Has Anyone Been Dissatisfied With A Pelikan? Why?

[markofp]

. . . and by that I mean unhappy with a Pelikan that is NOT somehow defective. Did you take a brand new Pelikan out of the box, ink it, and then say "it's not for me"? Can you explain why?

[two2tone]

I tried Pelikan 200 & 400 pens and they were way to light for me. Also, the so-so quality does not justfy the price. Sold them and will not look back. Japanese pens (Sailor, Platinum, Pilot, etc.) are better made, cost way less and deliver a lot more bang for the buck.

[A Smug Dill]

. . . and by that I mean unhappy with a Pelikan that is NOT somehow defective. Did you take a brand new Pelikan out of the box, ink it, and then say "it's not for me"? Can you explain why?

 

Sure. Pelikan gold nibs put down broader lines than their respective nib width grades (as marked) suggest.

 

Price, or bang-for-buck, is not the issue there; if I spent more than the bare minimum to get what I wanted in the market, that's my fault. A Fine nib putting down too thick a line for my tastes, considering that I have hundreds of fountain pens of different brands from many different countries, is the manufacturer's "fault".

Edited August 30, 2020 by A Smug Dill

[MHBru]

I have three 800s and the Ductus... and a 200. Love them all... all write well but that 200 is too small and too light for my tastes..

[Intensity]

I only have 3, and all 3 have custom nib grinds. I love all 3. Really hope to get an M805 Ocean Swirl someday for less than an arm and a leg.

 

Perfect, smooth piston filling, beautiful pens, very comfortable. I like the feeling of the section material. The M101N line is wonderful. My two are always inked now.

Edited August 30, 2020 by Intensity

[corniche]

Hi Markofp, et al,

 

The ONLY problem I've had with Pelikan is with their STEEL, BROAD nibs. I've gone through 4 of them and all have had flow/skipping problems. Never had an issue with their gold nibs or their medium, steel nibs, (so now, all of my 200s have medium nibs. No experience with fine.

 

And I've also noticed Smug Dill's issue with the wide variance between their gold and steel nibs, but since I prefer broader nibs; its less of an issue for me.

 

 

- Sean

[hari317]

. . . and by that I mean unhappy with a Pelikan that is NOT somehow defective. Did you take a brand new Pelikan out of the box, ink it, and then say "it's not for me"? Can you explain why?

Yes. A m600 when I was very new and this was a major purchase for me. My first souveran. And I had dip tested it at the shop. It was a BB. When I returned home and filled the pen and started to use it I found the nib very rigid and hard and the reaction was really bad. Fortunately the very next day another B&m seller agreed to sell me a M800 with the golden disks ( I did not know it was the old style at the time of purchase) in exchange for the m600 and the difference in cash. It turned out to be a lovely pen with the wonderfully soft elastic and supple EN marked nib. Also I was lucky the seller had probably old unsold stock of the m800 in old style. One cant believe both the m600 and the m800 were made by the same company, thd diffrence was so stark. Also when one is new one has very strong likes and dislikes. With more exposure the black and white begins to turn grey...

[pajaro]

I have had several Souveran pens in different sizes. I didn't like the style, and I didn't like the screw-on caps.

[TheDutchGuy]

Personally I find the typical Pelikan aesthetic unattractive, which doesn’t help. Writing-wise, I’ve tried many but bought none. Not because they were bad pens, but because they left me flat. They had nothing to offer that ticked my boxes. I agree with Dill’s point about line width versus nib size. On the plus side, my only Pelikan (an old M800) fits my hand like a glove.

[Silent Speaker]

So apart from the 4 junk nibs I've received on their pens over the past few years, I'd have to say the most irritating thing about virtually every souveraen is the fact that the caps like to unscrew themselves with more ease than I would say is "usual" among screw top pens (without resorting to crack-inducing tightness). This is a known "feature" of the line and my experience with them is mirrored by many over the years. I don't have this issue with any other brand or type of pen but Pelikans, which are just itching to take their caps off in my shirt pocket. Inked (and ruined) a few shirts that way. In the habit of just keep all pens in a flap sleeve case thing. I'm sure that if I tightened the hell out of them I might be able to avoid this but I'd rather not risk the issues that comes with doing that repeatedly. Pen case it is.

[sandy101]

I tried some at pen Club and thought they were not too disimilar to my MB146, and so I didn't need one.

[carola]

Currently I have 15 Pelikans, all of them with gold nibs. 7 new ones, 7 vintage ones and 1 I got new in the 1980s and have used ever since. As I am into broad nibs, the line width is not an issue for me. And as I would never carry a pen around in a shirt pocket, I know nothing about the issue of unscrewing caps.

 

I like the looks very much, I enjoy the difference in length and weight (they are mainly 400s and 800s), I love the vintage nibs but also like to write with the modern "nails", the piston is my favourite filling system, I like screw on caps way better than click on caps and they are very well made pens. I didn´t have a single out-of-the-box-issue with the new ones. And I recieved 60 to 70 year old pens with dried ink in them, flushed them out and had wonderful pens without them even needing a service.

