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Dear lovers of Pelikano pens, When I started school in Germany in the 1970s, the use of a fountain pen was mandatory and at my school the teachers strongly recommended the use of a Pelikano with an A nib (A being for Anfänger= beginner). This started my obsession with fountain pens and to this day, my primary interest is in student fountain pens. That said, I am not so enamoured with the current Pelikano line and when it comes to modern student pens, I prefer the Lamy Safari range. This may be anathema to hard-core Pelikan fans, but that’s how I see it. Picture 1 shows my collection from the first model 1 through to model 7S plus a modern Pelikano for comparison: In my view, there was little improvement after model 2 was released in 1965. The feed in model 1 pens is problematic. Both the blue and black versions came into my collection blocked and the pens needed literally months of soaking before they started to work. No other pen that I’ve ever bought (and I’ve bought a few) needed that kind of treatment. I started school with a model 4 and later had a model 5. The Pelikano 5 Super with the metal barrel is my favourite, albeit that it was a flop for Pelikan. Picture 2 shows the box that I made to house my Pelikan collection. The stylised pelican is cut from Queensland Walnut (the name is a misnomer- Queensland Walnut not a walnut tree at all) and has been inlaid into Queensland maple. Picture 3 shows the box with the top layer of pen trays removed. The bottom left tray has no Pelikano pens at all. Instead there is a loose collection of other pens, including two special edition GeHa pens. GeHa was ultimately bought by Pelikan, so I suppose the Geha pens are not that out of place. To the right of the photo are my two Pelikan Pura fountain pens. Picture 4 shows the storage for the original pen boxes underneath the two layers of trays. I like keeping the original boxes, but I like to have my pens in trays. I realise that the Pelikano line of student pens is not everyone’s cup of tea. After all, the nibs are nails and the pens are made to a budget. However, to me the Pelikano line is what fountain pens are all about. The Pelikano pens are robust and write well. I don’t have any problem writing with a ‘nail’. I'd love to hear from other Pelikano fans. Ollie

Whilst the primary focus of my fountain pen collection is 1970s student pens from Pelikan (the Pelikano series) and Montblanc (the Carrera and Caressa lines), when it comes to modern student pens, in my humble opinion, Lamy has by far the most attractive and functional range. Montblanc stopped making student pens in the 1980s and I can’t get excited about the current offerings from Pelikan. I like to make custom boxes for my collections, albeit that in the case of my Lamy collection, I only need a small box for the time being. Of all the boxes that I have made for my various collections, the box for my Lamy collection was the easiest to make (even if you tried, you probably couldn’t design a logo more suited to wood inlay work than the Lamy logo), yet came out looking better than most of the others (In January of this year, I posted pictures of my Pelikano box in the Pelikan section of this forum and the Carrera/ Caressa box in the Montblanc section). The first photo shows the box from the outside. The Lamy logo was made using Queensland/ Australian walnut (which is not a nut tree, contrary to its name) veneer and was inlaid in maple veneer. If you are thinking about starting out with doing your own inlay work and you like Lamy pens, this is an excellent project to get started with. When one begins with wood inlay work, it’s best to avoid tight curves. The Lamy logo has no curves at all, let alone curves with a tight radius. The second photo shows the two removable trays in the box and my very modest Lamy fountain pen collection. As it stands, I have spare room in the box and for the time being I’ve used that for two Kaweco pens as well as a cheap and cheerful no-name pen. It’s probably no surprise that the Lamy 2000 is my favourite Lamy pen, but I also like writing with the Lamy Linea and the various Safaris, Al Stars and the Vista. Because the Safari pens have a fairly wide girth, I’ve had to make the slots for the pens wide as well. The equivalent box for other brands would fit another two pens for the same external dimensions.