Hi all!

I have a question that I'm hoping some of the Pelikan M-series experts can help sort out . . .

Is the M800 closer in writing feel to the M600, or to the M1000?

I currently own both an M600 and an M1000. The M600 was my first Pelikan purchase, and I really, really loved it. I just wished it were a bit bigger. After saving a bit of cash, I splurged and bought myself an M1000 . . . but I find that I just don't like writing with it! Not exactly sure what it is, but I suspect it may be the extra large nib on the M1000. It just doesn't 'feel' right.

Both pens have a Medium nib, and both have been modified into nice cursive italics. While I've always felt that perhaps the M600 line could stand to be a bit wider, the M1000 seems too wide . . . not really a difference in actual line width, but the M1000 seems 'harder to control', and seems to lay down too much ink even though it's been adjusted to reduce the flow. It's odd because the nib is not as wet or broad as a few other pens I have (a Bexley Americana or a Rotring 600, both with B nibs, for example), but I can't seem to get myself to write well with it whereas other pens (such as the aforementioned M600, Bexley, or Rotring) all feel great, like an extension of my fingers.

I'm to the point where I'm thinking of selling my M1000 and buying an M800, or perhaps even offering the M1000 in a straight-up trade for an M800. But first, I'd like to know . . . is the M800 more like a 'bit bigger' M600, or is it really more like a 'bit smaller' M1000?

I hope this question makes sense. I'm not talking about the extra weight due to the brass parts (which I like), but more about the writing feel due to the hand/nib/paper interaction.

BTW, if anyone has an M800 in Black or Blue Stripe with a M or B nib, and you're interested in trading it for a nearly new black M1000 with a M nib ground to a cursive italic, drop me a line!!

Hi there and to start off with the punch line: I love my M800 and M215 so much that I'm afraid I can't be really satisfied until I got 'em all (the next two being M320 and M450).

Your question is a good question but hard to anser in one word.

• In terms of lengths posted or of diameters, the M800 is almost exactly in the middle of those of M600 and M1000.
• In terms of lenths capped or of weight, the M800 is more akin to the M1000.
• All three have gold nibs with rhodium, but M600's gold is 14 carat whereas M800 and M100 both have 18 carat.
• All three come in black but the other colour offers in striations are different: M600 has green-black, blue-black, or red-black. M800 has only green-black and blue-black. M1000 has only green-black.
• The M600 has eight nib sizes but M800 and M1000 each have ten.

Hope that helps,
Mike

You're in the Detroit area? Contact Pam Braun, on 10 Mile and Greenfield (Lincoln Towers) in Oak Park:


http://www.oscarbraunpens.com




=====================

M800 does comes in red-black - so in that respect it is the same as the M600.

M805/M605 (silver trim) colour options do differ though.

Cheers,
Mark.

IMO, it would be more accurate to say the 800 is a large 600 than to say the 800 is a small 1000. IMO, the 1000 nib really is very different from the other Pelikan gold nibs.

If the 1000 is too springy and wet for you, the 800 may feel a little more like the 600. I do not know if a 600 M writes a line comparable to an 800 M. Obviously there will be individual differences. Maybe with some 600's and 800's can comment on this.



j

Tp be honest, John's reply above is -- as usual -- very concisive and helpful.
But at the same time, Pelikan being a very "individual" company, manufacturing "individual FP samples" (something which I like up to the present day), you just cannot help having to harvest a great deal of variation in the qualities among their nibs. Most Pelikan nibs are exchangeable within one and the same model, and many nibs are also exchangeble within one and the same model "line" (e.g. 200, 215, 250).
I found this out last month with M800s and M200s, M215s and M250s and I was able to exchange whatever I wanted. Main thing of course is that your dealer has a good supply.

To make a long story short, I think, personally, the better the company, the more the differences among the nib-samples offered!

mike

The M800 is sized closer to the M1000 in size, but the nib feels *much* more like the M600 in tactile feedback.

Fully agree. The M1000 is an odd duck: it has spring but no real flex (I just tried to impress you with my knowledge; in truth, I bluffed, I could not tell the difference to save my life, but I know it exists--because Richard Binder says so on his web page).

What I DO know, using five M600s, two M800s and one M1000, is that the M1000 is indeed an odd duck, love it or hate it (I happen to love it).

Go ahead and get an M800, it will feel closer to an M600 than to an M1000. Pomise you.

Keep us posted,

-Gerard

Historically, in the beginning there was the 400, introduced following World War II, as part of the postwar European "New Look" (see Coco Chanel).

Over the years, Pelikan restyled it into the 400N, briefly, in 1956, and the 400NN. And there were additional models, to wit the 500, 520, 600 and 700 (gold filled cap, all gold filled, 14 K gold cap, all 14k) But, with fountain pens having been undermined, by 1973 the 400 appeared to be dead and gone.

In 1984 Pelikan underwent a rejuvenation and the M400 became their flagship pen. In the next few years there emerged a series of pens built, as before, on that "chassis," the M600 and the M7XX series were but two examples. All these pens, from the original Toledo (M700) reproduction to the 750/760 Sesquicentennials, were the same essential size.

However, the new Pelikan became aware that Montblanc, with their tradition of larger pens, was beating them out in the marketplace, so in 1987 they introduced the M800. Subsequently, the M600 was redesigned to fall midpoint between the 400 and 800 sizes and the superdreadnought M1000 was introduced.

Hope this brief historical tour helps to put these size questions into some perspective.

Thanks everybody for your excellent input. Based on what I've read here, I think that an M800 would be the answer to my problem . . . keep your eye on the Marketplace!

Rick, I'm stunned at your knowledgeabilty of this Pelikan stuff here. That's otherwise all hard to read -- or not at all to read -- in the rest of the website world and I thank you for your very illuminative review here.

Mike
PS: the next Pelikans I need are "only" an M320, M450, and "both" Toledos. So, I said it!

Mike,

I'm glad you found it helpful. Thanks for your kind words.

Rick

I like the m1000 more than the m600 but that is because I am more accustomed to bigger pens. Also the nib on the m1000 is somewhat more flexier.

M1000 -----you will not regret,i think you will choose one should be it.

oh sorry.and the colour is black is best,if you have 800.it green.