Help: Dry And Skippy Pelikan M200 Nib (Broad)

[Lady P]

Interestingly mine came from amazon.co.uk, I suspect all the stock is held in one country or another though. Maybe amazon got a bad bunch?

 

I only bought it because I'd noticed the price had dropped to £41.

 

I think all European Amazons ship from the same place. In any case, I've ordered stuff from both amazon.fr and amazon.de, and the packages always arrive from exactly the same address (I checked).

 

ETA: But even so, I get free shipping when I order from amazon.fr (I live in France), and I have to pay about 3 EUR for shipping when I order from amazon.de. When they ship from exactly the same place.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Lady P

[Andyroo]

I order from all over europe on amazon, because the prices vary considerably from site to site even allowing for shipping.

[Lady P]

I order from all over europe on amazon, because the prices vary considerably from site to site even allowing for shipping.

 

Yup. That's why I order my Pelikans from amazon.de, even though I live in France.

[Lady P]

Ultimately, I made the decision to upgrade to an M400 nib. I just ordered one from the Writing Desk. No, this nib is not cheap, and yes, in addition to the cost of the nib, I had to pay for international shipping, and my bank will charge me a fee for buying from a non-euro seller. However, they claim they tune all their Pelikan nibs before shipping, so hopefully that means the nib that I get will be ready to go, with no need for manipulation on my part.

I am fairly proud of myself for having managed to turn that awfully dry and skippy M200 nib into something usable, but ultimately, this simply isn't the Pelikan quality that I'm used to. It behaves well for normal writing, but if I rapidly make a loop (think j's, g's, and q's), the pen starts skipping. My signature, which is fairly complicated and requires the nib to travel in just about every direction imaginable, with multiple loops, confuses it (i.e. causes it to skip) unless I keep it fairly slow. I decided I wanted better than that.

Plus, I kept looking at this pen. I'm surprised at how much I like it from a purely aesthetic point of view! I thought I'd find the black with gold trims rather boring, but once I saw the pen in person, I fell in love with the looks. I kept imagining it with that two-tone Pelikan nib, and well, it'll have such a nib for real in a few days.

[Lady P]

As I said earlier in this thread, I ended up ordering an M400 nib for my M200 pen. (I ordered from the Writing Desk in case anyone cares.) Well, it arrived in the mail today, and I replaced the steel nib (broad) with my new gold nib (medium). Thus, I obtained an M250: Pelikan's discontinued model, which consists of the body of an all-black M200 with an M400 nib. The nib is extremely smooth, with no skipping whatsoever. I couldn't be happier!

Looks-wise, I'm quite happy with this pen. It gives me the same writing performance as my M400 White Tortoise (actually, the M250 is a bit better: my M400 skips a little bit, but I decided to live with it), but it looks more understated. Please don't get me wrong, I love the looks of my fancy M400 White Tortoise, but I wouldn't really feel comfortable taking it out of the house, as it feels a bit delicate (I could be wrong there, though), and it might attract unwanted attention. The M250, though, is a far less flashy pen, which I do intend to take with me when I travel. It is quite an elegant pen, pleasing to the eye, but it's not an attention-grabber (unless you focus on that nib! ).

(Also, I tried to upload a picture, but apparently, my file is too big. I'll see if there's anything I can do to make it smaller, and if so, I'll upload then.)

[Lady P]

And here's a picture!

 

[Blueorb]

I have recently ordered 2 pelikan m200 pens. One with EF nib from The Writing Desk and one with B nib from Ebay. The EF, while smooth and reasonable does not in anyway compare to my standard Sailor nibs in F and M. I think it is set up reasonably well as per my instructions, but to my hand it just feels, well it's hard to describe, but it feels "dull" and lacks character. My plan all along was to upgrade the nib to an m400 and I wanted a finer nib than the standard Pelikan EF. My decision was to order from Richard Binder. I believe the cost, shipped to the UK was a little over £100 delivered for a modified M400 nib made to my desired spec. I am currently awaiting its delivery so can't say how it feels yet, but I have heard nothing but positive feedback on Binder's work.

 

The B nib came with my m200 from Amazon and is a much better feeling nib than the EF and writes very wet and broad. I didn't want a broad nib as it is unlikely to be used given my preference for EF and F nibs. I again plan to upgrade to a different nib from Binder if I am pleased with the first nib I ordered.

 

It's a shame I didn't see your post sooner, as I could have swapped you my broad for perhaps one of your other finer nibs, or let you have it at a low price.

 

I am surprised you didn't go for a modified nib from Binder as this would have probably worked out cheaper than a nib supplied from the U.K and you could have had something more interesting like an Italic or stub.

 

The writing Desk have set up all of the pens I have bought from them and they do a great job, but I guess they can only set a nib up with 2 parameters, wetness and smoothness and can only can only work with what they have as standard from the manufacturer. With a custom grind, there are many more parameters that can be manipulated.

 

I'm also waiting on a custom grind for my TWSBI from Pendleton, this will be a fine cursive Italic. Again, this is currently in the mail to me and was done at a very reasonable cost.

 

I will post back on my findings once the nibs arrive. I can't wait!!

 

Good luck with you m400 nib and hopefully it will be what you need.

[overwriter]

Strange. I am a huge M200 fan and I have a broad and a medium. Both have been bulletproof for years. Pelikan has a great warranty and if they do not have their own service depot in your country they will have a 3rd party that is authorized to act as such. In North America it is Chartpak. Send it to them. They will fix it or replace it for free.