Pelikan M200 Smoky Quartz

February 17, 2018

I am interested in buying the special edition M200 Smoky Quartz; this would be my first Pelikan pen, but I have a couple of questions. Since this pen has a rather translucent barrel and a piston filling mechanism, does the pen color get lost when the pen is filled with black ink? One reason I am buying it is for the beautiful body and amber color, but if the color loses something when the pen is filled, I would probably look at a different M200 model, such as the brown marbled version.

Second, I want my pens to write smoothly and a little wet with not too much feedback. Would you recommend a fine or medium nib for the M200? I have read that the medium is broader than most western mediums. Is this accurate? Does the fine nib write smoothly?

I only have three other fountain pens and they both write beautifully: Italix Parson's Essential, Italix Churchman's Prescriptor and a Pilot Custom Heritage 91.

THank you all for your help and replies.

February 17, 2018

I only put Smoky Quartz Pelikan ink in my M200 Smoky Quartz pen. I do not know how that particular pen writes with its original nib because mine has an M400 gold nib. All my other M200 SS nibs write very nicely. I have fine and medium steel nibed Pelikans.

February 18, 2018

I have both the Smoky Quartz and the Brown Marbled. From what you describe, and considering black ink, I would suggest the Brown Marbled. I find the Fine nibs to be quite usable and smooth enough for me. My recent Medium nibs, with a wet ink, do write a touch fatter than other company mediums, but except for certain writing I tend to love fatter nibs so I like the Pelikan Mediums.

My 2 cents.

February 18, 2018

This is a group shot of my birds. In the center are a M200 Cognac (which is lighter than the Smoky Quartz) next to a brown marbled. Both are inked in this photo.

My Cognac is a fine, my Brown Marbled a Medium and my Blue Marbled an OB. All are wonderful. I find the M200 nibs pretty true to size. (my F might even be slightly to the narrow side)

20171219_101740 by Brad Merrill, on Flickr

Edited February 18, 2018 by Runnin_Ute

February 18, 2018

Thank you for your helpful replies.

February 18, 2018

This is a group shot of my birds. In the center are a M200 Cognac (which is lighter than the Smoky Quartz) next to a brown marbled. Both are inked in this photo.

My Cognac is a fine, my Brown Marbled a Medium and my Blue Marbled an OB. All are wonderful. I find the M200 nibs pretty true to size. (my F might even be slightly to the narrow side)

20171219_101740 by Brad Merrill, on Flickr

What color ink do you have in the M200 Cognac? It does look from the photo that the ink darkens the barrel color, and Cognac is lighter than the Smoky Quartz. At this point, I am leaning towards the brown marble.

February 18, 2018

The Smoky Quartz is already a dark brown and putting any ink in the chamber will obscure the color. Black ink will make the chamber look blackish Based on your specified taste/interest, you might be better off with the brown marbled which is an excellent pen. As far as nibs go, I think that you'd be ok with either a fine or medium. Both are wet and, if properly aligned, smooth. If the absence of feedback is important to you, you may want to go with the medium to be on the safer side.

February 18, 2018

My m200 nibs are also true to size so to speak. My M is not much wider then my F. Both are good but you might like the M better.

February 18, 2018

Thanks again for the replies. I am convinced now that the brown marble M200 is best. Now to shop around for the best price, even a pre-owned one.

February 19, 2018

Thanks again for the replies. I am convinced now that the brown marble M200 is best. Now to shop around for the best price, even a pre-owned one.

As the brown marbled has only been out since the end of November, it will be harder to source pre-owned. Both are good choices.

In the photo I posted I don't recall what I had in the Cognac at the time. Diamine Teal maybe? I had it in for a couple of fills, but don't recall timing as related to when the photo was taken. Right now it has Lamy Pacific. Either way, it wasn't black as I rarely use black and I haven't in some time in any of my pens.

Edited February 19, 2018 by Runnin_Ute

February 20, 2018

No, the regular flex 200 is not wider modern western made nibs***...it is the same half a width narrower of the 50-65, 82-97 400's or 120-140's.

As regular flex it will give you a nice springy ride.

The semi-nail 400/600 is 1/2 a width or a bit more wider than a 200's nib.

***It should be @ as wide as Waterman or French made Parker nibs....but I don't chase them so don't really know.

Pelikan, Waterman are fatter than Aurora, the thinnest Euro nib. MB may now be the widest now that Conway Stewart is no longer making pens.

Lamy I think is wider than 400/600/800 Pelikan, much less the narrower 200.

