Moleskine Review of the Pelikan M200

Stephanie (Biffybeans) has posted her latest pen musings:

Out of the box - it's small. Smaller than I expected but it fits the hand quite well. Very light. Too lazy and eager to flush it, I filled it with Noodler's black right away.

This pen came from Pam Braun, so it is NOT a Binder Mod.  This is a fine nib, and it's very thin.

For Comparison: Lamy 2K EF DIamine Imperial Blue
9556 Esterbrook 9556 (Fine) Diamine Imperial Purple
Lamy Safari EF Noodler's Aircorp Blue Black
Lamy 1.1 stub Noodler's Black
Lamy custom Cursice Italic .07? (Pendemonium grind)
Lamy Safari M Noodler's Black

I would not consider this to be "butter" smooth - bit it IS smooth. Will probably be even smoother with a different ink. Iyts smoother than the Esterbrook non, which is very stiff.
I'm not generally fond of gold trim, but on this pen it's not very obtrusive, and it makes it look...rich.

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Comments

[Sophie Brown]

She's pretty good at this sort of thing--product testing.

[Stephanie]

Thanks Sophie!

I started doing it just for myself, and then I realized that I could share my findings with others....

There will be more to come. I'm having my 1st Parker 51 refurbished by Ron Zorn of Main Street Pens, and I also have one of those Reform 1745's coming from overseas.

Maybe I'll tread into Sailor land after that, but I think that's probably as far as my pen journey will take me. (Unless someone starts sending me free pens to test.) LOL!

[Ian Stanley]

One of my favorite pens - internet prices on this have dropped substantially - I originally bought mine from Harrods when I worked in London

Fantastically smooth writing with Mont Blanc ink. Very easy to keep clean. Comparable with the Mont Blanc Boheme the nib is more flexible than a lot of pens - in fact in my collection it's the most flexible after my Visconti Skeleton (http://www.visconti.it/museum/scheda.php?idelemento=13) which seems to be far to flexible to write with at first.

[Jake]

Some fountain pen users have complained about the Moleskine paper quality, as this thread: http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=64984&st=0 in Fountain Pen Forums shows. Can you (or anyone) address the variation in paper quality many writers report?

[Michael]

Thanks for the review of the M200. I bought a Pelikan about 25 years ago as a graduate student when I first began to keep a journal. I think I must even have written my thesis with it - must have driven it into the ground! I never had the courage to replace it with another fearing, I imagine, being disappointed. However, "on retourne toujours a son premier amour", and I ordered the M200 from Pendemonium after reading your review.

BTW, regarding the quality of Moleskine paper posted by Ian Stanley: I think the quality of Moleskine paper is just fine - often it's the ink that makes all the difference. I use a Waterman Phileas (Medium nib) with Noodler's Black with great success. Noodler's Legal Lapis (you gotta see this on Moleskine!) as well as Royal Blue are fine, but not as good as the Black. However, Old Manhattan looks horrible on Moleskine. All, by the way, with the same Phileas.