New M1000

[jrhudgins]

Hello,

 

I unexpectedly became the owner of a new Pelikan M1000 yesterday, and am delighted thus far. The Fine nib is very smooth, and with Montegrappa Coffee ink (somewhat less 'dry' than Pen 4001 ink), the flow is good. Compared to my M800F, the nib is slightly less smooth and the line width is slightly wider, and has a bit more flex and variability in line with pressure.

It is surprisingly easy to write with, and the size is simply not an issue.

 

What I did not expect, and hadn't read about in my searches, is that the M1000 feels tail-heavy, relatively speaking. The M800 (black) feels substantial from tip to tail, but the M1000 (green stripe) feels definitely solid at the tail end and 'insubstantial' in the barrel. Of course, this is unposted with each.

 

With the unposted M800, as well as an Aurora 88, Aurora Optima, Sailor 1911L, the balance point is typically 1/4 to 1/3 of the way between the section and the tail cap. The M1000, in contrast, is at the half-way point at best.

 

This is a weird feeling to me. Not bad, just weird or different. It seems to very naturally promote using a very light touch of nib to paper.

 

Any comments?

 

JR

[Driften]

The M800 uses a metal piston block like the m1000 does. I don't think the Aurora or Sailor use metal piston blocks. I had a Sailor 1911 Realo piston filler and it did not have the weight or balance of the m800. My Optima doesn't balance like a m800 also.

 

The m1000 is a little bigger and maybe diameter plus the block being farther back moves the balance more then on the m800. I don't know I don't have the m1000, just the m800.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Check to see if you tines are misaligned. It should not be scratchy. Use a 10X good glass loupe or a 40X cheap Chinese loupe; they are the same.

Lots of info on how to align the nib on the com.

 

I had taken a semi-flex pen with me to my B&M, to check if the 1000 was the semi-flex many said. That one was.

My 1005, I won in a live auction is a nice springy regular flex.....like the very nice 200's nib.

So the 1000 comes in a nice springy regular flex or semi-flex; depending on luck.

Of course that mine is a OBB could have something to do with why it is not semi-flex.

 

Don't have a 800, and if I ever buy one it would be an 87-?-90 W.German one, with a very, very nice springy regular flex nib. I don't use nails but once in a green moon.................saw a red one last month or so ago.

 

Modern 400/600 are semi-nails.

 

So, your 800 is a nail; so it is normal that you use more pressure, so your 1000 will write wider be it a regular flex or a semi-flex....or it could be the normal slop of width with in standard.

It might not the be fault of the pen, but being heavy handed from nail use; or slop.

 

Being use to regular flex, it took me some 3 months to get my Hand lighter when I got my first semi-flex. ...In I was a bit Ham Fisted.

 

Then there is the normal slop/tolerance in every company's standard. A skinny M can = exactly a fat F.

 

Ron Zorn tolerance

Sheaffer used a dial indicator nib gauge for measuring nib sizes. The nib was inserted into the gauge, and the size read off of the dial. A given size being nibs that fell within a given range. What is listed below were the ranges given on a gauge that I saw in the Sheaffer service center prior to being closed in March 2008.

Measurements are in thousandths of an inch.

XXF = 0.010 - 0.013
XF = 0.013 - 0.018
F = 0.018 - 0.025
M = 0.025 - 0.031
Broad* = 0.031 - 0.050
Stub = 0.038 - 0.050

*there was some overlap on the gauge. May be 0.035 - 0.050

xxx

 

No one can see 1/1000's of an inch, between just inside of tolerance.

 

(Still don't have the lightest Hand in the West.....with my Wet Noodle, I have to sweat to make it go XXF, think to get it to go EF, and normally scribble at an F).

Edited August 29, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[jrhudgins]

Thank you!

 

Yes, habits are hard to break. I grew up using fountain pens at school until getting to high school, and it has taken a while to lighten my pressure again. But I have gotten a lot better about it. Learning to vary the pressure to get intentional variation may take some learning, though!

Old hands and a mild tremor make slow, smooth calligraphic writing a thing of the past.

 

I am not concerned about the smoothness. It is pretty good, and the nib looks great under magnification. I think it just needs to be "written in" to smoothness through regular use. Or a very light polish with mylar.

 

The balance the pen is surprising, though. And I do think that that itself will help me to use a lighter touch.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Don't polish...That is The Absolute Last thing one does....in if it's misaligned you can ruin a nib enough to send it to a nibmeister or even have to have it re-tipped....if it's the tine that is misaligned.

....have you done nib alignment before?

You have to use a loope 10X glass will do just fine....or cheap Chinese 40X .which is the same strength.

 

Believe me a Honking Big Magnifying Glass is not strong enough.

 

There are articles, on how you are to hold the nib to see.

I do it a tad wrong...but it works.....you should hold the nib up at the angle you write with.....I just have it level to see if one tine is higher than the other.

 

With your thumbnail at the breather hole, press the up tine down so it is just under the low tine. Hold for 2 seconds, do that @ three times, checking after each pressing of the high nib. It is very seldom I need to do that more than 3 X...have done it 4 X and later perhaps once more on one nib....don't remember which one it was.

 

95 % of scratchy is a misaligned nib or and/or holding the fountain pen like a ball point before the big index knuckle......which you more than likely don't.

[minddance]

Trust Pelikan and no polishing is required. M1000 nib is difficult to adjust, if it doesn't write to your liking, exchange or refund.

 

M1000 is not tail-heavy, it is tail-heavy only when posted.

[Bo Bo Olson]

For years I shied away from the Honking Big 1000..................well when I did try one I was still half 'noobie' and use to the Standard and Medium-Large pens I grew up with.

In the meanwhile it appears I got more use to the Large pens......but was surprised the un-posted 1005 I won for E200 at a live auction, is not as heavy or clunky as it once was to me.

 

The price of the 1000 even used was for me another reason to shy away. I'd cheaped out at the live auction, only having a piece of paper with the lot number, instead of buying a catalog. We were only there for three or four things. A black Pelikan looks like a black Pelikan....so I thought it the pre'98 standard sized 600..... ..the price went up..... the price went up. finally at E200 way, way over my max I had that 600.

Two seconds into the very next lot, a Black Pelikan, and the price was way too low for a 1000, did I realize, it was the 600 ....and I got it for E120-30 where I hoped for.....well I'd hoped to get it for start price....such weird things has happened to me in a live auction of pens.

It is possible I'd quit on the 1005, had I known it was that, at E160-180.

Sometimes with luck, mistakes are worthwhile making.

 

Nearly a decade ago, I had trans-mailed, a W.Germany 800 to Spain, in there are idiots in Germany who refused to mail out of Germany. I got to play with it for three or four days. Then I found the 800 to be a big clunky pen. That W.Germany regular flex nib was as nice as you read about. I do have a W.Germany 200.

It would be a lot of luck for me to have money when a W.Germany 800 stumbles across my path.

I have no idea how to tell the regular flex pre-98-90 800's from the '98 to now nails. For buying on the Bay or such.

So the 800 remains off my buy list....out side the W.Germany one.