Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Brushed ebonite fountain pen brigade from Deccan Pens, Hyderabad





There is this one thing with Deccan Pens… if you see a new FP model, buy it…you may not see it for a long time if you choose to postpone the purchase…it happened to me with the Deccan Diplomat…I haven’t yet been able to lay my hands on one… Hari told me during one of our pen-cussions that their pen maker is a very innovative person and sometimes makes unique one-of-a-kind pens…and if the pen comes to one of their showrooms and if you happen to see it, grab it! This is what I did with 2 of the 4 pens featured here…

There are 4 brushed ebonite models made by Deccan Pens that I have seen so far…they don’t have specific names and all are called ‘onyx’ and as I had said in an earlier post, they distinguish them by size…I have given them size-wise names…the first photo that you see has all the pens in their capped positions…the smallest one, forming the horizontal stroke of T, I have called ‘Mini’… the largest one, forming the vertical stroke of T, is the ‘Maxi’… to the left of Maxi, with the steel clip and steel cap band, is the ‘Major’… and the one to Maxi’s right, the one with the gold plated clip, is the ‘Mega’…

As you can see in the photos, no two pens are similar… if the nibs of two (Mini and Maxi) are similar (Ambitious), then their clips are different, one has a steel clip and the other has a gold plated clip…Maxi and Major have polished ends, but one of them has a cap band and the other is cap bandless…and if you look at the sections, each one is different…I don’t know what names these different kinds of sections have..

I had purchased the Mega a long time back…and among the four, this is different from the rest in many respects…this is the only one which has a snap cap…the rest are all screw caps…and this is the only one which is cartridge filler, the rest are all ED fillers…the nib, the feed, the section…all are different from the other pens featured here…and it has a smoother brushed feel and look…the other 3 have a rough feel and look… and if you notice, the clip is ‘inspired’ from Pelikan FPs… and I used it for 3 months continuously and it is a fabulous writer… no complaints…

MAJOR – capped 6 in; uncapped 5 ¼ in; posted 7 in; cartridge filler; snap cap; open two tone nib; Pelikan style clip; plastic section (I think) with gold plating at the section lip; smooth brushed feel and look

I am currently using the Mega…it has got that Lamy Safari feel while writing, though the width is narrower…and the nib also reminds you of the Safari…I feel a slight difficulty in screwing/unscrewing the cap now…this is the only pen in this batch that has a cap band, which is at the cap lip…its top and bottom ends are polished…and if you look at the photo, you can see that the clip is curved, unlike the others which are flat against the cap…and this is the only one among the 4 to have the distinctive calligraphic ‘D’ (the Deccan Pen Logo) on the cap…

MEGA – capped 5 ¼ in; uncapped 4 ¾ in; posted 6 ¼ in; ED filler; screw cap; Lamy Safari style one tone nib with no brand name; curved steel clip; Ebonite section tapering towards the nib and ending with a ridge slightly below the nib; rough brushed feel and look; 7 turns to unscrew…

I have yet to start using the Mini and the Maxi…will do so soon…

MINI – capped 4 ¼ in; uncapped 3 ¾ in; posted 5 ¼ in; ED filler; screw cap; Ambitious nib with an upturned ‘V’ nib hole; gold plated clip flat against the cap; gap between cap top and cap visible; Ebonite section tapering in and flaring out near the nib; rough brushed feel and look; 7 turns to unscrew…

MAXI – this is the longest of the batch… capped 6 ¼ in; uncapped 5 ½ in; posted 7 ¼ in; ED filler; screw cap; Ambitious nib with upturned ‘V’ nib hole; top and bottom ends polished; steel clip flat against the cap; Ebonite section tapering towards the nib stopping with a ridge; rough brushed look and feel; 7 turns to unscrew…

Jayasrinivasa Rao

3 comments:

Fully grown fuzzy Hipposaur said...

Absolutely loved the photo of the nibs, congratulations on your acquisition!

Jayasrinivasa Rao said...

Thanks FGFH... will try and capture more good pics in future too...

Anonymous said...

WOWOWOW,really cool. Thanks for sharing your pens. I really like it's simplicity. I live in England. Wish I had lived there!