Frustration With Pelikan Nibs

[Barnaby Bumble]

The grass is always greener...

 

I really can't speak to Japanese pens. I only own two, and both came from John Mottishaw, so whatever issues they had out-of-the-box were already fixed before they shipped to me.

[Matlock]

The grass is always greener...

 

 

 

That is so true!

[Barnaby Bumble]

Except for me. I think the grass is brown everywhere.

[Matlock]

Except for me. I think the grass is brown everywhere.

 

You haven't seen my lawn. I keep losing the dog in it, and she's a German Shepherd

[dspeers58]

Do not know if all pens are equal, with same number of problems, e.g. with the nibs, but not in my experience. It would be interesting to see how the sales compare.

[chas0039]

I can't disagree with anything that you say except,and this is the rub, if they are that bad why is Pelikan still selling their pens in vast numbers?...

A lot of people cannot tell a good nib from a bad one and assume price equals quality.

[4lex]

I have the same problems. I like buttery nibs with little or no flex. I find flex nibs okay for occasional copperplate but for longer quick writing I find modern nibs better. But they sometimes suffer from baby bottom. On cheaper pens I can fix it myself but I had a misfortune of destroying $180 nib so I am reluctant to work on my "better" pens.

 

I sometimes wonder if I have this problem because I write with almost no downward pressure and I think nibs these days are made for people who write like with the BP.

 

I don't think its any particular country or factory problem. I hear people complain about Sailor and Pelikan but most of their nibs are great IMO.

I had a major baby bottom problem with Visconti and Cross Townsend others was not so bad its just frustrating because when these two pens write they write beautifuly

 

I use fountain pens because I write a lot and its less tireing since I don't have to put the pressure on a pen. But this baby bottom business is slowly getting to me and I may have to consider adjusting my writing technique

Edited December 22, 2014 by 4lex

[Matlock]

I think someone in the nib industry got it wrong. In everyday language "Baby Bottom" has always been used to denote "super smooth" but when someone at Bock or Pelikan etc.indicated that their nibs should be as smooth as a baby's bottom the nib meister thought that refered to the shape. Oh well you can't win them all

Edited December 22, 2014 by Matlock

[4lex]

Just when I said I am in general happy with Pelikan, I received the M 600 today. I am really disappointed with the nib. It was very scratchy to start, I never came across a nib so scratchy. I've been using it all day to see if it gets better and I think at some point something came off the nib and now its very smooth on up and side stroke but still scratchy on the down stroke.

I am tempted to just give up and never again spend more then $60 on a pen.

​I just can't understand how my pens up to $60 work just fine and $300 ones are causing me just dissapointment

[Kugelschreiber]

 

I have found no correlation between nationality or cost and likelihood of needing adjustment right out of the box. Most pens these days come from the factory in need of adjustment, regardless of cost or origin. It's just a sad reality.

 

I've had to do at least minor nib adjustment on most of the pens I own -- Italian, German, British, or whatever. I don't like it, and I'm all for raising an uproar against it, but it's not unique to Pelikan or to German pens in general.

 

Really? That certainly hasn't been my experience (even if very cheap Chinese pens are included).

 

I'm batting close to a thousand with the gold nibs of the three major Japanese brands. While I haven't had the issues the op has had with Pelikan, I do trust Sailor, Platinum and Pilot more. A substandard gold nib from any of them would be a surprise; not as much so from Pelikan. In spite of this, I'd still call Pelikan my favorite brand.

[Kevan]

My M600's nib was crud out of the box. Fortunately I was able to re-align the tines and it's better but still not perfect. At the price that these things sell for, you shouldn't see such widespread reports of nib problems. I need a loupe to look at it and see if there's something else going on (like baby's bottom).

Edited December 30, 2014 by Kevan

[Kevan]

Recent posts on the Japanes pen forum.

Sailor nib writes like a "rusted hypodermic needle".

"In my experience Pilot and Pelikan nibs have been the best out of the box".

Interesting how people's views vary.

Out of interest I love Sailor nibs, they are probably the best available (with a price to match). I have one Pilot 74 with a F nib and it is superb. As I have said before, the only 2 Pelikan nibs that I have found "below par" were second hand. My new Pelikan pens have been bought from dealers in UK, Spain, Japan and Germany and have all been excellent.

Interesting about the Sailor nib, as that's the first negative thing I've read about Sailor nibs - unless you count "they're generally hard as a nail" a negative. I agree with what you say about people who are satisfied often say nothing, while people who aren't satisfied are usually more vocal. And I will say that experiences are relative. i don't doubt anyone who says that their nib is bad from brand X, even if I have several of brand X's pens and they've all been great.

