Desiderata Sleek Review

[prasadvenkat]

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

Edited February 25, 2015 by prasadvenkat

[pavoni]

Excellent review as always Prasad, made more so by your lovely handwriting.

 

As a daily user of dip pens (mostly Leonardt Principal nib), I am very happy with my Desiderata pen, which I have had for about a month.

 

Pavoni.

[jasonchickerson]

Nice writeup, Prasad. That is one crazy looking pen! Seeing your written review reminds me that I use too much flex!

 

I just posted a review of my new Desiderata pen today, also. How long have you had yours?

[prasadvenkat]

Excellent review as always Prasad, made more so by your lovely handwriting.

 

As a daily user of dip pens (mostly Leonardt Principal nib), I am very happy with my Desiderata pen, which I have had for about a month.

 

Pavoni.

Thanks Pavoni.

The LP EF is such a wonderful nib. I managed to fit it out to a fountain pen that I got made for it. Its just magic to write. But I have to make sure I remove the nib and feed after every use or it will rust up. The LP is too expensive a nib to let that happen

 

-Prasad

[prasadvenkat]

Nice writeup, Prasad. That is one crazy looking pen! Seeing your written review reminds me that I use too much flex!

 

I just posted a review of my new Desiderata pen today, also. How long have you had yours?

Thanks so much. The written review was still written much faster than it should be. Fountain pen habits die hard.

 

Great detailed review you put up. I have had mine for about 6 weeks and used it a fair amount. Just not had time to write up a review.

-Prasad