Pelikan Souveran spotted in the movie Nine Lives

A new/old spot on the big screen, because it is a 2016 movie. It is a Pelikan Souveran, probably M1000 fountain pen, green body with black and gold trim cap.

The Pelikan fountain pen is placed on a big classic desk in a pen holder.  The action is taking place in Tom Brand's office. 

If you haven't seen the movie Tom Brand soul is passed in the cat which is adopted by Tom's family.

 Opposable thumbs take you a long way. In cat form, Tom has real trouble using his fountain pen.

Tom's role is played by Kevin Spacey. He looks really cute :)

Black ink: Faber Castell vs Pelikan 4001

Lately, I have been using fountain pens more often. And I found that the most used color of ink is black. Both of the writing samples are with Faber Castell Loom fountain pen.

The Faber Castell has a more fluid ink, and the color is more saturated compared to the Pelikan.

On the plus side for the Pelikan, it is a bit cheaper and it is more popular, at least with the shops. You can find Pelikan 4001 in any stationary shop, small or big.

They are both close, but Pelikan wins at foto finish

I chose Pelikan mainly because it handled a little bit better in the sun test, you can see in the post ink over time. And it is easier to find

Ink over time

Recently I started writing with a fountain pen again. The appetite for fountain pens has been ignited by the cheap Preppy. The sensation was quite nice switching from ballpoint to fountain pen. But the fact that ink is soluble into water made me contemplate on the resistance of ink over time. You can find on the Internet and on the forums good UV tests of different inks. But I wanted a test of my own to see how my inks work in my situation, so your  mileage may vary. I live in a place with moderate sunlight. I tried to replicate what would happen to your ink writings left on a table on which you get a fair share of sunlight.
The test is not very scientific as i used different fountain pens and the exposure to light was different as i did not used all the inks in the test from the begining but still the results are interesting.

Inks used: platinum blue black, Faber Castell royal blue, Faber Castell permanent black, Pelikan 4001 royal blue, Pelikan 4001 black, Pelikan 4001 personal mix 1:1 royal blue and black, Koh I Noor Blue

The test was conducted for a period of 4 months from March until June.

Results:
Koh I Noor blue with the least time exposed to sunlight is almost invisible
Faber Castell royal blue is very hard to read even though it received a similar amount of sun with Pelikan 4001 royal blue
The blacks from Pelikan and Faber Castell look similar after sun exposure.
The winner of the test I would say is the Platinum blue black
The ink was not the only one affected by the sun the paper that was exposed obtain a yellowish tint

Also see: Platinum Preppy

Gel Pens Pelikan, Pilot vs cheap brand

There are many products with very different price points and you can't just wonder, why the difference? You can tell yourself, it is the quality what you pay is what you get. But really?
I am bringing in to the ring an incredible threesome of gel pens.
Pelikan Soft Gel, Pilot Super Gel and no name brand Forster.

Cold start test. 

After a long period of sitting on the shelf. It is the first test because I had to get them started.
Pelikan, Pilot Super Gel 0.5 had no problem starting right away. Pilot 0.7 had some issues and Forster needed convincing.

Line width and saturation. 

I am testing only general purpose writing colors (blue, black)
Black color, test between Pilot 0.7 and Pelikan. I can say that Pelikan produces a hair skinnier line (the size is not advertised) and it seems to be a little less saturated compared to Pilot 0.7 mm

Blue color, test between Pilot 0.5 & 0.7 and Forster. Forster does not specify the width but is around 0.5. It is a lighter blue compared to Pilor but nice color. The width is very close to Pilot 0.5. The 0.7 mm Pilot has a darker color and a thicker line.

Bleeding

I tested all this on cheap copy machine paper, because it is most likely to use this pens in an office environment where this kind of paper is the norm.
No surprise the thinner the point less bleedthrough.
Worst performance order:
Pilot Super Gel 0.7 black. Bleedthrough but can be used
Pilot Super Gel 0.7 blue. Bleedthrough but can be used
Pilot Super Gel 0.5 blue. It has decent performance and can be used
On the same place Pelikan Soft Gel and Forster with very little bleedthrough.

Comfort and ergonomics

The best in class is the Pilot, which has a grip section with smooth circles spaced closely. It is comfortable and you can use the pen for long hours
Second is the Pelikan with a rubber insert. It is at the same level with the plastic body. It feels good but I do not think offers to many benefits.
Last is the Forster which has the grip identical with the rest of the barrel just a bit thicker. It is not uncomfortable to use but for sure they cut some corners to be able to produce them for cheap. It has a sharper edge if you're gripping the pen close to the lead.

Writing experience

The writing is the most important aspect of the pen after all. I can say that all right ok, but my opinion is that Pelikan is the smoothest. Pilot has a bad feel to it, it's like the ball is wobbling inside, it does not seem a quality assembly. And this aspect is true to all of the tested Pilots. Even the Forster felt better to me.

Quality

Forster is cheaply made, the cap is not as secure as the other. Also, the clip cannot be used as if you pull it slides out of the cap. This is not valid for all the ones I have only for the blue color. But it shows that the quality control and the design are not the best.

