Wahl-Eversharp Skyliner 50

[kronos77]

Well while I am waiting for the video review to process I thought I would drop a teaser photo of the writing....

 

This pen is impressive!

 

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/ac10/thevaporcafe/4B0FCDE5-0EF4-4B74-B4FC-A2C188C39E18-227-00000024930A9839_zpsfcd5202f.jpg

 

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/ac10/thevaporcafe/WahlEversharpSkyliner50_zpsff256e95.png

Video is up ....

 

 

enjoy

 

Thanks for the video. I watched it last night. But what I am still wondering is how the nib feels and writes in comparison to other flex nibs, vintage and modern (faux flex). Is it more like the Falcon or more like the Noodler's nib. It is steel, so I guess it can't be like a vintage flex.

[raging.dragon]

Thanks for the video. I watched it last night. But what I am still wondering is how the nib feels and writes in comparison to other flex nibs, vintage and modern (faux flex). Is it more like the Falcon or more like the Noodler's nib. It is steel, so I guess it can't be like a vintage flex.

 

During WWII several German companies made steel flex nibs. Based on it's properties a properly heated treated stainless spring steel should be an excellent material for making flex nibs - making the nib thinner is an easy way to compensate for steel being stiffer than a gold.

[Newjelan]

I Saw this on fpgeeks last night and am in love.

I am such a fan of "mid-century modern" design, decor, furniture everything. I've already spent a small fortune on pens this year and now I MUST have one of these.

Question is, in blue or green? (Don't say both!)

Edited March 8, 2013 by Newjelan

[Earthdawn]

I Saw this on fpgeeks last night and am in love.

I am such a fan of "mid-century modern" design, decor, furniture everything. I've already spent a small fortune on pens this year and now I MUST have one of these.

Question is, in blue or green? (Don't say both!)

 

LOL.. i know how you feel as i felt the same way... Green or Blue?

 

In the end I got the green as it just reminded me more of that 50's era. The radios and appliances etc.

 

@ Kronos77 - The flex I would say is inbetween the Falcon and the Noodler's nib. The falcon is made for easy flex and noodlers seems to be a little harder to push then the W~E. It is a steel nib on the W~E so it really has its own feel. Its is very smooth and never scratchy and give nice quiet feedback. Its very hard to discribe but easy to show in video. You write a 1/2 page of doodles with it and you understand.

 

When I get the box it comes with I will shoot another video showing the box and Ill do a quick comparison between the Falcon, Konrad, W~E and ill toss in my Greg Minuskin Frankin Pen... lol.. the Sheaffer w/100 years Waterman nib.

 

The thing to remember is it is not tauted as a FLEX pen. But boy it sure has some nice line variation and sweet abilities.

[Newjelan]

1362731881[/url]' post='2621853']

1362727782[/url]' post='2621824']

I Saw this on fpgeeks last night and am in love.

I am such a fan of "mid-century modern" design, decor, furniture everything. I've already spent a small fortune on pens this year and now I MUST have one of these.

Question is, in blue or green? (Don't say both!)

 

LOL.. i know how you feel as i felt the same way... Green or Blue?

 

In the end I got the green as it just reminded me more of that 50's era. The radios and appliances etc

 

Yes, that was my first thought. However, the blue reminds me of the blue of the Fiat 500.

[Scribble Monboddo]

Hi there. This is mostly a note for Syd in response to the 'why not much interest in the blogosphere?' question, but others are welcome to comment. I love the idea of these pens and would like to see the launch be a success, so here are some ideas from observing what works in this market.

 

1. Engage and involve fountain pen enthusiasts in planning appropriate stages of the design and promotion process. This is arguably the most important thing that TWSBI gets right. FPN is a good place to start (your other role as a moderator should not be seen as an obstruction, I'm sure), and it's really not too late to do so. You could, for instance, run a poll on what colour you should make the entry-level plastic model in next (my vote's black!).

 

2. Use the same forums to discuss price points in advance - because, yes, this really does matter to perceptions of value and desirability, and therefore actual demand. If you asked, you'd soon find out what people are really willing to pay. For example, I am confident that if you offered just the pen, without the unnecessary packaging gimmicks and toy cars, you could sell the entry model at $100 rather than $150, sell a lot more of them, and make a good return - and the interest which you would garner by consulting would help you to build the business case for doing so.

