400 Nn Set On The Way

[EdwardSouthgate]

Here's the 400NN set I mentioned in another thread . Coming from Bulgaria so it will probably be another weel before it lands .

[bass1193]

Wow that's a beauty! I've also made some great buys from eastern Europe, and I look forward to seeing whether what you receive is as awesome as what was advertised!

[Bo Bo Olson]

The 400nn, is one fo the best pens of all time..IMO.

The 450 Mechanical Pencil is a finely balanced pen, that I found I loved, after hating MP's all my life. It had me writing with just it for 6 weeks, ignoring my fountain pens.

 

The 455 ball point...............is pure 1950's ball point...............good to 'have' but has no balance, and can have all the teething problems of 1950's ball points................I was around for that first run. It and a few other '50's ball points I have do take me down memory lane...........where's my pocket knife so I can carve them to make them work.

 

The Jottler is a much better ball point, the Pelikan MP 450 is better than the Jotter...MP...just a different cartridge between BP+MP, for the Jotter.

[sargetalon]

Waiting, the second hardest part of any pen purchase. For me, sneaking it past the wife is the bigger challenge. In all seriousness though, looking good. One of my favorites from the past. Enjoy and do let us know how you get along with it.

[EdwardSouthgate]

i was kinda nervous about buying from Bulgaria , Croatia and Serbia , and didn't for a long time . I paid too much attention to the bad things going on in those countrys that were shown on the news , my misteke . I missed a lot of good pens at better prices than I am getting now by doing so . So far everything I have paid for I have recieved and it has universally been much better than pictured . I am intending at some point to do a post on all these sellers so anyone else with any doubts can feel safer doing business with them . Some few are a bit closed mouthed when you ask questions but even from them I have bought better than I was expecting . The ones I have dealt with are as best as I can tell honest to a fault . Shame on me for not knowing that sooner but what do you expect from a 60 year old redneck from Middle Tennessee .

 

Eddie

[bass1193]

i was kinda nervous about buying from Bulgaria , Croatia and Serbia , and didn't for a long time . I paid too much attention to the bad things going on in those countrys that were shown on the news , my misteke . I missed a lot of good pens at better prices than I am getting now by doing so . So far everything I have paid for I have recieved and it has universally been much better than pictured . I am intending at some point to do a post on all these sellers so anyone else with any doubts can feel safer doing business with them . Some few are a bit closed mouthed when you ask questions but even from them I have bought better than I was expecting . The ones I have dealt with are as best as I can tell honest to a fault . Shame on me for not knowing that sooner but what do you expect from a 60 year old redneck from Middle Tennessee .

 

Eddie

You're smarter than me! I didn't even bother asking questions before I dove into the eastern European eBay game. I just bought cheapies that I was mildly interested in to find the good sellers. Found that they were all good sellers. Then I went for the still cheap (but not as) pens that I was really interested in, like all my vintage Kawecos. Got some amazing pens that sell for thrice the price from Germany!

 

These eastern Europen folk on eBay are generally trustworthy, in my estimation, as long as you avoid the ones selling brand new Parker Sonnets with 18k nibs for $30 I look forward to your thread on these!

[EdwardSouthgate]

They finally arrived and are clean enough to be mint . I soaked the pen for three hours and didn't get ink when I dried it on a paper towel . Cartridge in the 355 was dry but that was expected . Super Super clean set . Only thing I was curios about is there are no nib size markings in the usual place . This is the newest Pelikan I own so maybe at some point they decided to leave the mark off ? Really liking this OM nib , not too muck flex but just enough , a smooth easy writer .

 

Eddie

Edited December 2, 2018 by EdwardSouthgate

[Bo Bo Olson]

Normally I'd expect a 400n/400nn to be nib marked, in with the 400n

I have a '54 400 transitional where there is the nib marking and it is not a 400n. (I had bought it as such....in the slight difference in the piston knob is hard to tell. The 400n's cap is much longer. The 400&400nn's cap are the same length.)

 

I think you have a '50-54 400's nib in your 400nn.............it really don't matter if it writes well.

You have to cant/rotate the nib to get use of it.

OF&OM require more preciseness than an OB.

I have a trick to get use to it.

First look in the light to see how much grind there is....15 or 30 degree grind.

If 15 degree grind, post the cap so the clip is aligned in the middle between the slit and the right hand shoulder of the nib. Grip the pen in the air, put down to paper and write. Don't try to do anything .....just write.

If a 30 degree grind, align the clip with the right edge of the nib, air grip, put down to the paper and write.

 

I have a mix of 16 semi&maxi vintage German obliques. I have a 500 with a @OBBB 30 degree maxi. A pure signature pen only....2/3's to 3/4s a page for a two word and initial of a legal signature.

 

In OBB, OB, OM and OF I have in both 15 and 30 degree grinds. All 30 degree gotten by pure luck.....just like if the nib was a semi or a maxi...pure luck except for the Osmia ones (fore maxi&semi----degree of grind, pure luck).

 

I've not run into a 20 degree grind, but then again my sample is small. I never read of any company offering the 30 degree grind. I do 'know' the Pelikan 500 being a flag ship was ground to 30 degrees in the factory....with an OBBB I'd expect it.

 

The rest of mine, I wonder, if in the fabled German 'Corner Pen Shoppe' with highly trained sales staff, the customer was asked if he wanted a bit more oblique to his nib....and the pen was taken into the back room by the local 'nibmeister' and the oblique angle was doubled.

[EdwardSouthgate]

Bo Bo

 

I got 5 or 6 oblique mediums so have no trouble adjusting to this one . It writes wonderfully . My daily carry pens are a Montblanc Generations with a slightly springy OM and a 256 B , the OM gets used the most .

