The Pelikan M620 Grand Place Fountain Pen: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

When the Pelikan M800 Grand Place came out earlier this year, I was sorely tempted to buy one. Like others, I found the swirl pattern appealing and distinct from Pelikan's striped models. But while I was looking at photos of the new Grand Place, I came upon the M620 Grand Place, a model that was produced in 2006. Although I liked the M800, I loved the M620. Why? Because, unlike the M800 which has a black grip and piston knob, the M620 grip and knob are a beautiful, sheeny copper.

Of course, the M620 version is no longer available from vendors. But once I fall for a pen, I am relentless in my pursuit. I looked on eBay where I found the pen offered without a nib for an exorbitant price. But that was essentially the only M620 Grand Place I could find.

So, I placed a "Want To Buy" ad on FPN and within a day or two I found a seller offering the pen with a fine nib for a reasonable price. It came from Singapore, so I had to wait a little while, but it arrived in perfect condition with all the original packaging.

Part of Pelikan's City Series, the Grand Place is named after the Grote Markt in Brussels. The square once housed an indoor market and the town's city hall.

The pen is comprised of brown, copper, and gold colors with swirls of blue interwoven. The chatoyance is mesmerizing.

As I said, what drew me to the M620 over the M800 model was the copper grip and piston knob. Both are made of shimmery copper resin that matches the rest of the pen perfectly. The black grip and knob on the M800 seems to drain the pen of its warmth, whereas the copper on the M620 enhances the golden tones.

The M600 is my favorite Pelikan size at 5.24 inches/133mm capped and 18 grams in weight. It's neither too short nor too long. And it's definitely not heavy. Many Pelikan enthusiasts prefer the more robust M800, but I favor the 600 size.

The nib is a two-tone fine with the ornate Pelikan design. I think Pelikan nibs are some of the most beautiful modern nibs you can buy. Plus, their nibs are smooth and problem free (in my experience). This one seems to be a true Western fine, wider than a Japanese fine but definitely not close to a medium.

The cap has the Pelikan logo in gold on a black finial. The beak-shaped clip is gold and the cap sports the usual "Pelikan Souverän Germany" on the ring.

Of course this model is a piston filler and holds a good amount of ink (1.3ml). I inked it with Diamine Ancient Copper for my written review. Ancient Copper is a perfect match for this pen. Too bad it gets funky if you leave it too long in a pen. By "funky" I mean that it gunks up your nib and sort of crystalizes. I no longer leave Ancient Copper in any pen for more than a few days, which is too bad, because it's a great color.

Pros

• This is a gorgeous pen with an unusual swirl design and unique colors. Unlike the M800 version, the grip and piston knob are copper instead of black.
• The M600 size is a good size for many writers. It isn't heavy but it's long enough to feel substantial.
• The fine nib on my M620 writes smoothly and without any problems.

Cons

• The M620 Grand Place is no longer available through vendors. If you are like me and want the M620, I'd suggest placing a "want to buy" ad like I did. But, you can also find the larger M800 with a black grip and piston knob at places like Goldspot Pens.

Vintage Pens for People Who Think Vintage Pens Are Scary

(Ron Gilmour is a fountain pen enthusiast, would-be calligrapher, and librarian. You can find him online at Twitter @gilmour70 and Instagram.)

The vibrant online pen community, of which many Pen Addict readers and listeners are a part of, concerns itself primarily with modern pens. This is understandable, as modern pens are easily available and are consistent enough for reviews to be meaningful. For those who have no experience with vintage pens, the vintage world may seem like a foreign and sometimes puzzling place.

This posts and its successors are a modest attempt at encouraging the "modernists" among Pen Addict readers to dip their toes into the vintage world, which I swear isn't scary. These posts were inspired by an excellent post from Dr. Deans of Pen Economics entitled "Why Aren't Vintage Pens More Popular?".

Here's the plan. In this post, I will address a few common myths about vintage fountain pens, which I hope will convince you that they are worth trying out. In succeeding posts, I will highlight a few major vintage pen models that are easy to find, affordable, and reliable. On with the myths!

Vintage Pens are Expensive

Well, yes, some of them are, but so are some modern pens. The two major factors that account for high prices on vintage pens are condition and scarcity.

At the risk of stating the obvious, vintage pens have been around for a while. Some of the most popular models date from the 1930s and '40s. Some have had multiple owners, not all of whom may have been fastidious in their pen care habits. Consequently, if you insist on a pen in perfect condition, you can expect to pay for it. If you aren't too picky about aesthetics, you can get some great deals.

