Pelikan Ib Nib

[Uncial]

I pulled the trigger on a Pelikan IB nib and have been using it for the last few months. I feel a little disappointed with it. It's definitely an italic rather than a stub. It's corner are very sharp. It's very, very broad. I expected a broad - obviously - but perhaps not quite so broad as this. It's not as wet as Pelikan's standard nibs. If anything, it feels a touch on the dry side.

Did I get a dud or is this how they are?

[sirgilbert357]

Sorry to hear this. I will follow this topic, as I'm looking at buying my next Pelikan with an IB nib (if possible) or getting an IB for it separately.

 

I had already planned to send the nib to a nibmeister to have it customized, but I would be interested to hear everyone's experiences with their stock IB nibs...

 

ETA: Also, do you plan to send it to a nibmeister for tuning, or are you thinking about asking the vendor to swap it?

Edited October 30, 2019 by sirgilbert357

[Tom Kellie]

I pulled the trigger on a Pelikan IB nib and have been using it for the last few months. I feel a little disappointed with it. It's definitely an italic rather than a stub. It's corner are very sharp. It's very, very broad. I expected a broad - obviously - but perhaps not quite so broad as this. It's not as wet as Pelikan's standard nibs. If anything, it feels a touch on the dry side.

Did I get a dud or is this how they are?

 

~ Uncial:

 

Two contemporary Pelikan IB nibs have arrived on my writing desk in 2019.

• One is a Pelikan M400 Special Edition Brown Tortoise IB

• Another is a Pelikan Souverän M800 Stone Garden IB

There are a number of reasonably broad-nibbed pens on my writing desk.

I've never yet noticed anything especially broad about the pair of Pelikan IB nibs.

Could that possibly related to the Fritz Schimpf Italic Grind they both had?

I'm sorry that your IB nib has been somewhat unsatisfactory.

Tom K.

[Tom Kellie]

Pelikan IB Nib Pair

[Bo Bo Olson]

Italic is sharper than cursive italic and that is not as rounded as a stub.

 

Try holding and drawing your letters with the pen held more vertical, before the big index knuckle and canted 45 degrees for italic nibs drawing italic calligraphy.

My italic calligraphy book shows that.

 

Every once and a while I take my hammer and chisel. and pry open that dust rusted shut book. Sigh cubed.

My Lamy 1.5 is between CI and stub.

My Osmiroid nib set, are untipped pure italic calligraphy nibs. I have the widest, a B on my Copper Estie.

[Uncial]

Sorry to hear this. I will follow this topic, as I'm looking at buying my next Pelikan with an IB nib (if possible) or getting an IB for it separately.

 

I had already planned to send the nib to a nibmeister to have it customized, but I would be interested to hear everyone's experiences with their stock IB nibs...

 

ETA: Also, do you plan to send it to a nibmeister for tuning, or are you thinking about asking the vendor to swap it?

 

Got it through a well known UK Pelikan dealer but plan to send it out at some point for tweeking. That will make it more of a stub than an italic, but it's just a touch too sharp for me. Very similar in many ways to the Aurora italic which I also found to be very, very sharp and a touch dry, but a far better width.

[Uncial]

 

~ Uncial:

 

Two contemporary Pelikan IB nibs have arrived on my writing desk in 2019.

• One is a Pelikan M400 Special Edition Brown Tortoise IB

• Another is a Pelikan Souverän M800 Stone Garden IB

There are a number of reasonably broad-nibbed pens on my writing desk.

I've never yet noticed anything especially broad about the pair of Pelikan IB nibs.

Could that possibly related to the Fritz Schimpf Italic Grind they both had?

I'm sorry that your IB nib has been somewhat unsatisfactory.

Tom K.

 

Are your IB's sharp, Tom?

It should be easy enough to adjust them to what I prefer. I might have the width taken in a little if that's possible. It's broader that my MB BB's!

[dms525]

I have a couple M800 IB nibs and one of the M400 IB nibs. Out of the box, they are very broad, about 1.5mm, as advertised. To my way of thinking, they were somewhere between a stub and cursive italic in line differentiation. I have had all 3 nibs ground to a crisp cursive italic and 2 of them ground a bit narrower. I like them pretty much for italic calligraphy.

 

David

[Tom Kellie]

Are your IB's sharp, Tom?

It should be easy enough to adjust them to what I prefer. I might have the width taken in a little if that's possible. It's broader that my MB BB's!

 

~ Uncial:

 

No, neither of them is sharp.

It's 3:45 am here, so a clear photo in natural light isn't feasible.

Later it might be possible to send an image better showing the nibs and the result of their use.

They both write with pleasing crispness, but mildly so.

They absolutely aren't sharp to the touch, or on any regular paper grade.

While the width is self-evidently wider than most nibs, they're not even remotely similar to OBBBs and such.

What's deeply impressed me and others is how usable they are as writers.

For example, several gifted Hong Kong teenagers have borrowed them for use in in-class writing, afterwards asking what they were, due to the exceptional writing comfort.

As I've noted in various posts here and there, the Fritz Schimpf Italic Grinds on IB and BB nibs results in superlative writers of exceptional quality.

The width on my two Pelikan IBs hasn't resulted in overly wide, messy writing which lacks practicality.

Tom K.

[Tom Kellie]

[Eccles]

I agree with Tom's assessment overall re: sharpness, smoothness and ink flow.

