Jump to content

How One Woman Revived My Love For Pelikan - Or - The Ballad Of Linda Kennedy


heymatthew

Recommended Posts

About a year ago I purchased a NOS Pelikan M100. The white version with black hardware. I believe that pen has rather lovingly been dubbed "The Storm Trooper Pen." And rightfully so because it looks just like a Storm Trooper. And thanks to Angry Birds Star Wars Edition, all of you 90's babies will understand what a Storm Trooper looks like. Anyway... I digress. The nib was a Medium and delivered a writing experience not unlike using a small garden hose to try and accurately place water in 2" pots. It just gushed ink and the line was easily half again as wide as Lamy Broad Nibs (garish things, those broad nibs, but my wife loves them so I get to compare). That pen was quickly sold off without another thought.

 

Fast-forward a few months and I stumbled on a rather excellent deal for a Pelikan M215. Pelikan? Metal? Subtle design? Yes please. It came with an F nib. This one wrote slightly finer than the garden hose that was the M100 before it. I knew about 15 seconds in that it was a no-go and sold it off also. At this point, I just figured that Pelikan had merged with Sharpie somewhere down the line and I just wouldn't get anything from them that didn't write at least a 12 or 15mm line (Yes, I'm exaggerating, but the Pelikan nibs were easily several times wider than Japanese counterparts and half again or twice as wide as other German nibs).

 

Fast-forward another few months or so and I picked up a Pelikan M200 with an EF nib. Surely this would be the one, right? Wrong. Again, the nib was a gushing, broad, mushy writer with no character or pizzazz. It was similar in width to a Lamy Medium. Probably the equivalent of a Japanese BBB, if there were such a thing (not the Better Business Bureau... Triple Broad).

 

Humph. Stupid Pelikans. I hummed and hawed over whether or not to shoot it, sell it or stick it in the pen box and save it until the years when my eyesight began to fail me and I was forced to write large, clunky letters and when my children, grandchildren and family members would chalk my closed-up A's, O's and Q's to my shaky, arthritic hands and tuck my correspondences away with a sigh and a gentle, "Bless his heart."

 

As a last-ditch effort to love Pelikans, I reached out to the community here to try and discover why I had gotten three despicable nibs from one of the top pen-makers in the world. I got a response from Linda at Indy-Pen-Dance. To say I'm not affiliated with her and her company wouldn't be entirely true as she did work for me and had a pleasant conversation via email during the process so I sort of feel like we're friends now and I'd recommend her based on that alone. So yeah... While she's not paying me or holding a mushy Pelikan nib to my throat and forcing me to write this, I do feel a little biased towards her because she was so darn nice to me. And oh, what she did to that Pelikan... I sent her my beloved Sailor M1911 (that was hard to do as it was a gift to me and has been inked since I received it several months ago and is almost my favorite pen) so she could see what kind of nibs I actually liked, and she also had me submit writing samples and she took it from there. I didn't have high hopes for the Pelikan. I figured I'd spend the bucks, get it back and still be unhappy and part ways with it at a significant loss.

 

Oh no, no, my friends. For I tell you, that woman did a remarkable job. While it's not quite as fine as my Sailor EF, it's darn close and writes with just a hint of feedback. I can use it on cheap paper and it doesn't flood the page with ink. I have it filled with Lamy Blue-Black, which is a favorite of mine and it has become a twice-a-week carry, at worst. Sometimes, I carry it for several days at a time. Linda is a heck of a nibmeister and she did a killer job on my Pelikan. Enough that I'll be purchasing others and if they turn out to be the equivalent of a can of spray paint, then I'll send them to her and have them made right.

 

If you have a pen that needs some love, don't hesitate to send it her way. I don't know what her turnaround times usually are and I don't really remember how long it took for mine, but I couldn't be happier. Just when I had lost all hope of falling in love with these tiny bird-branded instruments, she saved me. Pelikans are, for me, the perfect pocket pen. Good ink capacity. Good build quality. Piston filling is always a plus. They come in a wide range of colors and sizes at all price points and, with someone like Linda on your side, a Pelikan can be exactly what you want it to be.

 

Anyway... That's my tale of the love and loss associated with Pelikans and the woman that saved the day. Check out their services at http://www.indy-pen-dance.com/.

Edited by heymatthew

No, that's not blood. That's Noodler's Antietam.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 7
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • heymatthew

    2

  • lurcho

    1

  • swanjun

    1

  • merlinsfv

    1

Top Posters In This Topic

That's great to hear, and timely, because I was just about to send my m205 to her for a slight tune-up (skipping on downstroke but otherwise lovely).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's great to hear, and timely, because I was just about to send my m205 to her for a slight tune-up (skipping on downstroke but otherwise lovely).

 

You won't be disappointed. She does great work. :D

No, that's not blood. That's Noodler's Antietam.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will join in the acolades. Linda came highly recommened to me by a nibmeister who now only works only on pens he sells. I had sent my older 600 to Chartpak only to have it returned as irreparable when i was directed to Linda. Within 3 weeks, she'd diagnosed the problem, repaired the pen, and returned it to me. I have no hesitation about entrusting any of my pens to her. There is no relationship to disclose.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was very fed up with Pelikan too.

 

Despite owning two gold-nibbed Pels, FPN posts had persuaded me that there was something special in its own right about the steel-nibbed M200.

 

I got a rhodium-plated M205 from a very good UK supplier, but even the second nib following a swap was rubbish.

 

Because I happened to be going to New York City on honeymoon (this was last August), I arranged a buy and delivery of a M400 medium nib from Mottiishaw.

 

I thought it was lovely at first, but then thought the blobby (new-style) nib, and its flow were very far from what I liked and wanted, but then I was back in deepest, darkest Wales again.

 

To cut an already boring story shorter, I only very recently messed about with spreading and compressing the tines to chanfge the flow, and after about four such experiments I now feel the nib is superb.

 

And despite my posting negatively on the new, 'kugel-point', blobby (as opposed to the previous slightly-stubbish) nib on the Souverans, I am now very happy with the M400 point on my M205 body. Very.

 

Though, as I keep saying, my surgically-enhanced Lamy Vista is as good.

 

PS: These are all medium nibs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was just thinking I need to send my Sheaffer Valor out to someone to get this ridiculous flow reduced. It writes wetter than my M1000! Perfect time to come across this post...

Pelikan M1000 (Green Stripe), Pelikan M205 EF (White), Sheaffer Valor (M), Sailor Sapporo (Clear), TWSBI 580 EF, 1948 Parker 51 Vac F, Early 1950s Esterbrook J F, Jinhao x750 M, Eyedropper Ahab

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Matthew,

 

You know what would I name this story probably.

 

"THE PELIKAN SWANSONG & LINDA'S PHOENIX ACT". - Please don't tax yourself on the etymology for it's an ARBIT title.

 

I hope Linda's also reading this link and feeling good about the work she's doing......

 

Pelikan too welcomes you back!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for the very kind comments Matthew, and the follow-ups as well Merlinsfv. You guys really made me feel great with this thread!

 

~Linda

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33501
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26627
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...