Pelikan M805 Blue Striped, Almost No Translucency

[AGiulius]

Before purchase I read some reviews and watched some videos on the M805 blue striped. All were mentioning some degree of translucency of the black stripes that allow to see the ink level. When I got the M805 I immediately noticed the lack of translucency - one of the first things that I did was to hold the pen up to the light. Very little light passes through the barrel when placed between myself and my phone flashlight and that's only on 2/3 of it. It's not as bad as the R600 red striped which is opaque even with flashlight, but that's a rollerball so I don't care. Is this common on the blue version (the green model seems even more translucent, from pictures)?

The pen writes beautifully (M nib) so I'm not inclined to replace it even though the barrel is not to my liking. Would you replace the pen for something like that?

[OCArt]

I have a blue striped 805 and can see light when I hold it up to this page on my computer monitor. When placed in front of a flashlight mine is very easy to see the ink level through. (I purchased mine used so cannot tell you its age.)

[langere]

That is weird. It should not be the case. Can you take the pen back and exchange it?

 

Erick

[Driften]

My m805 blue/black is hard to see the ink level but with sun coming though a window or a light behind it I can easily see the ink levels in the pen. But a laptop monitor is not good enough.

[AGiulius]

I didn't think much of it when I got it, I thought it was because of bad lighting. I admit I was hoping someone would come and say that it's fairly common

[invisuu]

My 1 year old blue stripes is not as transluscent as brown tortoise, white tortoise, stresemann, or green stripes, but I can still easily see ink level with some light source behind it. Keep in mind this might be down to ink, for example Tanzanite is very hard to read, as it sticks to the walls and hardly drips down. Some inks will immediately pool, some stick to walls. If they stick, its much harder to read ink level.

[AGiulius]

There is very little ink left - as far as I could see with the flashlight. It's an Akkerman violet ink that lets the light pass through.

[invisuu]

I don't have this ink, but looking online, I see this ink sticks to walls heavily. See this picture:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0648/5185/products/13_da06822e-e10d-4d67-9a46-018e9914364f_1024x1024.png?v=1514494899

 

If this is true, then yes, reading ink level would be very difficult and this is completely normal. Montblanc Lavender Purple is super easy to read, for example, as it runs off of walls in seconds. In case you're looking for a great purple ink.

 

Since using mostly Pelikans, the sticking-to-walls property of inks has become an important attribute to me. It differentiates inks from being easy to read from nearly impossible. This is not really exclusive to Pelikans, this is true for all piston fillers with an ink window.

Edited May 7, 2018 by invisuu

[Bo Bo Olson]

Sigh, fill up every morning before leaving.....do miss the coffee cup.

 

Do as suggested, clean the pen, and see if a less clingy ink changes things.

[sirgilbert357]

Maybe try leaving the pen nib up overnight (or even for a couple of hours) and check it again. Even clingy inks usually succumb to gravity given enough time.

 

Of course you can always just empty the pen and flush it too. My M405 Blue has the same level of transparency behind the piston as in front, so you could also try putting a flashlight close to the piston knob end and see how it compares to the transparency of the ink reservoir.

[MHBru]

My 20 year old blue striped m800 used to be translucent but after years of neglect... Not so much anymore. My red stripe is newer and I can see the ink level by holding it up to the window. I need the flashlight on my cell to see through the blue one. BTW... After those years of neglect a good wash and some silicon grease and it's as good as new and a beautiful writer

[AGiulius]

Maybe try leaving the pen nib up overnight (or even for a couple of hours) and check it again. Even clingy inks usually succumb to gravity given enough time.

 

Of course you can always just empty the pen and flush it too. My M405 Blue has the same level of transparency behind the piston as in front, so you could also try putting a flashlight close to the piston knob end and see how it compares to the transparency of the ink reservoir.

You raise a good point and I've already took the flashlight across the entire pen. The light doesn't pass through the piston knob portion even with a flashlight. And as initially mentioned, the black stripes were not translucent even before inking the pen so I don't think it's the ink.

[sirgilbert357]

You raise a good point and I've already took the flashlight across the entire pen. The light doesn't pass through the piston knob portion even with a flashlight. And as initially mentioned, the black stripes were not translucent even before inking the pen so I don't think it's the ink.

 

 

Ah, interesting. Well, there's your answer then.

[Lam1]

Do you see anything like the "rings" indicated by the arrows below?

 

 

If you have any of this, send it back.

My Stresseman is also not translucent because of this, and it is a defect! In another thread around here someone had a similar problem and Chartpak sent another barrel. In my case (I have 2 pens like this), Pelikan is dragging their feet .

[Ron Z]

As a guy who repairs these, as in replaces sections and repairs the mechanism, I think that any translucency is incidental, not intended. The back end of the pen WILL be black because the mechanism and threads extend almost an inch down into the barrel. I have yet to see light penetrate solid brass.

 

As for the "rings" in the barrel, that isn't a defect. The inside of the barrel is perfectly smooth as it must be, because the piston seal travels up and down inside, and would leak if it weren't smooth. The outside of the barrel is unfinished and unpolished. It doesn't need to be, and in fact having it polished may be undesirable because the striped binde gets glued on over the barrel and an unfinished (and unseen) surface gives the glue a better surface to stick to. I've worked on a number of these pens where the binde has split or come off, and the barrels are never smooth. The "rings" you see are simply the outer surface of the barrel.

 

The inside of the binde may be more or less smooth, but not polished like the outside. Earlier 800 bindes are not especially translucent. How much you can see through the barrel will depend on the color of the plastic that they use for the barrel. If you can see light through it, great! But I suspect that Pelikan doesn't make that a sales feature like Parker did with the Vacumatics.

 

BTW, Pelikan uses the same barrel and section for both rollerballs and fountain pens. The difference is that the fountain pen gets the piston mechanism and nib, while the rollerball gets the cone on the front end, a brass sleeve in the barrel, and a different grip knob/back end in place of the mechanism and grip knob. The brass sleeve is there to give some weight to the pen,

[sargetalon]

Interesting observation. Looking at my striped variants (green, red, blue, anthracite) I can see some translucency between the solid stripes, enough to gauge the ink level, without any significant difficulty. Nothing a stronger light source can't overcome. I do suppose that there may be some variation there.

 

Thanks, as always, for your insights Ron.

[Matlock]

Thanks Ron for bringing some common sence to this thread.

[Nyanzilla]

My old M800 in green ist the most translucent. My blue one is least translucent. The red one is something in-between and it's the only one with those grooves or rings visible.

Edited May 16, 2018 by Nyanzilla