Your First Pelikan

[BobR]

I started with the M75 Go, (two of them of course), went on to the Steno, a Pelikano, up a step to an M200--which I would use more but it has a bit wider nib than I need most often--and now have a vintage 140 on the way. Probably a couple of others I've forgotten. All in the last 6 months. This Pelikan thing is catching.

[amin]

I tried an M1000 today w/ extra fine nib. Wow, what a writing experience! The huge extra fine nib was as smooth as a typical medium, and had enough flex to put down as much line variation as I am comfortable using. If that pen weren't so huge, I'd get it. I wish they'd stick that nib on an M800 body! Oh well, I'm still happy with my M800, despite the comparative lack of nib responsiveness.

[TotosMom]

My first Peli was the one I still use and love today, a vintage 400 in tortoiseshell. Well, actually, it was a set which included a mechanical pencil, FP & case. I immediately loaded it with Aurora black and it was love at first write!

 

That purchase led me to many more birds, mostly vintage ones. The 400 size is perfect for my hand, but I do have an M650 and I'll admit that I've been eyeing an M1000 for its flexy nib. I just don't know that I could actually write with that baseball bat!!

 

Dorothy

[snowyowl]

My first Pelikan was a blue M200 which just happened to be two weeks ago! I picked up a matching rollerball today. That's probably the smoothest rollerball I've ever experienced. Now for that M600 FP.....

 

Jerry

[Maja]

Wow, I'm the only one (so far) who voted "Culture"!

 

Well, technically my first Pelikan wasn't a Culture...it was a P10 "Pelikan Twist" (according to this page on Werner Ruettinger's excellent Pelikan history website) that I purchased in Austria in 1993, but it looks so similar to my P22 Culture pen that I voted "Culture" (even though they are slightly different models). I got the P10 at a grocery store in Vienna while I was visiting my cousins. I wrote in my travel diary with it, and it is still a reliable performer.

 

Since then, I've acquired an M200 in green marble (which got me back into fountain pens in a big way) & its matching ballpoint, a black M150 with cursive italic nib, and a red-striped M800.

 

Pelikans are great!

[Viseguy]

My first Pel was a green-striped M800 with M nib, purchased two years ago. It was a little too heavy for me to use as an all-around pen, so it now has a smoothalicious B nib from John Mottishaw -- there's no other word for it -- and I use it as a signature pen (currently loaded with Noodler's Luxury Blue).

 

The search for an all-around pen to replace the 800 is what got me into this whole FP gig, so the 800 has a special significance for me. I love those green stripes!

[svejk]

MC120! When I was in art school everybody got some rapidographs (the real piston-filling ones) and couple Pelikan 120s with calligraphy nibs. They were M & K models, not 'real' Pelikans (they go for more on eBay now, though). You then spent the rest of your time there figuring out how to clean India ink out of them (a lot easier with the Rapidograph). We went through a lot of ammonia.

 

They wrote wonderfully - we thought. My much newer MC110s are a lot better. And, for nostalgia's sake, we will not mention my M200s with Richard Binder nibs.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

Normally we use Pelikan Fount India with the things. I works its charm.

 

Dillon

[Woody]

My first Pelikan was probably the most meaningful one of them all, a "Katie Hill" Pelikan M150, along with some blotters and a note pad.

[svejk]

Hi,

 

Normally we use Pelikan Fount India with the things. I works its charm.

 

Dillon

 

Nah, it was the sixties and we were ARTISTS! Straight up India Ink. I also recall a fair bit of Dr. P. H. Martin's was consumed. (Those psychedelic colors had to come from somewhere; no Photoshop back then.) But I shall try the Fount India in both a calligraphy pen and a Tintenkuli. I will buy a new bottle first as mine is older than my college age kids.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I do use Drawing ink with my Marsmatics, but I use Fount India in my fountain pens--same colour and texture--pretty!

 

Dillon

[whv]

pelikan 120 - still in use

[rak]

My first Pelikan was given to me by my wife before we got married as a Valentines Day gift. It is a 800 rollerball with the traditional green stripes. This was before I used fountain pens. I still use it to this day. I have since then acquired a 250 tortoiseshell and a green striped 140.

[Garageboy]

Pelikanos that still wont take a converter

[inkpenman]

Pelikan M250, with a 14C F nib pen.

Very special, because it was my very first trip to Germany. And I wanted a "true-blue" German f.pen that would not break the bank .... paid it in DeutchMarks...

[Guest Denis Richard]

Technically, my very first Pelikan was a M150. But the first Pelikan that I liked was a M620, followed a few weeks later by a M400.

[DrPJM1]

My first Pelikan is a 1950's M400 Tortoiseshell with a wonderfully flexible 14ct Medium nib that lays a nice semi-wet line. I still have it & love it!

[Escribiente]

I bought an M250, green, with an Extra Fine nib. It was wonderful, and I'm still wondering why I sold it.

[Ann Finley]

My 1st Pelikan was a 120 that I bought in the late 1970s. It still works fine.

 

Ann

[Robert Ellis]

My first and currently only Pelikan was a black M250 fine nib. I am starting to think that either I should have saved a few bucks and bought one with a Binder steel nib or spent a little more on a Souveran 400, possibly even springing for a Souveran 600. I was originally going to buy an M215 but I was persuaded to get a gold nib. It is a great pen though, just too much "in the middle" of the pricing.

 

I keep hearing so many good things about Richard and other's custom steel nibs I just might ditch the gold on this workhorse. It would have been the cheaper thing to do originally, but it will end up costing me more now, to the point where I'll have spent enough to get a Souveran. D'oh!

Edited February 3, 2006 by Robert Ellis