Picture Review Of We 2013 Honoré De Balzac

[sunnerd]

Congrats on the new pen! Appelboom is getting lots of business from you ;-)

[KJY]

Congrats on the new pen! Appelboom is getting lots of business from you ;-)

Hi Kai,

Thank you. You have been busy too lately I saw in the other topic.

Yes, he does indeed. I am glad to give him the business, because he will do his best to bring it at my office the day he receives it from MB and I am saved for a trip to the boutique.

Although I have to say that the boutique in my city has also great service and had nice employees, only the parking of EUR 5,- per hour and the trafficjam to that famous street is what I don't like.

[sunnerd]

Actually the packaging is very strange to me. Is this correct -

1. They have the pen all wrapped up in a separate container that is transparent.

2. They have the book box all sealed up

3. They shipped the white box and inside 2 boxes - the pen and the book box?

 

So, by definition for the consumer, who will only get the book box with the pen, and hence he will always get an unsealed box with the pen inside?

[KJY]

Actually the packaging is very strange to me. Is this correct -

1. They have the pen all wrapped up in a separate container that is transparent.

2. They have the book box all sealed up

3. They shipped the white box and inside 2 boxes - the pen and the book box?

 

So, by definition for the consumer, who will only get the book box with the pen, and hence he will always get an unsealed box with the pen inside?[/quote

 

Yes, the packaging is really strange. I tried to explain it by showing the pictures, but I am not native English speaker so forgive me if it is confusing.

This year's WE is only delivered with F or M nib. They "forgot" to give the B a productionnumber.

I had pre-ordered the De Balzac a few months ago. Mr. Appelboom had placed my order directly and heard there was no productionnumber for a B nibbed Balzac. Probably there were more requests for it. So to prevent that customers had to buy a F or M first and than have to send it back to Hamburg again with at least a 2 months waitingtime; MB exchanged the pens after the release to the authorised dealers.

So as answer to your questions:

1) yes the pen was wrapped in a separate container box as you normal would get if you do a nib exchange.

2) the seals were opened, because it had been sent to the other department for an exchange.

3) they used the regular outer white box to put in the bookbox and the container tightfixed it with some packaging material, so there is no travel inside the box.

 

I don't know if it isthe standard procedure for the B nibs, but Mr. Appelboom had ordered several B's and told me those had the same packaging.

[sunnerd]

Cool thanks! That explains it.

[lunarfp]

Very nice review. Thank you for sharing!

[KJY]

Very nice review. Thank you for sharing!

 

Thank you for the compliment.

[KJY]

As to what I suspected that the Balzac is partly made of resin, I want to add a picture of it taken with a infrared camera.

 

In the picture you can see for comparison Starwalker Ballpoint (100 yr edition) resin, Thomas Mann (lacquered metal and some small parts made of resin), Balzac (cap, section and pistonknob made of resin) and 149 resin.

 

[mrchan]

Hi KJY, first of all, let me say, great review and fantastic pics. Thank your for sharing. 1 question though, when the pen is capped and put to rest on a table, does the gold trimmed part of the cap touch the table? As in if you put it down on the table a lot of times, is the a risk of that gold trim part being scratched? Because it looks as though it is protruding out a bit from the cap surface in general. Perhaps you might consider taking a table level surface so we can see if it comes into contact with the table? Thanks.

[cybaea]

As to what I suspected that the Balzac is partly made of resin, I want to add a picture of it taken with a infrared camera.

 

In the picture you can see for comparison Starwalker Ballpoint (100 yr edition) resin, Thomas Mann (lacquered metal and some small parts made of resin), Balzac (cap, section and pistonknob made of resin) and 149 resin.

 

 

Aha! Thanks for this shot - very informative.

[KJY]

 

Aha! Thanks for this shot - very informative.

 

You are welcome!

