator SE.

My third addition for the year was love at first sight purchase. The M120 Iconic Blue Special Edition so attracted me by its simplicity and shape.

After getting the Iconic Blue and being a completist, I had to seek out the first of the M120 release pens. So my fourth new addition was the first that was not a 2018 release - the M120 Green/Black Special Edition.

The M320 Jade Green SE was the last of the M300 pens I needed for the set. This pen is the closest I have had to a grail pen as they are scarce. I bought this one from Japan at an extravagant price to become my fifth pen purchase for the year.

The M815 Metal Striped SE was a bolt from the blue as there were no previous rumours about this pen before it was officially released. I am so on the train of striped pens so this one becomes my sixth addition of the year.

This pen was a spare of the moment, FOMO, completest extravagance. I had gotten the Royal Gold LE in 2017 for my milestone (50th) birthday, but I had no such excuse this year. I got a call from my local pen shop to say that there were only two of this model coming to Australia via the distributor and one had already been spoken for, they needed an answer. I said yes to the M805 Royal Platinum Raden LE working on the theory that it was easier to beg forgiveness from my wife than ask for permission to spend a sizeable amount of cash on another pen. (I was in her bad books for weeks).

My eighth addition for the year was the M800 Stone Garden SE - a nice pen.

The very bright and sunny M600 Vibrant Orange SE become the ninth purchase for the year. I am in love with this pen but was slightly disappointed that it wasn’t closer in colour to my M320 Orange Marbled.

My tenth (and last) pen for the year arrived less than three hours ago at 2 pm on the 31st December 2018 - the M805 Dark Blue. This pen was an eBay purchase to add to the M605 Dark Blue I already have in my collection, and I have an M405 version in transit from Germany to complete the set.

So that’s the year in pen purchases for me: seven 2018 release pens, one new 2016 release pen and two older pens sourced on the secondary market.

My favourite - It is hard to go past the M805 Royal Platinum Raden LE, the “silver” of the platinum allows for a superb display of rainbow of colours from the raden. Second place is a tie between the M320 Jade Green and the M600 Vibrant Orange, both are so bright and “happy”. Least favourite - M800 Stone Garden.

Pelikan M320 Pearl Special Edition, M300 14K Medium, inked with Kyo No Oto No.07 hisoku

The M320 Pearl Special Edition was the last M300 pen to be released. The image doesn’t show it, but the material has alternate gloss and matt sections around the barrel. It is the least favourite of the M300 pens I own. It was very much targeted to the female buyer coming in a heart-shaped box.

A medium width nib, no matter what size is never super exciting. This M300 one is no exception.

Kyo No Oto inks are very traditionally Japanese in the range of colours that they offer. This grey-green called hisoku (literally: secret colour) is an ode to the celadon colour of pottery that was popular in classic period Japan. This ink shades pretty well and the tone is so different from many of my other inks. Do I like it? - maybe, the jury is still out.

Pelikan M605 White Transparent Special Edition, M620 18K Medium, inked with Pelikan Fount India Black

I am still not a fan of the look of this pen. The white and clear transparent is just in my opinion boring. I would have much rather a clear demonstrator than this design. Having said all that it is not about to be removed from the collection, so all my complaining is mute.

Another of my five M620 18K medium nibs, this one is not as good a writer as some of the others but mostly gets the job done.

The best a black ink can do in my opinion is to be dark and dense, and this black from Pelikan’s standard range achieves that.

Pelikan M620 Place de la Concorde, M620 18K Medium, inked with Diamine Cult Pens Iridescink Maureen

The M620 Place de la Concorde has some of the most subtle colourings of any of my Pelikan pens. It is also the only pen in my collection that features bands of colour around the barrel.

One of my many M620 18K medium nibs - I have five. They all write very well, but a medium nib is not the most exciting.

Well, it has taken 37 days but the second of Cult Pens Iridescinks - the Maureen has made into the rotation. Maureen is a dark blue ink that sheens red like crazy. My writing samples can’t do it justice. On 52gsm Tomoe River paper lettering with this ink tilted 45 degrees sheens total red.

Pelikan M320 Orange Marbled, M300 14K Extra Fine, inked with Caran d'Ache Blue Night

I was slightly disappointed that this pen and the newly released M600 Vibrant Orange were not more similar. The material on this little M320 leans to the yellow end of orange. It is such a sunny, bright little pen.

This little M300 14K Extra Fine nib is only on its second use after arriving in my collection with the M320 Jade Green. It is from a time when Pelikan still knew how to make nibs that produced a fine line.

Caran d”ache Blue Night with an ink identifier of 012 signifying the twelfth ink into my collection; this ink is old and no longer available in retail. It has been in my possession since the 25th October 2010 making it over eight years old. I bought this ink from Melpens in Malaysia who was a favourite vendor of mine in the early days of my collecting. The ink itself is a midnight blue ink that shades pretty well.