Search for a red pen: update

Out browsing today and came across a model of red pen I hadn't seen before, so before you could say "stationery fetish" I bought myself one. After rigorous roadtesting, here are my thoughts:

Make: Faber Castell
FC are well know in the art world but this is the first time I've seen them venture for a wider audience.

Model: Finepen 1511 Document

Price: £1.70 ish

Colour of ink: red
Quite a bright red, actually. There 's no colour stated on the pen, but I think it is what we call in the teacher trade "scarlet displeasure", perhaps with a hint of "vague encouragement".

Appearance:
Reasonably thick without being chubby; large pen lid. The body of the pen is a dark green (with a red end indicating colour), so I worry that after a heavy day I may inadvertently grab it thinking it's green rather than red. Time will tell.

Taste:
The pen top is chunky so should survive a good chewing, if you're given to such nervy behaviour. Phenol tones dominate on the palate, with an aftertaste of burnt sugar, lavender, pomegranate and wellies.

Nib width:
Not written on the pen, but a width of 0.3mm is apparently claimed. Electron micron measurement reveals a precise width of 0.324mm, which is fine by me, as the extra 0.024 always comes in handy for hefty ticking.

Bleed through:
Reasonable on a standard 0.5 square centimetre jotter, though comments written in anger ("NO!", "ugh!", "Show your WORKING!!!" etc) fared poorly - perhaps one to use with a more able class?

Performance:
The pen was road tested by first computer generating 100 basic arithmetic questions and answers, which I then marked under standard teacher conditions, ie at 11.30pm after consumption of two-thirds of a bottle of cheap red wine. The pen felt good on the ticks, with a free-flowing action, but on the crosses there was a tendency for deposit build up on the second stroke. To be fair, this is a well-recognised problem in assessment, and to the pen's credit, it did manage to write reasonably well on wine-stains.

Underwater performance:
Fair, but the jotters did get soggy.

Performance at altitude:
In order to check the pen's ability I took a long-haul flight (for greater altitude); the pen performed reasonably well but did smudge some jotters marked in economy class. To be fair, this may be because I'd dropped my mini-bread roll on the page earlier.

Works in zero gravity?
A delay to the space shuttle launch leaves this question pending. For wider space travel, however, it's worth mentioning that the pen worked well in a Type 40 Time Travel machine, though it didn't unlock any doors, so a sonic device remains a safer bet in such an environment.

Overall score: 6.83/10.
Not a classic by any means, but shows promise and may age well. Use now to end of term two.