(Vocabulary note: If you see a vintage pen advertised as "NOS," that means "new old stock." Such a pen is as it came from the manufacturer and has presumably been sitting in a warehouse since WWII. Which is kind of sad, but great news if you want a pristine example of a vintage pen.)

The other major factor that can drive up the price of the pen is scarcity. This is a simple matter of supply and demand. If you're chasing down a rare pen, you can expect to pay quite a bit for it when you find it. If you're in the market for a vintage Sheaffer Balance and you're not picky about color, you can easily find one under $100 US (subject to condition), but if you must have it in the lovely "rose glow" color, expect to pay.

Recently, a possible third factor has emerged: flex. Pens with flexible nibs generally command a somewhat higher price than pens with firm nibs. This factor may become even more significant as the trendiness of flex nibs increases and fountain pen users frustrated with the sad state of "modern flex" wisely opt for vintage pens.

Vintage Pens are Hard to Buy

The many wonderful vendors who serve the modern pen community have spoiled us. They provide extensive information, detailed photos, and customer reviews about their products. Many of their websites are lovely. In contrast, Dr. Deans has compared the sites of some vintage vendors to Soviet prison camps. A little harsh, but many have at least a hint of the late '90s about them. Many vintage vendors are small (sometimes one-person) shops. They may not have professional photographers, web designers, or data-entry minions.

It might help to think of your transactions with vintage pen dealers as more like ordering a custom pen from Edison Pens or Shawn Newton than like ordering the latest TWSBI from Goulet Pens. It might take a few emails to secure the sale, but that gives you a chance to ask questions and engage with a fountain pen expert!

Keeping one's stock up-to-date on a website is a time-consuming task, especially when every item is unique. Vintage vendors may have items that aren't currently listed. If you tell a vendor what you're looking for, they can often oblige, even if the item isn't listed on their site. (That said, don't go asking vintage sellers about items outside their usual range of interest. It does no good to inquire about a vintage Pelikan from a vendor whose site clearly indicates a specialization in American pens.)

I've spoken so far about obtaining pens from specialist vendors, which is by far the safest way to go. The second best way is through non-vendor ads on the various fountain pen forums. My experience buying from the forums has been very good. Read the descriptions carefully, examine the photos, use common sense, and you'll probably have a good experience.

The final way to find a vintage pen is through online auction sites. This is a far riskier way to buy a pen. Personally, I only buy pens from online auction sites if the seller is a fountain pen specialist. Auction sites are filled with "I found this in mama's attic" ads and you should avoid those. A red flag is that non-pen-dealers on auction sites seem to describe everything as "rare," despite the fact that there are dozens of that model listed for sale. If the seller thinks a Pelikan 120 is "rare," then you don't want to buy from them.

At this point I'll mention a price factor that I omitted above: the reputation of the vendor. Other factors being equal, you may pay more for a pen from a reputable vintage dealer than from an auction site or a random ad on FPN. Personally, I regard the extra cost as a good investment. Specialist vintage dealers have reputations to protect and do not want unhappy customers. They have extensive knowledge of vintage pens and restoration methods. Sometimes they will even offer limited warranties. Going after the "too good to be true" deal from an unknown seller on an auction site is a recipe for disappointment.

Vintage Pens have Freaky Filling Mechanisms

Over the decades, there has been a winnowing of filling mechanisms. Most modern pens are either piston fillers or cartridge/converter pens. There has been a recent revival of interest in vacuum fillers (e.g., Pilot and TWSBI) and Edison Pens produces modern versions of the classic pump filler and pneumatic mechanisms.

In Days of Yore, there were far more filling systems and companies competed in developing mechanisms that maximized ink capacity and minimized mess. Many of these systems are based around a "sac" or "bladder," a flexible ink container inside the pen. If you've ever used a squeeze converter from Pilot or Kaweco, you get the idea. Several filling systems used such an internal sac and were named for whatever mechanism was used to compress and expand that sac, but they're just variations on the "sac filler" theme. This includes lever-fillers, button-fillers, crescent-fillers, and others.

But sac fillers have drawbacks, as one might guess from their virtual absence in the modern fountain pen market. Sacs break down and require replacement. People tell me this is easy, but I've yet to try it myself. I'm not a very handy person and I prefer to send the pen to a repair person.

