M800 With Factory Italic...comments?

[george c]

Hi Folks,

 

For some reason, surely I doubt logical, I keep thinking about buying an M800 with the factory italic nib.

 

A few weeks ago looked for reviews and as I best remember, out of the few I found some were not favorable.

 

What do you folks think? Also, the nib is 1.5mm isn't it?

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

Best regards,

 

George

[BillH]

Hi George. I love mine. Bought one for the M400 as well. The big nibs really bring out the character of your inks and they are just a ton of fun. I say go for it. And if you don't like it I'll trade you one of the smaller nibs for it

 

Three of my favorite nibs. The MB 149 O3B didn't make this picture, but hey, this is the Pelikan forum, right?

 

[Hegemon]

My M800 IB is my favorite nib. Smooth and with very nice line variation.

Go for it.

[sargetalon]

Logic never stopped anyone in this hobby. It's a wide width but a nice nib overall. I have a few. More stubbish in my opinion than italic.

[Matlock]

I have one and I love it. I also have a Parker Duofold Centenial with an Italic nib (95) which is almost identical in performance.

[max dog]

I'm very happy with my M200 with factory italic nib. Smooth with lots of line variation.

[jmccarty3]

I have one of the 400 size IB nibs, bought from missingpen.de. I keep it in my M250 Levenger Special Brown Tortoise, inked with Robert Oster Orange Zest. My life is not very dramatic, but if such events should occur, this is a good ink/nib combination for them.

[whichwatch]

I agree with what others have said. I believe I have two factory IB nibs in my 800's. They are quite broad - almost too broad for me - and do seem more stubbish than Italic. Definitely worth a try!

[penmanila]

i had an IB on a burnt-orange M800 and loved it. too bad i sold the pen. been trying to buy it back! i'd love to put that IB on my new M900 toledo.

[CraigR]

I had a M805 with rhodium trim that was fixed with a cursive italic nib. Beautiful pen that wrote exquisitely. The price was high, but I felt that the pen justified the price. I believe that the nib was a broad ground to a .8 cursive italic. I do wish I had it back.

Edited January 19, 2018 by CraigR

[zaddick]

i had an IB on a burnt-orange M800 and loved it. too bad i sold the pen. been trying to buy it back! i'd love to put that IB on my new M900 toledo.

You can buy just the nib. Places like Cult Pens and other have them. You can probably sell your current Toledo nub to recoup the cost of the IB.

[PAKMAN]

Everyone needs at least one nice italic nib, at least that is my opinion!

[Bo Bo Olson]

PB ground my Lamy Persona into a CI..(Was an OB...is now more a M+)..it is the only CI I have...but I do have a lot of '50's semi-flex which are stubs.

Whoops....my Joy is a 1.5................and I do have a set of Osmiroid italic nibs for my Esterbrooks. So I guess I'm set with italic and CI.

[DrCodfish]

Color me in between:

 

I have the M800 IB nib and it is waaaay better than a standard ball B or BB. I also have a coup0le of these nibs and they are like a mashed down broad tip felt pen, totally devoid of any character what so ever. The sample that BillH has provided shows how much fun you can get from a factory Italic nib.

 

However, I have nibs which have been modified to stub and CI by a number of masters: (Pendleton Brown, J. Mottishaw, R. Binder, Greg Minuskin, and Dnny Fudge). ALL of these have been 'better' nibs than the one factory IB I have. 'Better' meaning with a little more line variation, crisper corners and no start issues. I am not saying this will always ben the case, my factory experience is a sample size of 'one', still that one is a lot better than a factory B nib.

 

As for practicality or use, well these nibs are not very practical for every day writing, but hey, if 'practical' was the metric you'd spend the rest of your days writing with a 79 cent Bic Ballpoint.

