Pelikan NIbs

[PenWorks]

I have seen this topic come up over the years regarding if Pelikan nibs will fit our pens. I have always thought that they would but never took the time or spent the money to order some and try out.

I was happy using the steel nibs that came with our pens, so I thought if they were good enough for me, they are good enough for my clients. Plus I could get fine , broad and calligraphy nibs from CSU for only 5.00 and they seem to work okay. I also had my 14K gold nibs made and was completely happy with them as well, plus they were less money than Pelikan's.

I also started grinding steel & gold nibs into italic stubs and found a new level of enjoyment in writing. Now, myself and my clients are getting even more sophisticated or ecentric, I started getting requests for extra fine and tripple broads and oblique andgles of 15%. Whoa....way to much for this novice grinder. So I thought the time was right to try out the Pelikan nibs, as I can order these in all sorts of sizes.

So I ordered the M200 nib, this is a steel nib with yellow gold plating and the M400 or 14C which is a 14K gold nib in two tone. Both nibs are the same size. They come with the feed, there is no housing as Pelikan's are primarily a piston fill, so the nib just screws into the fron section.

You need a knock out block to seperate the nib from the feed. This is just a steel block with a bunch of holes that the nib will slide through and the housing or ring will not. Then you take a punch and knock the feed out. You will not be able to wiggle these nibs off, as they are set very firmly.

After disasembly, they nibs simply went right into our existing feed & housing and seated just right. Note both these nibs are for the Jr./Baron size pens only.

Here is a sample of a steel M200 in extra fine and a 14K gold in double broad. Also there is a picture of how the nib comes and a disassembled version.

M200 steel in XF

M400 14K gold

Here is a Pelikan chart with verying nibs widths, Note not all widths are available.

So here is yet another option to satisfy your need to lay down ink.

 

[altaciii]

An old penturner once told me not to get into fountain pens. "There's really no market for them with what we do." I have had 3 baron fps in my drawer with steel nibs for quite sometime and have almost turned them on several occasions. I have seen the nibs offered by dcbluesman and have toyed with the idea of purchasing one or two of his nibs. As a novice with fps is it really worth the expense of a high $ nib and should I just go ahead and turn the ones I have with the "kit" nibs and test the market. I guess the question is, will the pens sell better or faster with a high $ premium nib?

 

[PenWorks]

Alex, I would knock off the dust of your FP kits and get them made. Use one of them for your personal use and see how you like it.
Get yourself familar with it. See what response you get from trying to sell your other ones. I would not recomend buying a gold nib thinking it will make your pen sell faster and for more money. JMO

 

[Rudy Vey]

Originally posted by altaciii

An old penturner once told me not to get into fountain pens. "There's really no market for them with what we do." I have had 3 baron fps in my drawer with steel nibs for quite sometime and have almost turned them on several occasions. I have seen the nibs offered by dcbluesman and have toyed with the idea of purchasing one or two of his nibs. As a novice with fps is it really worth the expense of a high $ nib and should I just go ahead and turn the ones I have with the "kit" nibs and test the market. I guess the question is, will the pens sell better or faster with a high $ premium nib?

I used to sell maybe a FP or two per year when I was living in Michigan. Now, since we are back in NJ, I sold at two shows we did six FP's all together - at my last show two weeks ago I sold four!! And these were all either Statesman Jr, Retro or El Grande Streamline with their standard nibs. I have not gotten into the high end nibs, but will do so if my market requires it.

 

[Ligget]

Anthony do you have prices for these nibs yet?[]

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Nice work Anthony!

I am also pretty dang sure that the nib from my fair departed Mont-Blanc 344 will fit into the kit pens as well. I plan to give this a try in a blue lapis Jr. Statesman I am working on. (And one day might even finish! That is the problem with having over two dozen fountian pens. )

That BB nib looks heavenly too! But I never even knew they made an O3B!! That must be a freaking firehose! [}]


One thought... Would it be better to use a dremmel tool to slice the screw collar under the feed to free the new nib over knocking it out? Just one less step to prevent damage if the Pelikan feed and screw collar is not used. I have done this with some clogged Esterbrook screw in nibs to swap tips to unclogged feeds.

 

[PenWorks]

Originally posted by ligget

Anthony do you have prices for these nibs yet?[]

Mark, the steel nibs will be 20.00 and the 14C gold nibs will be 75.00 I may post an add in MVV later and give members two weeks to place an order for the sizes I'm going to offer which is most.

 

[PenWorks]

Lee, a fire house is right I was concerned about the BB nib not getting enough ink flow to it, since we are using the feed that comes with our pen. The Pelikan ink channel is wider than our's. But it had no problem handeling the double broad.

The knock out block is the way to go, you don't have to beat on it, more like tap, tap, tap, out. I will knock the feed out for the ones I sell. It is easy to reinstall the nib in the original Pelikan feed, but a bear to get out without the proper tools.

 

[Ligget]

Originally posted by PenWorks

Originally posted by ligget

Anthony do you have prices for these nibs yet?[]

Mark, the steel nibs will be 20.00 and the 14C gold nibs will be 75.00 I may post an add in MVV later and give members two weeks to place an order for the sizes I'm going to offer which is most.

Thanks Anthony!

 

[Jim15]

Thanks for the info Anthony.

