The Ne That Makes You Smile When Writing

[DrCodfish]

OK, now we know which of your Pels are most pleasing to your eye (and please, keep posting to that thread, you pen peeps are just making a terrible mess of my Lust list!). I have not posted there, I may in the future bit 'the loveliest' is a hard choice for me, so for the time being I am pondering. I was at the LA Pen Show this weekend and saw some drop dead gorgeous pens, but too I also had an opportunity to write with a few pens with incredible writing characteristics and they bowled me over.

 

My point being that for me my most lovely pen is not necessarily the one I would take along if banished to a tropical isle for an indeterminate period. How a pen writes, how it feels in my hand, the line I lays down and the nibs expressiveness are as important to me, perhaps more so than the way it looks.

 

So, which of your bird is the one you reach for when you want some quality 'pen to paper' time?

[macaddicted]

Aaannd we’re back to my Evolution of Script. Mostly I love the subject, but the weight and size fit ny hand better than my other pens

[OCArt]

I thought the M600 was my size. although I own and use all of them. But was writing with the M1000 yesterday and was reminded of how great that springy feeling nib is! As I don't tend to carry my Pelikans out of the house the thought crossed my mind to sell all but the three M1000's (counting the not yet available Stressman.)

[Bo Bo Olson]

I could deal with my 605 and a vintage semi-flex B, OB, OM, a 82-97 regular flex in F&M (or 100/200 modern regular flex.) It has a modern semi-nail 1.0 butter smooth stub on it right now.

 

It took me @ 2 years to give the nod in balance between the 400nn and the 400 to the nn.

It holds a ton more ink.

I reach for the 400NN and it's maxi-semi-flex OF more than the 605....Even when it had the vintage semi-flex B nib on it.

 

Back when I was a 20 pen 'noobie' I checked them for balance. The 400nn came in 4th, behind a MB 234 1/2 Deluxe ('52-54 only) KOB. It had a thicker girth than standard, and was back weighted due to brass piston parts. That surprised me that it 'won'. Not that anybody really won.

Second was a thin medium long Geha 725 with a semi-flex inlaid nib.

Third was a light for silver...light for metal, P-75 semi-nail M....my original buy back in the dark ages.. All four were slightly different, all four are great balanced pens.

P-51 was up there but not top, and that was before I got my Snorkel. I doubt if I tested my Vac.... ....was also before I got my medium-long '50's 146. (Great maxi-semi-flex nib)

 

But due to being able to load 1.95ml would have to take the medium-long 400NN. It has standard width. So is medium-long, the 600 is a wider width so is medium large.

 

I have the nibs.........I have a lot of great balanced pens, and some are very pretty.

I imagine the Pelikan 500's rolled gold cap makes it a bit top heavy.........really didn't test that. It came in after the big test. After a while one don't have time to be juggling lists for best balanced....when so many flagship pens of any brand once had great balance....pre cartridge era.

 

Vintage is 1/2 a width narrower than modern in Pelikan. I really like my semi-flex B or OB...either or. OM is not too bad in semi-flex.

 

Then there is the oblique nibs with 15 degree grind, and some with 30 degree grind. I got a mix of them in both semi-and maxi, but in assorted pens. OBB, OB, OM & OF.

 

I have been very lucky to have so many well balanced pens, so many wonderful nibs.

Then I got so good paper to go with nice shading inks....so am a smug bedbug.

 

My 30 degree maxi, in OBBB on my 500 is an unusable nib, pure signature. 2/3rds to 3/4ths a page for a legal signature.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

[mana]

Still the same answer as in the previous thread (a Pelikan 101N).

 

My choices are:
- post war 100N/101N with an earlier 14k "script" nib, preferably in that lovely stubby/CI BB or B. Those nibs are the bees knees. Same applies pretty much verbatim to the later...
- 400/N/NN with the "chevron" or christmas tree nibs, they tend to be less acute/sharp though > more stubbish.

