Pelikan Nibs - How Do They Compare In Width To Other Makes?

[dexaco]

I just got a lovely new Pelikan Souverän M400 with a medium nib. I already have an M600 with an EF nib, and love it, but decided that now was the time to try a fatter nib. I tend to write small, and F and EF nibs usually suit me, but a recent purchase of a Parker 51 with a medium nib gave me cause for thought. Lovely smooth writer. Well, so is the M400, but the line it leaves seems broad compared to the Parker 51, and also to a Pelikan Traditional M150 with steel M nib, and to a Lamy Safari with OM nib. I won't include my Pilot 78g in the comparison, as I know the Japanese nibs write on the skinny side.

 

I still have a couple of weeks of the nib exchange period left, but I think I'll be staying with the medium nib - I have enough pens with F and EF nibs. But I'm curious - do Pelikan nibs run broader than the norm?

 

Derick

[Koyote]

Define "norm." But yeah, I think the consensus is that they are a touch wide. My M600 fine is almost (not quite) as wide as my Sheaffer Medium.

[handwriter]

To me their M can be OK, the problem for me is rather that the F gold nibs of the modern Souveran pens are almost M. If you usually write with F and EF I guess you would feeel the same. A nice think about Pels is that nibmeisters like them, so if at some point you wish, for instance, to stub your M, there you are.

[FPFan]

Most of my Pels have what I consider a better/faster flow rate which makes them seem wider than the really are, but then again, some of them are so dry not much flows through! Depends a great deal on the Ink one uses with them. And I am a big Noodler's fan. Pelikan inks are too dry.

[Silvermink]

My Pelikans have run a bit wide. My Sahara F is close to an M, and my M1050 M is on the broad side and very wet.

[schweizer]

My first Pelikan was given to me in 1984. It had a very flexy medium steel nib. When I purchased two newer Pelikans w/14k nibs they were definitely wider and wetter. I have a Montegrappa medium which to me is a true medium which makes me think when I order Pelikans I should opt for fines instead.

[Leftytoo]

My Souveran 600 with OM (oblique medium) nib writes 0.58mm on Rhodia paper with Parker Quink BB ink.

My Waterman Philias M nib writes 0.62 mm (same conditions)

My Omas Milord M nib writes 0.58 mm (same conditions)

My Esterbrook with M stub nib writes 0.60 mm (same conditions)

 

Bob

[fabrimedeiros]

Usually, yes, Pelikan size nib is wider than other Brands and it happens, mostly, with gold nibs (M300 or higher).

[jgrasty]

I agree, Pelikan nibs are a little on the fat side compared to my other brands.

[dexaco]

 Thank you for the replies, good people of the FPN. Much appreciated. One thing I didn't mention earlier was that I'm a leftie, an underwriter, but it makes no matter when I'm using the M400. The more I write with the M400 the more I'm liking that medium nib. I'll probably stick with it, and not bother going for a nib exchange. Heck, I can always get another nib at a later date. Thank goodness for screw-in nibs, something I've been glad about since my long-ago schooldays, with Platignum and Osmiroid pens. (My first 'good' pen was a 21st birthday present, a Parker 17. It's still going strong, forty-five years on!)

 

Derick  

[Felix1]

@ "My Souveran 600 with OM (oblique medium) nib writes 0.58mm on Rhodia paper with Parker Quink BB ink."

 

 

What are you using to measure those average line widths to a hundredth millimeter, Lefty?

 

I want to get one of the instruments as well.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Pelikan is a tad wide and uses it's dry ink to come back to the middle.

Waterman is a tad narrow and uses it's wet ink to come back to the middle.

 

The advantage of a Pelikan of course is that if it's too thick one can get the next nib narrower.

The disadvantage of the Waterman is if the nib is too narrow, one has to buy a full pen to get a wider nib.

 

 

When you look at Richards stroke chart there is not a lot of difference between a fine and a medium, nor a medium and a broad.

 

With my seven letter name...I don't have a Pelikan Broad, per say but an OB....

I find a fine, is half a letter narrower than a medium, and a broad a half a letter wider than a medium. Or a full letter between F and M.

 

I just did a quick check of a Geha 790 semi-flex KM, vs '90's 400 M and saw no big difference.

 

I guess I'm not persnickety enough, if a fine runs towards some one's medium or if it runs towards someone else's EF.

I guess my problem is some one needed a micrometer years ago, and I gave it to him, not needing it....how was I know that would turn around and bite me....gee Now I can not say that pen's nib is a micron too wide or not.

 

 

 

I find all the extra narrows, to be extra narrow, then there are narrow nibs, medium nibs and wide nibs and real wide nibs.... It's obvious that is what they are.

 

Does my extra narrow have to be the narrowest in the land. No. If one wants to write with spider webs and baby spider webs one can order such nibs.

 

I don't see any one running around saying my B write's narrower than yours, so there.

 

There is a simple cure if it bothers you....buy only one brand of pen, so all widths are standard with in the brand.

So sell everything that is not a Pelikan and you don't have any problems any more.

 

Mountains out of mole hills.

 

If very narrow is really your thing....buy Japanese pens or send it off to a nib master.

The main question is really, did it write smoothly or not?

Edited September 10, 2010 by Bo Bo Olson