Sheaffer Prelude Fountain Pen Medium Nib

So, this year marks 100 years of Sheaffer pen manufacture, Walter A. Sheaffer founded his company with 7 employees in Fort Maddison, Iowa in the back of his jewelry shop to capitalise on his idea of a lever filling system for fountain pens, and he we are 100 years later still using Sheaffer pens. So what follows is a review of my Sheaffer pen.

index card test

The medium nib on my Sheaffer writes a very controlled and precise line, thou as with all most fountain pen inks smudging is always an issue, that lays down and assured and accurate line even on the more fibrous/rougher papers, not just the smooth 80-150gsm papers, when using Sheaffer ink, which in this case just so happens to be their turquoise cartridge ink, although this does not seem to have scanned very well or accurately, so please refer to the third picture for a true to life representation of the ink colour.

Feathering test

 On 80GSM plain paper (above) the nib and ink combination does not exhibit any feathering tendency's either when writing or rough sketching, of course this can change from paper to paper as it relies on the paper quality more than anything, but on plain copier paper of 80GSM feathering does not occur, so draw you own conclusions form that for the use your intending.

Ink colour representation

As you can see the ink colour is on the light side of turquoise when flow has been established, when starting a new cartridge the first few strokes are considerably darker, so if consistency through the document is important, a special letter or greetings card message then I would recommend getting flow going before writing.
Generally the ink is very good value, plenty of writing in a standard Sheaffer cartridge, although I must worn the writer of the messier ilk that the ink is very stubborn, more so than many other inks and will take a lot of washing to remove from fingers and clothing, if any little accidents happen.

This particular model is the rainbow colour style, similar to gun metal finishes but with a gold ground to the body and cap.

The pen comes in a nice presentation case, covered in faux metallic gold leather and a standard twist to fill Sheaffer converter for bottled ink users.

The pen itself has a nice feel in the hand, neither too heavy or light, just right, for me at least, a nice firm capped and lidded feel, with very little or no play in either position. The screw barrel also feels very firm when full screwed on, to the point that a couple of times I have had trouble and a bit of effort expanded when unscrewing for cartridge replacement.

The pocket clip is reassuringly firm and will perform adequately in most situations.

The finger grip part of the barrel is finished in plain black plastic, which is comfortable to hold for long periods of time, and perfectly adequate for this every day pen, some like a metal grip but i prefer plastic, it's all about personal choice, so decide what is best for you and stick with it.

 The nib does exhibit a very wet writing profile but thankfully does not seem to lay down too much ink when writing. The ink delivery is the standard and usual plastic veined affair found across a multitude of fountain pens, does the job perfectly well and as expected.