I usually wait to see a pen in person, or at least in photos taken in person, before ordering one. Publicity photos aren’t always accurate about a pen’s color. But the Pelikan M600 Pink was an exception. I pre-ordered it without knowing the specific shade of pink it would be. Because I realized that whatever pink it would be, I’d still buy it. It’s pink Pelikan!
But for everyone else, here are those photos.
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I think of Diamine Brandy Dazzle as similar to Diamine Golden Sands. Golden Sands is like molten gold, and Brandy Dazzle is like molten copper. Brandy Dazzle is absolutely stunning.
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I couldn’t wait to share a quick look at my Pink Pelikan, the new M600. In person, the color is more raspberry than hot pink. I know some people are having fits over a pink Pelikan. But this is not very wild, for a pink. It’s dignified, actually.
The binde is blend of light and dark pink stripes. It is not translucent. It shimmers. You cannot easily see the ink level.
I want to thank the nice people at Iguana Sell, from whom I bought this. They outdid themselves with great service and great communication, not to mention very fast delivery, all at a great price.
I’ve been writing with Platinum and Sailor’s inexpensive desk pens recently. Both were around $12 from Jetpens when I bought them a few years ago. I noticed that Jetpens isn’t carrying the Sailor any more, but still has the Platinum, as do other retailers. Here are my thoughts when comparing the two for writing, rather than drawing.
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Sailor Desk Pen. This is another sub-$15 plastic desk pen featuring an ultra-fine Japanese nib. I’ve got it filled with Sailor’s pigment-based ink, the nano ink Kiwa-guro. The combination is very similar to the Platinum Carbon Desk Pen featured Tuesday.
Sailor’s stainless steel nib is marked extra-fine. I find it very similar in width to both the Platinum desk pen with Carbon Black and the Pilot Prera fine nib with Pilot Black (a regular dye-based ink). The two desk pens may write slightly thinner lines than the Prera with fine nib, but all three are pretty close in my real world use.
Sailor Kiwa-guro ink is made from pigments rather than dye, so it’s similar to Platinum Carbon ink. In the desk pens, Kiwa-guro is darker and blacker than Platinum Carbon ink. However, Kiwa-guro is only water-resistant, while Platinum Carbon ink is totally waterproof.
A kind friend sent me samples of some of the inks from the forthcoming Diamine “Shimmertastic” series of inks with gold and silver colored particles. The first one I inked was Blue Lightning, a light blue with silver particles, which I put in a Pelikan M200 with a stubbed 14k medium nib.
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Platinum Carbon Desk Pen. This is an inexpensive plastic desk pen made by Platinum for its Carbon Black ink. I bought this, and a similar desk pen made by Sailor, years ago for drawing. I decided to take them out again this week for writing.
The Platinum desk pen has a nice, smooth nib, and I like the pen’s light weight, long length and good balance. It can take a Platinum converter if you want to use bottled ink. It’s a good pen to write with, for me. Platinum describes the nib as “super fine.” It may be slightly thinner than my Pilot Prera fine nib with Pilot black ink, but I really think the two are comparable.
Platinum Carbon ink is marked safe for fountain pens, but I have had some difficulties with pigment inks over the years, so I honestly prefer to use them in dedicated cheaper pens, like this one. Carbon Black is a waterproof and lightproof pigment-based ink. It’s reputed to be a very dark black ink, but in this pen I don’t get that. It writes smoothly and dries quickly. This combination easily could be an everyday user.
Fountain Pen Follies 