 

3. Flex! The use and availability of flex nibs is one of the perennial hot tickets on this, and almost all, fountain pen forums. There is a huge level of interest in really good flex, or even semi-flex, nibs. If you are confident that the new W-E semi-flex nib will out-perform the Noodlers and Serwexes of this world, get it into the hands of some reviewers and let their feedback do the selling for you.

 

4. Invest a little in informal promotion; it's lower cost than traditional print advertising and more likely to be persuasive. FPGeeks may have been late to notice the rebirth of WE, but putting a couple of units into the hands of their 'awesome reviewers' and donating a pen for one of their write-in giveaways would cost next to nothing compared to a print run in the glossies, and it would get you seen and heard like nvere before.

 

I hope that helps, and good luck. Oh, and I'm not expecting a reward, but if you suddenly feel inclined to have one of the new models reviewed on my blog, well you know how to find me!

Edited March 8, 2013 by Scribble Monboddo

[johntdavis]

Honestly, the pens that seem to get the most coverage are the ones that the most people can have some reasonable expectation of using and owning. How much can people write about a pen that they not only don't own, but probably won't?

 

 

I'm in the camp that the new Wahl-Eversharps are flat-out beauties, but also beyond that comfort zone of price. I right now have $100 to splurge on a new pen and all of my pen purchases have never breached that magical price point at all or by much.

 

 

Doesn't that just mean you have to save a bit more? You're already 2/3s of the way there on the Skyliner 50. I agree that at $150.00, that's a purchase I have to think hard about. I figure if I set aside a little bit of money every month I'll be able to afford one before too long.

 

So, yes, W-E is priced out of the immediate/impulse buy range, but it's hardly what I'd call expensive, in relative terms. The pens are certainly not so expensive I'd be afraid to take them out of my house. Of course, the first FP I bought was a Pilot Custom 823, which was $260 on sale, and was the only pen I bought for 10 months. Then again, I tend to only buy one new pen 2 or 3 times a year with money I've saved up. I'm used to not being able to buy the pens I want immediately.

 

It's ink and paper I make (questionable) impulse buy decisions on.

 

I do think it'll be a while before you can get new W-Es at a significant discount, if ever. (For example, I got my new Pilot Custom 823 for a bit over $100 off the retail price 'cause it was on sale.)

[Wahlnut]

I do appreciate all the thoughtful suggestions, and will try to incorporate some of them going forward.

 

Since we are all getting pretty collegial about this, I might add some "color" here. If we engage in a dialog about the pros and cons of various ideas, and the objective value of one over or another it opens the doos for offending people who may have the best of intentions but who may not realize all of what goes into producing the best balance of business management and pen products. I will run that risk and try to dialog on some of the topics mentioned.

 

While I could always learn something new, I'm pretty good at business models with about 35 years experience there. In every good business model we have to make some serious decisions about some pretty basic stuff, not the least of which is if and how to add some interest to our moderately priced pens for those who are not just writers. For a company such as ours to succeed we need a lot more people to acquire our pens than the number of devoted pen lovers we all know and love around here. So we developed a line of pens that would appeal to a broad(er) market and with cross-over interests. I know a lot of corvette owners who know how to write. And the '57 'Vette is a classic iconic design of its own that shouts 1950s. The colors as someone properly noted, are quintessential 1950s colors. The Bahamas Blue reminded one person of the 50's/60/s Fiats, but it reminded me of the 55 Chevy Nomad Wagon my folks had. Now the Skyliner 50s Collection pen is a pen like that. The bonus is that we were able to build a high quality pen that performs, as reviewed, to satisfy the "writers" as well. We have a lot of Roller Ball pens in that Collection (at $25 less than the FP) as well as the nice fountain pens recent;y reviewed. Those Roller Balls (and they are made of the same "precious" Plexi-Resin as a Mont Blanc or Omas with the best refills we can get too) will probably appeal to the other-than-fountain pen aficionados who visit the WAHL-EVERSHARP website. And then there are the "collectors." On 3 separate occasions people have ordered all three colors of the Skyliner 50's Collection at once. One from southern Europe, and 2 from the USA. Do they really need three equally good writing pens at once? Think about what their motivation might be.

