Pelikan Souverän M800 nib width comparison

Before I got my Pelikan Souverän M800 I spent a while wondering what nib width I should get.

The reason for this is that I primarily use a medium width fountain pen nib, and I had heard from several people that Pelikan nibs "are usually a bit wider than normal - if you like a Medium nib and get a Pelikan, get one in Fine nib".

So I asked about it over on the Fountain Pen Network and got conflicting comments from people - some said I should go with a medium nib, others with a fine, and some even suggested a broad nib.

In the end I got it in a Medium nib, and I'm glad I did Lovely juicy line of ink on the paper and it writes like a dream. after testing it for a few days, I decided that I should have got it with a FINE nib instead of a medium. So I took advantage of Pelikan's offer that you can change the nib for free within 28 days of purchase and exchanged it for a FINE.

So, just in case there are folks reading this who normally use a Medium nib and are wondering whether to get a Pelikan nib in Medium or Fine, here's a comparison between the Pelikan Medium nib, a Lamy Al-Star Medium nib and the Pilot Medium nib (as fitted to my Pilot Capless / Namiki Vanishing point)

Click to enlarge to full size

And here's a 100% crop from the original 300dpi scanned image to show the line width variation more clearly.

Click to enlarge to full size

As you can see, the Pilot is thinner than the Lamy (but not by much) and the Pelikan is thicker than the Lamy (but again, not by much).

I would consider the Lamy nib to be a "true" medium. I'm sure there's people out there who'll disagree!

21-Jan-2011: With the Fine nib fitted to the Pelikan it writes the same line width as the Pilot Medium nib, which really suits my handwriting.