How Did This Happen? They Must Be Breeding In Secret

[Lelouch]

Lelouch, you see correctly. While all the torts have a brown cap and knob, the 1950 400 version has the prettiest shade of them all, in my opinion. The newer ones are so dark they can be hard to tell from black even in sunlight. I love how each version seems to have unique stripes. Love the torts!

With regards to the color, I would definitely have to agree with you there. That is part of the reason I am drawn to the appearance of the M101N tortoiseshell brown and m200 café creme.

[Newjelan]

This seems like a good spot to post this picture... I won't try to tell you I didn't know this was happening though

Oh my, they are beautiful.

[Newjelan]

This thread had me in stitches ....really nearly w.t my pants.

Thanks for that.

Oh dear!

[Misfit]

I was set with 2 Pelikans for years. Yes, a Pelikan Twist, and free (Fountain Pen Day Deal) Pelikano came along.

 

But now, after help from the wonderful sargetalon, I finally got a vintage Brown Tortoise, and it wanted company because the other Pelikans are blue. It made me look online, and pencils.jp had limited stock of the Cafe Creme (14,000 yen or $125 plus change with shipping to be announced). Oh yes, I could have got it two years ago for $25 less, but did not for some strange reason. But all of a sudden, thinking I would wait till tomorrow, my finger clicked purchase.

 

So it seems the Brown Tortoise is a breeder.

 

I seriously need to reach contentment with the pens I already have. Stop laughing.

 

Edited to add the Cafe Creme I ordered only came in F nib. I am not a fan of fine nibs. Maybe in time I can get a nib unit I really like (italic, stub or oblique).

Edited July 21, 2018 by Misfit

[Bo Bo Olson]

Two months ago, a pre'98 600 and 1005 hatched.

 

If it wasn't for the two MB's in a plastic bag at a live auction today***, I may have gone and bid on a 400nn, semi-flex M..................and why I have no idea.....I have a 400nn in green. I have other semi-flex M nibs.

Those second tier MB's saved me from a Pelikan I didn't need. ................it is a great pen, it is in M a nib with I've grown to like quite well...............

.

.

.

Had it been a tortoise....who knows....

 

 

On Tuesday, I'll find out if I was right the MB's would drive up the price, or if I should rent a size 19 1/2 boot for the week.

Edited July 21, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[inkstainedruth]

I was set with 2 Pelikans for years. Yes, a Pelikan Twist, and free (Fountain Pen Day Deal) Pelikano came along.

 

But now, after help from the wonderful sargetalon, I finally got a vintage Brown Tortoise, and it wanted company because the other Pelikans are blue. It made me look online, and pencils.jp had limited stock of the Cafe Creme (14,000 yen or $125 plus change with shipping to be announced). Oh yes, I could have got it two years ago for $25 less, but did not for some strange reason. But all of a sudden, thinking I would wait till tomorrow, my finger clicked purchase.

 

So it seems the Brown Tortoise is a breeder.

 

I seriously need to reach contentment with the pens I already have. Stop laughing.

 

Edited to add the Cafe Creme I ordered only came in F nib. I am not a fan of fine nibs. Maybe in time I can get a nib unit I really like (italic, stub or oblique).

 

I have sadly lost two Café Crèmes. The second one (which I keep thinking is just somewhere in a box in my living room) originally had a "wide" nib according to the seller (I got extremely lucky in finding one at ALL because the first one got bought just at the end of when that color was widely available, and I searched in desperation for several months for a replacement). Well "wide" turned out to be an IM nib, which was a firehose even by normal levels of Pelikan wet nibs -- even iron gall ink couldn't tame it. I got it tweaked and then bought a nicely tuned B nib for it, to match my first one).

My first one was a 1990s era M400 Brown Tortoise, bought for a special occasion. It was followed by a similar vintage green marble M200 as a joke gift from a friend (it has the Bayer logo on it) and I don't think she quite realized what the pen was worth, since she got it on Freecycle. Those were followed by a 1980s era M100 (I think that's the model) with a 1 mm stub -- very nice for "problematic" shimmer inks). Then of course the two Café Crèmes, then a 1950s 400 with an OB nib. Last year (due to circumstances that will likely never happen again), I had the budget for a couple of modern M405s (Striated Blue and Anthracite Stresemann) -- which are my most expensive pens by far. And prompted a very interesting phone call from PayPal... (especially since they were bought from off eBay from Rolf Thiel at Missing Pens, so not only a really large expenditure, but also the funds were being sent to Europe...). Ironically, the Striated Blue was the color I wanted the most, but was amongst the last to get....

This year the expenditures were much lower: a 1980s era Pelikano at the Baltimore Washington Pen Show. It's the only bird that *isn't* a piston filler, and means I can now actually USE the Edelstein Amethyst cartridges which were swag from my first Pelikan Hub.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

The '90's 381 and Celebry pens use cartridges, and have great regular flex nibs, two in gold and one in steel and all are equal to the '90's 400 I also have. (Or the 200's )

The 381 and one of the Celebries are slightly different 'marbled' green.

I got mine for @ E35 on German Ebay.............just looked quickly at sold, past auction...E26 & E50.

 

I too being in a slight LOM crises when there was a bottle ended up with only Edelstein Amethyst cartridges, the two packages cost nearly as much as a bottle....