 

Take the Doctor Pen, as another example. There are a good number of Doctors who use and appreciate Fountain pens. There are many more Doctors like my son, who really do not go gaga over the writing characteristics of our pens when they get them as gifts or thank you's from patients, but they will learn soon enough (if the use them) what a pleasure these pens can be to them. Spreading the "gospel" about the enjoyability of pens like ours has to be worked in gradual and multi-purposed ways. And if they buy our pens because they make great and directly related, purposeful gifts for Doctors, we add to the growing number of Pen Lovers out there and our company will garner enough bageetus to create the Dorics and The Gold Seal Flat Tops, etc. - that will not be a walk in the park to create either.

 

As for the belief that if we skipped what might be viewed as the gizmo and gimmick of a car or the box, I fear that those who are trying to estimate how low the price the pen could be sold for if it did not have a die cast metal car and a cool graphic paper box, are pretty far off the mark on what these elements add to the cost of the ensemble.

 

Another suggestion made here was to ask for the input from interested people about what the pens should include. Without forming an unofficial advisory panel, we have been doing just that - "listening" to all the posts being put on 4 pen lists so far. We have a WAHL-EVERSHARP Pen Club in the works for owners to provide their feedback and to engage in discussions with other owners, too. We will be able to put all of this to work on the next Series - The Dorics. As a result of the input we have garnered so far, they will have both C/C and Lever fill models. We are working on the rebirth of the adjustable nib. We are working with a metallurgist on a new 14k alloy that replicates the springy flexy gold nibs of the Wahl-Eversharp pens of the 30's and 40's, too. Every post I see or email I get with workable suggestions is forwarded to our manufacturing arm for consideration.

 

This is turning into a bit of a lengthy post, but you get the idea I hope. We do appreciate any and all feedback we can get. As our pens get into more and more hands we hope to get more an more "first hand" user reaction that will help us to provide what people want in a pen today .. That may or may not come at the price desired by everyone, of course, but we will try. It's late now and I am "carrying on" Thanks for your patience with us as we develop what we hope will be a recreation of a great pen brand with a long term, sustainable, business model, and great pens.

 

Syd

Edited March 10, 2013 by Wahlnut

[Scribble Monboddo]

Thanks for that very frank and informative response, Syd. The news about the possible return of an adjustable nib and a new springy alloy sounds seriously intriguing, as does the potential to bring back the Doric.

 

I'm a business strategist too, so I'm not going to lecture you further on your model - you've taken the risk in investing, and you have the right to take the appropriate decisions to capitalise. However I will, if you'll forgive me, challenge the suggestion that your pens are 'moderately priced'; at the moment they really are all in the luxury category, to my mind. I appreciate that more basic packaging may indeed have limited potential to sell at a significantly lower price with a safe margin, but I hope that you get the support you're looking for to develop that angle if you wish.

[Wahlnut]

Thanks for that very frank and informative response, Syd. The news about the possible return of an adjustable nib and a new springy alloy sounds seriously intriguing, as does the potential to bring back the Doric.

 

I'm a business strategist too, so I'm not going to lecture you further on your model - you've taken the risk in investing, and you have the right to take the appropriate decisions to capitalise. However I will, if you'll forgive me, challenge the suggestion that your pens are 'moderately priced'; at the moment they really are all in the luxury category, to my mind. I appreciate that more basic packaging may indeed have limited potential to sell at a significantly lower price with a safe margin, but I hope that you get the support you're looking for to develop that angle if you wish.

 

Thanks. I repsec t you point of view...What is moderate or low or Luxury are pretty subjective and depends on what we have in mind when comparing. When I compare ours to a a Visconti, or a MB, or an Omas, etc we are about half their prices...then I see mine as Moderate. When I compare them to a Lamy Safari I can see we could be Luxury. At $125 to $199 I think we are moderate. The top of our line Award Pen with $18K nib is $365 or about half of what I consider Luxury...Maybe the others are Uber-Luxury?

[kpfeifle]

I have a question for the folks in this thread. Really like these pens and what I have been reading about them. Won't be able to get to a show and try them in person, so here is the question. I really like the Skyliner 50, the colors appeal to me...however how will the writing (and the flex) be different with the plain steel nib as opposed to the ceramic coated nib?

