The Medium Small Pelikans, Ibis, 120, 140 & 150

[Bo Bo Olson]

I had a sudden urge to ink .... You know you can 'stare' at a ink in a box on the top of a pewter topped beer mug for a long time. And it just stares back. It is by me a rare ink, having only one Rotering ink.

 

Like magic in my hand was a Pelikan I'd not inked before, my black 150 M....and it is not as small as I thought.

It is a medium-small pen, that was once very popular, all German companies had one outside of perhaps MB.. All of them post long. The Ibis longer posted than the 400..... The 120, 140 & 150 posted are as long as a posted 400.

The Ibis posted is as long as my posted 605!! !!

The body of the 150 was a tad longer than the 120&140.

The cap longer in the 120, 140.

The Ibis was @ the same as the capped 140 in size, longer body, shorter cap.

 

I don't know why I was under an impression the 120 was 'bigger' than the 140.

 

I'm not going to get into exact 1 mm in the amounts where one is a slight tad shorter and it is a slight tad. I'm not as OCD as I once was.

 

The ink; Rotering Brilliant Ultramarine. My only ultramarine ink.

 

Well, if you have a short pocket polo shirt, a medium-long pen may fit. Defiantly a good shirt pocket pen.

 

Well, that Ibis has moved up on my better Pelikan pen list. It had a maxi-semi-flex OF in a gold nib.........so I do recommend looking for one.

 

I'd been too much of a snob, thinking it 'low' classed..........like the 120....been wrong before, but I do try to keep it to once a week. I've not seen the Rappen, so can't comment on that....but if it's replacement the Ibis was that good, perhaps the Rappen was better than I guess also.

 

Any one have both a Rappen and an Ibis?

Edited November 27, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[Runnin_Ute]

Have a 120 M & K, M150 and 140. Posted the 120 M & K is the longest, the M150 the shortest. But not by a significant amount. Noticed the M150 is the skinniest of the three, the 140 the fattest. These pens have always been a good size for me. Unless I don't post.

[chromantic]

No experience with the 120, 140 or Ibis but the M150s are my workhorses. I have eight of them now - 4 black, 3 black/burgundy and 1 green/black. Still waiting to get a black/grey - I'm only interested in a post-97 and, while the pre-97s are pretty common on ebay, the post-97s aren't. The only time I saw one, I'd just bought my 1st black/burgundy and couldn't afford another pen right at that moment.

Edited November 28, 2017 by chromantic

[Bo Bo Olson]

Ah, Ha!!!!

I didn't realize there were post '97 150's. What sort of nib does it have? Regular flex like the 200 or stiffer?

[chromantic]

Sargetalon mentions the 170th Anniversary Editions made in 2008 (my green/black is one of those) so they were being made then and I thought the M150 was still currently offered (in just the black) but it does look like they've finally dropped it, though there's plenty available on ebay. The nib is standard gold-plated steel like the 200s but 1/8" shorter and narrower at the shoulders, commensurate in size with the slightly smaller body of the pen. I haven't used my 200s enough to tell if there is any marked difference between them.

[Bo Bo Olson]

In my 150 cost E20, I can't complain too much...the seller in the junk/antique shop refused to listen to me say No!!!! and cleaned the slightly dirty nib with a stiff paper towel, and I watched the gold plating vanish.

 

Quick nib check....it 150 M and my Amethyst 200 M seem close......................could be I'll have to run another nib check on my Celebry and 381 nibs....seem to be a tad more tine spread than I remembered. or it could be M's vs F's.........

I had the steel and gold Celebry as even.....now going to have to ink the steel one too, and some 200's.........The only 200 I had that was not modern was a W.Germany one....and that's not quite a fair test.

:gaah:I'm going to have to clean my dirty pen cup. ..... as the glacier retreats I knew that would have to happen sooner or later.

[senzen]

Very interesting, I keep going back to the 120 and 140 in my search for decent, fuss free, used pens... Not as cheap on (US) ebay, they go for circa $100... Comparison pics would be greatly appreciated, preferably uncapped.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I'll see what I can do.

 

The 150 is still being made. My marbled brown 200 came in and it had a Pelikan catalog in the package.

The 215 with rings also.

 

It is true there is no more 4001 Brilliant Green .....R&K Verdura and MB Irish Green are very close to that discontinued Pelikan Ink and a hair better in the green-green ink race....if I was wise I'd get a third spare bottle. But have 2 X Verdura and most of an Irish Green.

[chromantic]

That's good to know, Bo Bo. I thought I had seen it on their site last year and was surprised to not see when I looked the other day.

[Biber]

I'm so glad to see the 150 getting some appreciation around here. It's so small people say. Baloney!! It's just about the same size as the 200. Unless you have gorilla hands or have the fine motor skills of a kindergardener - remember those fat pencils we all used?

