Adding To The Flock -2018

[BillH]

Nice comparison Lam1, thanks. And B nibs to boot

 

I have one Pelikan EF. It came in a dark blue M605. It is as fine as my Sailor Pro Gear Slim. There is no confusion between this Pelikan EF and any F nib. It is tiny. Not being a great fan of EF nibs, I promptly switched it for a lovely Pendleton Brown italic. Not having a Sailor nib to switch with, I use that EF for notes needed in otherwise inaccessible places.

 

I find the EF similar to F thing mostly in the pens from the past few years. I have some earlier M2xx EF nibs that are outstanding. Mostly use them for a journal project that has not-so-fountain friendly paper, and margin noting in my Bible. All of my other nibs are bigger, up to a lovely MB 149 OBBB. And the finest are both Platinums, an EF and a sweet UEF. They are like Yorkie dogs, I love them all.

[biancitwo]

Nice comparison Lam1, thanks. And B nibs to boot

 

 

 

I find the EF similar to F thing mostly in the pens from the past few years. I have some earlier M2xx EF nibs that are outstanding. Mostly use them for a journal project that has not-so-fountain friendly paper, and margin noting in my Bible. All of my other nibs are bigger, up to a lovely MB 149 OBBB. And the finest are both Platinums, an EF and a sweet UEF. They are like Yorkie dogs, I love them all.

My M605, I believe, is pre-2003, with a painted cap logo and two chicks. A time perhaps when EFs were really EFs.

[Eccles]

My latest was a Pelikan M400 vintage Tortoise: Here are two pics of the whole flock. The Blue beauties and the rest...

 

 

 

What pattern are the 2 on the left in the upper tray? They are gorgeous... which is not to the others are not!

Glenn.

[1nkulus]

@ Lam1

 

M815 without a shadow of doubt. Glad I did not bother with the Stresemann.

 

Enjoy the 'B' nibs.

[Lam1]

Nice comparison Lam1, thanks. And B nibs to boot

 

...

 

Thank you, BillH!

I know, skinny B nibs, right?

If only they still had BBB and OBBB.

 

 

@ Lam1

 

M815 without a shadow of doubt. Glad I did not bother with the Stresemann.

 

Enjoy the 'B' nibs.

 

 

Thank you, 1nkulus!

I agree, the M815 is much more interesting than the Stresemann, IMO.

 

 

So, we added (it's for my wife) this beauty that arrived yesterday

 

 

to make company to the red one:

 

 

The problem is: the Toledo is supposed to have an 18 Ct nib, and this one arrived with a regular 14 Ct nib (it was bought brand new from Cult Pens). What to do now?

[BillH]

 

Thank you, BillH!

I know, skinny B nibs, right?

If only they still had BBB and OBBB.

 

 

 

 

Thank you, 1nkulus!

I agree, the M815 is much more interesting than the Stresemann, IMO.

 

 

So, we added (it's for my wife) this beauty that arrived yesterday

 

 

to make company to the red one:

 

 

The problem is: the Toledo is supposed to have an 18 Ct nib, and this one arrived with a regular 14 Ct nib (it was bought brand new from Cult Pens). What to do now?

 

 

Beautiful, but you can't catch a break this year Are you going to get in touch with them?

[Lam1]

Hi BillH,

 

Yeah, I already sent them an email and they were also surprised, but said to send it back.

I’ve been on “roll” indeed, with all sorts of problems from all brands.

 

But Pelikans have been a challenge lately and the following illustrates this. We didn’t know the M700 Toledo had two cap bands and were in doubt. Before I went online to search about the cap bands, I checked the nib and said “oh, slightly misaligned”. To which my wife immediately replied “don’t worry then. It’s a legitimate Pelikan.”

[PAKMAN]

 

What pattern are the 2 on the left in the upper tray? They are gorgeous... which is not to the others are not!

Glenn.

 

They are a Blue Lizard pattern. They have had replacement Bindes installed by Shawn Newton at Newton pens. I love them!!

[mana]

Just won an early black 100. Interesting nib on that, really like the star... It went for a bit more than I had hoped for but still within reason (40€), makes for a really nice pen after I have had it restored (here's hoping that the barrel is ok...).

I have another donor 100 with a crystallized celluloid barrel that has a filling system that is in better shape (esp. the piston knob). I will merge those two and sent this and the Montblanc 136G I have to a restorer (most likely fountainbel). Pictures are courtesy of the auction site.

[christof]

Congrats on this find! This is a quite early nib.

 

I have a similar one:

 

 

It came with a green striped second year Pelikan 100:

 

 

c.