Furthermore, the ink capacity of a sac-filling pen is limited by the thickness of the sac wall itself. Maximum ink capacity requires a method that will fill the whole barrel with ink. Thus the one-time popularity of the Parker's "vacumatic" filler and the continuing enthusiasm for piston fillers.

Think of all this as a source of fun. I've yet to purchase a vintage pen that I couldn't fill and I doubt that you will either. At worst, you'll have to search YouTube.

I'll discuss filling mechanisms in more detail in later posts as they apply to specific models.

Vintage Pens are Delicate / Hard to Care For

Remember that vintage pens were created in an age when everyone used fountain pens, but when most people couldn't afford an arsenal of them. Many vintage fountain pens are tanks--built for daily use indefinitely.

I don't like to carry pens around. Most of my pens live at home, but I always have a pen or two at the office. I'll swap the "office pen" out every month or so. To qualify as an office pen, a pen must be drama free. I don't have time at work to fuss with a troublesome pen. And most of my office pens are vintage.

Nevertheless, there is a real possibility that you might need to have your vintage pens repaired at some point. Most of mine have made a trip to the repair shop at some point. Such repairs thus far have been fast and affordable, usually just involving replacing a sac or similar. There are plenty of good pen repairers out there and they are easily found by asking around on social media or perusing fountain pen web sites. The number of vintage pens I've sent off for repair roughly equals the number of modern pens that I've sent off to have their nibs adjusted, so I wouldn't count repair as an added cost for vintage.

A final note on caring for vintage pens: the ink question. Many owners of vintage pens, myself included, prefer to be conservative in their ink selections. Richard Binder has an excellent article on inks, and you may wish to stick to his recommendations for "safe" inks and save the sparkling, shimmering, and laser-proof inks for your modern pens. I recommend this primarily because modern pens are usually easier to thoroughly clean than vintage pens.

I hope that you've enjoyed this post and will stay tuned for the model-specific posts to come.

Fantastic Nibs and Where to Find Them

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

All fountain pen aficionados know that the soul of a pen is its nib. No matter how beautiful the body of the pen is, if it doesn't write well, it loses its purpose in life. I've chosen some of my favorite nibs and why they are, in my view, fantastic. With one exception, all the nibs below are factory nibs that worked perfectly straight out of the box. Although I own spectacular nibs ground by nibmeisters, I wanted to focus on nibs that anyone can buy without special grinding.

Pilot Metropolitan Fine

Many people say that the Pilot Metropolitan is the gateway pen to fountain pen addiction. I have to agree. The nib is steel but smooth and uncomplicated. I've bought three Pilot Metropolitan Retro Pops, and all three write consistently well.

Pilot Retro Pop Fine Nib

The turquoise Retro Pop is my all-time favorite grading nib coupled with Diamine Marine (less scary than red). Smooth, perfect flow and $15.00–what is not to love? You can find these pens with their stellar nibs at many vendors, including JetPens.

Lamy 2000 Makrolon Fine

I got my Lamy 2000 through Massdrop, and, unfortunately, the original nib was awful. One of the tines was longer than the other and the pen was unusable.

Lamy 2000 Fine Nib

But, because Massdrop is an authorized dealer, Lamy changed out the bad nib for a good one at no charge, and now this is one of my favorite writers. Lamy 2000s can be found at JetPens, Goldspot, Goulet, and, occasionally, Massdrop.

Franklin-Christoph Marietta with a Gold Masuyama Medium Italic

I love Franklin-Christoph fountain pens. I would buy one of each if I could. The best part is you can get a pre-ground nib by nibmeister par excellence Mike Masuyama, without having to stand in a long line at a pen show or get in his business queue (which is months long).

Franklin-Christoph 18K Gold Medium Cursive Italic Nib

This is one of my favorite writing pens. I opted for the gold Medium italic and it is just terrific–no scratchiness, just beautiful, precise lines. You can get Masuyama nibs on virtually any Franklin-Christoph model.

Pilot Custom Heritage 912 with FA Nib

I reviewed this pen a few months back on Pen Addict. As I said in that review, there's nothing really remarkable about the pen itself since it's a typical black pen.

Pilot FA Nib

Nevertheless, what makes this pen stand out is the FA nib. The FA nib has wing cut outs on the nib that allow the pen to flex, giving you an almost-but-not-quite vintage flex experience. I bought my Pilot Custom 912 on Amazon, but you can also find them at Goldspot and Goulet.