 

I have 6 higher-end Pilots (meaning 14k nibs) and every single one has been perfect out of the box. The steel ones have been perfect too. Soon, I'm looking at adding a Sailor 1911 Realo, and that will be my first Sailor. I plan to get it from John Mottishaw, so hopefully that will be perfect, but ordinarily I buy Japanese pens from Ebay to save money.

 

My M600 also came from Ebay, to save money. While the nib was sub-par, I think I can get it perfect without sending it off. Ordinarily, this one experience would put me off the Pelikan brand for good, but enough people have such great things to say about them, and I like the design enough (even if I still think they're overpriced for what you get, compared to the Japanese brands) that I plan to get the M200 Cafe Creme special edition. That thing is just stuck in my head and I just have to have it! It's gorgeous,

 

But if I get another bum nib, it'll make me think twice about Pelikan in the future, no matter how many pretty tortoise or cognac color pens they come out with.

[Sabin]

I don't know what are you talking about. In my opinion there are only two excellent founain pens. The Pelikan and Sailor. And yes.. I have an MB 146 90th edition, Stipula Platinum, Delta , Visconti, Waterman and Parker. They are all excellent writers but Pelikan and Sailors are the best. In my humble opinion..

[Kevan]

I don't know what are you talking about. In my opinion there are only two excellent founain pens. The Pelikan and Sailor. [...] They are all excellent writers but Pelikan and Sailors are the best. In my humble opinion..

Yeah, that's what I heard. So when I got my M600, I was soooo excited. I inked it up ("Oooo! The piston moves like silk! Just like everyone said!") then when I wrote, the writing looked JUST like the picture in the original post. I said "What the....?" Wrote some more, and could hear and see that the left tine wasn't in harmony with its right twin. More skipping. Frustration. Sighing. Then, "Well, guess I have to fix it...I thought everyone said Pelikans had the best nibs in the business? Guess not this one."

 

Then I come here and see a thread. Glad I'm not the only one.

Edited December 31, 2014 by Kevan

[4lex]

Well I sent my M600 back and they replaced the nib. I received it today and it is the smoothest F nib I have ever seen in my life. I didn't get an explanation what was wrong with the other nib, it could be because it was sub zero when I got the pen and it was stone cold but then again thats unlikely, Anyway, despite frustration it was worth the wait. Writing with this pen inked with Aurora black is better then sex. I must be getting old…and wise...

[Misfit]

4lex,glad you got satisfaction. I received a Pelikan M405 as a birthday gift. I had no problems, and found it would write after days of neglect. My brother hand wrote 2 books with his Pelikan M800 (I think that's the number). So we got good nibs from the start.

 

When I visited him, my brother took me to his favorite fountain pen store (in Chicago) and I somehow ended up buying a Visconti Michelangelo. So when he visited me, we went to the fountain pen store (Kansas City, Missouri) and he tested out a red Pelikan and bought it. We were lucky to have good service. The pity is there aren't more of these stores where all fountain pen lovers live.

 

I have finally learned to flush new pens when I'm ready to use them. I don't suggest this has anything to do with other folks' problems, just that I've learned to do this. I had a Lamy write like the example photo. The Lamy's I've flushed first were fine. But that is no proof the Lamy I referenced would have behaved differently.

[4lex]

https://plus.google.com/u/0/103586360221080264320/posts/Rep4ArHKgWb?pid=6106188697808220418&oid=103586360221080264320

 

I am not sure how to upload the photo, so I hope this link works...

Can anyone help me identify this pen please?

[strawberry]

The barrel seems to be striated, so it is probably a M400.

 

I have an old M150 from the 80s that had a broken nib when I got it. So I went to a shop to order a replacement nib in f. They talked me out of it and instead sold me a NOS M200 nib that fits the pen as well, though it is a tad bigger than the original M150 nib. When I had screwed the M200 nib unit into the barrel and inked the pen it scratched over the paper like crazy. So I looked at it under a loupe. The slit had the shape of a capital A, so that the inner edges of the iridium tip were constantly getting caught in the paper fibres. I ended up ordering a new m150 nib in f for my pen. I got it today and it is more like an ef, but otherwise very springy and smooth like hot butter. A great steel nib. Finally my M150 writes as it should. If the M150 nib had been a lemon, too I`d have played the send-it-to-Pelikan-until-it-writes-right-game. IMHO it is very practical to bring a loupe along when buying a new nib or fountain pen for a quick check if everything is allright with the heart of the pen. This and your own paper, of course.