Pelikan Level 1

And now, a word from our guest reviewer... Hey, Jason! Hey Tiffany! Like, Pelikan made this madd phat new pen called the Level. Y'know, it looks kinda, like, plain 'n stuff, but the marketing is like really designed to appeal to us like teenagers and gen-exers. This pen is so kewl, you like fill it by plugging it into a special ink bottle that has like this valve thing, and you squeeze the ink into the pen. Whoa, it's almost like sex or something. This pen holds like totally mega ink, y'know, enough to write a whole term paper if your computer like head crashes or something. The bummer thing is, like, there are actually two reservoirs inside, and you have to keep refilling the writing tank from the reserve tank by twisting the end of the pen. Also, you can't fill the pen in the first place unless you have like one of those Level ink bottles (one comes with the pen, like really cheap 'n stuff at less than $30), but at least you don't get ink all over your bellbottoms.

Actually, the Level 1 seems to be the thin edge of the wedge (pun intended) by which Pelikan now seeks to revolutionize the fountain pen. The dressier adult model, the Level 5, offers the same unusual filling system in better materials for considerably more money. So far, reviews have been rather mixed. In addition to the grumping of fountain pen collectors who complain about the Mir-like docking mechanism ("why can't they just make 'em like my Grandpa used", we hear them cry over their oatmeal), the Level 5 has also been roundly denounced for having a cap that cannot be posted (rather odd, since the Level 1's cap works just fine on the end of the pen). Also, it took several weeks for the experts on the Zoss list to come up with a reasonable solution for cleaning the ink out of this pen (which Pelikan claims holds five cartridges' worth of ink): empty the ink bottle, squeeze it, then dock it to the pen. After several trials, most of the ink will be sucked out of the pen's main reservoir. Then, the bottle can be used to administer cool tap water to rinse out the guts for the next color. Unlike the senior Pelikans, the Level's point cannot be unscrewed to speed the cleaning process. Boy, this sounds like an awful lot of trouble to go to for a $25 pen...maybe I can just learn to like Level Blue. On the positive side, this pen is very comfortable and lightweight despite its large size, and the steel point writes efficiently and without skipping. The Level is a good pen to stash in your jeans pocket for the trip over to the feed 'n seed.

	This file last posted on: 2005-Jan-20 17:50:26 CST		MCMVIII, the red network Contact: