Deli S680

[tru]

It's been ages since I've posted here, and tend to lurk a lot. Hopefully this review will pay back some small portion of the wisdom I've received over the years.

 

A minor (ha!) obsession with Korean office supplies (mostly notebooks, planners, organizing apparati) as taken me to many far corners of the internet. Among my adventures I've found and taken a chance on a few fountain pens from various sites in the $2 - $5 price range (including shipping).

 

The best so far has been the Deli S680.

 

The Deli S680 caught my eye as it reminded me of a Parker Vector, which was my first fountain pen and I still love the feel of them.

 

I got two of the Deli S680's, one in mint and one in white/ivory. They are gorgeous in person. The bodies are a pearlescent enamel over a metal body (aluminum is my best guess). The nib, grip, clip and accents are all chromed metal.The nib is hooded and looks elegant.

 

They are slimmer than a Vector and feel to me like that old favorite decided dress things up a bit.

 

A converter is included with each pen. There is no formal packaging to speak of, but the seller did make sure they were well protected for their international journey. From order to arrival in Southern California was about two weeks.

 

I just inked them up today and gave them a quick tryout on a little Kokuyo Campus notebook. I used Irozuki Ama-iro (sky blue) and Levenger's Cocoa.

 

One of the pens was a wee bit skippy, but nothing to really complain about. The other wrote smoothly, no skips or scratchiness at all.

 

I'm terrible with judging line width, but I'd say these are medium.

 

They post well and also write fairly comfortably unposted. Removing and replacing the cap is a little bit of a struggle, but again, not difficult enough to make these pens a no-go.

 

For $4.60 each, they're definitely in the everyday rotation for me and I will probably give a closer look to other Deli pens in the future.

 

For comparison, I got a Pilot Vanishing Point for Christmas this past year and it is my most favorite pen. I hesitate to carry it with me though as I'm prone to losing things. The only other fancy pen I have is a TWSBI Vac 700. My usualy dailies include Parker Vectors, Pilot Metropolitans, Lamy Safaris & Al-Stars and some Jinhao 599s. I would say that I like them better than the Jinhaos and even the Lamys and consider them comparable to my Metros and Vectors for everyday use.

 

 

I got these through Ali Express and this listing - prices change a lot on the site so definitely look around.

 

http://s.aliexpress.com/qaUzuAVn

(from AliExpress Android)