Delike Wood Pen In Ebony

April 27, 2018

This was a pen I was prepared to like. At $12, it's a bargain. Its small size, however, keeps it from becoming a personal favorite. But for some folks, this new Delike wood fountain pen can be a real winner.

I love the wood. After my positive experience with the Moonman M1 wood and brass pen, I’ve tipped over the edge in my appreciation for wood as a pen material.

The wood is dark, subtly-figured, smooth, warm and perfectly finished. In short, wonderful. I picked the darker wood (黑檀) because the section is black plastic and so fits visually with the body of the pen. At a casual glance (or in lower light) it looks like the section might be wood.

The metal threads in the section add quality. The converter fits snugly, works well and come apart easily for cleaning.

The use of a Delike (Dlike?) screw-in nib unit is also a plus. I like the idea of being able to swap in the bent fude/art nib that came with the Moonman M1.

The cap, however, is a bit thicker-walled than I expected. The step-up from the section to the barrel is correspondingly pronounced and sharp-edged.

The threads on the body are smooth and appropriately course. The cap comes off in just under 1.5 turns. A plastic insert inside the cap should help keep the nib from drying out.

Visually, the cap outweighs the barrel more than I really like. But I find the rounded ends of the cap and barrel just about perfect. There’s zero branding on the pen (save the nib) so it’s attractively clean.

Compared to other pens, the Delike Wood is small, just 12.5cm capped and 11.3cm uncapped. It’s also light, at 12.7 grams uncapped and 20.1g with the cap on.

Left to Right: Lingmo Lorelei, Jinhao 992, Delike Wood

Sadly, for me this pen is just too small to be comfortable. The pen doesn’t post well and becomes ungainly when you try. Plus, wood-on-wood doesn't sound like a good idea.

That said, the pen writes well. I got it with an EF nib and smoothed it a bit on a micromesh pad for good measure.

The nib and feed perform flawlessly, laying down a consistent correct amount of ink for a fine line. The combo is not wet, but it never skipped. Loaded with Noodler’s Zhivago, the pen wrote very nicely in a Spanish MiquelRius 90g extra opaque paper notebook.

The size makes the pen tiring to use for longer writing sessions. It’s a small pen. And for that reason, I’ll probably look for a friend to give the pen to. Someone who will appreciate the wood.

The pen is ¥76, or about $12, on Taobao.

I hope that Delike will rethink this pen and make a larger version 2.0.

More pictures and comments here.