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Originally posted by PenWorks
The knock out block is the way to go, you don't have to beat on it, more like tap, tap, tap, out. I will knock the feed out for the ones I sell. It is easy to reinstall the nib in the original Pelikan feed, but a bear to get out without the proper tools.

I know what you are saying, my only worry is using a hole small enough to stop the collar, always seems to be a "push fit" for the nib, you know? I do have a press block with about eight holes to choose from, but if the collar and feed is not to be used, a quick slice with the dremmel tool cut off wheel would pop the ring right off with no tapping. [:I]

 

[luke39uk]

Anthony just out of interest, have you tried any of the larger size Pelikan nibs to fit say an El-Grande or a Churchill fountain pen?
Luke.

 

[Dan_F]

I would be very much interested in B or BB large steel nibs for Churchill/El Grande to grind into stubs or cursive italic, or pre-ground.

Dan

 

[PenWorks]

I have not tried the interchangability to the Churchill yet, but will do it real soon.

 

[redfishsc]

Originally posted by altaciii

An old penturner once told me not to get into fountain pens. "There's really no market for them with what we do."

I sure am glad that nobody ever told my customers that! FP's are probably 1/3 of my pen sale numbers, but 2/3 of my cash flow, if I had to estimate.

I guess the question is, will the pens sell better or faster with a high $ premium nib?

Any pen I have "in stock" and ready to sell just has the included steel nib. Customers are informed of the solid gold nibs, and the cost. So far I have had only 1 very, very very happy taker (a gold nib from Anthony) but wouldn't doubt if others did in the future.

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Originally posted by Dan_F

I would be very much interested in B or BB large steel nibs for Churchill/El Grande to grind into stubs or cursive italic, or pre-ground.

Dan

Heck Dan, the kit nibs are dirt cheap... Why not try to re-grind one of them into a nice stub nib? Sure it will loose the tipping, but I have a few Esterbrooks that sport re-ground nibs as stub nibs and I love how they write.

 

[Dan_F]

Originally posted by Firefyter-emt

Originally posted by Dan_F

I would be very much interested in B or BB large steel nibs for Churchill/El Grande to grind into stubs or cursive italic, or pre-ground.

Dan

Heck Dan, the kit nibs are dirt cheap... Why not try to re-grind one of them into a nice stub nib? Sure it will loose the tipping, but I have a few Esterbrooks that sport re-ground nibs as stub nibs and I love how they write.

Lee---I will try that for me, but I would think customers will want to see some tipping. I'm ordering a few large broads from AS, will see how they do.

Dan

 

[Firefyter-emt]

I agree, I try to re-grind only damaged non-tipped Estie nibs too. If you "really" want to have a custom nib, Greg Minuskin normaly charges in the $60 range to re-tip and grind any nib. I have the 14k nib from a Parker Vacumatic with him to be re-tipped and ground to a med. broad stub nib. Turn around is a couple weeks and he is VERY well known for his work.

I tried the "fine" and "Broad" nibs the kit sellers offer and I have never really found a major diffrence in the line size myself. Let me know how you make out with how the lines seem to you.

 

[desertyellow]

As always, grateful for the great fountain of information you provide.

 

[Dan_F]

Originally posted by Firefyter-emt

I agree, I try to re-grind only damaged non-tipped Estie nibs too. If you "really" want to have a custom nib, Greg Minuskin normaly charges in the $60 range to re-tip and grind any nib. I have the 14k nib from a Parker Vacumatic with him to be re-tipped and ground to a med. broad stub nib. Turn around is a couple weeks and he is VERY well known for his work.

I tried the "fine" and "Broad" nibs the kit sellers offer and I have never really found a major diffrence in the line size myself. Let me know how you make out with how the lines seem to you.

I have a nice broad that came with a Daycom kit, definitely more tipping on it than a medium. Wish Lou had broads in his Heritage line. I ground one of his mediums to what I think is a cursive italic, but would like a bit more width. Too cheap for now to go the retipping route. I think I will send one or two of the mediums out for pro grinding, so that I have a good model to work from.

I emailed Anthony to see if he had an update on the large Pelican nibs. So far he has ruled out the 200 and 400 series, which I gather is all he has on hand at the moment.

Dan

 

[bitshird]

Alex, if you start using a fountain pen you'll find it is easy to sell them,even the stock nibe to start then, get some of Lou's Steel Flex, I had my wife put one in my Ipe Baron and itwas the best 4.00 I ever spent, I wish I could afford one of the 14 0r 18 kt nibs, but my penmanship and handling of a fountain pens don't warrant the expenditure, I do have purple ink in my Purple Heart El Grande though, now I need white ink for my Alt. Ivory El Grande. :glasses-nerdy:

 

[gerryr]

An old penturner once told me not to get into fountain pens. "There's really no market for them with what we do."

This is definitely not true. Probably close to 40% of my sales are fountain pens, some with steel nibs and some with gold. Make the kits the have, but do yourself a favor and get Lou's steel semi-flex nibs. Every fountain pen I sell, except the El Toro, has either the SF nib or a gold nib in it. I have a rather large and growing pile of kit nibs that are useful for grinding practice.

 

[driften]

I have not tried the interchangability to the Churchill yet, but will do it real soon.

You ever get a change to try a larger Pelikan in the Churchill?

I love the idea that the smaller ones work in our smaller pens. Its great that we have a large selection of both new nibs and custom ground ones we can use now.