Edited March 10, 2013 by kpfeifle

[johntdavis]

I have a question for the folks in this thread. Really like these pens and what I have been reading about them. Won't be able to get to a show and try them in person, so here is the question. I really like the Skyliner 50, the colors appeal to me...however how will the writing (and the flex) be different with the plain steel nib as opposed to the ceramic coated nib?

 

I was curious about this, too. Check out post number 87 here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/236503-wahl-eversharp-pen-company-lives/page__st__50 . (Which I think actually links back to a specific post on this thread. )

 

New question I thought of just a bit ago. How does the pen compare in length/girth to to other pens? This is always the hardest part of buying pens online. Goulet Pens has the Pen Plaza (http://www.gouletpens.com/Pen_Plaza_s/1295.htm) for comparing pen sizes, but it doesn't list every model. I got burned on the last pen I bought as far as size went: the length was great but it's a very narrow/skinny body. Still, it's my first maki-e pen so I'm not complaining, but I'd really like to have a better idea.

 

Just eyeballing from the video review, it's obviously not tiny, but it's not huge, either. I'm thinking something like a Lamy Studio lengthwise, and maybe a bit thicker?

 

Thoughts?

[raging.dragon]

Thanks for that very frank and informative response, Syd. The news about the possible return of an adjustable nib and a new springy alloy sounds seriously intriguing, as does the potential to bring back the Doric.

 

I'm a business strategist too, so I'm not going to lecture you further on your model - you've taken the risk in investing, and you have the right to take the appropriate decisions to capitalise. However I will, if you'll forgive me, challenge the suggestion that your pens are 'moderately priced'; at the moment they really are all in the luxury category, to my mind. I appreciate that more basic packaging may indeed have limited potential to sell at a significantly lower price with a safe margin, but I hope that you get the support you're looking for to develop that angle if you wish.

 

Thanks. I repsec t you point of view...What is moderate or low or Luxury are pretty subjective and depends on what we have in mind when comparing. When I compare ours to a a Visconti, or a MB, or an Omas, etc we are about half their prices...then I see mine as Moderate. When I compare them to a Lamy Safari I can see we could be Luxury. At $125 to $199 I think we are moderate. The top of our line Award Pen with $18K nib is $365 or about half of what I consider Luxury...Maybe the others are Uber-Luxury?

 

For what it's worth I more or less share you notion of moderate vs. luxury pen pen pricing. I think the perception of luxury is impacted by personal experience: most of the pens in my collection cost more than your Award; in contrast, those questioning your prices state, or imply, that they mostly buy pens costing less than your 50's model. With such a huge difference in purchase history (and perhaps budget) it's not surprising that we have very different ideas of luxury versus moderate pricing.

[Scribble Monboddo]

Thanks for that very frank and informative response, Syd. The news about the possible return of an adjustable nib and a new springy alloy sounds seriously intriguing, as does the potential to bring back the Doric.

 

I'm a business strategist too, so I'm not going to lecture you further on your model - you've taken the risk in investing, and you have the right to take the appropriate decisions to capitalise. However I will, if you'll forgive me, challenge the suggestion that your pens are 'moderately priced'; at the moment they really are all in the luxury category, to my mind. I appreciate that more basic packaging may indeed have limited potential to sell at a significantly lower price with a safe margin, but I hope that you get the support you're looking for to develop that angle if you wish.

 

Thanks. I repsec t you point of view...What is moderate or low or Luxury are pretty subjective and depends on what we have in mind when comparing. When I compare ours to a a Visconti, or a MB, or an Omas, etc we are about half their prices...then I see mine as Moderate. When I compare them to a Lamy Safari I can see we could be Luxury. At $125 to $199 I think we are moderate. The top of our line Award Pen with $18K nib is $365 or about half of what I consider Luxury...Maybe the others are Uber-Luxury?