Pilot Custom Heritage 823 Medium

The Pilot Custom 823 is one of those pens that almost everyone adores. Its vacuum filling system, size, and simple beauty are all a testament to the pen's popularity. But the thing that sets it apart from all the other cigar-shaped fountain pens is its huge, gorgeous nib. I love this nib.

Pilot 823 Medium Nib

Here's the key, though. If you want a smooth writing experience with the 823 nib, I recommend you go with a medium (or larger) nib. With extra fine or fine nibs you may wind up with something scratchy that digs into the paper. It's not that Pilot extra-fine or fine nibs are bad, but they are much finer than Western pens and the medium nib on my 823 writes like a true fine–one of the smoothest fine nibs I own. Goldspot and Goulet carry these pens as do many other vendors.

Graf von Faber Castell Intuition Terra Cotta Oblique Medium

In order to get a factory oblique medium nib, I had to purchase this nib from Martini Auctions (no American vendors stock these nibs). The price for the pen was definitely competitive (less than some American vendors without the OM nib), so I didn't mind the fact that it took a little longer to obtain from overseas.

Graf von Faber Castell Oblique Medium Nib

It has a nice crisp line but none of the strict positioning that can come with a cursive italic nib. I like obliques since I tend to hold my pens at an angle. The Graf von Faber Castell Intuition in Terra is difficult to find these days, but you can get other models. I'd suggest Martini Auctions if you're interested in nibs other than the standard medium.

Sailor Cross Concord

I reviewed this nib a couple of months ago along with the Sailor Cross Point. The Concord is definitely my favorite of the two because its standard position writes like a normal fine nib. But if you want some swishy, fat goodness, you just flip the pen over and glide away.

Sailor Cross Concord Nib

Sailor Specialty nibs are expensive and right now are difficult to obtain. You can order them from nibs.com and now from Anderson Pens.

Omas Ogiva Factory Italic

This is the smoothest italic I've ever used. I don't know if it is just a medium or broad nib whose tip was chopped off (it certainly doesn't seem to have tipping), but that seems to be the case (see the discussion on FPN here and here).

Omas Ogiva Factory Italic Nib

Regardless, it writes as smoothly as Ella Fitzgerald singing "Summertime." Sadly, since Omas is now out of business, it's much more difficult to purchase any of their pens, especially those with special nibs. Keep an eye out for sales on FPN and other Internet sites.

Montblanc Heritage 1912 Fine

This nib isn't huge and it isn't ornate, but it writes beautifully. Of course, you wind up paying a premium for the pen, not because of the nib, but because of the safety pen mechanism and the Montblanc name.

Montblanc Heritage 1912 Fine Nib

I love the retro-feel of this pen (see my review here). It's substantial and heavy (the barrel is made of metal), but the nib has a vintage spring to it that makes it a joy to write with. I bought my Montblanc Heritage 1912 from a seller on FPN. It's available through Montblanc and occasionally other online vendors.

Pelikan M400 White Tortoise with Factory OBB Nib

Although I prefer the M600 size Pelikans, I bought this beauty from Rick Propas. It was part of a collection he was selling and came with a factory OBB nib at an unbelievable price. It is a spectacular writer, inked with Pelikan Edelstein Amber (the only pen lucky enough to warrant that ink).

Pelikan M400 OBB Nib

It's getting more and more difficult to find Pelikans with italic or oblique nibs, especially the BB and BBB size, so you either have to buy vintage or seek out vendors that have these nibs in stock. Expect to pay a hefty amount for one of these Pelikan nibs. Classic Fountain Pens is one source for special-sized Pelikan nibs. You can also contact Rick Propas to see what he has in stock.

Nibs can be hit or miss depending on the fountain pen brand. I've had bad luck with Visconti and Kaweco nibs. I've read several discussions about the lack of size consistency of Pelikan nibs. Lamy nibs tend to get rave reviews or the exact opposite, which I'm sure is a quality control problem. I've even read reviews of bad Nakaya nibs–something I never thought possible.

The reality is that nibs don't always write well straight out of the box. Every user's experience may vary. It's always possible that you will get a poorly aligned nib, or a feed that doesn't offer enough flow for a particular nib, or tines that are different sizes, or a nib that is just plain scratchy. That's why it's always good to read return and exchange policies for fountain pens. When you buy from individual sellers rather than vendors, you may not get a refund if the nib is not to your liking. So, as one of my pen friends wisely suggested, if you buy a used pen, factor in the cost of a nibmeister along with the cost of the pen.