Pelikan Nib Comparison

April 19, 2006

Well, I am officially a Pelikan owner. I got a Pelikan M200 Demonstrator (the amber one) with a medium nib today. While I am enjoying it, I find that the nib is not quite as smooth as the ones on my Stipula Duetto or Tibaldi Modello 60 (both of which also have medium nibs...im kind of boring that way). I'm curious, how do the nibs on the M200 demonstrators compare to the nibs on the M800? The M800 is on my wish list, but it may fall down the list quite a bit if the nib on the m200 demonstrator and m800 are similar.

Andrew

April 19, 2006

Based on my experience: You get a lot of variability.

The EF on my M200 is smooth as butter on glass. My first M605 nib was very poor. I got it up to usable with Noodler's Eel Lubricating Ink. Sent it back for replacement EF nib. The replacement was awful, worse event than the first. It was finer, closer to a real fine so I kept it, did the penny trick, did the brown paper bag trip, used Eel and got it up to acceptable. My Pelikan Steno was just awful. Straightened the tines, did the penney trick, did the brown bag trick, and it is now acceptable. In comparison neither the M605 or the Steno are anywhere near as smooth as my three dollar Penatia Madison (a true fine of the old American sizing) which wrote a smoother and finer line out of the bubble pack.

It pays to deal with a reputable dealer as you may have to do an exchange or two to get what you want. I have always delt with the reputable dealers mentioned in this forum and I am sure I could have kept exchangint the two substandard ones until I got a good nib, I just chose to fix them myself. YMMV.

April 19, 2006

Based on my experience: You get a lot of variability.

It pays to deal with a reputable dealer as you may have to do an exchange or two to get what you want. I have always delt with the reputable dealers mentioned in this forum and I am sure I could have kept exchangint the two substandard ones until I got a good nib, I just chose to fix them myself. YMMV.

Good advice.

I think that Pelikan's nibs tend to be pretty good out of the box, but they're not all perfect.

April 19, 2006

My M200 (amber) medium is one of my smoothest writers, and finer than my two Namiki mediums. Don't know about the 800, but the medium nib on my M605 is broader and writes a little differently. I don't know if this is manufacturing variability or what. Pels seem generally praised for smoothness so maybe you got a lemon or one that needs "tuning." Just my $0.02 in the interest of providing some feedback...

Doug

April 21, 2006

My M200 (amber) medium is one of my smoothest writers, and finer than my two Namiki mediums. Don't know about the 800, but the medium nib on my M605 is broader and writes a little differently. I don't know if this is manufacturing variability or what. Pels seem generally praised for smoothness so maybe you got a lemon or one that needs "tuning." Just my $0.02 in the interest of providing some feedback...

Doug

I think the steel nibs come from a different place than the gold ones.

As for the two bad EF M605 nibs, I just write it off to Pelikan not having the quality control they used to have. The problem isn't a nib tunning problem. I examined both of them and they are realy ugly grinds.

With a wide European Medium nib, and a wet flow the manufacture can cut corners on grinding the nib. I have come to the conclusion this is why the European manufactures have gone to wider nibs. It masks the sloppy work.