I don’t own a vast amount of fountain pens and since I am a user and accumulator I don’t aim to have several (or all) versions of a certain model. By accident I happened to end up with two of these. I had bought another Delta – 365 – a beautiful and cool pen that in the end turned out to be a little bit to fat for my taste and since the cap didn’t post well I sold it. (Below it is with its friends - Pelikan M215 in Lozenge pattern and Pelikan M605. The M215 would be the perfect Pelikan if it were a little bit bigger – like a M80X)
The buyer found out that the barrel had an almost undetectable hair crack which I had missed. Buyer returned pen to the retailer who sold me the pen just a month earlier – a very good retailer that accepted a warranty claim without fuss.
So, I got a new Delta Profili instead. I had planned to sell it straight away to keep the pen budget in check, but when it arrived I just couldn’t sell it. It was so beautiful – the combination of the candy, lustrous blue and silver is divine futurism. The first one (the red) had feed issues. A smooth nib that wouldn’t let go of any ink. Retailer and nibmeister fixed it and after this fuss it wrote just like a dream. The blue/silver version laid down a perfect line straight out of the box.
I was surprised to find that they differ a little bit from each other (not only colour wise). The blue only has guilloche each other side on both barrel and cap – where the red is patterned all over; except for one side of the cap where the brand name is engraved – in a futuristic, ultra cool typeface . On the blue pen the brand name is engraved on the barrel instead. They also have different nibs.
The red one has Delta’s old logo and style and is in 18 k gold, while the nib on the blue is in 14 k gold and wears the newer logo.
I prefer the blue Profili’s characteristics, but the unengraved sides on barrel and cap makes it less practical and prone to get scratches and dings if one isn’t careful. A little bit of patina can be beautiful, but too many scratches makes the pen look dull and this is a too lustrous and sparkling pen to benefit from that kind of dullness.
But cool design aside – this pen is a real great writer. Smooth, but not slippery smooth. Well balanced, at home in my hand. Very comfortable for long writing sessions. I also like that the cap posts by screwing it onto the end of the barrel. In all a favourite. I realize that I think that all of the pens I’ve got now belongs to my favourites. I’ve sold all (expensive) pens that I didn’t feel that I was perfectly happy with. I haven’t regretted one of these sales – it only feels good to let go of things that are good and OK, but not right. It is so easy to end up with a lot of things that doesn’t mean anything special or fill any function (one function can be looks and another to make me happy an a third to be a real great writer). A review of the red with more photos can be found here.