With Edelstein ink, the flow on my blue stripe M800 with IB is good, perhaps just a tad drier than the standard B, which does run slightly wet, so not a fault... less need to blot or wait for the ink to dry.

It's such a lovely nib to use & gives such a nice script, I've ordered my yet to be delivered M800 Brown Stripe with an IB as well.

Glenn.

[Tom Kellie]

It's such a lovely nib to use & gives such a nice script, I've ordered my yet to be delivered M800 Brown Stripe with an IB as well.

 

~ Hi, Glenn!

 

That makes two of us!

For identical reasons.

Tom K.

[Uncial]

Thanks Tom. I think I'll send it off to have the sharp edges knocked off it. That might bring it in a little too in terms of width.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Could be an IM+ instead of an IB, but modern nibs are wider than vintage by half a width, so it would still actually be what I'd call a B, being vintage spoiled.

I would think the loss of width would be very minimal, in all that has to be done is a very slight rounding.

[scratchofapen]

Interesting... i got mine 2 or 3 years ago, it is more a stub than an italic...

[sansenri]

Curiously I was reading about this just now

Hope you dont mind the link for discussion purposes

 

 

https://www.pelikanpens.co.uk/blogs/news/pelikan-fountain-pen-nibs-italic-vs-oblique

[Bo Bo Olson]

I do prefer by a country mile, vintage German semi or maxi-semi-flex nibs over modern '82-98 regular flex (and modern 200) where the degree of pattern that one has compared to vintage is minimal minus....modern semi-nail, or nail nibs are for left handers or those with left eye dominance who cant their nibs to see the top of it. Absolutely worthless for line variation.

 

IMO seeing line variation in nail or semi-nail is a wish dream...

.......and semi-vintage regular flex is not a lot better.

 

I have a Pelikan 381 OB which really surprised me it was an oblique in I'd not noticed it.

The the tad springier than '90-97 regular flex, W.Germany 200 OM line variation is faint, unless one uses a heavier hand. My W. Germany 600's OBB (has that era's tear drop tipping)..gives some line variation due to width, but it isn't a nib I go looking for, in I have Vintage ...my 1005 OBB due to it's round ball modern tipping.....is just wide..

It's variation if any....was like all regular flex oblique nibs I have a disappointment, in I have in vintage from OF to OBB in both 15 & 30 degree grinds. So am SPOILED.

 

I have some 16 obliques....well those are the vintage ones, in I don't count modern '82-now, in they don't do much or just do nothing.

 

I have had nail obliques which are really a do nothing nib...good to see the top of the pen only types. The Lamy Persona 18K OB nail, Pendelton Brown made very nice CI....removing the pen from under the bed. The Lamy 27 OM nail, I sold.

 

Certain left hand grips need a nail oblique to lay the nib comfortably on the paper and not worry about one tine getting more work than it should.

Semi-flex, is not a 'flex' pen. The almost of semi is once around the block from superflex. It is not slow.....unless one is abusing the nib and mashing it past 3X a light down stroke to use it as a calligraphy lettering nib.

 

Even though I'd been back to fountain pens for a year from wandering around ball point desert for 40 years. I was still heavy handed when I got my first semi-flex an oblique 140 OB.....a nib width I do suggest, in vintage is 1/2 a width narrower, it is like a modern M.....so a perfectly good writing nib....not a signature only of modern nib width.

It's sweet spot was wide enough I could learn to cant the nib by feel......where as an OM or OF of that era...ones that work, require more precise angle to paper....cant. (I often give tips of how to use a clip of a posted pen as an sight to achieve best cant angle)

 

It took me some three months to go from Ham Fisted, max the nib to 3X all the time to the slight heavy handedness I now have***. But I can get more line variation, because it is semi-flex (be that oblique or regular)... On Demand by pressing a touch harder.

***In Wet Noodle, I have to sweat to make the pen write XXF, think to make it write EF, so scribble long in F.

 

IMO the old fashioned script flair one gets even with just normal semi-flex is the nib sensitivity.

 

Automatically one presses a touch more on the first letter of a word, an loop l or b, could give a bit more, crossing a T will give you a bit of flair.

 

I see semi-flex as a flair nib not for fancy lettering. (I rant on this often...especially after I discovered the nib abuse some think as normal....then after the nib is sprung or half sprung, sell the nib with out telling it was treated like superflex )

If one gets a good calligraphy book, there are decenders one can use at the end of a paragraph that make a tad fancy when taking the nib out to it's 3X max.

 

If one wants a bit of line variation, and make fancy letters, just don't push the nib more than 3X a light down stroke.

[psaldana]

 

Those nibs looks beautiful!

[amberleadavis]

@Uncial

 

Sorry to be so late the party. I finally found my beloved grail pen, but the M nib is too thin for my daily writing preferences.  We've been pen pals for years, do you think I would like an IB nib? I like 'em huge - wet and lots of variation. I can tolerate some sharp, but not insanely sharp.

[JulieParadise]

3 minutes ago, amberleadavis said:

@Uncial

 

Sorry to be so late the party. I finally found my beloved grail pen, but the M nib is too thin for my daily writing preferences.  We've been pen pals for years, do you think I would like an IB nib? I like 'em huge - wet and lots of variation. I can tolerate some sharp, but not insanely sharp.

 

May I answer, too? -- Pelikan's IB nibs are stubs and in no way sharp. You'd probably like them, as they lay down a huge amount of ink. (At least the 3 nibs I got to know.)