Pen Chalet

Pen Chalet is a seller marketing itself primarily at the high end “luxury” side of the pen market - at least that’s what their website seems to imply. A quick look at the site menu doesn’t reveal a menu for “pens,” but rather for “fine pens.” It’s a bit sad because this does not necessarily translate to their selection or prices.

My first order from Pen Chalet included two pens and a large selection of ink samples. One of these pens was my first “good” pen - a Narwhal Key West. It also included my first Pelikan - the unfortunate choice of a Twist, which as previously mentioned turned out to be the worst new pen I’ve ever bought.

But I was very happy with the Key West. I chose a medium nib, primarily because I intended to use lighter-coloured yellow inks in this yellow-ish pen. I’ve been having trouble finding yellows which show well on the paper when written with slimmer nibs, so a medium seemed the answer here,.

This being my first fancy pen, I was quite happy with the performance. The writing was smooth and pleasant, and the pen comfortable to hold.

My biggest complaint, and something I have since learned to look for in my new pen purchases, was the fact that the cap does not post well. Although it technically fits on the end of the pen, the metal accents of the cap seem to make it too rigid to achieve a good seating on the barrel, and as a result the movements of my hands whilst writing easily shake it loose.

The Pelikan Twist was a big disappointment, unfortunately. It came with a cartridge, and once that was used up, I realized that my standard international converters did not easily fit. Although the attaching tip of the converters were the right size, the barrel of the converter was significantly narrower than the seat into which the converter was meant to rest. Even when I bought a Pelikan-branded converter, this problem persisted, and I eventually solved it by wrapping a length of washi tape around the converter to stabilize it.

In addition to this, like the Key West, the Pelikan Twist’s cap does not post. But the worst problem of all was the primary feature of the Twist - its shape and grip. The exaggerated triangular shape was extremely uncomfortable for my more square-oriented grip, and this eventually turned out to be the first new pen that I decided not to use anymore. If you’d like to take it off my hands before I just toss it out, let me know!