I Just Couldn't Resist - Pelikan M400 (Schildpatt-Braun/turquoise Brown) New Old Stock

[fireant]

Oh my that's a beauty!

[ScienceChick]

Beautiful pen and great story! Congrats on your find. I'm firmly in the "use it" camp. In my world, pens are meant to be written with.

[fireant]

NTSH (double post kinda)

Edited July 19, 2015 by fireant

[KreepyKen]

Great story, beautifully presented. Thank you so much for sharing. These brown tortoises are some of my favorites and to find a NOS one like this in person is just amazing. Congratulations on your purchase and enjoy it. It will serve you well for a long time to come.

 

I second this sentiment. I really enjoyed reading your story and seeing the samples. Don't apologize for inking the pen. It's yours, so do with it what makes you happiest.

[massoh]

congratulations....enjoy it,

I am glad that the user in you have won the collector one and inked/used it once returned home....wouldn't do more than you did if I were at your place.

[Frank C]

I believe that all fountain pen users dream of finding a NOS version of some iconic pen. We were able to enjoy your story vicariously.

 

As for using it, I always say go ahead! You could have sold it at a profit, but what would you do with the money? Buy another, lesser, pen?

[Tweel]

I found the same pen, also NOS, in a small pen shop the autumn before last. My fiancée was enthusiastically trying to interest me in the M800s (and I did get a NOS 800 from the late 90's, which is a great pen), but you can guess where my eyes really locked.

 

The clerk pointed out apologetically that the M400 only had one of the "old nibs", and offered to exchange it for a nice new one .

Edited July 19, 2015 by Tweel

[haruka337]

Wow.

[fly_us]

I found the same pen, also NOS, in a small pen shop the autumn before last. My fiancée was enthusiastically trying to interest me in the M800s (and I did get a NOS 800 from the late 90's, which is a great pen), but you can guess where my eyes really locked.

 

The clerk pointed out apologetically that the M400 only had one of the "old nibs", and offered to exchange it for a nice new one .

Oh my..

 

Glad that you are there on that day. Otherwise another guy might agree to switch the nib.

[Serlo]

Thank you all for your kind comments on my lucky find. It is, indeed, an excellent writer and I have been using it as my daily pen for the past week. So far there has not been any kind of skipping or hard start and I love the fact that, despite the fact that it has got an M nib, the lines are more like the one of an EF or F nib if one doesn't apply any pressure (of course, I never apply any pressure when using a fountain pen). The ink flows as soon as the nib touches the paper and it is a joy to use this pen. All the modern Pelikan F nibs I had tried before felt more like M or B nibs and I prefer finer lines as my handwriting is quite small. This is probably one of the reasons why I haven't bought the Stresemann... so far. I don't think that the Pelikans can breed if you have only got one. The only Pelikan that I have still got is hidden in a drawer; it is a Steno pen with a Steno nib that is not produced any longer, but I lost the cap (does anyone know whether or where I can get a cap for this one? I think that this should be dealt with in another thread). If you want to write in German shorthand, which is called Stenografie, line varations are necessary to know which vowel is before the consonant, but I prefer soft pencils for shorthand and the pen has never worked for me. So the M400 did not have a chance to meet its predecessor that actually is much younger, and I hope that this precaution can prevent them from breeding.

 

When I told one of my colleagues about my find, he asked me why I hadn't thought about selling it. Actually this thought has never, not even for the fraction of a second, crossed my mind. As Frank C pointed out, I would probably never get a better pen. I still don't get the idea why one should collect pens without enjoying them and putting them to use. So thank you for your comments (and being very kind to a newbie to this forum and the world of fountain pens, maybe not as a user, but as a collector)!

Edited July 21, 2015 by Serlo