Edited January 19, 2018 by DrCodfish

[CraigR]

I had a M805 with rhodium trim that was fixed with a cursive italic nib. Beautiful pen that wrote exquisitely. The price was high, but I felt that the pen justified the price. I believe that the nib was a broad ground to a .8 cursive italic. I do wish I had it back.

I should have added that the 805 was purchased and the nib was ground by J. Mottishaw.

[jmccarty3]

If one wanted a cursive italic nib ground by a nibmeister, would it be better to send a broad nib or one of these italic broad nibs?

[zaddick]

If one wanted a cursive italic nib ground by a nibmeister, would it be better to send a broad nib or one of these italic broad nibs?

How wide do you want the final result? Although many people will say start as wide as possible, too wide can increase the cost of work (potentially) as the nib might need to be ground down in width.

 

If you like the line width of a B and want it maybe up to a little wider and a lot sharper then start with a B. There is usually a big blob of tiping on the modern nibs.

[CraigR]

If one wanted a cursive italic nib ground by a nibmeister, would it be better to send a broad nib or one of these italic broad nibs?

I own and have owned a number of pens with nibs that were custom ground by what we call a nibmeister. In most cases, I corresponded with the pen guru about my needs and wants, including sending my writing samples and pictures of how I hold a pen. Then, they would ask me for an approximation of wetness or ink flow followed by my picking a line width from a chart for type of nib grind I wanted. My point is that in most of the time, the nib guy or gal would tell me what size nib they needed to achieve the results I wanted. Call or write the person who you choose to do the grind and ask them. You'll be pleased with the result, I am sure.

 

Best wishes!

[DrCodfish]

Exactly as both Craig and Zaddick have said. Don't start with the nib, start with the writing characteristics you hope to achieve with this new pen. Admittedly that can be a challenge if this is your first ever custom grind, but not impossible. There are a number of places on the web where you can see examples of writing with various sizes and grinds Communication with the person you choose to do the work is critical.

 

The first nib I ever had ground was a simple modern era M600 B, ground to a stub. I had the work done by Mr Motishaw. Though this is considered a pretty simple modification I was thrilled with the results (still one of my favorite writers). That was my first step out on the slippery slope.

 

I know some folks consider custom grinding of nibs to be heresy. I would never have an uncommon or older nib modified, but there are so many modern era nibs kicking around that I have no reservations about having these worked.

 

In my opinion the only reason to have a factory CI worked on is if it is somehow not doing what you want. You could have it reground to crisp or formal italic, but that is risky business as these have a much more demanding sweet spot.

[biancitwo]

Color me in between:

 

I have the M800 IB nib and it is waaaay better than a standard ball B or BB. I also have a coup0le of these nibs and they are like a mashed down broad tip felt pen, totally devoid of any character what so ever. The sample that BillH has provided shows how much fun you can get from a factory Italic nib.

 

However, I have nibs which have been modified to stub and CI by a number of masters: (Pendleton Brown, J. Mottishaw, R. Binder, Greg Minuskin, and Dnny Fudge). ALL of these have been 'better' nibs than the one factory IB I have. 'Better' meaning with a little more line variation, crisper corners and no start issues. I am not saying this will always ben the case, my factory experience is a sample size of 'one', still that one is a lot better than a factory B nib.

 

As for practicality or use, well these nibs are not very practical for every day writing, but hey, if 'practical' was the metric you'd spend the rest of your days writing with a 79 cent Bic Ballpoint.

 

A nibmeister's italic nib "not very practical"? I have many Clairfontaine notebooks filled with rough draft documents and notes that are 95% written with Pendleton Brown (PB) italic nibs. I carry one or two every day. Each of my 5 or 6 non-vintage Pelikans have PB italic nibs. The sweet spots are huge. The line variation beautiful. And, the time getting accustomed to each is next to nothing. Virtually the only time I am not writing with a PB italic, I am writing with a 1930s through 1950s Pelikan vintage. 2 or 3 of those have old italic nibs. Nibmeister italics are well worth the minimal effort they require for regular use.