Fountain Pen and Ink Roundup: Seven Pens and Inks in a July Rotation

Introduction

Mid-year rotations are a good time to look honestly at what earns its spot on the desk. This July rotation is a mix of pens on their way out and newer arrivals, which makes it a useful snapshot for anyone building a collection. Seven products made the cut: two Pelikans in spirit, a rare Conway Stewart, two Lamy workhorses, and three genuinely distinct inks.

The theme across the board is simple: wet, smooth writers with inks that show shading and sheen, and one ink that is honestly best described as an acquired taste.

Pelikan M200 Golden Barrel

This demonstrator edition pairs a clear barrel with suspended gold dust and a white finial on top, which makes it stand out even in a drawer full of Pelikans. The M200 size is a sweet spot for smaller hands, and the steel extra fine nib suits compact, finer handwriting well.

Typical Pelikan traits are all here: a very smooth, fully visible double-seal piston, a very wet line, and a slightly bouncy steel nib. The removable nib and feed unit is the real hidden advantage. If the bottle is running low, unscrew the nib section, syringe-fill the barrel completely, and screw it back in for a full fill.

Conway Stewart Wellington Silver Graphite

The Wellington Silver Graphite is a beautiful pen with real history: it comes from the original Conway Stewart manufacturing era, before the brand was sold and relaunched under British Bespoke British Pens. Only 50 were made, and this one is number 38.

The patinated silver accents and the bulb-shaped tip give it a distinctive profile, and the 18-karat gold fine nib is one of the best in the collection here: super smooth, super consistent, and nicely wet. Notably, this fine runs close to a Pelikan extra fine, so it suits tighter handwriting. It is a cartridge converter pen, which keeps the filling simple for such a special pen.

Lamy Safari Mint Green

The Safari Mint Green comes from an original pastel dessert-style series that also included a light blue and a light pink. This one was picked purely for its mint chocolate chip ice cream appeal, and honestly, that is reason enough.

It is the only Safari in the collection, and the honest verdict is that it is fine rather than loved. The steel fine nib is very wet with plenty of feedback, and the all-plastic body with a converter keeps it light and practical. It currently carries the same Diamine Majestic Blue as the Pelikan, and its wet line does the ink’s sheen justice.

Lamy AL-Star Bronze

The AL-Star is the all-aluminium version of the Safari, and the extra weight makes it feel more substantial. The black grip section is the main visual difference from the matching-colour Safari body. This one came as a clearance box set with a converter, bronze cartridges, and a bottle of Lamy bronze ink that was promptly passed along: a pale, dry orange that did not earn its keep.

The pen, however, has held up well through daily-driver duty, with only small chips and a slightly loose clip to show for years of work use. The extra fine steel nib is the weak point: noticeably drier, scratchier, and with more feedback than the fine, and it has never fully won the writer over even after attempts to smooth it.

Diamine Majestic Blue

Majestic Blue is the year-long bottle-draining project, filled into high-capacity pens to chug through the last of a 30 ml bottle. It is a dependable dark blue with a bronzy sheen in nearly every pen, plus lighter blue shading in some.

The interesting part is how much it changes from pen to pen: some pairings bring out lighter shading, others keep it a flat dark blue. It is not a top-ten ink, but it is probably the only sheen ink that would ever earn regular use, which is high praise in its own right.

Sailor Jentle Epinard

Epinard, French for spinach, is a dark mossy green that lives up to the name. Depending on the paper and pen, it shows shading and a faint reddish, bronzy sheen peeking through. The bottle here is the old-style squat Jentle bottle, from a line that deserves a comeback.

The catch is availability. The equivalent colour today, Tokiwa-matsu, comes in roughly a 20 ml bottle at a much higher price, compared to the roughly $12 paid for this 50 ml bottle. Less than half the ink for more than twice the price, but if you want the colour, it is still out there.

Akkerman SBRE Brown

SBRE Brown leans orangey-brown with lots of shading, giving a leathery, yellow-toned look on the page. Brown inks tend to run dry, so this medium-wetness example lands in a genuinely good place: not the wettest, not the driest, just well balanced.

The bottle is half the fun. Akkerman’s glass bottle has a marble in the neck that traps ink when tipped over, making it easy to fill or swatch and making it a great desk object to fidget with. It used to be very hard to find in limited batches, but availability has improved considerably.

Buying Advice: Matching Pens and Inks

A few patterns from this rotation are worth borrowing. First, wet pens flatter sheening inks: Majestic Blue in the wet Pelikan and Safari shows far more sheen than the same ink in a drier nib. Second, nib grades matter more than brand expectations, as the Lamy fine clearly outperforms the Lamy extra fine in the same pen family.

If you are buying a Pelikan M200, note that past special editions dropped significantly in price after a year or so, sometimes to around 100 to 120 dollars, so patience can pay. For special inks like Epinard, buy the older larger bottles when you can still find them. And for a daily workhorse, the AL-Star’s aluminium body genuinely holds up, just choose the fine nib over the extra fine.

Conclusion

This rotation shows how a pen collection settles into character over time: a Pelikan for smooth, wet, comfortable writing, a rare Conway Stewart for occasions, two Lamies for honest daily use, and three inks that each bring something different, from a sheening blue to a mossy green and a leathery brown. Every combination here earns its desk space, and that is the best measure of a rotation.