Advice regarding Pelikan M1000 nib issue

[DadofLuna]

I have done some research regarding issues concerning the nib of the Pelikan M1000. I am very fond of the size of the pen, I do enjoy signing with the pen, though sometimes, it has issues with not flowing any ink. I am really trying to like this pen, even to the point where I feel I am forcing myself to like it, but as my collection grows, I find myself most unhappy with this particular nib. It is my most flexible nib where I have to be careful not to press too hard, whereas my MB 149 sometimes “likes” extra pressure. 

I have two particular issues with this M1000 nib. The first is the fact that it is a Fine Nib, though as you can see, it seems to be “wider” than both my medium MB’s. I do expect the M1000 to be “wider” in general, as you can see it is indeed “wider” than the M805. But it puts down so much ink that it just bleeds and feathers all over the page. 

The second issue I have is that this is the only nib where I feel it “catch” in certain points / angles as I write. I am going to through this nib under the bus and blame it for making my bad handwriting worse. 

I know at some point when I travel to the US, I have to send this to a nib smith to correct this issue. Though sending it back to me in Indonesia will be an issue. I may have to make an appointment ahead of time with a nibsmith to do a quick turnaround. 

 

In the meantime, any other advice? 

[Bo Bo Olson]

You don't say where you are.

Could well be you don't have to fly into the States.

There are nibmeisters in England and Spain. I use one in Belgium.

 

If in Europe, there is Fountainbel on this com; Francis Goossens in Belgium, for nib work and pen repair. I use him for proper re-corking, and I do re-cork instead using standard plastic gasket of then or now. In boiled in mineral oil and bees wax cork is the smoothest gasket according to Marshal and Oldfield's great  'Repair Book' and Francis does it right and then slathers it with silicon grease for the extra.

I had a Baby Bottom Pelikan 600 BB made into a delightfully smooth 1.0 or B stub by him.

So your 'minor' problem can be cured by many.

 

Francis a retired engineer, developed very well liked Conid fountain pen, developed a modern Bulkfiller.

Do tell us at least in what land you live (as shown I live in Germany), so we can steer you to local good paper, local reputable repairmen. That way you can get the job done quickly by local postage, and not wait for a Dirigible to the States.

[sgphototn]

 

I've found that M1000 nibs write at least one size bigger than normal. I had a broad that was too big so I had Mark Bacas make me a 1.1 stub. It still is larger than any other 1.1 nibs I own, but pleasing to use.  My medium M1000 nib writes like a broad.

They are wet nibs, but I like that.

 

I'm unsure what your problem may be as to 'catching' unless the nib is perhaps out of alignment. Did you buy the M1000 new or used? 

 

Have you examined the tipping under a 20x power lens? You may be able to spot the problem.

 

Good luck.

[Bo Bo Olson]

What is normal width?....'50-97 is normal for me.....the 200 is normal for me.

Post 97 is wide.....and outside the 200 has a fat wide round ball nib.

 

If one is use to the semi-nail of a 400/600 or nail 800 or similar pens, the regular flex of a 1000 will be wetter due to having a bit of tine spread. (depends on how Heavy Handed one is also......been there, so am only slightly ham fisted today.

 

If you can trace back your 1000 to over a decade old, you could well have Lucked Out.....and have a Bock made Pelikan 1000 in Semi-flex.................which of course is going to be a wetter nib due to ease of tine spread.

Once there had been much discussion of if the 1000's nib was semi-flex or just springy. Taking a good semi-flex pen with me I went to my B&M, and that 1000 was semi-flex. my 1005 is 'only' regular flex....like a 200.  So from '97-@2010 the 1000 had a great semi-flex nib....now a nice regular flex.

Regular flex can grow on you.....better for two toned shading inks that the wetter semi-flex.

 

I have a small W.Germany 600 OBB and a 1005 OBB, and the 1005 is half a width wider than the old 600's then standard width nib. I could just as well written that as the 600 OBB was a half a width narrower..........same thing.

 

Then there is natural tolerance/slop that takes a nib from narrow F to fat F and is still in standard.....in any era.

 

10 power loupe if not made in China will do just as well, I think 20 X to be too strong for useful use. A Chinese 30X loupe= 10X rest of the world.

 

Now modern MB writes lots wider than semi&vintage MB.

[Karmachanic]

My M1005 F wrote like a B. Anabelle at Appelboom ground it to a F cursive italic. Heaven!

[Ron Z]

You don't say where you are.

  ummm....  He's in Indonesia. (last paragraph). 

 

A wet nib can have a number of things at it's root.   Set of nib, set of feed against the nib...   If you like the pen, sending the nib to be ground and adjusted I think is a good idea, assuming that you'll be in the country long enough.  Send a writing sample made with a pen that has the flow and line width that you like with plenty of room for testing, and they should be able to match it for you.  Use a common ink because they aren't likely to go out and buy a bottle of whatever just to test your pen.  ...and send the whole pen so that they can test everything together. 

[MoriartyR]

Pelikan nib stampings can be confusing. Most pen manufacturers use “EF” to denote “extra fine” but with Pelikan “EF” means “medium”. Then “F” means “broad”, and so on.

 

And they further complicate things as they have a fun game at the factory where every Wednesday they just put all the nibs in a bucket and stamp them randomly.

Those crazy Germans.

 

[DadofLuna]

First of all, Thank you Everyone for your advice. 
 