 

So the answer to the original question is: Nope. Not once. My first pen as a six year old starting school was a Pelikan. I fell in love with the Souveräns in my early teen years and that love has never subsided.

[fabri00]

I have some pelikans, not top models but some 400 vintage and some 200.

I never use that pens as I do not feel confortable with Pelikan nibs.

Probably this is due to me, not to a real fault of Pelikan.

[gerigo]

Me too! I just find the designs of the Souveran unappealing. In the past, when Pelikan was putting in more effort in design, this was not a problem. Today when they have seriously curtailed their range, it's a brand I don't even bother with any more.

 

One other thing is that the nibs always never work for me. They are so poorly tuned.

 

Personally I find the typical Pelikan aesthetic unattractive, which doesn’t help. Writing-wise, I’ve tried many but bought none. Not because they were bad pens, but because they left me flat. They had nothing to offer that ticked my boxes. I agree with Dill’s point about line width versus nib size. On the plus side, my only Pelikan (an old M800) fits my hand like a glove.

 

[Charles Skinner]

MY my!------------------I have two, ---- and they are really great pens! --------------- I have learned to live with 98% perfection! ----- My advice is ---------- "Get a life!" ------------

 

C.S.

[PAKMAN]

Love mine, my only problem is that I keep buying more!

[Olya]

Yes, I have.

Namely, I have one major and one lesser gripe with Pelikan.

 

The major gripe is, that their nibs tend to be overly wet for my tastes. When they are really wet, they can bleed through paper no other pen does (my most used brands are Sailor, Pilot, Platinum, Waterman, Parker and Pelikan, the occasional Lamy, to give an idea).

On very good paper, this doesn't happen crazy often, but across the board of papers I use it happens, and enough that it's annoying.

 

The minor gripe is, Pelikan's caps are the only ones in my collection that tend to unscrew by themselves. So far, no accidents, but there's potential. Over the many years I've even had a section (nib+feed thing) unscrew itself as well, luckily the pen was uninked.

 

That said, I love the way their nibs write (the smoothness, I appreciate tooth, but still love smoothness over tooth), I love their classic looks, I also love the feel of their caps when closing and how little it takes to unscrew them (maybe that's why they tend to unscrew themselves?) and I love the ease of changing nibs.

I also love the company history.

 

The good outweighs the bad and they remain a favourite of mine.

Edited August 30, 2020 by Olya

[ENewton]

I was initially disappointed with my Pelikan 140, because I had expected the nib to be much softer and wetter than it was. In fact, I had first intended it to be my pen for use with Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa, but the vendor from whom I bought it suggested that I not use purple ink. So I started with another, moderately dry ink, then switched to an ostensibly wet ink, and then to another, but I continued to be disheartened by an anemic line and lack of smoothness. (No, I am not one of the people who demand, or even enjoy, intense colors or glassy smoothness. I prefer shading inks and love my Sailor nibs, for example. But my 140 laid down less ink and somehow dragged across the page.)

 

Because I really liked the size, shape, and feel in the hand of the Pelikan 140, and also because I do not give up easily, I tried a variety of other inks, over a period of more than a year and a half. Finally, my daughter happened to return to me a bottle of Pilot Iroshizuku Kujaku that I had given her several years before. I had the inspiration to try it in my Pelikan, and suddenly the nib moved gracefully on paper. The ink benefited as well: I had first not liked Kujaku much, because it too green for me, but in the relatively dry nib on my Pelikan, Kujaku displayed a luminosity and color reminiscent of tropical waters.

[Estycollector]

I can't get excited by Pelikan.

[N1003U]

What an interesting thread! (not to mention its potential to go nuclear...)

 

I am, in general, a hopeless Pelikan fanboi, but there are two Pelikan models that don't do a heck of a lot for me

 

One is the Pharo P72, which was given to me as a gift in a fountain pen/ballpoint set. I could never get used to the shape, nor the balance. The P/K72s sit on a shelf, where I think about using them a couple of times per year.

 

Another, surprisingly (even to me sometimes), is the M8xx. The M8xx is a lovely model, there is nothing really wrong with it, one (repeatedly cited) author even claimed it might be a perfect fountain pen, but it simply isn't the right combination of size/weight/balance for my hand. I have a few actually, but only because the M8xx comes in some really interesting special editions that are not available in other sizes. If not for the SEs, I would probably only have one, and not use it that much. Given the choice, I prefer the M10xx a little better, especially because of the bouncy nib (though I also agree with Bo Bo that it is a bit blobby, but that is OK for my left-handedness, which results often in me holding the thing too upright anyway when I am not being careful).

 

In general though, Pelikan makes a great pen that is attractive, reliable, and a good overall performer...