[KJY]

Hi KJY, first of all, let me say, great review and fantastic pics. Thank your for sharing. 1 question though, when the pen is capped and put to rest on a table, does the gold trimmed part of the cap touch the table? As in if you put it down on the table a lot of times, is the a risk of that gold trim part being scratched? Because it looks as though it is protruding out a bit from the cap surface in general. Perhaps you might consider taking a table level surface so we can see if it comes into contact with the table? Thanks.

 

I am at work right now and only have a mobilephone.

As you can see, the goldtrim does not rest on the table surface. Capped and laying horizontal on the table the pen cap has an angle of a few degrees.

 

[mrchan]

Oh cool thanks for answering that question with an informative pic. Cheers

[bernardoarcos]

Hi FPN fellows,

 

First at all I want to appreciate and congratulate to KJY for his new FP Honore de Balzac. Few days ago I bought the same FP and is very nice.

 

About this FP, body is lacqued, this means all Honore de Balzac owners must have any special care with this FP?

 

Thanks in advance for your kinds comments!

 

Cheers from Chile

 

Bernardo

[KJY]

Hi FPN fellows,

 

First at all I want to appreciate and congratulate to KJY for his new FP Honore de Balzac. Few days ago I bought the same FP and is very nice.

 

About this FP, body is lacqued, this means all Honore de Balzac owners must have any special care with this FP?

 

Thanks in advance for your kinds comments!

 

Cheers from Chile

 

Bernardo

 

Thank you Bernardo,

 

Don't worry too much about the lacquered body. My experiences with lacquered pens of MB is that they are very scratch resistent. Maybe even better than the regular resinbodies. The one I am referring too is the Thomas Mann. I bought that one in 2010. After three years of use (it is one of my most used pens) it is still in topcondition.

[bernardoarcos]

Dear KJY,

 

Thanks for your comments about lacquered body. I was afraid about this kind of finish could be delicate more than resin, for a moment I afraid lacquered could damage and loss easy.

 

In the other hand, I still don´t use my Balzac FP, few days ago I receive as gift a Charles Dickens FP, and I love it... Soon will be the Balzac time!

 

Cheers!

 

Bernardo

[KJY]

Many congrats!

Two WE's within one week. NICE

Enjoy it.

[pmhudepo]

I must say that I wasn't thrilled at first, especially the cap and clip ring didn't convince me. But now it looks like it might be real writers' pen. Your picture with the writing sample, in the initial post, looks quite promising. Very nice section, and quite elegant overall.

 

As a daily writer, the Agatha Christie is my favourite WE: great shape, wonderful nib, can be brought to work or a client without attracting too much attention. (I like the Collodi for its looks; the brown resin even seems a little warmer and the combination with ink like Akkerman Bekakt Haags is delightful.) I believe you also have an Agatha Christie. Can you make a comparison?

[KJY]

As a daily writer, the Agatha Christie is my favourite WE: great shape, wonderful nib, can be brought to work or a client without attracting too much attention. (I like the Collodi for its looks; the brown resin even seems a little warmer and the combination with ink like Akkerman Bekakt Haags is delightful.) I believe you also have an Agatha Christie. Can you make a comparison?

Hi pmhudepo,

 

Yes you have remembered it correctly that I have the Christie as well as the Collodi.

All three has a B nib. I will try to make some comparison of the pens.

It will be this evening or tomorrow night (it's my wife's birthday. If I don't give her the attention than all I can show you next time are broken pens Hahaha...)

[pmhudepo]

Hi pmhudepo,

 

Yes you have remembered it correctly that I have the Christie as well as the Collodi.

All three has a B nib. I will try to make some comparison of the pens.

It will be this evening or tomorrow night (it's my wife's birthday. If I don't give her the attention than all I can show you next time are broken pens Hahaha...)

 

Congratulations!

 

No rush with the Christie comparison. Your review is already much appreciated.

 

It will be several weeks before I decide if I want to buy this pen. But it's always nice to see pictures, read about the pen and work up an appetite, so to speak.