Pelikan Nib Issues

[derschreibendeanwalt]

After talking to a number of pen retailers and nib meisters at the Long Island Pen Show this past Saturday, I heard that Pelikan has been making its nibs to suit ballpoint pen users, meaning the nibs are bigger and rounder and more highly polished and offer suffer baby's bottom and other issues that won't show up until the pen has been inked. When the pen is just dipped, it will write a nice smooth line and withstand a heavy hand. For those of us who love Pelikans the solution is simple. From now on, I will buy the pens only from dealers who first tune the nibs. John Mottishaw does this on his site. So do the folks at Indy Pen Dance, Mike and Linda Kennedy. That way, I will be spared the aggro of spending money for a wonderful M800 (my favorite of the Pelikans) only to find it needs a trip to the nibmeister. So while this might sound like a whine, which it partially is, it's also a whine relieved by the simple solution at hand.

[max dog]

Across 2 M600s, 2 M200s, and 1 M400, Ive never experienced Pelikan nib issues. I think its just some people getting a lot of mileage out of a few complaints that occur occasionally. Usually the bad experiences tend to get amplified while the good experiences go unnoticed.

[pajaro]

I agree. The nibs are quite nice and smooth, and they are just as nice when you use them with a light touch. Seems like another myth. I do not understand why manufacturers would make fountain pens for ballpoint users. How many ballpoint users do you think they will sell fountain pens to?

[alanshutko]

My M120N Iconic Blue had baby bottom from the factory, and it would have hard starts on some strokes.

[Driften]

My Iconic Blue M120, M200, M215, M215 I nib, and M805 all had no problems out of the box.

[Fatalpotato]

I enjoy using Pelikans a great amount especially the m1000 which has a very soft nib. However two out of three pens had serious issues stating up and after some fiddling under a Lupe baby's bottom is clearly visible on both. I would not argue this is made for extra smoothness but just a qc issue they need to resolve

[Tseg]

Here is another testimony of an M1000 nib being a wreck out of the box. With great ado, the nib is finally where it should have been, and finally my M1000 is a great pen, even if as a Medium it still writes like a BB.

[max dog]

Maybe I should post 5 times for each perfect Pelikan nib out of the box.

[Fatalpotato]

Here is another testimony of an M1000 nib being a wreck out of the box. With great ado, the nib is finally where it should have been, and finally my M1000 is a great pen, even if as a Medium it still writes like a BB.

My experience with the nib lol . It's almost the same width with my obb Omas nib .

[Bo Bo Olson]

I agree. The nibs are quite nice and smooth, and they are just as nice when you use them with a light touch. Seems like another myth. I do not understand why manufacturers would make fountain pens for ballpoint users. How many ballpoint users do you think they will sell fountain pens to?

 

I think some company making expensive ball points/roller ball's like Pelikan, sells a lot of fountain pens to first time fountain pen users. Have a nice expensive set of BP&RB...so the next step is adding a fountain pen.

When one sees what MB charges for a BP...and others are using a MB fountain pen....status demands they meet standards of the 'work place'.

 

And the fat blobby modern stiffer Pelikan nib can be held and written by folks that never learned to hold a fountain pen....and often seems a problem....at least to me, in I preach angle of hold.

 

Stiffer nibs means less repair from the naturally born Ham Fisted....ball point users.

 

Why would a company waste so much more expensive than gold...'iridium' in a double kugal/ball nib, if they were not holding wrong. And how can a ball point user 'know' as he comes in from the 'cold' he should hold a fountain pen any different than the ball point he's used for decades?

[friedrichwild]

i also had a nib with baby's bottom from pelika. My first one (m400) but i exchanged it within one week and got i replacement that wrote as it should be. Actually it is one of my favorite writers.

[minddance]

I never needed to do any work on my Pelikan pens that I have bought from different vendors in different countries. I haven't owned or seen enough to conclude anything about Pelikan, but my limited small collection of M200 series (EF, F, M, B, BB), M800m, M1000f never needed any work done on the nib.

 

On a side note, mild baby's bottom can be used to good effect for inks that shade and writing on absorbent papers. They are sensitive to changes in writing pressure and will show on paper. It boils down to personal preference and degree of baby's bottom

[Mech-for-i]

I must report I have my fair share of problem with NIB from Pelikan, a couple M200/M205 just will keep skipping or simply refuse to laid down ink, that did not improve afte serving by Pelikan and I end up opt for replacing the pen ( on the shop's advice ); still had no idea why its so. That's out of my total of 11 Pelikan not counting vintage. Another M600 had severe baby bottom when delivered ccausing it not to laid down ink unless I force it, but I've since tone it down ( lots of writing and some more grinding ).

 

Overall I am happy with Pelikan and I've seen worse from equally big names.

[biancitwo]

Maybe I should post 5 times for each perfect Pelikan nib out of the box.

Agreed. I would have 20 praising posts if I were to post 5x for every perfect modern Pelikan nib. If I included my vintage Pelikan nibs, I would have 100 more.

[friedrichwild]

i believe that in some kind of way this has happened. not from you but by others. And this is why Pelikan has this great reputation for fountain pens!

[Kodiac136]

I've tuned almost every Pelikan I've ever purchased... but then, I do that for almost every pen that comes into my possession. It is difficult for me to fault Pelikan in particular. Though I did once purchase one that came with severely misaligned tines... a straightforward fix, but I was annoyed nevertheless.

[Uncial]

Sixteen Pelikan's have passed through these hands, including three M1000's. Admitedly they weren't all mine; mores the pity. Not one had a nib issue. That is not to say that a brand as huge as Pelikan isn't going to have a few nibs with baby's bottom slip through the net, but to suggest that all Pelikan's are made with baby's bottom to suit ballpoint users is patently nonsense.

[PAKMAN]

Of the 15 Pelikans I have I don't recall any major nib problems with any of them. Yes they tend to be broader than I typically expect for nibs of the same width in other pens and the M1000's softness and wetness took a little tuning by Mike Masuyama to make it write like I wanted it to (I picked it up used, so had to live with a wider nib than I wanted). Every new or used pen I buy gets a quick nib review and adjustment if needed. I check for alignment and to see if it is as smooth as I want it to be and adjust it as needed. If everyone would learn to do this there would be only a fraction of the pens sent back to dealers and manufacturers with what are generally very small nib issues. Baby bottom with the associated skippyness is a real issue and harder to deal with. I can't say though that I have experienced that with any of my Birds.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Not made with baby bottom for the ball point users....but made fat and blobby for a low and a high hold....I hear more of baby bottoms on the fatter gold nibs than the thinner steel nibs.

 

The 200 nib tipping is still 'normal' semi-vintage shaped and not modern fat and blobby. The 200 is not made for a high hold, neither were the semi-vintage....

Vintage semi-flex had some K nibs, but they had a flat stub bottom; like the rest of the vintage nibs (120 excluded)....so gave the basic stubbish semi-flex pattern besides being able to hold high like a pencil or ball point.

 

The newer gold nibs are double kugal, or double ball nibs. The price of rare earths used in making nibs is very high, and one would expect the normal penny pinching bookkeeper to have ordered less tipping............if it wasn't aimed at cross over ball point/roller ball users.

That way there is nothing complicated to learn....just hold it like a ball point.

[Tseg]

I called out my first Pelikan purchase had a troubled nib, but now will circle back that my new M120 Iconic Blue has a perfect Fine nib, so now at 50% performance quality for me. The M120 is, in fact, an exceptional nib.