Value

This is a very interesting section. Because I don't think it is a surprise to anybody that the quality on a cheap no-name brand is lower compared to Pilot or even Pelikan.
But the real question is a cheap product a good value to the customer. Well, it can be a very good value sometimes.
In this case, I think you get 90% of the quality for a lot less money
It's not the most scientific test you can make but sometimes you need to simplify the process and admit that your mileage might vary.
How long will the pen write depends on the level of ink inside. Of course, other factors influence the mileage, like the line thickness, reservoir diameter, and ink viscosity. So the 0.5 pens will last longer than 0.7.
But to compare the pens (0.5) without writing until the pen is out of ink I measured the ink inside. I assumed the diameter and viscosity of the gel holder are similar so I did not take this into consideration while doing the measurements. Pelikan and Forster do not say the line thickness but I consider them to be a 0.5 as they are very close to the Pilot in width.

Brand	Ink level	Price	Ink	Price
	cm	eur	comparison	comparison
Froster	9.7	0.24	benchmark	benchmark
Pelikan Soft Gel	10.7	0.64	+ 10.3%	267%
Pilot Super Gel	9.9	0.99	+ 2%	413%

In this situation, Forster is cheaper by a mile. It holds less ink but it is cheaper between 2 and 4 times than Pelikan and Pilot. That in my book is called a good deal. But there is a catch. The ink levels between my Forster pens vary a bit. One of them has 1.5 cm less than the one I measured. Another one is 0.9 cm less. So this is not very consistent. But even if I would redo the test, and I would use the one with the smallest amount of ink the test will still look great. The Pelikan would hold ~ + 30% more ink but still costs 2.67 times more. The Pilot would hold around + 20% more ink and would still cost more than 4 times as much. So you can buy for each 2 Pelikans 5 Forsters, And for each Pilot 4 Forsters.

Annoying is the fact that not all pens are filled up as they should be, and again this is the lack of quality control with this ones.

All discomforts aside they are good value. Pelikan is the second on the list and Pilot get the disappointing 3rd place as the product is very expensive, and the writing experience is not as good as the cheaper products tested.

Erasers: Faber Castell vs Rotring vs Factis & Pelikan

A lot of people praise the performance of the Faber Castell erasers. The stores also seem to like the Faber Castell brand. So I have put them to the test two Faber Castell against the Rotring Tikky and some other brands Factis and Pelikan.

In the green corner is Faber Castell PVC Free and the 187121 Dust free. In the red corner is an old Rotring Tikky 20. In the benchmark corner is Pelikan and Factis 36R.

I have put them against Rotring HB lead, cheap lead 2B which is more prone to smearing and a regular HB pencil.
The performance is quite similar between all of them. The Rotring lead was erased well by all of the erasers in the group. But it was more difficult to erase the cheap 2B lead and even harder to erase the HB pencil.
The best performance all around was delivered by .. all

On longer erasing sessions Pelican was the worst, Factis did a good job but creates a lot of dust. Rotring compared to Faber Castell is made from a harder material, it requires some extra passes but you don't risk making creases on the paper. The Faber Castell Pvc Free is the softest and grips the paper more. The Faber Castell Dust Free is more balanced.
The FC Dust Free does what it says, it does not leave dust on the paper, and I understand why it is considered one of the best erasers. Second place goes to the Rotring which produces larger dust crumbles that are not sticky, they can be cleaned with ease from the paper. The Pvc Free is a little bit better than Pelikan. Factis creates the most dust.

You can't go wrong with any of the erasers, but I would choose the Faber Castell Dust Free or the Rotring Tikky

After taking into account the ease of erasing, the dust left behind and the chance of making creases in the paper this is my pick.

* mention, Rotring Tikky almost came as equal for the first place if it had performed a hair better on the erase test. Also it needs to be mentioned that Rotring is around 10 years old eraser. This might decrease the erasing performance.

Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Red ink

I got enthusiastic about ink colors and I bought Pelikan 4001 brilliant red. It is not a color that I use regular, but I felt it would be cool for occasional writing and mixing it with other inks from Pelikan.
The conclusion is that I should have read the reviews first.
Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Red Ink is a big no no. The ink has many flaws regarding color, mixing, deposits in the inkwell etc.

You can make it look a lot better by mixing it, but it is not mixing well and clogs the pen.

You can see in the bottle a white deposit on the bottom of the reservoir. If you shake it, the deposit mixes, but only for a short time.

For a company that has so much tradition, it is a very big disappointment. Why would you tolerate putting on the market such a bad product?

To show how bad things are, if you look on the internet for Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Red you will find pictures and videos where the ink is orange. Looks nothing like the one I got.

Definitely not worth buying!

Pelikan Erase, erasable pen

I don't understand why is there a need for a pen that can be erased instead of using a pencil, but for the sake of the test let's go on with the Pelikan erase

TEST #1: Writing

Writing with the pen feels creamy, but the ink is not coming out with consistency. If you take a look at the picture above you can see numerous parts of the text where the pen skipped, or where the line density is different from normal.