Why Longitudinal Fins?

[Mister5]

Hey guys & gals, I just got a Pelikan 140 EF via eBay. (Early Christmas gift to myself.) I knew the 140 had the longitudinal fins along the feed, but I was wondering if they function differently compared to feeds with the horizontal fins? I can't imagine this is purely an aesthetic decision by Pelikan. Anyone know why the difference?

 

I will say that this is probably one of the wettest pens I've used based on my "extensive" 5 minutes of use so far with R&K Scabiosa.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

M5

[Bo Bo Olson]

Pelikan 4001 is a dry ink....in the '30's they used a feed with three rills/combs.....the nibs could be not only semi-flex but first stage of superflex. Faster feed in needed that is buffered.....not all the nibs are superflex, where no buffering is needed or wished for.

 

So those nibs would be faster needing more flow....and the roughness of sawn ebonite controlled flow well.

 

The '50-65 era of 4 rills/combs was semi-flex and maxi.The nib was not 'ever' on the 400/140 going to be superflex....like a post war to '54 100n(Ibis is also 3 comb), so 4 combs slowed down by buffering more the ink flow.

 

I have no other longitudinal comb feed from the '30-60's. From the 'mid-late '30's I have very rough wide side buffering on a couple nibs....that first view says it can't work well.................well, I guess it wasn't to work well, but just a bit. to buffer flow just a little bit.

 

The regular horizontal combed feeds of the '66-90-now has to do with regular flex and semi-nail-nail nibs that are 'slower' nibs requiring less ink flow....so are buffered more.

Easier to buffer the sides than the whole of the length of the nib....and the side and full body buffered feeds are now pressed plastic that require chemical treatment to roughen them up like Lamy to match ebonite ink holding capability. That feed is '20's slick on the bottom.

 

 

 

Forgot to mention a dry ink needs a wet nib to bring both together in a golden middle.

Waterman used a wet ink with a narrow dryer nib to get to the middle.

Edited December 19, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[Mister5]

_{Thanks for the explanation Bo Bo!}