I bought all my fountain pens starting in 2017. This particular Pelican M1000 was purchased in Hong Kong from a famous pen shop there. 
 

I currently live in Indonesia where many still consider fountain pens to be old school. 
 

In general, I prefer my nibs to be thinner or finer. Having said that, I already have other pens with those criteria so the width of the nib is less an issue. I just have to get used to this pen being more Medium Bold rather than Fine. 
 

What bothers me most is the feathering and the “catchiness” when I write in block print. It is less an issue when I write in flowing cursive or when I sign my name. The bigger the “font”, the less this issue appears. The feathering is less noticeable when I write in large cursive fonts but this M1000 is unpleasant to use for 80-90% of my day to day. 
 

I have decided one day, this will go to a nib smith. In the meantime, I am wondering if changing to any ink will help with the feathering ?

[sgphototn]

3 minutes ago, DadofLuna said:

 In the meantime, I am wondering if changing to any ink will help with the feathering ?

Have you tried different papers? What inks are you using?

[DadofLuna]

I posted two pictures of different pens I used and different inks on Rhodia paper and regular copy paper. 

 

The M1000 will make a mess on all copy paper I tried so far. 

 

Currently, it is filled with Montblanc Le Petit Prince. See picture on first post. This is the only pen I seem to have the most trouble with, but perhaps that is because it lays down to much ink relative to my other pens that it is bound to feather.

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

8 hours ago, MoriartyR said:

Pelikan nib stampings can be confusing. Most pen manufacturers use “EF” to denote “extra fine” but with Pelikan “EF” means “medium”. Then “F” means “broad”, and so on.

 

And they further complicate things as they have a fun game at the factory where every Wednesday they just put all the nibs in a bucket and stamp them randomly.

Those crazy Germans.

 

Depends on which era, I have a chart, pre-Japanese era, where Pelikan nibs were thinner than Parker and Sheaffer and the Pelikan EF was thinnest of all including Waterman, then the thinnest major company. Then the 800 with it grand regular flex had it's very own size.

It was after '97 they ruined the nibs except for the 200, making double round ball nibs for ball point users who couldn't be troubled in learning how to hold a fountain pen, that the Fat Pelikan characterless nibs appeared.

 

Even now I would expect 4001 to give a thinner line.

 

So many folks 'started' with super skinny Japanese nibs, that all nibs from other companies are fat. So if you started with Japanese.....stay there, then EF will be baby spiderweb wide. Not an EF that would match the semi-vintage and vintage Pelikan's F.

[markh]

2 hours ago, DadofLuna said:

I have decided one day, this will go to a nib smith. In the meantime, I am wondering if changing to any ink will help with the feathering ?

 

M1000s have a reputation of being high flow, made even more so by the flex of the large nib.

All modern Pelikans seem to have a nib width about 1 size too wide. But this trait seems to be shared with many pens with nibs made in Europe. A big contrast with Japanese made nibs.

 

As to inks - Pelikan inks (I'm most familiar with black, and blue/black) have a reputation of being lower flow compared with most inks. Particularly compared to the dense, super colored inks that require more surfactant to flow.

Some people have claimed that Pelikan inks are formulated to have a flow better matched to Pelikan pens. Maybe so, but in any case that's the fastest, easiest, and cheapest thing to try.

 

The feathering might be best fixed with a different paper. Not necessarily more expensive paper.

 

Alas, this won't fix the shape of the tip.

 

 

.

 

 

[PAKMAN]

I was unhappy with my M1000 wet flow and wide line. I had Mike Masuyama of "Mike-it-Work" adjust the flow and grind my nib to a finer profile. I love it now.  Mike is in California.

[DadofLuna]

1 hour ago, PAKMAN said:

I was unhappy with my M1000 wet flow and wide line. I had Mike Masuyama of "Mike-it-Work" adjust the flow and grind my nib to a finer profile. I love it now.  Mike is in California.

I am thinking of going this route when I visit Southern California sometime in 2021. I am wondering if anyone knows if Mike can do a quick turnaround. 

My alternate plan is to "book" Mike ahead of time so I "get a slot" when I happen to be there.

[elysee]

I have several Pelikan fountain pens (M800 transparent green, M800 green stripe, M600 brown stripe, M250 transparent green, and M250 brown stripe).  Only the M800’s, both marked medium, are not stated size.  Both M800’s write broad, with the green stipe almost extra broad.  Since they are wet writers and they create variable line thicknesses based on the angle at which the nib is placed on paper, I find them interesting.

 

My Pelikan fountain pens have inconsistent ink flow.  My M800’s are wet-writers, my M600 brown stripe (fine nib) is a dry writer, and my M250’s have standard/normal ink-flow.  

 

While my M800’s and M250’s are smooth-writers, my M600 has a scratchy nib. I would get rid of the M600 except for the interesting line-thickness variability (based on the nib-angle) it provides while writing. 

 

Surprisingly, my M250 green transparent and M250 brown transparent have the most consistent nibs.  Neither is excessively wet and both write as medium-width nibs at all nib angles, and they are wonderfully smooth.

[sgphototn]

My broad M1000 wrote at least one size, if not two sizes bigger than I wanted. However, it worked to my advantage as I had Mark Baca make it a 1.1 stub. It's still one size larger than any other 1.1 I have, but it writes well and I'm happy.

 

I also have an M1000 medium that writes like a broad, so I'm pleased to be able to swap nib units as I choose.

 

I use KWZ IG inks too so that make explain some of the wet flow.