Pelikan M605 White White with M puck nib & fitting ink

February 5, 2022

Indeed, this is a combined review of all three, pen, nib and ink, as a set. And, it is something new for me.

At first there is the Pelikan M605 White White fountain pen which I bought late Autumn 2021 with a medium nib. The fountain pen has all the usual and expected features and properties: the exact size of the M600 series but M605 means silver (=rhodium) trim, unicolour white cap and piston knob, white stripes pattern at the barrel (as usual for Pelikan) with the small difference that there are transparent stripes in between the white ones which allow a nice view onto the piston and into the ink reservoir. It looks almost like a demonstrator, but isn‘t, as the opaque white stripes make it look so much more elegant:

The fountain pen is already filled with Blue-Black ink.

Then there is this rhodium trim mono colour nib. While it looks a bit simple compared to the usual gold bicolour nibs of the M600 series, it has the usual and expected smooth Pelikan performance and the usual and expected one or two size steps more broad line width. If there is any serious critique on Pelikan gold nibs, it is this: the imprint on the nib seems to be a random letter. I own 6 Pelikan M60X nibs and only one of the EF had the expected line width, the other 5 were „something else“, such as one M wrote B, the other BB and one F wrote BB while the other wrote M, and so on.

The original M nib was, as expected, more between B and BB and far over the maximum I can handle. Less than one hour after the first test, I started to grind and customize the tip. Inspired from the shape of the MB (146) Solitär flex I re-shaped the spherical Pelikan „M-BB“ point to something flat and made the front half strictly cylindrical with slightly rounded corners. The point is now a disc, in form an proportion like an ice-hockey puck. It is not a stub and far from a cursive. It has surprising dynamic line variation and some (out of the box) micro-flexibility that results in a typical handwriting appearance which is closer to a semi-flex than it is to a stub or cursive nib result. I didn‘t expect that and was surprised and pleased by the nibs performance. By chance, it turned out simply great!

Not much is left from the original globe-shaped tip. The pen is inked up, residues of the ink are adhering to the nib surface and to the engraving.

My first writing test was with Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue → which was OK, but boring! So, I tried a refill with Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite → bulls eye! The Tanzanite ink previously performed so weakly with my usual range of EF and F nibs that I had it already dedicated for sitting in a drawer until the end of all days. The generally wet Pelikan gold nib with the puck grind combines a wet but thin line resulting in a deep rich colour with some elegant shading. The fine lines are less saturated than the broader while a little pressure does increase ink flow and high colour intensity. More pressure does neither increase the line width nor the ink flow. This behaviour makes the nib suitable for writing at a desk as well as for quick note taking „on the go‟.

Writing with a (very) light hand results in comparably little line variation. Gentle pressure increases the line width of the downstrokes more than that of the sidestrokes. Due to the special shape of the tip, the pen can be written with some pressure in any direction and still glides softly over the paper. Applying more pressure, the line doesn't become broader! The natural variation in writing pressure results in letter shapes with some individual character.

What a surprise performance and what a pleasant set of pen, nib and ink fitting so perfectly together! Pen and ink are part of my January and February Ink Quartetts.

This is my second ’perfect‘ set during 45 years of daily fountain pen use – I‘m so excited!