1St Pelikan M800 Or M1000?

[Tseg]

Thanks again for everyone's input. I've been traveling all week and reading and watching a ton more reviews on all the Pelikans. Ultimately I decided to get the M1000 because I knew I would always be getting a whisper in the ear to get it. I ordered from a seller in the UK and was amazed it arrived at my US house in 3 days. I am ecstatic with the purchase. This pen writes so decadently... as juicy as all the hype makes out.

 

I'll be honest, I had to do a double take when this pen arrived as I was expecting a massive pen. I thought they sent me the wrong one as I set it next to my Pilot Custom 823 and Waterman Carene.

 

 

It just did not look like the expected big dog... I had to look up the pen stats again to verify it had the correct label. It definitely feels like a big dog when writing, but to me it is pretty normal in size.

 

 

The online store only had the black model when I first began my search a few weeks back, but the striped version was a recent edition. I decided to add some color to my collection. I think the pen looks great. The nib is all it is cracked up to be. It is not my smoothest nib, with those honors going to my Waterman Carene, but it is smooth and super wet. It sings a bit from time to time when writing. It is a Medium but definitely Broad looking. I love how juicy it is, but would not want that with all my pens. It feels right with this one. My Iroshizuku Kon-Peki works well with it. Great shading in the blue.

 

 

We'll see if my Pelikan itch is now satiated.

 

Edited March 23, 2018 by Tseg

[gmathio]

That's a great pen and the green/black is a classic combination, much better than the all black. Nice choice also with the Iroshizuku Kon-peki ink. Enjoy your pen with lots of writing !!

Edited March 23, 2018 by gmathio

[Bo Bo Olson]

:yikes:A 1000 is NOT a huge pen?????.................whee!!!

I grew up in the Standard .... medium large era.....so even the Large 800 is Large (and clunky).....and when I tried the 1000....it was Huge..............but if one grows up now....it looks like the 800 would be a 'small' pen.

 

The nib will be 'wet' in it is semi-flex and the ease of tine spread and bend, will make for a wet writer. Do order some dry inks too....because a wet ink will be a flood.

 

Below is a standard sized Osmia-Faber-Castell 540...from@ 1951/2. The pen that started me on pen collecting. I'd a P-75 from @ 1970.

The 540 was a wet writer....something most 'noobies' were after a decade ago........that's all I thought it was. ...check that box....wet writer.

 

Later after I got my first pen I knew to be a semi-flex a 140, did I discover I'd had a semi-flex all the time.

This pen and a couple others sat for some 15 years in my Aunt-in-laws drawer, 15 in mine. We were off to sell at a flea market for the very first time, and gathered the junk in the house. My wife asked....what to charge for the fountain pens. I said E5 for the pretty one E1 for the others....after all all they were were obsolete fountain pens.

Wife ordered me to go onto the net and find out a worth. Why...it was only an obsolete $5.00 fountain pen. Started at 20:00 by 02:00 I had a collection. My $/E-5 pretty pen, was worth $250 (Pre-Depression) .....my $22 (silver dollar) P-75 was worth $225.

[Tseg]

Thanks for the tip on dry ink... I've ordered some Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black to see if that does the trick around wetness. My other emerging issue is noticed my nib tends to sing a lot. Depending on the outcome of the dry ink I may send to a nibmeister.

[Matlock]

:yikes:A 1000 is NOT a huge pen?????.................whee!!!

I grew up in the Standard .... medium large era.....so even the Large 800 is Large (and clunky).....and when I tried the 1000....it was Huge..............but if one grows up now....it looks like the 800 would be a 'small' pen.

 

The M1000 is tiny compared to a Cross Peerless or a Sailor King of Pens. M1000 = 14.5cm, Peerless also 14.5cm but twice the girth, Sailor K o P = 16cm. Even the Montblanc 146 Le Grand is 14.3cm whilst the 149 is 14.9cm.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I really can't imagine even trying to write with that baseball bat of a Cross.

I can get by with a light and nimble 146 even posted, though it's not a pen I grab first; but the 149 and the 1000 were for me huge..

[Tseg]

The M1000 is tiny compared to a Cross Peerless or a Sailor King of Pens. M1000 = 14.5cm, Peerless also 14.5cm but twice the girth, Sailor K o P = 16cm. Even the Montblanc 146 Le Grand is 14.3cm whilst the 149 is 14.9cm.

