Dear Colleagues,

I have three sheaffer legacy's but I am getting very curious about the PFM. ( my bank account will take another hammering ! ).

I have perused ebay and there seem to be many different model's ( eg. 11, 111, V etc ). I am inclining towards the V model - but not for certain.

I wanted to ask any PFM owners, what I should look for in a first purchase and what is the most popular and reliable model ? - to use as a regular workhorse ( and also cost of maintenance ) .

I know it is lighter than the legacy and can hold a ton of ink - but is there anything in addition to this to justify the extra outlay over the legacy / imperial / targa ?. Also what would be a good price.

Does the PFM nib write better than the legacy?. I have also come across australian models with a palladium nib.

Ideally I wanted to purchase a model V and then send it to the nibmeister for tuning.

I am starting to save up for such a talked about pen but don't want to dive in before asking experienced PFM users.....any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you ladies and gentleman from FPN.

PFM's usually are nice writers.

All models are reliable (same mechanism). With plastic cap, dings from use are less of a concern.

Pens purchased restored should write well already.

Hard to comment re: 'writing better than..." as writing is function of iridium smoothness and adjustment of ink flow and shows more pen-to-pen variation than interseries variation.

regards

david

Dear Kavanagh:

I've got two - one III and one IV. Both are great writers. Both were purchased restored from reputable dealers (at the Atlanta Pen Show but not the same year). If you're concerned about dinging your pen, then the III makes the most sense (as David I said) since it is all plastic. The II, IV and V all have metal caps (stainless for the II, stainless and gold clip/band for the IV, all gold for the V).

If you're after future value and not just present usefulness, then the II or IV might make some sense. The PFM line had five nib/trim levels. All five levels ran from inception (ca. 1959) to about 1963. Post-1963, only the III and V were offered. This makes models I, II and IV relatively more rare and should result in a faster rate of price appreciation as time goes on. The prospect of ongoing price appreciation would tend to justify the additional investment cost versus the more recent Legacies and Targas.

What do I carry when I carry one of my pair? I tend to prefer the IV - I really like the stainless and gold cap - looks great in a nice starched shirt pocket.

Cheers!