Having a selection of all of the previously mentioned my #1 EDC pen is a post war 100N with a 14k "script" BB-nib and my desk pen (in a bakelite Pelikan pen stand) is a black stripe 500NN with an earlier 14k "chevron" BB-nib.

People who have tried the first one (and are not sworn members of the "rigid nibs only" club) have usually agreed to it being a very, very, very nice writing pen (one of the nicest they have ever tried).

The nibs are also most often semi-flexy so they do not get in the way when writing fast but have that headroom if you want to go slower and deeper/wider. Pleasant controlled springiness?

Ok, it doesn't stop there with the 100N: huge ink capacity, size when capped (shirt pocket sized) and when posted (easily competes with bigger Pelikans), weight (or the lack of it), durability, reliability, balance etc. Or the 400/N/NN which have a quite similar list of merits but yeah... those vintage birds just "do it" for me on all levels.

[senzen]

With one 18k m600 and two steel m205 the answer should be easy: the steel nibs are nice, the 18k brings a je ne sais quoi; however the m600 now has Hisoku and it has a very strange feeling, even though the colour comes out consistently the way I wanted, while other pens would evaporate and the ink would go darker in days. I suppose it would be called a dry ink, there is none of the lubrication of a micro pillow like with other inks. This is on Clairefontaine.

[inkstainedruth]

Again, it varies.

I just flushed the M120 Iconic Blue out a few days ago, after running it for several months. And the 1980s Pelikano I got last year at the Baltimore show is an *amazingly* good smooth writer for being a school pen I paid five bucks for.

But I'd say that if push came to shove, it would be the M405 Striated Blue with the EF nib. When I first got a hankering for a Pelikan, the blue-black striping was the coloration that caught my eye. Mostly I don't like EF nibs that much, but this one is dream -- a little wider than some (you couldn't pay me enough to get a Japanese EF pen for myself) and of course a wet writer. Perfect size, perfect weight. I actually paid a little more than I would have for a regular M400, but there was just something about the way the Rhodium finish looked against that blue striation....

OTOH, if instead of writing, I'd want a pen for drawing? That would be the 1990s era M400 Brown Tortoise with the juicy and springy F nib....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

My 100n is a superflex, Easy Full Flex that does 5 X tine spread (Strive to keep it at a max of 4 X), is a K-F/EF. Neither pen nor nib is marked outside the K, so I have to guess if it's EF or not or F.

That nib will not fit the later 400-400nn or later 400's.

It like the medium-small 140 appears to have a long cap, so posts longer than it sits in the pocket.

 

I Somegied it....in it was near mint for E20...had I turned let at the indoor fler market, I might well have gotten it for E5.00 but a gent, told her it was worth money. Actually I had trouble believing it was real...and hadn't ever expected to own one.

I was rather noobie back then....don't know if I got my first BCHR or not at that time.

 

One goes through levels of expense, levels of pens of worth.....levels of luck. When one gets a pen one don't expect to get, in it was not what one was looking for in an affordable pen.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

[biancitwo]

OK, now we know which of your Pels are most pleasing to your eye (and please, keep posting to that thread, you pen peeps are just making a terrible mess of my Lust list!). I have not posted there, I may in the future bit 'the loveliest' is a hard choice for me, so for the time being I am pondering. I was at the LA Pen Show this weekend and saw some drop dead gorgeous pens, but too I also had an opportunity to write with a few pens with incredible writing characteristics and they bowled me over.

 

My point being that for me my most lovely pen is not necessarily the one I would take along if banished to a tropical isle for an indeterminate period. How a pen writes, how it feels in my hand, the line I lays down and the nibs expressiveness are as important to me, perhaps more so than the way it looks.

 

So, which of your bird is the one you reach for when you want some quality 'pen to paper' time?

If you are speaking of unmodified nibs, then go for vintage Pelikans from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Whether the EF, or F nibs with flex, the writing is gorgeous. The wider Pelikan nibs are stub-like and retain some flex. Great writing. Modern Pelikan modified nibs are also superb. I have an M600 B, an M605 M, and an M800 M made CI by Pendleton Brown. Great pens all. There are no bad Pelikan choices.