 

Anyway, the 150 is a fantastic pan despite it's typical ball tipped Peikan nib. (Which is why I don't use mine as much as I'd like.) It'll take a 200 nib esp. if you have the older derby top cap which has a bit more head room in it. Custom ground 200 nibs are more likely to be up for grabs, and you can get aftermarket threaded collars to try your luck at putting a vintage nib in it.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Ah, just looked an the M 150 nib is a bit more round...ballish than the slightly thinner but longer M tipping of my 215 or 200 M Amethyst.

The things one can learn....but my 150's nib don't seem anywhere near the double kugal of a 400/600.........had I'd not been told of the ballish nib, I'd never noticed.....unlike a modern 400/600.

[Biber]

Ah, just looked an the M 150 nib is a bit more round...ballish than the slightly thinner but longer M tipping of my 215 or 200 M Amethyst.

The things one can learn....but my 150's nib don't seem anywhere near the double kugal of a 400/600.........had I'd not been told of the ballish nib, I'd never noticed.....unlike a modern 400/600.

 

Are you suggesting that at some time in the past (probably distant past) Pelikan actually groomed their nibs before plugging them into pens and sending them off for sale? Maybe so but the question is when they stopped doing that. I would venture to suggest that they stopped earlier than you think and that evaluating nibs (and hoping for a good one) as a determinant of era is wishful thinking unless you get a truly vintage nib. Say, pre- 1970? 80? '90? When did Pelikan stop making their own nibs? Or might the question be when did genuine mass production take over?

[Matlock]

 

Are you suggesting that at some time in the past (probably distant past) Pelikan actually groomed their nibs before plugging them into pens and sending them off for sale? Maybe so but the question is when they stopped doing that. I would venture to suggest that they stopped earlier than you think and that evaluating nibs (and hoping for a good one) as a determinant of era is wishful thinking unless you get a truly vintage nib. Say, pre- 1970? 80? '90? When did Pelikan stop making their own nibs? Or might the question be when did genuine mass production take over?

 

Pelikan do make their own nibs. They outsources them for a while but took them back 'in house' some time ago.

[Bo Bo Olson]

'50-65 the nibs are (outside the D&H nibs) stubbish, semi or maxi-semi-flex....

I have some ten from that era, including a 100n first stage of superflex and 130 Ibis which has a maxi-semi-flex nib. My 500 and 400nn are also maxi-semi-flex nibs. I have one D nib.

I like the oblique of that era very much, and think any oblique from a later era is a waste of money.

 

My single W.Germany OM nib a 200's is 'normal' small American Bump Under. So are my regular flex, M400 '90-96 in it's tortoise, 381, two Celebry pens one steel the other gold and both =.

My 200's as I said are a bit longer and not so round as my 150....nor is the 150 anywhere near as round and blobby as my 605 BB nib, that is now a 1.0 stub.

 

 

Well with many folks having owned many of my used pens, any problems were corrected. I've had no problem with my new 215, Amethyst or new Brown Marbled pen.

 

I'm sure Pelikan treated it's nibs better back in the day....in that was before Nib Meisters and no one wanted nibs being mailed from various parts of the world....even though back then....some 25 years ago....there was still the fabled Ol'Corner Pen Shoppe, the first step for problems.

Now folks make a big deal the seller checks the nib....SOP for the corner pen shoppe....of course that was Germany....where the Corner Pen shop lasted longer than elsewhere.

 

Pelikan solved it's nib problem caused by Ball Point Barbarians making Pretzels out of the nib, by making them stiffer and blobbier so the Barbarian could still write like a ball point.

 

Yes, the vintage and semi-vintage nibs are @ 1/2 width or even more thinner than modern...post '97.

 

Bock was the out source, and the same complaints against Bock nibs were/are said vs Pelikan nibs.

 

Bibere, how many Pelikans do you have? How many had problems?

 

One should know how to adjust a nib with a loupe that has been knocked, kicked or shotputted out of alignment by postal robots or workers in a hurry.

Way back in the old days.....the mechanical gage used to measure broke. I don't remember exactly how much pressure was found in a modern unbreakable gage....but packages get a lot of hard bangs.

[Biber]

 

Bibere, how many Pelikans do you have? How many had problems?

