This is about the pen
that I bought recently (on 21 August 2013) from Deccan Pen Stores,
Hyderabad. When Umair showed me this pen
I thought I’d seen this pen before and probably hadn’t bought it then, and told
so to Umair. He said this was a recent
model and I couldn’t have seen it before.
I wondered for a while and then it struck...
FLASHBACK ALERT!!!
I was in some way part
of Hari’s novel project where he had wanted Deccan to make him an ebonite pen
modelled on the Pelikan M800 that could hold a Pelikan screw-in nib unit. It was codenamed the Yematso Project. By virtue of living in Hyderabad, I became
the messenger, informer, reminder-er (?), and finally, courier...was generally
liaising between Hari and Deccan. In
fact, I got to see this Pelikanised Deccan FP and hold it, before Hari could
see it, who had actually thought of it in the first place. So, that was a rare privilege. That pen can be seen here...
FLASHBACK OVER..
All this came back to me
in a while, but when Umair showed it to me, I thought, “Great...another Pelikan
inspired pen from Deccan...this time the M800...” The last time they did one, it was modelled
on the Pelikan 120 and Hari had reviewed it here...they called it the Pelkan...
That day, coincidentally,
I had my blue striated M800 in my pocket and Umair showed some interest and
wanted to see it...he appeared to be delighted... I now feel, my M800 must have
reminded him of their new model and it was then that he fetched this pen and
showed it to me...
My guess is that Deccan
had prepared the moulds/dies to make the pen for Hari and then later decided to
use that to come out with a new model...
The pen under review is
good where looks are concerned and Deccan has done a fairly decent job in
emulating the design, shape, and size of the original... I would say that it is
a ‘tribute’ by Deccan...
The cap jewel is rather
well done...what is part of the clip itself in M800 is made as the full cap
jewel...attention is given to detail as you can see in the picture, except for
the logo on the top... I felt, briefly, perhaps the calligraphic D might have
looked good on the top...not enough space...there is a cap band too and there
is a hole in it and I don’t know why or for what reason...the barrel end is
also decently done, though it is a mock-piston, so can’t unscrew... just a
design feature...and BTW, this is an ED filler pen...no trims in the
mock-piston...
The clip is their now
regular Advocate ball clip...I would have liked a ‘beaky’ clip...and they have
the ‘beaky’ clip on some of their other models, and they could have fixed one
for this model too...I am slightly disappointed here...the ‘beaky’ clip could
have given a sense of completion to the pen... I told this to Umair, and he had
also brought out their earlier Pelkan model (recent version), which had the
‘beaky’ clip... I asked him if he could swap the clips, he gave both pens to
the service section to see if they could do it, but they returned both pens
intact saying that the diameter (on top) of the ‘beaky’ clip was small for this
pen...the calligraphic D, the Deccan logo, is also seen on the cap, but on both
pens I bought, this D doesn’t seem to be ‘imprinted’ properly...the forelock
and the back curve look incomplete... I asked about this to Zubair, and he
noticed this for the first time when I showed it to him! He said there must be something wrong with
the needle that inscribes this on the cap and it doesn’t seem to press evenly
on the surface...anyway, hope they rectify it soon...
Once the cap is
unscrewed, it is a straightforward Deccan pen...all nicely done...nib, feeder
fixed properly in the section...the nib says OLYMPIC IST QUALITY U.S.A. The flow is very good and the nib is not
scratchy, but not very smooth, either...but no tripping, skipping, etc. ... easy
flow...
I inked it the next day
evening and I wrote this post in longhand first with this pen yesterday...nice
fine line, I would have liked it to be a slightly more thicker... I normally
don’t meddle with the original fittings and let them be, but I might go back
and ask Deccan to fit this pen with a Deccan medium and also the ‘beaky’
clip...
I bought swirly green
and swirly brown, but seem to like the green one better, and that is what I
inked first...
I want to call it the
DECCAN YEMATSO...
 |
| The Deccan Yematso |
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| Section and clip |
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| The Deccan logo |
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| Yematso and M800 |
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| Both cap jewels |
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| Yematso's cap jewel - close-up |
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| Yematso's cap jewel - close-up |
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| M800's piston and Yematso's mock piston |
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| Writing Sample |
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| Two Deccan pens with the 'beaky clip' |
