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hello everyone!! this is my first ever review on FPN. hope i am able to provide at least a close-to-proper review and that you like it! any suggestions and tips about making it better are welcomed wholeheartedly and with gratitude! Introduction: Camlin Ltd is an Indian company engaged in manufacturing quality stationary products since 1946. In the year 1931, Dandekar & Co commenced its operation of manufacturing Horse Brand ink powders and tablets. Later it started production of Camel Ink. The company was renamed as camlin in the year 1946. camlin sllek is a piston-filler model. the pen comes in a variety of elegant dark and mute colours to choose from. First impression: the pen looks quite elegant and with a matter-of-fact finish which is very subtle yet beautiful in its own way. Also, the line that marks the difference between the piston screw and the ink reservoir is not seen while holding the pen, which is quite nice. http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2846/9275237970_339a47fe5b.jpg C360_2013-07-12-16-36-51-788 by deathadder_44, on Flickr Body materials and built quality: The cap is made of stainless steel with a golden coloured clip which is quite fexible and easily usable without the fear of breaking it. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7281/9275244242_da9cdccb13_z.jpg C360_2013-07-12-16-37-49-764 by deathadder_44, on Flickr The body is made of good quality plastic and feels strong to hold. it is a single body from the grip section to the beginning of the piston screw with rectangular ink windows just above the grip section. http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5322/9275240134_fd17e0dd56_z.jpg C360_2013-07-12-16-38-59-212 by deathadder_44, on Flickr The piston end of the body http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2885/9275409548_9fbe583f49.jpg C360_2013-07-13-12-49-21-636 by deathadder_44, on Flickr Filling mechanism: The piston mechanism is smooth and easy to operate, although i found it a bit difficult to open the screw at the first go, but that would probably be the case with many new pens. after the first use i found no difficulty in the mechanism whatsoever. the piston as seen through the ink windows. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7443/9272461923_c375bff554.jpg C360_2013-07-12-16-43-09-251 by deathadder_44, on Flickr the piston removed. http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/9275250092_eb6d9b28db.jpg C360_2013-07-12-16-43-47-224 by deathadder_44, on Flickr The nib and feed: the nib is a gold coloured stainless steel nib which draws a fine and continuous line without any skipping. the ink flow is smooth and satisfactory without any problem (i used a camel royal blue ink). the nib. http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2880/9272455749_5c01a2cb27.jpg C360_2013-07-12-16-41-17-920 by deathadder_44, on Flickr http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5342/9272465901_249c5b2819.jpg C360_2013-07-12-16-41-59-927 by deathadder_44, on Flickr sorry i forgot to take the pictures of the nib and feed removed. the feed is standard ebonite which performs quite satisfactorily. Conclusion: it is a fine everyday writing instrument which does its work well. it is nothing fancy and yet it feels good to look at. perhaps because to me, it represents the fine art of penmanship which was taught in the schools during my school years, an art which is slowly getting dissolved in this chaotic world of competition. this pen, like many others i own, brings back the memories of those care-free days! but all that aside, this is a good reliable pen which does what is has to do and does it well without ringing too many bells!

Hello Fountain Pen Network, I've just recently joined as a member - but I've been trawling the FPN forums for a while as I most certainly have a non-negligible (okay, massive!) fountain pen addiction and every few months I get an itch to add to my collection. This time I'm looking for a childhood fountain pen - one that I used when I was in school in India: the Camlin Sleek. Unfortunately, it seems to be a discontinued model and I haven't successfully found it anywhere. Does anyone know of an online store / perhaps wishes to sell one of theirs? Thanks in advance! :-)

Hi all, Wanted to write a review about a flex pen that I purchased. The pen is the Desiderata Sleek. There have been reviews about other models of the Desiderata but not one of this model. I just wanted to first talk a little bit about the service offered by Pierre. This was a prototype he launched in November ’14 and I ordered one. The website said that deliveries would commence in 2nd week of December and I got a tracking number by the 11th of December confirming this. However I could not track the shipment and the status never went beyond “shipping label printed”. I did not get a response immediately from Pierre. After a few days (end December) i received a refund of my shipping costs. (Shipping to India from the US is expensive) I had no communication on wether my order was cancelled or shipped. About 10 days later I get a parcel with a long hand written note of explanation. There was some logistic problem by USPS and Pierre was extremely apologetic about it. He explained the problem to me and not only did he ship the pen “FREE OF COST” to me (saved me $40) but also sent me 6 extra Zebra nibs complimentary. There was absolutely no need for him to refund the shipping costs to me, as the delay was not his fault. I found this very very professional of him. On to the pen now. http://i.imgur.com/sHDgJ89.jpg The rest of the review will be typed. :-) Takes a long time to write it all out. Design. The cap (on both sides) has a stopper not a clip and is great as the pen does not roll off the table even when uncapped at one end. The size of the pen: Capped at both ends - 155mm (6”) Uncapped at one end - 140mm (5.5”) Barell Dia - 12mm Section Dia (at the thinnest) - 8 mm Packaging The pen came packed very securely in a lot of bubble wrap with a hand written letter from Pierre. Also came with extra nibs for me and a printed 5 page document going over all parts of the pen, usage, maintenance and troubleshooting. It’s a very detailed document that can be downloaded from his site too. Performance. Pierre does mention on his site and in the document that though he tests all pens, there may be some minor tweaking required to get it to work smoothly for your particular style of writing. Being a pointed nib, each person has different writing pressures and grips. I did not do any tweaking and just filled ink into both sections. One side wrote perfectly out of the box. just had to rub the top of the nib with a saliva coated tissue and it was smooth writing. The other side need a little adjustment. All it needed was to adjust how much of the eyelet is covered by the feed. This is a very easy thing to do and the other side also started working perfectly after that. Full flexing and continuous writing gave no railroads or skipping. But you have to write a little slower with this than a normal FP, because the tines spread a LOT and give a swell of up to 1.8 to 2mm width. Now for some pen pictures The full capped pen http://i.imgur.com/BLcLKbh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/76V5x9o.jpg http://i.imgur.com/G3Og1PH.jpg http://i.imgur.com/sDQAEAw.jpg Conclusion: I am not affiliated to Pierre in anyway nor his company. This pen is a wonder to write with. It is portable and you can fit out a normal nib on one end and a G nib on the other, giving you great flexibility in writing styles. It is well worth the money and for people looking for an affordable flex option, this is highly recommended. His other models are single sided and hold a lot more ink of course. The one thing is that this pen will only take the Zebra G nib. I tried using other G’s like the Nikko and Tachikawa and they don’t fit perfectly and don’t give a smooth writing. I don’t think any other pointed nibs would fit this. Though Pierre is working on sections for different types of nibs. I don’t really mind this as I have other pens that take a wide variety of nibs for me. my Indian flex pen. Overall, this is a great pen and wishing Pierre all the best for his endeavours in newer models and great sales. -Prasad