 

Funny you mention King of Pen... that is my other acquisition currently en route, but getting the KoP Pro Gear at 14.25cm (vs. M1000 14.56cm) but a beefy section at 12.7mm vs. 12.1mm for the diminutive M1000. Its hard to find a descent sized pen in market these days with all the sub-compacts running around.

 

Separately, related to my M1000 nib woes of way too wet, a Medium being a BB width and the nib singing like it was at a Metallica concert (not to mention a burr problem)... where I could look to return the pen overseas, pay to have a nib meister fix it up, buy another new nib, live with it or tackle things myself, of course I took the last approach because I'm impatient and want things my way... and, after all, this is a hobby. Over the course of 2 days and many hours, armed with micro-mesh, magnifying goggles, spot lights and latex gloves I have emerged with the ultimate nib for myself. I think I made ~20 separate attempts to adjust and my efforts seemed to mute all but not fix any until I went wild and crazy squeezing the nib sides and top back towards the section like trying to squeeze out salmon roe. After that desperation Hail Mary exercise wouldn't you know my ink flow went from sopping to very wet (what I wanted), BB to a true Medium and the singing is essentially gone... and the nib is smooth with no burrs or snagging like I had early on. By this morning I thought for sure this pen was going to be relegated to printing large letters or writing my signature but this afternoon I can write cursive very legible on lined paper. Now I'm ecstatic about this pen.

 

 

[Matlock]

I really can't imagine even trying to write with that baseball bat of a Cross.

I can get by with a light and nimble 146 even posted, though it's not a pen I grab first; but the 149 and the 1000 were for me huge..

 

Thanks Bo Bo, I knew that there was another use for the Cross Peerless. Now I just have to hone my baseball skills .

[Mew]

I find M1000 a very comfortable size. The section on M800 is a bit thin for my liking but I manage. But I don't post my pens.

 

My biggest pen is still the Namiki emperor at 173mm capped and 155mm uncapped. That receives more use than all my pelikans (3) combined.

[Bo Bo Olson]

That Cross pen would make a fine legal yawara or kubotan weapon. Which unbelievably are still legal in California. But not totally in England...if you poke someone with it.

[Matlock]

That Cross pen would make a fine legal yawara or kubotan weapon. Which unbelievably are still legal in California. But not totally in England...if you poke someone with it.

 

[marlinspike]

I see you already went with the 1000, but if you like positive affirmation, I own both the 800 and the 1000, and size wise my 800 was always my favorite, until I got the 1000, and now the 1000 seems perfect to my hand, and my only motivation to use the 800 (other than being blue insead of green) comes from the fact that my 800 has an F nib instead of an M, and the dryer and firmer nib is well suited to writing at work on sheets made from printer paper. I don't find the 1000 oversized at all, but just what I wish were the norm but isn't.

Also, I don't know how you can manage to maintain your sanity without wiping the nib after inking. Just seeing the pictures makes me feel at unease.

Edited March 27, 2018 by marlinspike

[Tseg]

I always find the idea of the upside down writing capabilities of a pen a bit silly. Who would do that? Not to mention, my experience is a pen performs scratchy and poorly upside down. Wouldn't you know after my many hours of nib work I discovered my Pelikan now writes Fine upside down extremely smoothly... no skipping, hard starts or otherwise. I almost could argue it performs better upside down than right side up, but both now do very well. Considering in 'Medium' mode this pen can deplete it's ink inventory in not too many pages because it still is pretty juicy, this Fine alternative is a pleasant surprise. In upside down fine mode the ink flow is perfect.

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Some pens do work just fine upside down.....for perhaps short notes in a margin of a wider nib. Short math notes.

Some folks have used it for more than a short note.....but I think that's all it's really any good for........but some folks do odd things.

Like too cheap to buy a very skinny nib pen.

 

The modern Pelikan double kugal/ball nibs of the 400/600/& 800 have enough material to grind a narrower tip on top. It is done often enough that it is not all that strange.

 

I don't know how much tipping the 1000 has, but if it's wider than a 200 it too might have enough tipping to grind down the top to a narrower 'nib'.

 

"""In upside down fine mode the ink flow is perfect."""

That might be the key to the problem.....how exactly I don't know....but do know over the years, I've seen that said before...................not having that problem hit the erase button.