I'm not a FP guru at all, and this is my first post in the Nib. I am looking for help with one of my three pens.
I have a fine-nib Pelikan M200 that I absolutely love and have used for about four years. This is always inked and always close at hand.
I have a medium-nib Lamy Safari that I carry in my pocket and use daily. I love the way it writes and don't mind its looks, though of course the Pelikan trumps it.
And then there's the Waterman Phileas. Medium nib but it writes like a scratchy fine nib. Feels clunky in my hand. Sure, it was locally available when I bought it, but outside of that, I have never liked anything about it. Help me out. Is the scratchy, stingy nib normal? I sometimes have trouble even with pretty wet inks getting the thing to flow smoothly, and I never get a line that looks anything other than fine or extra-fine.
Should I just give up on the thing? Or should I learn to love it. Give me some guidance here, please.
I'm not really looking to get a FP collection going, but three is a nice number for me, so if I do lose the Phileas, what should take its place? I prefer low-profile instruments, and I'm not looking to drop a lot of money, but I certainly don't need another Safari or the like right now. I've considered replacing the Phileas with a second M200 or an M215, but expanding the repertoire is not out of the question.
For reference, I don't do a lot of letter writing. I do write a lot of lists and do quite a bit of grading of my students' writing with the Lamy, and the Pelikan sees use in my daily journal writing and the composition of some short fiction and personal essays. The Phileas was used for note-taking in grad school, and I would love to carry it now in my bag to work so that I could have an extra inked pen at hand and so that I could keep the Pelikan at home as a desk pen. In short, for me, the Phileas feels second-class in a way that the Lamy doesn't (i.e. it has to do with the way it feels in use, not its price or aesthetics). I don't want to have to slum it when I'm away from home and don't want to always have to carry the M200 with me. So, do I just need to have some work done on the Phileas? Or is it time to seek another pen?
BTW, I have owned a Parker 51 and a couple of Esterbrook Js and didn't care for the filling system on the latter. As for the Parker, well, it had a fine crack in it when I bought it, and I never got over the crack, even though it didn't affect the pen in use. So, a 51 may be on the table as an option, too.
I have a fine-nib Pelikan M200 that I absolutely love and have used for about four years. This is always inked and always close at hand.
I have a medium-nib Lamy Safari that I carry in my pocket and use daily. I love the way it writes and don't mind its looks, though of course the Pelikan trumps it.
And then there's the Waterman Phileas. Medium nib but it writes like a scratchy fine nib. Feels clunky in my hand. Sure, it was locally available when I bought it, but outside of that, I have never liked anything about it. Help me out. Is the scratchy, stingy nib normal? I sometimes have trouble even with pretty wet inks getting the thing to flow smoothly, and I never get a line that looks anything other than fine or extra-fine.
Should I just give up on the thing? Or should I learn to love it. Give me some guidance here, please.
I'm not really looking to get a FP collection going, but three is a nice number for me, so if I do lose the Phileas, what should take its place? I prefer low-profile instruments, and I'm not looking to drop a lot of money, but I certainly don't need another Safari or the like right now. I've considered replacing the Phileas with a second M200 or an M215, but expanding the repertoire is not out of the question.
For reference, I don't do a lot of letter writing. I do write a lot of lists and do quite a bit of grading of my students' writing with the Lamy, and the Pelikan sees use in my daily journal writing and the composition of some short fiction and personal essays. The Phileas was used for note-taking in grad school, and I would love to carry it now in my bag to work so that I could have an extra inked pen at hand and so that I could keep the Pelikan at home as a desk pen. In short, for me, the Phileas feels second-class in a way that the Lamy doesn't (i.e. it has to do with the way it feels in use, not its price or aesthetics). I don't want to have to slum it when I'm away from home and don't want to always have to carry the M200 with me. So, do I just need to have some work done on the Phileas? Or is it time to seek another pen?
BTW, I have owned a Parker 51 and a couple of Esterbrook Js and didn't care for the filling system on the latter. As for the Parker, well, it had a fine crack in it when I bought it, and I never got over the crack, even though it didn't affect the pen in use. So, a 51 may be on the table as an option, too.
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Thanks, guys, but after some tweaking this afternoon, it is writing pretty darn smoothly. I will give it more proper TLC when I can get a better look at what I'm doing, but a magnifying glass and thumbnails really did do wonders. This thing was not right out of the box, but it was a pleasure to use this afternoon. Wrote a couple of pages just because it felt good. It's not perfect yet, but like I said, when I can get a better look tomorrow and use some tools on it, should be excellent.
Yeah, I figured out pretty quickly the approach here. Brushes get my dollars right now, but I know what a rabbit hole pens could become for me. It's part of why I sold off the 51 and Esterbrooks. I felt myself slipping into AD mode.
Fortunately, I'm reining in the urge for now, but give me another couple of days in the Nib and I'm hosed. Just reading the thread about a first FP for a street cop I picked up a handful of pens for the wishlist.
