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Two and a half years ago, I purchased a Montblanc 146 pinstripe Solitaire with an extra-fine nib. The nib wrote beautifully; but after a little while, the piston mechanism broke--despite the care with which I had treated the pen, I must add. I sent it to Montblanc for repair, as it was still in warranty. The pen came back with the piston in perfect order; but the nib had been put way out of adjustment. I then sent it to John Mottishaw, who reground it to a true extra-fine of extraordinary quality; and I have since used the pen daily. Well, this evening, the pen, which had been loaded with Montblanc Permanent Blue ink, appeared suddenly clogged and reluctant to write; so I immediately rinsed out the ink, using the piston mechanism, of course. In the process, the piston broke--again despite my gentle handling of it. I offer two questions to the experts at FPN: Firstly, is there some problem with the design and durability of the Montblanc 146 piston mechanism? Secondly, is there a problem with Montblanc's Permanent Blue ink? I should add, parenthetically, that I need to use an ink which will not wash away when exposed to moisture, rain, or spilled liquids; anything less negates the whole raison d'être of a pen, fountain or otherwise, as far as I am concerned. I should have used iron gall ink, except that I had some concerns about the effect of such an ink on the pen's sterling silver casing. I should add that I have had some very bad experiences with Montblanc's repair department in the past. They do make beautiful-looking pens, and sometimes, excellent nibs; but the company does seem to have problems which, I feel, need to be addressed better than they apparently are.

Hello, i bought two PELIKAN M805S both with a fine nib on ama... uk and ama...es within a week. The black one was in my mailbox less than an hour ago. One pen, the blue stripped is pretty good, maybe a bit too wet with some sailor inks. That is a normal behaviour with a Pelikan nib. The other pen, the black one is so dry and unwilling that i have decided to send it back to ama...uk for a refund. Of course i flushed carefully the black pen, etc...before inking it. Furthermore Sailor inks are very wet inks as can be seen on the photo, at least with the blue stripped one. Return cost is from my pocket (about 10-12€). Return package has to be stamped, etc... It is not the end of the world, i will soon forget it. I just wanted to share my experience. I hope i have been useful to some.

I have been eyeing for a Pelikan M800 broad for some time after acquiring my Pilot Custom 823 Broad and found out the absolute joy of flagship/sub-flagship pens with nice big gold nibs. After watching many reviews from sbrebrown, shout out to him, I found that there's a Dutch retailer called Appelboom that retails Pelikan for a low price for people in North America (Canada). It retails the pen for 327 euros after the discount code by sbrebrown, while nibs.com retails the cheapest Pelikan M800 for 499 USD. However, I have heard a lot of horror stories about Pelikan's quality control on M800s. I wonder is it worth it to pay the extra for the nib tuning by John Mottishaw?

I've purchased several pens from Massdrop and so far two pens I purchased had quality control issues and wondering how everyone else's experience with them has been? Most recently I purchased an Italix Churchman Prescriptor with a medium cursive stub nib; the tip of one tine is higher than the other and on the other tip of the tine it has a dent in it. So not only does it write scratchy but it also doesn't even come close to writing like stub. I kinda screwed myself by waiting several months to ink it up since Massdrop probably won't return it or exchange it. I know Mr.Pen warranties the pens for 12months, but not sure if a pen purchased from Massdrop would be eligible. I sent Mr.Pen an inquiry and waiting to hear back; hopefully, they'll replace the nib. Anyways just want to know the experience people have had with Massdrop.

Hello FPN, I'm not a regular contribuiter here, but I do love writing/schetching and fountain pens. I'm on my 4th Pelikan now.. started slow with an M200, then an M800, M400 and now M1000. To me the Souveran design is the best in the world: fits my grip best and the esthetics are top notch too. Now on to my request. I can get quite obsessed by the "perfection" level of a pen so I end up noticing all kinds of things that probably normal people don't bother with. One of the things I've noticed with my M800 and M1000 is the presence of some rings around where the striated part of the barrel meets with the section. I am adding a picture to show what I mean exactly. This is truly visible only when the the light strikes the pen at a specific angle. I'm just wondering, do your pens have this as well? Thanks in advance for responding and HAPPY HOLIDAYS! PS: please feel free to add your own pictures of this.

And shocked Pelikan only offers a 3 year warranty on their pens. My pen is 3 1/2 years old. Charpak says I need to pay for a new barrel and labor costs. I'm wondering if anyone's Pelikan has broken apart between the black finger grip (not sure if this black section is part of the nib assembly) and the barrel? I love the nib and keep this pen on my desk and basically use it every day to write checks or make some notes while on the phone. I'm wondering if Pelikan glues the barrel to the nib and this failed or if this was a fracture of the barrel per se. It seems like a clean separation and two parts simply separated that were somehow connected at one point. I'm scratching my head on how could this break apart? Thanks for any feedback. I've only got a handful of fountain pens and this is my only Pelikan. Wondering if quality control at Pelikan has become a problem or this is a freak occurrence. Dan

I received my Kaigelu 316 from Hong Kong earlier this week (seller: hq.market, AKA You Gain More!) It's a reasonably faithful knock-off of the Duofold, visually at least. A handsome pen (mine is the white with black veining), it's improperly balanced toward the back end, but not a deal-breaker. I inked it up with Diamine Sapphire and it wrote beautifully. I decided to take my lovely new counterfeit to work with me, and on my way out the door, clipped it to my pock... UH-OH. With this gentle action, the clip, retainer ring and cap came off the pen. No biggie, I'll just screw the top back on, right? I've read here many times that Chinese pens have issues with quality control, so I just assumed someone didn't tighten it down properly. Nope. The threads refuse to catch, even when tested without the clip or retainer ring in place. It's defective. eBay has a process whereby you can resolve an issue like this one. Communicating with the seller (hq.market, AKA You Gain More!) that the pen is defective has resulted in the kind of runaround those who hide behind a language difference love to employ. "The pen is not smashed" they replied after receiving a photo of the loose clip assembly. (The only way I could think of to photograph threads that don't engage; see below) Of course, each message exchange with seller hq.market, AKA You Gain More must go through a 24 hour cycle, presumably because of the time difference. I've heard that other Chinese sellers are really good at reimbursing or replacing; that has not been my experience with seller hq.market, AKA You Gain More! (Maybe they're referring to my blood pressure reading?) Caveat emptor. James