Recently, I finally took the plunge and ordered an M600 through my local stationery store. A SEK 1500+ pen? I must be mad.

Unfortunately, the pen has turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. It skips frequently and sometimes does not start writing until several letters into a word. If I press the pen down slightly on the paper, so that the tines flex just a bit, the ink flow usually starts.

It seems like the nib is slightly rotated relative to the feed (see attached picture; I apologize for the poor quality, this turned out to be a tricky subject to light well).

So, is this to be expected from the M600? Is it just my FP technique that is bad (even though I have several other FP:s, all of them considerably cheaper, which all write perfectly)? What about the nib misalignment, does that matter or is it irrelevant for the skipping issue?

looks like the ugly misalignment would be the most problematic issue. Picture shows that very well. I'm wondering if you haven't also had some problems with it feeling scratchy at times based on that picture. I can't tell if the tipping is too round but that might also be contributing to the problem. edit: looking again at the pic and actually paying attention to the feed rotation, it could be an issue.

Don't know where you (now I do - Sweden - another thing I didn't pay attention to fully) are but Pelikan nibs are usually very easy to exchange either through the national distributor (in the US that's Chartpak) or through Pelikan. I think you just got a bum nib. I don't think the feed is that much misaligned to be the problem but i could be wrong. At any rate - don't settle for it. For this quality (and cost), the nib should measure up.

maybe start with you stationer and see if they will do an exchange on-site.

An on-the-spot change is not very likely -- this thing is not even in the catalogue of the swedish Pelikan distributor -- but I'll talk to the stationer and the distributor; they all seem like nice and helpful people so I suppose sorting this out will not be impossible.

(And yes, the nib sometimes feels a bit scratchy.)

I hve to agree with KCat on this...
The tines are obviously out of alignment... one being higher than the other, unless it is the photo....
The slight difference in the rotation of the nib on the feed should not give all the problems you are facing. BUT, the tine alignment would...
The scratchy feel would be caused by the mis-alignment of the tines...
If you were in the US a nib exchange (as mentioned) would be a done deal through Chartpak. I would check and see who is the certified repair station for Pelikans in Sweden.... if there is none, you might just have to send it back to Pelikan in Germany.
One thing I can attest to, Pelikan Customer Service is the best I have ever seen.

I just did a search on the Pelikan website and it seems that the Scandanavian distribution is in Germany... here is what I found

Pelikan Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH& Co. KG

Scandinavia Department
Country: Sweden
Postcode: D-30163
City: Hannover
Deutschland
Street: Werftstr. 9
Phone: (0049) - 511-6969-826
Fax: (0049) - 511-6969-302
Email: international@pelikan.de

Definitely get Pelikan to switch that nib out for you.

send it straight to Germany:

My nib on my new Pelikan Shanghai looks almost identical to the way your picture is. However I don't experience any problems with the pen starting or skipping.

something I didn't talk about because you have other FPs that have not been a problem.

it could well be that your technique is different from sonnenblume's such that for you, the misalignment is more problematic.

Technically, you shouldn't have to apply pressure at all other than the weight of the pen on the paper if the nib/feed is a good design and flow is good. IF you're used to nails then the somewhat springy feel of the 600 nib might mean an adjustment in the pressure you use. I doubt it - these are not exactly "flex" or even "semi-flex" nibs. But they are sometimes springy in my experience.

so... i'm still betting on a bad nib. let us know if you are able to get it worked out with Pelikan.

I suspect it is the rotation of the nib on the feed that has pushed one tine higher.

Hi,

I know that you are in Sweden, but I will fix the nib up for free. Just unscrew it and send it in and I will get the nib reset, the flow set properly and stop the skipping.

Dillon

What a great close up, can you tell me how you lit it so well and got so clear on the macro?


Dillon, that is super cool of you!

Unless there some sort of funky lens action going on with the camera, no doubt that its the tines. That is super cool of you Dillon.

KCat: The other pens that I use are an M200, a Parker Frontier and a Rotring Freeway. The M600 does not seem any more springy than the M200 to me (the Rotring is a lot more nail-like -- mine survived a nib-down fall onto a stack of books with no damage at all, I doubt the Pelikans would take that sort of abuse!). I write with near-zero pressure with all of them, and it works fine on all but the M600.

Dillon: Many thanks for your offer! I'll try getting this replaced from Pelikan first (if I am paying ridiculous amounts of money for a pen, I believe I have the right to demand perfect quality!) but if that does not work for some reason...

Chad234: The picture was shot with a Canon EOS10D and a Canon EF100/2.8 USM macro lens. To get at least some depth of field, the lens was stopped down to f/22 which caused the star-shaped highlight. Lighting was actually quite poorly set up, so I cheated by cranking up the shadows a lot by using the "curves" tool in an image editor. Actually, I'd say this is quite a bad shot, the equipment is capable of producing much better if I spend more than 30 seconds on setting up the shot. :-)

Somewhat off-topic for the Pelikan forum, but...: Here's the same nib, lit by daylight from a window (to the right in the picture) and placed on a sheet of white paper which reflects some light onto the feed to make it clearly visible without digital cheating. and serves as a convenient white point reference. The image is somewhat cropped, shrunk to 33% of the original size and slightly sharpened.

Not exactly an exhibition-quality shot, but at least it's a lot better than the first one. :-)

much clearer - twist in feed and misalignment are both more obvious. Still holding with my original guess - bad nib in both cases.

bad nib bad bad nib... now go to your room!

you're right - the 600 shouldn't be much different from the 200 and I suspected you were okay on how you were writing since this is the only one giving you problems.

Can you take a pic from the side and underside, focusing on the tipping? This would help to determine if it isn't a bit "baby-bottomed" as well. Still should get it replaced (should be free except postage on your end perhaps) by Pelikan. My experiences with their CS have been top notch.

I hate when this sort of thread dies before having revealed whether the hero and his/her pen lived happily ever after, so here is an update: I got in touch with Pelikan in Germany, and they told me to send the pen back for replacement. The bird has now been handed over to the Swedish Mail for a flight back to Hannover.

great - let us know how it goes.

After nearly a month -- i suppose pelikans don't fly very fast, that beak probably introduces a lot of drag -- the pen eventually came back today. The packaging was not exactly bulletproof, just the thin cardboard box the pen originally came in, wapped up in a few layers of soft paper and placed in a padded envelope. The box had been squashed, which made me very nervous about the pen, but it seems to have survived unharmed.

Most importantly, the skipping problem seems to be gone, as far as can be told after writing a few sentences on different papers.

Yay! keep us updated on how it behaves.

I may grumble about Chartpak raising their prices - but their repair services are incredible (fast, cheap) and we're fortunate here in the US to have that. But I'm glad it's made it's way back to you and seems to be okay. I guess there are gorillas in the European postal systems just as their are here.