Edited July 21, 2018 by christof

[mana]

Oh well, turns out that the only thing worth something was the nib (14k M with that star emblem and size mark). Or so it seems, currently.

 

So I managed to salvage it and the feed. Collar was busted, split in two with the threaded part stuck in the section. I cleaned both and mated them to a spare collar I had available, niiiiiiice... it looks super, but unfortunately rather firm (semi-flex at max). The tipping is worn a bit flat but there is still healthy amount of it. Imprints are very good, crisp and clean.

But oh boy, was that thing gunked! I think it was left with IG ink in it, had really hard time to get it to soak off and had to spend a major amount of time brushing and scraping the feed and the ink channels clean. And the nib took some effort too, stuck ink all over and fair amount of tarnish.

The barrel, which is actually celluloid, might be ok although I doubt it. There is a fair chance that the section (which had some tool marks) leaks. Or then you have the usual enough to almost expect them as a norm micro cracks on the cap threads. Time will tell...

Binde was busted too, ink window end of it was worn so thin it flaked off the pen and the rest soon followed.

Filling mechanism is firmly stuck into the barrel, will try soaking the damn thing overnight. Piston knob had tool marks... might be able to sort those out. Have a spare mechanism available though but that one needs a new cork.

 

Cap... well, it was so well worn on both ends that I can only conclude that this pen has seen quite some miles in it's time... Clip is so so, into the parts bin it went.

 

So all in all, it is not a complete lemon but way worse what could be observed from the photos. If all goes well I have parts for a Pelikan 100 "Frankenpen" edition. At the minimum it needs a new piston seal... and a new binde, might go crazy with that. Like order a chased jewelers binde out of sterling. Oh, the hard rubber parts need some loving too.

Ok, so far I have bought two celluloid barrel 100 for about 60€ total knowing they have issues. The other one came with a busted "14k Warranted" replacement nib. If I can manage to salvage the barrel and get the stuck bits sorted out I can get a working pen after the piston seal has been fixed. So not entirely horribly bad still. And that nib looks pretty darn sweet, I would be happy just for that even if all the other parts turned out to be junk.

Have I learned anything from this? There were those few points during this evening where I almost found myself swearing off of these particular old birds but... what can I say, I am a hopeless romantic with a tendency towards optimism when it comes to vintage pens so I will keep on searching "that right one". Pelikan 100 are really sweet and neat little pens if they are in great shape. Sadly, that is often not the case with the ones found in the wild but I suppose the challenges presented are one of those things that makes it all interesting...

[Lam1]

@ Mana: Sorry to hear that the pen is not as good as you’d like. Still, that rare nib is a treat!

 

I just finished my first pen show visit and I’m pretty happy with my haul!

We got a M1050 Green in pristine condition, a NOS & boxed M750 (for my wife) and a pristine 300, with box/papers (the box is a bit banged up though). Except for the M750, the others were not planned – I went with a pretty open mind, but I couldn’t pass on those. Here is a horrible cell phone pic with bad hotel light (some intruders there):

 

 

I also got to meet Sargetalon in person and have a quick and nice chat with him.

 

By the way, there are some incredible news: Sargetalon bought a (gorgeous) pen that is NOT Pelikan at the show!! Can you believe it??? (Sarge: I hope you don't mind my mentioning it).

Edited August 5, 2018 by Lam1

[BillH]

Lam1, who's on a roll now It looks like you all had too much fun! Congrats! And the 750 is beautiful.

[Lam1]

Thank you, BillH!

Yeah, I went a bit overboard!

 

Still, just your last acquisition puts these to shame!

Edited August 5, 2018 by Lam1

[daenghafez]

Congrats Lam1. Neat haul there. 🙀

[mitto]

Two 400NN tortoise and a 400NN green. One of the tortoise looked like it had a BBB nib. Let us hope for the best. Pens are still in the mail.

[sargetalon]

Those are all very nice new additions to the flock Lam1. Very nice chatting as well. I picked up a 300 and a reverse trim black 140. The NON-Pelikan that Lam1 is referring to is a LAMY Dialog in Piano White ground to a fine cursive italic by Dan Smith. I actually got that one in the mail a few weeks before the show but def had it with me yesterday. This D.C. show had some of the nicest selection of Pelikan pens that I remember seeing in some time. Was happy to go.

[carlos.q]

I'm waiting for these two birds to arrive from Germany:

 

 

Top: 100N Taylorix by Pelikan

Bottom: M600 old style with 18C nib

 

 

[BillH]

very nice Carlos!

[carlos.q]

very nice Carlos!

Thank you! I just bought these from Dominic Rothemel (dnic) right here from the FPN classifieds. He also hosts the amazing Pelikan information site: http://pelikan-collectibles.com