A winner has been announced for the JetPens giveaway we held for the Zebra Sharbo X ST3 multipen! This was a really neat pen and thanks to JetPens for sponsoring the event.
And the winner is:
Congrats, Randall, and thanks to all that participated, and stay tuned for more giveaways in the near future.
Light up the torches folks, because based on the hype around this pen we may have to burn someone at the stake once you've finished reading. That person would be a certain pen blogger; me.
There has been a lot of talk about the Pelikan M205 being amazing, smooth, and an all-around great pen. The brand recognition is there, the styling is classic and beautiful, and it holds overall clout in the community.
I do love the design of it and would consider it my first "classic" styled pen with the solid barrel colors and metal trims. It is elegant and feels like it is built well. It is lightweight, but feels sturdy enough, although not incredibly durable. It isn't built for that, so is expected.
I really enjoy the Pelikan logo of the parent and child swimming while looking at each other. It is one of those logos that makes you feel good. The logo is on the tip of the cap and is stamped on with a silvery ink. I wager over time with heavy use it may start to come off.
There are some seams in the pen, particularly in the grip section where you can see where the two halves of the plastic/acrylic where molded together. Not entirely a turn off, but not entirely fancy in my opinion based on my expectations.
Seam in grip slightly visible
The M205 is a piston filler with a cool smokey ink reservoir window built in seamlessly with the barrel. Very cool, particularly with a bright colored ink I bet.
I was extremely excited to try the M205 for myself to see if it would be a good fit and one that would find heavy rotation. My first experience with a lovely red M205 that I bought from my local Scottsdale Pen is currently in the shop for a nib warranty issue that started from the first day I inked it up. That may let you know how things are panning out for me with this pen... The warranty company had questions of whether I inked it up right, what ink I was using, etc. I filled it initially with Pelikan brand Edelstein Topaz ink (my first experience with it) as the pen manufacturer suggests, but still had issues with the pen not writing as it should or nearly at all. Probably just a nib issue and we'll get it taken care of, right? So off to East coast it went for repairs and is still out there somewhere getting worked on.
My hopes were still high, and upon hearing of Pen Chalet's sponsorship of the Pen Addict Podcast and a great deal on the M205 from their site (+10% off...) I decided to bite on another one. The white looked stunning, so I picked it up for a great price and helped support Pen Chalet who is a local company to me here in Arizona as well as my friends Myke and Brad. All was good.
Upon receipt of the new white M205 I immediately inked it up this time with some Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki of which I was very familiar and felt safe with. Upon writing on some Tomoe River paper just to give it the very best possible outcome, it wrote...better. While the nib was actually writing consistently this time, my vertical lines and initial letter starts were sometimes a bit sketchy and I've often had to rewrite the lines to get ink on the page. To keep the pen flowing smoothly I had to write with the nib a bit tilted to the right side. Sorry Pelikan, strike 2 in my book.
Granted, the nib is a steel one, but I honestly have great success with steel on a variety of other pens of a perceived "lesser caliber" than the M205. My Lamy Safaris, Kaweco AL Sport (sub M nib size), Karas Kustoms Ink, and my TWSBIs all write much better and more smoothly than the M205. I could upgrade to a gold nib as several people do, but to add an additional $200 to this pen makes me uneasy.
With a retail price of $195 ( I did not pay this for either of mine), I guess I would just expect more from it. One snafu with a nib I could understand and work through, but seemingly two in a row is a bit more than a coincidence. Maybe it writes the way it is supposed to now, but isn't really to my style? All I know is that I've done better personally with a pen a third of the price.
Are your torches lit yet?... Has someone piled up the wood for the fire?...
As said before, the pen is beautiful and very stylish, but my first impressions have not been the greatest which is a bit disappointing. I'm not upset that I bought it and will continue to use the M205 in hopes that it will eventually adjust to my writing style, but we'll see. Also, when the red one returns back from the shop I'll put it in the rotation to see if the experience has improved. I anticipate a follow up post to the M205 sometime in the future to discuss if things have changed for me.
The Uni-ball Vision Elite Roller is a pen that goes way back with me. Ok, maybe not WAY back, but definitely is a pen that saw some heavy rotation (if not dedicated for a time) a few years ago when I worked in banking. It was a great pen for taking notes and for when clients needed to sign documents.
The Elite is what I'd consider to be a smart looking pen, or attractive at least for your "over the counter" office supply pen. It almost has a sort of futuristic look to it with the oblong oval shapes that grace the cap and clip, and also the transparent color indicating piece that stands proudly at the top of the pen.
It isn't just a circle, line, or other marking, it is a piece of plastic that is sculpted to flow with the overall design of the pen. I like it. The 0.8mm pens have a silvery white barrel that fades in and out from the ends.
My main draw to the Vision Elite is the ink flow and just how easy it is to get words on a page. Honestly, the 0.8mm is kind of an odd size in the pen world. We usually only see 0.38, 0.5, 0.7, and a few jumbo 1.0mm. Not sure what the rationale by Uni is for it (maybe to add to the unique factor?), but that extra 0.1mm seems to do the trick. The blue-black ink is definitely that and is a rich, unique color.
While writing with this pen I feel that my letters are more expressive and, oddly enough, maybe even a bit neater? There are certain pens you write with that do that and it makes you feel good while writing. The ink in the Vision Elite is Uni's pigmented ink which means fade-proof and archival quality which is great for sensitive and permanent documents.
If you more prefer a finer line then the 0.8mm may not quite be for you, although they do make a 0.5mm which comes in a black barrel. I haven't used one of the 0.5mm for quite awhile, but I'm certain I have in the past. I'd be interested to try them again to see what my feelings are about the finer experience with this pen.
I do have a few gripes about the pen, primarily the finish on the barrel. Actually, the barrel itself too. The painted finish tends to scrape off pretty easily leaving small scratches and "unsightly" blemishes all over the cap and barrel. As I said above, this is an attractive pen and it is unfortunate that this feature is so easily diminished with use.
Battle Scars...
An oddity is that Uni-ball actually sells refills for this pen. I don't quite understand this as the barrel is easily scratched and the refills are literally maybe $0.50 cheaper than buying an entirely new pen? For a fresh barrel, I'll spot a couple of quarters particularly if using it in a business setting.
The refill is also extremely huge and is practically a pen in and of itself. It consists of the tip, grip section, and a fairly large reservoir that fills most of the barrel. In my heart of hearts I wish Uni would figure a way to re-engineer this pen so that a refill could go in a more durable, higher end barrel. We can dream, right?
The barrel situation aside, I really enjoy the Vision Elite and need to pull it back into my rotration from time to time.