Old vs. New Pratik Pens for Calligraphy | Review and Test by Paul Antonio

Hi, I'm Paul Antonio, and Milan's here, just over there, walking. So he has brought some of the new and updated Prattic pens because they look like this. I will show you a slightly more detailed photograph in a bit, and these pens are basically, they sort of fill by, you know, dipping the ink and the ink floods in from the side. Now, they have recently updated the internal mechanism of the pens. And I'm just going to show you a quick demonstration on how they differ from each other. I'll be looking at the new ones, as well as the old one. So I'm using a Canson marker pad, and I'm using one of the square diamond PScribe grids, as I'm going to be working with a broad edge nib. So these are the two pens which are most similar to each other. This is a KT-14. Zoom in a little bit more so you could see that a little bit better. And this is one of the new T14 pens. Now, you'll notice that you just see one has, like, lots of little cut flanges, and the other is a folded piece of metal. These two folded bits of metal, you can see one has a central spine in it, which helps the ink to flow down to the little channels that you see at the front there. See the little nib-like reservoirs with these little holes help hold ink and the ink channels to help run down, which is similar to this, but because they're split, and you then have additional channels down here. You have a very different kind of mechanism for writing. I'm just going to use some Monteverdi Opera Noir ink. I've just dipped, so this is the KT-14. It has, put it on the other side, rub it. Of course, when you're working with these kinds of nibs, sometimes one side is sharper than the other because they tend to be out a little bit. We see a nice, sharp line with the KT-14. You can pull some really delicate lines out, follow it, and that's the finish of this fractal letter A, so that's quite a nice hairline finish. The newer one, which is the T-14, as you can see, I've tested this with black ink already. It has a little bit more resistance to it. It's a really lovely, sharp, accurate line, both on the top side and the bottom. So there isn't really a difference between the top side and the bottom side of this new version, and it's much sharper. It's sort of harder as well in the way that it writes, I guess because with this one, you're writing on two blades that come together, and with this one, sorry, the KT-14, you're writing on two blades that come together. If I put something in between there, you can see those blades are spreading, whereas with the T-14, there is a blade down the center, which is directing the ink. Why would you waste money and get both of them? They're very different tools. I will spend some time playing with these a little bit later on. I have a set arriving, and I will actually spend some time really looking at them in detail. This was just a quick introduction. I've not used this new T-14 before, and it's really quite interesting. I come back to my question, why would you waste money getting both of them? The KT-14, the one where the flanges just come together like this, it moves in a softer way, and I sort of feel it's a little bit more forgiving. You're a little bit messy if you're not that accurate. If you press a little bit hard, because then the flanges will sort of flex. The T-14, I feel, is much more rigid, harder, sharper, more accurate, and if you press on it, you don't get the same flex as you would with the KT-14, with the one where the flanges just come together, not with the bit in the middle. Tricky one. I would actually get both, because you can use the KT-14, the flanges like this, as a ruling pen, because they judder against each other, splatter ink, and they're really exciting. I wouldn't try that with the T-14. I sort of feel that it would just cut right into the paper. T-14 is a little bit more rigid. It's a little bit more robust, and I don't think you could push that blade out of place. It's really beautifully made, and it's a really wonderful, they're both really wonderful tools to write with, so would you be wasting your money buying both of them? I don't think so. And, of course, they come in different sizes, so when I get the sizes, I'm going to look through them and really work with them, but I'm really glad to be able to have a look and play with these today. Thank you very much.