Pelikan M205 Clear Demonstrator

For a while now I have been interested in a Pelikan fountain pen; I tried the Stola but was not very impressed, too many hard starts and skips for my liking. I may go back to it one day but it’s not on my ‘to do’ list at the present time. A word of advice if you are thinking of a Stola; make sure you by the boxed version and not the one packaged in a plastic tube, mine came in the tube and the plastic clip employed to secure the pen had marked the surface of the pen, so buy boxed versions only.

Anyway, I stopped taking an interest in Pelikans and thought no more about them until I was browsing the Pure Pens website (purepens.co.uk) for a bottle of KWZ Grapefruit and digressed into the pen pages and found the M205 clear demonstrator and because I collect demonstrators this piqued my interest.

A word at this point about Pure Pens, they are lovely people and very helpful; I had problems processing an order for the ink and called them apologising for messing up their stock file and asking if they could help and help they did. The following morning, I had my KWZ Grapefruit and I was very happy.

So, after much procrastination, I ordered an M205 from Pure Pens and sure enough it arrived the next day. The pen arrived in an outer card box and inside this you find the Pelikan box which is a stylishly made two-piece affair with the pen tray slipping out of the outer box. The pen is contained in a soft white pouch tied with brown ribbon and beneath this is the Pelikan Warranty.

It’s nice to see that time was spent on designing a box and a pouch that make the whole process of receiving the pen a lot more special than the basic black clamshell case so many pens are shipped in.

 

The pen itself is actually quite small and slim as you can see from this image where I have placed it next to a Wing Sung 3008, which I consider to be an average sized pen. 

All the fittings are rhodium plated and the cap has the standard Pelikan clip and the company logo is found on the top of the cap in black and silver.

The cap unscrews to reveal what I would guess is a size 5 nib mounted in a short section, for my nickel too short. I found when holding the pen (I tend to hold the section with my fore finger resting at on the end of the section nearest the nib) the threads on the section are sharp and make writing anything of length uncomfortable. The only practical solution would be to affect a high grip which doesn’t suit everyone’s style of writing.

Loading the pen was easy, the mechanism is very smooth, and it took no effort to fill the pen. Writing with the pen is a smooth experience and I tested it by leaving it filled and unused for various numbers of days and there were no hard starts or skipping. 

Cleaning the pen is pretty straightforward unlike a lot of piston fillers where you draw in/expel water until you have it as clean as possible with this one you just remove the nib unit and wash it out.

Before getting down to the nitty gritty of ‘is this pen worth your pennies?’ I decided to compare it and to use as my point of reference my Kaweco Dia2, I made some basic comparisons e.g. comfort in use, build quality, cost, ink flow et cetera.

Of the two pens the Dia2 is better pen. Overall it offers a better writing experience and feels much better built than the M205 and I would recommend the Dia2 over the Pelikan.

So, is it worth your pennies?

In short, no. 

If you really want one, wait and buy one on sale but only if it is heavily discounted.

I, for one, am very disappointed by this pen and I won’t be spending anymore of my pennies on Pelikan fountain pens, I have better Chinese pens that have cost me a fraction of what this cost.

Rather than ending this review on a sad note I would like to end on a positive note and say if you are shopping for pens and/or ink check out Pure Pens they are great people to deal with and offer wonderful service.

Disclaimer: The pen was purchased with my own funds at retail price. The opinions expressed in this review are my own; and I am not connected with either the retailers or manufacturers in any way.