 

 

That's a fair point. These things are always relative! It's just one view, but I'd call a Platinum Preppy 'low-cost', the Lamy Safari 'affordable', the TWSBI Diamond 'mid-price', Waterman Expert 'pro-sumer', and most ranges immediately above that 'luxury'. As a rule of thumb, I'd say that $125 to $400 is indeed 'luxury' and anything above is 'conspicuous consumption' (like Rolls-Royces, which are doubtless very good cars, but which few people buy to actually drive). But, I'm probably going on a bit myself. Ultimately, you don't want to make a loss so you have to sell at a level that will shift enough units and generate enough margin to make the venture a success - and hopefully, your nib research will have down-stream benefits to the wider fountain pen market. Good luck!

[johntdavis]

Thanks for that very frank and informative response, Syd. The news about the possible return of an adjustable nib and a new springy alloy sounds seriously intriguing, as does the potential to bring back the Doric.

 

I'm a business strategist too, so I'm not going to lecture you further on your model - you've taken the risk in investing, and you have the right to take the appropriate decisions to capitalise. However I will, if you'll forgive me, challenge the suggestion that your pens are 'moderately priced'; at the moment they really are all in the luxury category, to my mind. I appreciate that more basic packaging may indeed have limited potential to sell at a significantly lower price with a safe margin, but I hope that you get the support you're looking for to develop that angle if you wish.

 

Thanks. I repsec t you point of view...What is moderate or low or Luxury are pretty subjective and depends on what we have in mind when comparing. When I compare ours to a a Visconti, or a MB, or an Omas, etc we are about half their prices...then I see mine as Moderate. When I compare them to a Lamy Safari I can see we could be Luxury. At $125 to $199 I think we are moderate. The top of our line Award Pen with $18K nib is $365 or about half of what I consider Luxury...Maybe the others are Uber-Luxury?

 

 

That's a fair point. These things are always relative! It's just one view, but I'd call a Platinum Preppy 'low-cost', the Lamy Safari 'affordable', the TWSBI Diamond 'mid-price', Waterman Expert 'pro-sumer', and most ranges immediately above that 'luxury'. As a rule of thumb, I'd say that $125 to $400 is indeed 'luxury' and anything above is 'conspicuous consumption' (like Rolls-Royces, which are doubtless very good cars, but which few people buy to actually drive). But, I'm probably going on a bit myself. Ultimately, you don't want to make a loss so you have to sell at a level that will shift enough units and generate enough margin to make the venture a success - and hopefully, your nib research will have down-stream benefits to the wider fountain pen market. Good luck!

 

As someone else said above, I think it's a matter of perspective. I think it's not fair to compare a very nice pen like the new W-Es to any entry-level FP, from Lamy or TWSBI or anyone else. The W-Es have semi-flex nibs--I certainly would not have wanted to start out with one of those when I was getting into FPs. I don't think W-E is going after the novice/low budget buyer. I find them attractive for the retro styling and semi-flex nib combined with modern materials, engineering, and warranty/support. TWSBI and the low-end Lamys and Preppys and all the other objectively low cost pens are in a different market segment.

 

As for what I meant by perspective: I know for me personally, $50 dollars for a fountain pen is "low cost." It's the price point where I start to think of the pen as a something that should last a while and perform consistently decently. Anything that costs less than that, IMHO, compromises on materials/performance to such a degree they feel cheap/disposable.

 

(The exception, of course, being low cost Chinese pens, but that's hit or miss on quality, and you will miss at least once so you have to factor in that bit of risk.)

 

I've tried shopping for sub-$50 FPs before, and with a few exceptions even the nice ones look like cheap toys because of the plastics used. I only buy 1-3 FPs a year, and spend $100-$300 on each, but that's because I'm picking out nice pens that I anticipate and expect to last decades with proper care. I'm also paying for good warranties and service, and better materials. Pens that don't do these things aren't budget or low cost for me because they don't meet my requirements and I don't want to invest in them when I could pool that money for something else that does. So while your price scale makes sense and I understand how you got there, for me it's more:

• Less than $50: Get something cheap like a Pilot Varsity disposal or a good Chinese pen to see if you even like writing with FPs.
• $50-$60 Budget/Entry Level: Durable budget entry level pen that should last years (TWSBI 540/Labelle/well-made Chinese pens). And yes, I consider this "budget/entry level" because when I think FP I think consistent performance and years worth of service, and this is the price point IMHO where that starts to become consistently available. At this level the materials and finish and warranty won't be as good, so don't expect them to last forever.
• $60-$100 Intermediate: Depending on the manufacturer, you can get some great pens in this range that look great and perform excellently, and will likely do so for decades if properly maintained. What you don't get is some of the fancier aesthetics and materials and--usually--gold nibs. Expect simply colored but stylish plastics/resins and better warranties and longer lifetimes. These pens should last decades. (The big example in my collection is the now discontinued Pilot Custom 98. This one does have a gold nib, but it's a small pen barely longer than my index finger so the nib is smaller and thus uses less gold. It's one of my best nibs, actually. If it was a standard sized pen I would've expected it to easily cost $125+. I got mine NOS on eBay, so I have no idea what the Japanese MSRP was.)
• $100-$199 High Performance/Utility Pens: In this range I generally expect every nib to be solid gold or better (titanium, etc.) and the materials and construction to be top notch, but simple and understated. No solid gold trim and spinning rims, but very solidly built and sturdy and, hopefully, beautiful. The pen should feel like something that will last forever, and it should last forever if properly maintained. Performance should be 100% persistent both for the pen itself and all pens of that model, or close to it. Startup time should be instant, even if left sitting for days, and it shouldn't dry out if you sit it down for a few minutes to answer the phone or run a google search. If the nib is stainless steel, the body should be made out of something that justifies the $100+ expense, like ebonite or, as in the case of the W-E Skyliner 50s, the flex nib, anti-scuff/scratch cap, and general build quality. Examples of this in my collection are my Lamy Studio LE and Pilot Vanishing Point. I'd also put the Pilot Custom 74 in this category.
• $200-$350 Speciality: These Pens should do everything that a High Performance/Utility Pen should do. It adds things like premium materials/design (actual gold trim, more expensive resins and ebonite, etc.)--performance is the same, but it looks a lot better doing it. Bigger pens (MB 149-size) also tend to cost more and wind up in this category. in addition to that, in my experience this is where you start to see really interesting features that aren't common to most FPs: The Pilot Vanishing Point Fermo's twist-to-open mechanism, the Pilot Custom 823's plunger filler, etc. It's debatable whether the Custom 823 (which cost me $260 new, on sale) writes better than the Pilot Custom 74 that costs $100 less, but everyone agrees that that extra money is paying for the plunger system and to a lesser degree, the slightly larger body. Likewise, the extra cost on the Pilot Vanishing Point Fermo (which also costs about $260) traces back in large part to its nib retraction system, which is apparently more complicated than the baseline VPs.
• $350+ Luxury: At this price point, IMHO you're not getting any added performance (unless solid platinum nibs turn out to be amazing?). It's all materials/aesthetics here, from what I've seen. I've lusted after the Visconti Homo Sapien (~$600) for a long, long time, but being made of lava rock and having a palladium nib is not enough to justify the price for me because it doesn't really do anything a HIgh Performance pen can't do. Likewise the Pelikan White Tortoise and Stipula Davinci. I'd love to own either one because I think they are beautiful (and in the case of the Stipula, am a sucker for retractable nibs), but that alone is not enough. Plus, I can't see myself having the nerve to actually write with any pen in this price range on a daily basis--or ever. I get bummed out when my iPhone screen gets tiny scratches in it.

I've never paid more than about $260 for a pen (my Custom 823 and Fermo). The 823 retails for $360 or so, and I'd never have paid that. I think $260 is about my ceiling on pen expenditures. This is also the point where I start to get really nervous about taking the pen out of my house. Beyond that the value-per-dollar just isn't there, and the extra bling/esoteric features aren't compelling enough to justify the added expense. So if I get anything from what I call the luxury line, it's only after it's been around long enough that I can find it heavily on sale.

 

Vintage pen price scales are a whole different thing. They're basically antiques and priced accordingly (rarity/scarcity can be just as important in pricing as materials/performance). Likewise comparing the prices of Chinese pens to ... any other pens ... is not really fair. (Chinese pens are also a bit like gambling, but that's a different topic.)

 

This ran long, I apologize. I've never set down and wrote out my pen buying philosophy though, so I found it interesting.