 

Eddie

Edited December 5, 2018 by EdwardSouthgate

[Bo Bo Olson]

Eddie, I'm glad you have no problems with obliques of that era.

My first oblique was a 140 OB....and I was glad I started with that one, in OM&OF have to be more precise on canting it to the paper.

Once there were many threads on 'my oblique' don't work...........part because someone was trying to make the nib do something....instead of letting it do the work it was modified to do all by itself. Just canting/rotating the nib the proper amount turned out to be harder than expected to many. I came up with the clip aiming trick. Richard came up with having the paper at 90 or 180 degrees instead of 45 degrees if that didn't work.

 

I do like obliques, so want to make sure none have problems with them. I do prefer by far the '50-70 vintage German obliques, in they are both stubs and semi/maxi's.

 

 

I have this old Mercedes (had nothing to do with the car, just a man named Mercedes who use to work for MB started his own pen company.) I'd not used it in a while. My God was it scratchy!!!! It hadn't been before. I was reaching for the micro mesh, when it finally dawned on me, it was an Oblique, and I wasn't canting the nib. It is an OM. Could well be one of the 30 degree grinds; which would be a reason why it was so scratchy.

 

So if I can have a problem with a 'scratchy' nib so can others....so I bring this up often so some poor noobie don't grind away his oblique because it's scratchy..............from not canting the nib.

[EdwardSouthgate]

Bo Bo .

 

The Generations is not the least bit scratchy for me I guess because I naturally cant the nib . With this particular nib you must cant correctly or you will leave no ink on the paper , but even then it does not scratch . It is a very smooth writing OM . I have the older pre Generations version in OF but the nib cover has about 6 cracks in it and it leaks quita a lot . Need to find someone to fix the cracks and reseat the nib as it is also a joy to write with .

 

Eddie

Edited December 5, 2018 by EdwardSouthgate

[Bo Bo Olson]

The Generations???

Either a pen I don't know or a term new to me, Eddie.

 

IMO, if someone always cant's his nib, could have to do with left eye dominance.

 

I keyed to that in my wife, when in the mood, is a fine shot. But she has to crawl all over the rifle stock to aim, same with a pistol, holding it on the left center side......and she cant's the hell out of a fountain pen....(she's a ball point barbarian).

She don't feel like learning to shoot left handed....and she only shoots every year or three, at the German shooting club's Everybody Day.....when all the non-shooters are given a fun lesson, with a shooting fest (need to get new members) ..................I should never told her the first time she shot , that was Olympic class...in that sounded like work.

That was out at the American Rod and Gun club...which is much different than German clubs.....5 shots inside a dime at 10 yards with someone's 22 lever. A man was teaching his boy how to shoot.

Then we, a friend had a foggy 4 X scoped 'no name' .22, that I'd not quite sighted in before we ran low on ammo. With 18 shots left, we went out to the 100m range and put up 6 cigarettes in cartridge cases on the board. He and I missed. She cheated, wasted the first shot to see where it hit (something her father had told her), then got the next five shots, either the cigarette or the cartridge.

 

Back in the day, late 50-mid 60's when fountain pen use was normal in school, there was always someone in a class who held his/her pen crooked. Canted it. I thought that odd....but didn't worry about it. Obliques were probably rare in the States.

I'd never 'heard' of them until coming here a decade ago.

 

Considering the large line variation pattern of the '50-70 German stubbed semi-flex Obliques, the regular flex and nail obliques have very little line variation...............to those who have not tried the 'real' thing, the slight line variation of 'modern' '80-now. is something they see in they are looking for it.

I tend to think, 'modern' obliques are for those who naturally cant their pens.

 

In I have a fair amount of vintage Obliques, I see no reason to stub the W. German or 'mid-late '90's obliques I have..................though I could see doing that if I didn't have the Vintage obliques. That would give those pens more line variation.

[EdwardSouthgate]

I am left eye dominant and was born left handed but was switched over to right by my first grade teacher . I could write cursive before school lefty but only learned to print right handed after starting school . My teacher Miss Maryanna Wyatt and my mother went to school together and Miss wyatt was left handed and thought it was a big disadvantage so she decided to do my mother a favor and teach me to use my right hand . Now I write right handed but work left handed . I hold a pistol center with both eyes open and focus more with the left eye . When I miss it is likely to be reported in the newspaper .

 

Got the Osmia Supra 883 F in the mail today , I was underwelmed to say the least . The nib is soft and flexi , the good news . The pen was supposed to have a new cork fitted but if that is so if was done by someone who did not know what they were doing . It fits ay too loose . Have not managed to get it more than half full . Not as described , wont be buying more from that seller .

Edited December 7, 2018 by EdwardSouthgate

[EdwardSouthgate]

This is a Generations in orange , mine is black . Cartridge or converter .

[Bo Bo Olson]

Glad to find out what a Generations is.

I only chased '50-60's MB's and that rather slowly. I was looking for a maxi-semi-flex nib to match my semi-flex 234 1/2 Deluxe......and I ran into the only nib I have that is half way between a semi&maxi. So either a Semi + or a Maxi -. On a rolled gold 742. The Maxi was on the medium large 146....(My '70-80 Large 146 has a regular flex nib.) Do have a Virginia Woolf, which was bought because it is prettier than hell, and the nib has my eyes only bling. (On sale for 1/3 less. Still couldn't afford an ink, pen or piece of paper for some 9 months thereafter. )

With permission of Pentimes. The nib is 'Springy', good tine bend but only 2 X tine spread.

 

 

Sorry the 'new-corking' was poorly done. There is an art to it, the cork has to be very finely finished and boiled in oil and beeswax. (Francis also slathers it with silicon grease.....something they didn't have in the old days.)

Edited December 7, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson