Bexley Elegancia

[rollerboy]

Just move right along if you expect a full review with photos. These are just a few first impressions now that I've gone through a couple of converters of ink with my new Elegancia Red Shell with F nib.

 

- Very impressed with the looks of the pen. The red shell acrylic (I think it's acrylic) is one sharp looking material. The overall effect, between the shades of red and the black streaks, is neither too "playful" nor too "serious". It's colourful enough to be visually interesting but still conservative looking. On close inspection the material has a glitter effect I didn't expect, but at typical arms length use you don't see that and I think it's what gives the material its sheen.

 

- It's nice and light ... just heavy enough to let you know you're holding something.

 

- I find it long enough to use comfortably unposted which is how I use my pens.

 

- It's discernibly slimmer than the Simplicity. I like the slimmer barrel.

 

- The section is at the lower end of section widths I find comfortable. At it's narrowest I'd say it is similar to a Pelikan M200. It is a long section so I find the threads unobtrusive (and Bexley threads are quite finger friendly anyway - they're not sharp to rest your fingers on).

 

- The section has a taper and a pronounced finger stop. I tend to choke up on pens with my forefinger right at the bottom of the section so I appreciate the finger positioning cue of the stop.

 

- The two tone steel F nib is attractive (except for the Iridium Point Germany text). It has elegant sweeping lines and is quite long. Looking at it I had hopes of a hint of spring in it's feel.

 

- Flow with PR Velvet Black is bang on 6/10, the wet side of medium (I ordered it tunerized so this was expected).

 

 

That concludes the favourable portion of these comments. On to the less favourable:

 

- The nib is resilient to vertical angle to the paper in terms of being smooth through a large range, but the line thickens as the angle is decreased. This behaviour is certainly not unique to the Bexley nib, but as the Bexley F is a relatively fat F I find I have to hold the pen at a higher angle than perhaps I otherwise would to get what I consider "true F".

 

- I experienced a little skipping on downstrokes on Clairefontaine but switching to Rhodia solved 95% of the skipping. I experienced no skipping on copier paper.

 

- What a mind bogglingly boring nib. It's competent. There's nothing really *wrong* with it but there's nothing *right* with it either. It's a completely rigid nib having a reasonable degree of smoothness vs feedback. However, for all the elegant sweep of the nibs shape there's not even that tiny hint of spring that a Pelikan M200 nib will give you. Even the lowly Lamy Safari nib has more character than this Bexley steel nib (in the Safari case I think the tipping isn't quite vanilla round).

 

Bottom line:

It's a pretty pen but as characterless isn't the character I enjoy in nibs I have to give the pen a big fat "meh".

Edited August 5, 2010 by rollerboy

[lovemy51]

ok, read the first sentence and decided to just say Hi!!

[rollerboy]

ok, read the first sentence and decided to just say Hi!!

 

I figured I'd warn people it was all article and no porn.

[jniforat]

i tried this pen out before, and i agree with your conclusions.

[Ron Z]

OK, so I'll add the picture.

 

BTW, you can buy the 18K nib for this pen. These pens have Jowo nibs, and Bexley mounts them in the same nib holder use on the 18K nibs, so you can easily upgrade to a fancier nib either when you buy the pen, or at a later date.

 

http://www.mainstreetpens.com/salepens/bexley/eleganciared.jpg

[lovemy51]

ok, read the first sentence and decided to just say Hi!!

 

I figured I'd warn people it was all article and no porn.

 

the truth... i liked the simplicity and candidness of your review! (noticed how i underlined simplicity? i'll get to that in a second) i didn't care much for the pix, since i don't like the look of the Elegancia and do like the "other" model better! i prefer that simple flat top look!!!

 

thanx for the review, rollerboy!

[cocojj]

Thanks for the heads up, I liked the look of this pen and was thinking of saving for it.

[buffalowings]

that's one nice shade of red and black, thanks for your review!

 

James

[Russ]

Ron Z is right. Upgrading to the softer Bexley nib will transform the pen. A pen can go from I-hate-it to I-love-it based on nib alone, if the rest of the pen is well-designed and built.

[rollerboy]

Ron and Russ have suggested an 18K nib upgrade. Question: Would I be happy with the line width of the 18K F or would I want an XF regrind of the Bexley stock F? I wouldn't want anything that writes any wider than the steel F currently on the pen. As another point of reference, I find Pelikan gold F nibs write too wide for my taste.

[Ron Z]

I like an extra fine as well, and think that you would want a regrind. I find the fine in both steel and gold to be a bit too wide for me. Typical modern nib.

[rollerboy]

I like an extra fine as well, and think that you would want a regrind. I find the fine in both steel and gold to be a bit too wide for me. Typical modern nib.

 

Thanks Ron.