I have matched my 200 nibs for width vs my '50's and 80's-97 nibs and find that the 200 matches them.

There is in all brands and all eras, slop/tolerance that three pens coming down the production line can be a Skinny M, a middle of the scale M and a Fat M.....on any and all days.

A Skinny M can be exactly = to a Fat F...............and the hair of difference either way, you'd not be able to see.

Ron Zorn visited Sheaffer's US factory shortly before it closed.

From Ron Zorn:

Sheaffer used a dial indicator nib gauge for measuring nib sizes. The nib was inserted into the gauge, and the size read off of the dial. A given size being nibs that fell within a given range. What is listed below were the ranges given on a gauge that I saw in the Sheaffer service center prior to being closed in March 2008.

Measurements are in thousandths of an inch.

XXF = 0.010 - 0.013
XF = 0.013 - 0.018
F = 0.018 - 0.025
M = 0.025 - 0.031
Broad* = 0.031 - 0.050
Stub = 0.038 - 0.050

*there was some overlap on the gauge. May be 0.035 - 0.050.

Parker a bit fatter, Sheaffer a bit skinnier....and each and every company had and has it's very own standards, made from market surveys in Pen Shops back when that mattered.

Even modern nibs 'marked 1.5 or 1.0 or what ever you want to mark them with....not that I have the slightest idea if a 0.5 is medium or fine....there will be slop there too....Different material alloy may make s difference too.

Even with the big robotic machine that cuts the Lamy nibs (outside the gold nibs which are done old fashioned cut and ground)...I've seen the outside of it....no humans to grade nibs.......there are complaints by the OCD about Lamy steel nib variation, so if robots can't make or grade perfect nibs every time....how can you expect humans to do better?

There is no exact nib width unless you pay a certain nib grinder to grind it so....do not change nib grinders in the next may grind it a tad fatter or skinnier.

Then comes the Paper or Ink, which will make the nib write fatter or narrower.

Then there's how hard do you press.

So all in all, there is no reason to be OCD about nib width....even the weather will make a nib write wider or narrower.

Hand Grenade close is about normal....horse shoe close is grand....and then don't change nib companies in all have their very own standards......so one's M will be the other's 'fat' F.

They did that on purpose....once there was the One Man, One Pen.....and every 7-10 years he bought a new pen.....Parker had trained theirs to a wider nib....Sheaffer to a thinner nib.

Parker did not want to make a skinnier nib....or someone could make a mistake and buy a Sheaffer instead of a Parker.

Sailor is the fat Japanese nib, Pilot the skinny one.

A fine poster also found out the xxx markings on Ball Point cartridges/refills are also not exact as printed.

The brown marbled 200 I got from www.fritz-schimpf.de....I think they now cost E84, plus postage. I got mine a slight bit cheaper having paid in advance.

Edited February 20, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

February 21, 2018

Thank you for your thorough explanation. I learned much from your post. My plan was to buy a regular fine (not flex) and your post convinced me to stick with that choice. From other reviews that I have read, the fine nib writes smoothly with perhaps just a touch of feedback.

February 21, 2018

Back to the original question, I have an Amethyst, and the pen color is not lost to any inks I've used....not used black, but have used darker shades.

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Regular flex....has a slight tad of flex........................or springy action. The '82-97 400, and later 90's 381, and Celebry pens are also regular flex...........and I have a Celebry in both gold and steel and both are equal.

(Basically regular flex, is so called, in many companies made that nib as regular issue....then came the late '90's and the cross over ball point barbarians bent so many nibs, the companies went over to stiffer nibs.................so today regular issue is more than likely a nail or semi-nail nib.)

You have to go back to the '50-65 era to have semi or maxi-semi-flex in medium-small 140 (which posts long as a 400), standard 400 or medium-large 400nn.

The modern post '97 400/600 are semi-nail and 'butter smooth'....with possibilities of baby bottom.

The modern Large 800 is a nail.....the huge 1000 is semi-flex; but being 18K, is not as robust as the '50-65 era semi-flex nibs.

Edited February 21, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

February 22, 2018

Don´t worry about the color of the ink. You won´t notice. I´ve had Iroshiuku Tsuki Yo in it without any noticeable difference to Smoky Quartz.

I have a fine nib, which is very true to size. It is nice and smooth, with a decent (very limited) feedback. Less than a pencil, if you need a comparison.

I was very sceptical about purchasing the 200, mainly because of the size. I have an 800, which fels very well-balanced, but the 200 is a really nice EDC pen. You can´t go wrong with this.