 

Grumble....to many pens inked to pull out a Amethyst cartridge .

[Misfit]

@inkstainedruth

As a stranger to you, I keep hoping you’ll find your Cafe Creme whenever I come back to read these topics. But I guess on FPN, we are all kind of friends through this pen journey. I got a 1950s era Brown Tortoise with help from sargetalon because the link I asked him to look at was a frankenpen. eBay had a coupon at the time taking 15% off, so I used that to get the Pelikan and some modern Conklin Duragraphs with the 1.1 stub nib.

 

Why I started looking for Cafe Creme Pens is not logical, but it was the pen I first asked sargetalon about, and I keep using that PM when I need to ask him a Pelikan question. Back then he answered my question about overseas sellers. Could have got a Cafe Creme for $98 with probably nib choices (it was at Martini auctions).

 

I still hope you will find that Cafe Creme in your home.

[Misfit]

Oh! I’ll be going to my first Pelikan Hub this year. Hurray! Do they give out bottles of ink? The image of a bottle of Olivine ink was there when registering in early July.

[Gobblecup]

I owned and lost a Pelikan M400 maybe seven to eight years ago, it wasn't until this year that a new flock started to gather with me. I started with a White Tortoise M400 with an IB nib, then about a month later, got a White Transparent M605 with a F nib, and now, I just received my long awaited Metal Striped M815 about a week or so ago, with a B nib ground to Cursive Italic by Dan Smith. I plan to buy a Cafe Creme with a M M400 nib unit from a friend and local pen collector/user at our next pen meet up in August... these birds really do multiply don't they! I'm still going to be on the lookout for a nice vintage 100N with a flexy F or EF nib, and an M1000 with any nib I can find on it, but I'm not going to rush those things, my pen budget will need time to recover to grow the flock. I have been enjoying writing with my Pelikans immensely, and I personally find something interesting about the modern "blobby nail" nibs, however when I can I typically turn such a nib into an Italic! Strangely the most flexy of my current birds is the M400 IB, it is very peasant to use.

 

Edit: I plan to make it to a Pelikan Hub this year, so I too would like to know what to expect.

 

And of course I hope InkStainedRuth finds her Cafe Creme!

Edited July 22, 2018 by Gobblecup

[Misfit]

Click on sargetalon’s signature link to his Pelikan Perch blog. He has write ups of 3 hubs he attended. That said, I don’t know if every hub meets at a restaurant. I almost expect the one I’m going to to meet where we have our pen club meetings, but that is not verified.

[Bo Bo Olson]

My '54's tortoise pen is black capped.

However my '90-96 400 tortoise had a black/brown cap and piston knob. I'd read about the 'brown' capped 400 at Rudigers....having not noticed any 'brown' ....and only by putting a known black pen next to them did I see any hint of brown.

In fact I had to call my wife, and she said it was a very dark brown.

[Runnin_Ute]

My current selection of birds includes:

 

120 Merz & Krell M from the 70's. I paid less for it than many lesser pens ($17.50) It's a firehose and with an ink capacity half of most Pelikan's.....

140 F from the 50's. It is my most expensive pen, regardless of brand. I bought it from Rick Propas.

M150 F

M200 blue marbled (old style, W Germany on cap band) OB*

M200 Cognac F*

M200 brown marbled M

*OB & F nibs currently exchanged in the other pen

The Cognac and Brown Marbled were purchased new- all others previously owned/used.

[Misfit]

Its official, as I just used PayPal to pay pencils.jp for the Pelikan Cafe Creme. That means if we count the Twist and Pelikano, I will have 6 Pelikans.

 

In order received

M405 Souveran Black Blue stripe

M850 Souveran Black Blue stripe (I dont have the box or any other paperwork on this pen, but in a letter my brother called it an M850)

Pelikan Candy Apple Twist

Pelikano in blue

Pelikan 400 Vintage Brown Tortoise

And the soon to come M200 Cafe Creme

 

My brother gave me the first two Pelikans. He outright gave the M405. The M850 was his, and he used it to write two books. He self-published one (Royce ORourke, Realtor!). Part of me feels like Im the caretaker, but not truly owner, of the M850. Time will tell.

Edited July 23, 2018 by Misfit

[Misfit]

My '54's tortoise pen is black capped.

However my '90-96 400 tortoise had a black/brown cap and piston knob. I'd read about the 'brown' capped 400 at Rudigers....having not noticed any 'brown' ....and only by putting a known black pen next to them did I see any hint of brown.

In fact I had to call my wife, and she said it was a very dark brown.

My Brown Tortoise which sargetalon dated to the 1950s (maybe 1954) has a brown cap. I shined a flashlight in it to be sure.

[fpwriter]

Seems to be a global phenomenon!!

[PAKMAN]

I've experienced this phenom too!

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

My Brown Tortoise which sargetalon dated to the 1950s (maybe 1954) has a brown cap. I shined a flashlight in it to be sure.

:lticaptd:Know the feeling.....

 

Pakman....love those Grand Places.... That is, was my Grail 600.

Edited July 23, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[sansenri]

they do breed...

in my case it was a rare case of multiple twin birth

[Newjelan]

I’m so glad I’m not alone. Since this post I’ve acquired the Pelikan M120 and am trying very hard not to buy one of the clear demonstrators.