Edited March 11, 2013 by johntdavis

[Earthdawn]

New question I thought of just a bit ago. How does the pen compare in length/girth to to other pens? This is always the hardest part of buying pens online. Goulet Pens has the Pen Plaza (http://www.gouletpens.com/Pen_Plaza_s/1295.htm) for comparing pen sizes, but it doesn't list every model. I got burned on the last pen I bought as far as size went: the length was great but it's a very narrow/skinny body. Still, it's my first maki-e pen so I'm not complaining, but I'd really like to have a better idea.

 

Just eyeballing from the video review, it's obviously not tiny, but it's not huge, either. I'm thinking something like a Lamy Studio lengthwise, and maybe a bit thicker?

 

Thoughts?

 

Heres some pics to compare.. hope it helps

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8107/8547667250_b86fbb08b6.jpg

Comparison of Pelikan 400, TWSBI 540, Wahl~Eversharp Skyliner 50 & Montblanc 146. by The Fountain Pen Day, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8230/8547667500_f971f62242.jpg

Comparison of Pelikan 400, TWSBI 540, Wahl~Eversharp Skyliner 50 & Montblanc 146. by The Fountain Pen Day, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8236/8546570505_3a5aba8c97.jpg

Comparison of Pelikan 400, TWSBI 540, Wahl~Eversharp Skyliner 50 & Montblanc 146. by The Fountain Pen Day, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8374/8546570627_7a84e64a74.jpg

Comparison of Pelikan 400, TWSBI 540, Wahl~Eversharp Skyliner 50 & Montblanc 146. by The Fountain Pen Day, on Flickr

[Newjelan]

Well, I've ordered one today even though I've spent a fortune on pens in the past 3 months. I couldn't resist this one and after indecision between the green & the blue, I bought the green.

No more pens for 2013!

[Wahlnut]

I have a question for the folks in this thread. Really like these pens and what I have been reading about them. Won't be able to get to a show and try them in person, so here is the question. I really like the Skyliner 50, the colors appeal to me...however how will the writing (and the flex) be different with the plain steel nib as opposed to the ceramic coated nib?

 

The review that started this whole thread was for the pen with the nib that you are asking about. It has the rhodium plated stainless steel nib. You can rely on the information in that video for the stainless steel.

 

Syd

[Pterodactylus]

Is the ceramic coating the whole nib or only the writing corn?

I've troubles to trust that a ceramic coating on the whole nib would be durable, as steel and ceramic has very different material attributes....I would fear that a whole ceramic coating will chipping off after some time due to the bending and torsion forces during writing.

 

Assuming the writing corn is coated.

What durability do you expect?

I know ceramic is very hard but a coating is very thin (also iridium alloys wear off...but a corn is many times thicker than a coating.... so in practice this does not matter most times).

 

How would you describe the flex compared to common other pens?

Is the flex really only on the level of an Ahab?

The Ahab is quite a nail.....

 

Do you develop and manufacture the nibs by yourself?

If not, who is the manufacturer? (If this is no business secret).

 

Do you have distributors in Europe?

If not when are they expected?

[johntdavis]

 

Heres some pics to compare.. hope it helps

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8107/8547667250_b86fbb08b6.jpg

Comparison of Pelikan 400, TWSBI 540, Wahl~Eversharp Skyliner 50 & Montblanc 146. by The Fountain Pen Day, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8230/8547667500_f971f62242.jpg

Comparison of Pelikan 400, TWSBI 540, Wahl~Eversharp Skyliner 50 & Montblanc 146. by The Fountain Pen Day, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8236/8546570505_3a5aba8c97.jpg

Comparison of Pelikan 400, TWSBI 540, Wahl~Eversharp Skyliner 50 & Montblanc 146. by The Fountain Pen Day, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8374/8546570627_7a84e64a74.jpg

Comparison of Pelikan 400, TWSBI 540, Wahl~Eversharp Skyliner 50 & Montblanc 146. by The Fountain Pen Day, on Flickr

 

These photos are great! Thanks so much for taking the time to do them. I've got a Pilot Custom 823, which is the same form factor and about the same size as a MB 146. From what I can see, unposted (which is how I tend to write with most of my pens), the W-E is actually a bit longer and has slightly less girth/thickness in the grip section of the barrel. I would think from eyeballing it it's barely enough to notice, though. What do you think from using them both? It certainly looks like a nice, big, comfortable-to-use pen.

 

Holding off on picking one of these up is going to be harder than I thought.