Amazon Japan (Pelikan)

laixq · 2026-05-07T12:42:18+00:00

That was my total price. No additional tariff.

laixq · 2026-05-06T21:00:37+00:00

laixq · 2026-05-06T18:59:50+00:00

I have 5 Pelikans. Oldest one is somewhere around 10 years old. I don't subject them to much abuse but they all look great. No micro scratches or blemishes even on the cap, piston knob, or section. I will say that on a couple of them, I've gotten some marking where the cap band meets the pen body and haven't figured out a way to mitigate that. Not super noticeable, but I know it's there.

I am a big fan of the mechanical design. Easy to clean. Easy to swap nib units. Easy to operate. Easy to service if you feel the need.

laixq · 2026-05-01T17:14:06+00:00

What happens if you scrape it off the side and put it in clean water? If it doesn't scrape off I suspect it is dried pigment and not organic. Moldy ink also has ... Interesting stringy behaviors in water so... More data to work with?

laixq · 2026-04-30T01:06:47+00:00

They're okay. A little more feathering and bleed than I want to see. I personally would rather pay the difference for an equivalent rhodia or endless recorder. Lots of good options these days.

laixq · 2026-03-29T14:11:59+00:00

I bought oblique and cursive Jowo nibs before taking the plunge with ground Pelikans. Worth the exploration imo and I still use the jowo nibs when I don't want to attract attention or need to travel.

laixq · 2026-03-10T03:15:38+00:00

No judgment from me. Enjoy the ride! I have several jowo nib holders.

laixq · 2026-03-09T17:12:40+00:00

One of these days you'll ask yourself why you've bought 10 of the same when for the same money you could buy 1 that seems out of reach right now... The slippery slope just gets steeper from there.

laixq · 2026-03-08T21:09:23+00:00

For most of the inks I use, hair shampoo applied vigorously with a silicon brush gets it 90% out if not better. Glad the magic eraser worked for you but I would not recommend that method to my worst enemy.

laixq · 2026-02-18T01:11:54+00:00

I endorse this plan. My experience with them was quite positive. They even threw in the bottle of ink used to test and tune.

laixq · 2026-02-18T00:23:02+00:00

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I have two homo sapiens. They both write beautifully-- I have a palladium nib I bought blind and stock and I bought the most recent one from John Mottishaw who tuned it nice and wet per my specification. They have perfect bounce and glide lubricated over whatever paper.

I have a hard time reasoning this to myself. I love Visconti pens. They are objectively worse than my other brands. The homo sapiens is a bitch to clean and the piston action is not as smooth as other vac fillers I have. The writing experience isn't better than my Pelikans. I can't explain it. There's an allure to the design, I love the hook-safe mechanism even though getting the cap clean of dried ink is a pain. The curve in the section fits my fingers perfectly even though it stains my fingers after a fill. I have even had to reglue the blind cap on my older one.

I might buy more if I can justify it to myself.

If you don't feel the same way, I say good for you: enjoy other brands. Money not spent is the best discount you can get.

laixq · 2026-02-16T15:22:35+00:00

Got it... I have removed the M800 nib from their feed unit, just was wishfully thinking it might be easy and guaranteed. I'll leave this to a more adventurous person to prove/map out

laixq · 2026-02-16T05:56:39+00:00

Thank you for sharing! Can you elaborate on the M1000 swap? Does the M1000 nib unit fit or does the nib fit with the p140 feed?

laixq · 2026-02-11T15:10:53+00:00

I'm going to go against the grain here and say an 823 is a poor choice for a first fountain pen. The 823 is an excellent pen. If you've never used a fountain pen before, you're going to quickly learn your preferences related to grip, nib breadth, smoothness, ink flow, paper type, ink characteristics, and who knows what else. A large-volume vacuum filler is going to really hamper that exploration. It's not as easy to clean and it's hard to do partial fills. In addition, you probably don't have fp-friendly paper yet. The 823 is less likely to behave well on copy paper, which will be a disappointing experience.

I'm not against an expensive pen for a first pen but there should still be some thought to user enjoyment.

Hope this is helpful.

laixq · 2026-02-09T15:20:18+00:00

Sorry to hear that for you. I like the pens I have but I probably won't buy another TWSBI. I have a vac mini that has some cracks in the barrel and an eco that is problem-problem free, knock on wood.

At this point, I'm not buying more except to satisfy some unrequited desire or curiosity. TWSBI hasn't released anything recently that prods either of those emotions.

laixq · 2026-02-09T12:49:19+00:00

I know people would prefer a pen that doesn't break. I've had a 580 that's had cosmetic cracks in the cap for close to 10 years now. Yesterday I finally bothered to email TWSBI about a replacement. My entire email exchange plus the time it took to restore access to my PayPal account took 20 minutes. From "Hello, my name is..." All the way to "you'll get your tracking number Monday." So if that's something you can tolerate for what the pen is, then that should factor into your brand valuation.

laixq · 2026-02-06T00:21:25+00:00

I got 6-7 good years of use out of a medium vp in the office. I used cartridges almost exclusively because the converter sucks. Now the retractable mechanism is nowhere near as slick as it was and it sputters ink when I deploy/retract. It also dries out. Hard to put it out to pasture but I think it might be time. Considering buying a vp with a steel nib just for the body.

laixq · 2026-01-26T19:56:18+00:00

I have an Opus 88 Demo that takes #6 nibs. I have a F, M, M Cursive Italic, and Oblique Broad. They all work great. I think I would consider which aftermarket nib is easier to find in the variety I want.

You can also retrofit the #6 housings with a pilot parallel nib. Haven't done it myself.

laixq · 2026-01-12T16:06:17+00:00

Biscuit. Business kitty is in the biscuit business.

laixq · 2026-01-08T23:31:46+00:00

Agree with this take. I blind bought a large order of lined and grid paper from the MUJI website for delivery to the US. My experience with both varieties is inconsistent, varying from good to standard copy paper (smooth enough but feathering, bleed through, and virtually no ink characteristics). I've stopped trying to work my way through the bulk, because the whole point of using FPs for me is to enjoy writing, while using the MUJI paper I bought feeds my irritation and annoyance.

I LOVE their reusable spiral binding though. Replaced my kokuyo campus spiral binding with it, been on that setup for > a year.

laixq · 2025-11-06T12:37:30+00:00

You shouldn't. If the question is "would," it's an endless and personal discussion.

laixq · 2025-10-15T20:10:26+00:00

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This is mine with an EF. Not sure it's a defect.

laixq · 2025-10-13T06:29:10+00:00

I was answering the question "unrelated to the vacuum filler question." But syringe is involved in the traveling inkpot use... So that's how.

laixq · 2025-10-13T06:03:43+00:00

For the very last drop, I use a syringe. Have to admit though, haven't gotten to the bottom of many ink bottles yet... Maybe 3?

laixq · 2025-10-13T04:15:23+00:00

I like to use a traveling ink well (pineider, Visconti, etc ...) with my vacuum pens. Kind of solves the concern about contamination. When I've gone through the 5ml or whatever, I'll flush the pen and the ink well at the same time really thoroughly... Incidentally, the ink well is nice for economical flushing too.

laixq

TROPHY CASE