Duke Shark Shape Green Marble Celluloid Fountain Pen Review

Duke Shark Shape Green Marble Celluloid (Duke 9113)

Fountain Pen Review

My Fountain Pen Journey has progressed quite rapidly over the last few months. I guess that I've done the typical fountain pen newbie thing of buying lots of cheap pens and then deciding that maybe I should try something a little bit more expensive. This review isn't about a step up in my spending, it's more a reflection of how my tastes have changed (improved?)

I have a confession to make: I've developed a real love of Pelikan fountain pens. I think that the Pelikan design principles are pretty much perfect for my "style" or tastes.
On this Fountain Pen Journey, I started to lust after the Pelikan M805 Ocean Swirl, but the near £400 price tag is totally unjustifiable for me. So, I had a quick Google search for fountain pens like the Ocean Swirl and the Duke Shark Shape Green Marble Celluloid fountain pen came up as a result on eBay...

Ok, it's nothing like the Pelikan M805 Ocean Swirl, but I do like the colour of this Duke pen.

Let's take a closer look at that celluloid (acrylic!) material.

It's a far cry from the material used for the Pelikan M805 Ocean Swirl, but if you happen to be feeling desperate for a fountain pen in a vaguely similar colour scheme, this Duke Shark Shape Green Marble Celluloid fountain pen is about as close as you can get - if you use your imagination a little creatively.

Dimensions:

Length, capped	13.4cm
Length, uncapped	12.1cm
Length, posted	16cm
Section length	1.8cm
Diameter, barrel	1.3cm
Diameter, section	1.1cm
Weight, capped	40.8g
Weight, uncapped	29.0g
Cap weight	11.8g

Design:

Firstly, don't confuse this Duke fountain pen with the Jinhao Shark fountain pen, the two are very dissimilar.

The eBay sellers of this pen all appear to refer to it as the "Duke Shark Shape Green Marble Celluloid Fountain Pen", though the cap band does have "9113" and "Duke" embossed on it so it's pretty safe to assume that this is a Duke 9113 fountain pen(?)

This Duke pen does have a shark-like cap (though it's not as obvious and childish (aka fun) as the Jinhao Shark pen). There are "gills" moulded into the all black plastic cap (see photo below).

The cap doesn't quite match the aesthetics of the rest of the pen, and I'm unsure why Duke chose this particular cap design. The silver coloured clip is quite stiff and perfectly functional.

It's worth noting that the cap is quite stiff to pop on and off the pen, but it's not overly difficult to do one-handed.

The barrel as we have already seen is black resin with flecks of partly chatoyant teal green acrylic embedded into it. Towards the finial there is a silver coloured indentation which I thought would be to hold the cap in place when posted, but it does not appear to serve any function.

The finial is glossy black plastic.

The pen was supplied to me with a standard international cartridge converter (which can be easily dismantled) and a black velvet drawstring pen pouch. Interestingly, I ordered this pen from a Chinese seller on eBay for £23.89, expecting it to arrive in several weeks' time, but less than a week later this pen arrived from Amazon (UK), which was quite a (confusing) surprise.

The Nib

This pen came with a medium steel nib.

I've had a lot of what can be described as mediocre nibs on the Chinese pens that I've bought, so I wasn't expecting much from this pen, but I was wrong - The nib on this pen wrote perfectly well right out of the box. It's smooth and wet, but there is no flex or line variation.

The nib writes smoothly in every direction.

I have experienced no hard starts or skips, and there is no sign of any ink starvation whatsoever - which is almost a first for any Chinese pen that I've used.

Reverse writing is possible with this pen: It's extra fine, but not too scratchy.

So, to summarise I am very happy with this pen. It's the first Duke fountain pen that I've used and it writes exactly how I'd expect a fountain pen to write, which is more than can be said for the various Jinhao pens I've used.

The colour/design of the pen is good - it's not quite the Pelikan Ocean Swirl that I want, but it's a good enough approximation!

The shark shaped cap is a strange choice, but thankfully it's not too obvious, so I don't need to worry about it looking too childish.

If anything, the only "bad" thing I have to say about this pen is that there is quite a step up from the section to the barrel. It's not that you feel it with your fingers, but it's not as comfortable as it could be, as the section diameter feels a little too small.