 

 

 

Having only ever owned 4 Pelikan pens (now 3 - a 150, 200 and some calligraphy pen that was given to me) I am admittedly to be considered a neophyte in such matters. But my opinion stands nonetheless. Never really had any problems per se, just hated the default stock nibs which, with their characteristic ball tipping, wrote with all the character of a sharpie. Even a supposed "vintage" nib wrote that way. Fine and smooth with decent flow, yes indeed, but a fat lifeless line despite the fact that they've all been fines and extra fines. I did manage to pick up second hand a nib for my 200 that has supposedly been "Binderized" to XXF, which I quite like, so problem solved there. Otherwise my 150 sits idle until I muster up the motivation to actively try to get another nib into it (a la a franken-nib unit). Frankly, I'd be quite happy to get a Pilot 79G fine nib into it, or even an Esterbrook 9550. Anything would be better than a Pelikan nib in my opinion.

 

Sorry to side rail the thread with nib talk. The fact of the matter is that the 150 is a fantastic pen that isn't as little as it is so often made out to be. It's just overshadowed by the 200 as a preferred base-model "writer's" pen.

[Bo Bo Olson]

To me vintage is '50-65 where the nibs with 4 combs also fit modern 400/200/600 pens....semi-flex flat and stubbish.

Semi-vintage '82-97.... smaller American Bump under, regular flex.

200 has remained regular flex and close to semi-vintage in nib shape and form.

The above nibs are narrower than modern.

 

My Amethyst....is no more a ball nib than any American nib....one of the reasons, tongue in cheek from my flat stub semi-flex nibs I call that the American Bump Under...also on my '90's pens. In that is the nibs I grew up with had those big American Bumps Under and I had been shocked that there was no 'nib bump' on the '50-65 Pelikan nibs.

 

I will admit my '90-96 in it's tortoise, has a slightly smaller bump under and over than my Amethyst, but my Amethyst is no where near as fat and blobyy as a modern 400/600. My W.Germany 200 has a smaller tipping than my modern 200. My 215 nib is also '90's small for bumps.

I really had to get a bit OCD there.

 

Modern '98 and later....outside the 200. Fat and blobby boring nib good to make a stub or CI out of the Butter Smooth things.

 

My 150's round ball is very small for a round ball for an M. I have no idea when my 150 was made.

[sargetalon]

The Ibis is one of my favorite Pelikans. Great writer. You would hate mine BoBo because it has a DF nib. Hard as a nail.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Sargetalon, I do have a D+M nibbed '50-54 400. Great for climbing the north wall of the Eiger, or opening up a tank, or a case of Campbell's soup cans.

It is a nail's Nail...indeed. I've never inked the pen. Will sell it one day when I get around to it.

 

I'm not quite the semi-flex snob I once was, in the older semi-vintage pre '98 regular flex, give a good ride and are better as a shading ink nib....have become impressed with the 200's nibs.....will give that 150 a bit more play time.

[DrCodfish]

A timely thread for me. I have been using a pencil recently for my bathroom journal (daily record of weight, meds, general health and weekly record of BP, sometimes more frequently) and wondered to myself why I had stopped using a FP. This daily duty is normally reserved for a 'smallish' pen, usually one of my vintage Pelikanos but also a 120 or one of my small flock of 140's. I could not arrive at a good explanation but, that aside it was a problem easily remedied. I went to the pen box and got out all my 140's, I have the red, blue, green, green stripe, and two blacks, one reverse trim.

 

As w/ Sargetalon, a number of these are DF or DM nibs, pretty stiff but I also have a few with traditional 50's era gold nibs. Two are too flexy (I'm a lefty so don't have the love for flex nibs that most of you have). I found one that was just right, 'springy' not flex. Somehow it had grown a troubling little tooth. I didn't want to spend the time to smooth it so moved on to one that was a little less springy, but a very smooth writer.

 

Then, what to ink? I have samples of many hues in this little journal, it is almost full, so finding something 'different' was going to be a challenge. I settled on Levenger Cobalt Blue, something I had not loaded in a pen in a long time. It is almost dark purple, but still on the blue side of the line as I see it, It looks great on the cream colored paper.

 

'"'Little" pens definitely have their place and I have a soft spot for the 140's. I'd collect more of the rare colored versions but starting with the gray, they get very expensive because of their rarity, I would love to have the Mother of Pear, or Light Tortoise.

 

P1240066 by Doctor Codfish, on Flickr

[Bo Bo Olson]

Doc.....even regular green stripped ones can be expensive when it gets down to it....much less your rare colored ones.

I swapped a Franklin Mint Robert E. Lee fancy pocket knife for the green stripped OB and a couple E. German ones.

As soon as I pressed that nib to my thumbnail, I knew what all the fuss was all about.

 

I only have a green stripped OB and black 140 OF. And am right hander so don't have to do anything to enjoy semi-flex.

The medium-small pens all have long caps so post long to 400/200's standard size.

 

Sometimes I think if Germans used a colored pen, they were fired...for being out of uniform....in there are so many black and gold and so few of the colored pens....which might have been made for flashy foreigner's market.