S.t. Dupont Ellipsis Review

February 18, 2015

This is a more detailed review as a follow-up to the quick and dirty review of my fountain pens, which can be found here.

I would like to start this series of reviews (hopefully, I have to find the time) with a more detailed look at the S.T. Dupont Ellipsis. I have posted a few photos in this review, but I'll try to add some more later on.

The Ellipsis comes packaged in the traditional red leather S.T. Dupont box, a beauty in itself. The box comes with a dark wine red carton from S.T. Dupont, with stickers denoting the particular pen model.

This is the Ellipsis in composite material with platinum finish.

The pen looks big and a bit austere in black with platinum accents. Visible are all of the usual S.T. Dupont markings: S.T. Dupont Paris engraved on the central ring and the number (+ the Made in France text) engraved on the clip. Despite its size this pen feels light because of the material used.
The cap comes off easily and when you put it back it rewards you with a nice, soft click. A nice looking, distinguished pen.

The photo below shows it next to the TWSBI Diamond 580 (a massive pen if you have it in your hand and realize how much ink it holds). As you can see the Ellipsis is slightly longer than the TWSBI. Uncapped this is the same, the lower half of the S.T. Dupont is slightly longer.

On the box it says that the material used is composite with platinum finish details. The composite looks black, but if you hold it in front of a strong light it is actually more like a very dark translucent purple. It's almost a pity that they didn't make it a lighter shade, as the purple is really beautiful to see. Most people will not notice this directly when they hold this pen.

As I said before, the material feels light, like plastic. The look isn't like plastic though, but more like certain resins that we know from other fountain pens. To the touch, this material feels nice and it provides a good grip for writing.
Although the composite is definitely not comparable to the distinguished look of lacquer or metal, which a lot of the other S.T. Dupont pens use, this material seems quite sturdy and it doesn't really scratch easily as far as I can make out.

When I unscrewed the bottom half to get to the converter I noticed that the screw thread is in the same material. Some of my other pens have a metal screw thread on the lower half, but apparently that is not needed here. The thickness of the composite is approximately 1mm and it feels quite hard and stiff. Hopefully it proves to be as durable as it looks.
Once the nib section and bottom half are unscrewed you notice that the nib section is quite heavy compared to the bottom half. This is a result of the metal used in this section, mainly visible in the sturdy looking metal screw thread.

The pen has a good wide grip, suitable for bigger hands and not as thin as what you would have on e.g. a S.T. Dupont classique fountain pen.
The cap has a broad clip, split in the middle, which lies on top of the cap and is secured to the inside of the cap by means of a small metal protrusion. It is flexible enough, but doesn't have the spring that some of the other S.T. Dupont models have in their clip.

The look of the pen is modern. I think this is a result of the materials used (black and platinum), the clip and the overall shape.
It reminds me of a cigar or a torpedo. One thing I would have changed is the small metal section on the bottom part. It is needed, because of the converter, but it disturbs the evenly shaped lines.

When you write with the pen it is big and heavy enough to use uncapped. If you cap the pen you notice that the cap doesn't really get a good grip on the bottom half, so it's actually a bit uncomfortable to use it like this, because you feel the cap moving. The pen does not chafe against the hand capped or uncapped.

The nib is a medium size, on the fine side of medium. It is made of 18K white gold (in my quick and dirty review I mistakenly mentioned 14K). It writes pretty smooth, but not as good as my old S.T. Dupont classique or my new TWSBI Diamond 580. The ink flow is good, but there are moments on certain papers where you wish for a bit more flow. The nib is slightly flexible. When you use it upside down you get Fine writing, but the nib feels a bit scratchy then.
As far as I know I can't easily remove this nib to service it or replace it. Given the cost of a S.T. Dupont fountain pen I am not going to try this anyway.

Engraved on the nib are the S.T. Dupont 'D', 18K, 750 and the M for medium.

On the photo, just above the nib, you can see a small chip in the material (plated gold/platinum??) just above the composite. This is a thing I have seen with one of my other S.T. Dupont pens (the Montparnasse) too. The material will sometimes deteriorate.

It is one of the reasons that make me love the older S.T. Dupont fountain pens. They didn't seem to have this problem.

The pen uses cartridges or a converter, which in itself is pretty standard on all S.T. Dupont pens nowadays. It works well, nothing special really. I filled it with Pelikan 4001 ink.

I bought this pen a while ago in an auction for about 70 euros or so. For the sort of pen this is I feel I got a good value for money. One thing I notice though as an owner of multiple S.T. Dupont fountain pens, is that I like the quality of the older pens (late 70's) better than what they produce nowadays. The old pens seem to write smoother and I prefer the more distinguished looks they have.
I'll show some examples of that in one of my later reviews.

In the writing example you can clearly see that the nib on the Ellipsis is a medium. You might also notice on the last word that the horizontal line of the t is a bit scratchy to start with.

This is one of the things that I noticed on the Ellipsis: the ink flow is not as good as on some of my other fountain pens, where you can write as fast as you like. On certain papers, this pen struggles slightly with the ink flow.

All in all a very nice pen, when used for light writing. For longer periods I would prefer the TWSBI, the Platinum or the old S.T. Dupont silver classique, which I showed in my other review (see link above).

Edited February 18, 2015 by Letrow