Adding To The Flock

[stoen]

14 hours ago, Lam1 said:

now, that’s an understatement!!!

Thanks, @Lam1, it’s really nice. I agree with @carola this particular model counts among the most beautiful Pelikans. Perhaps the only model even more beautiful and elegant to me is the so-called “dark tortoise”. Its color is substantially darker, it has a different, elongated pattern and has a black mechanism:

[Christopher Godfrey]

Hmmm...somebody is trying to corner the market, I think...  😉  (Now, what is it, exactly, that the anti-trust laws mean?)

 

I'm green with envy, stoen!  Beautful!

[finzi]

On 5/28/2025 at 10:59 AM, stoen said:

 

 

Spectacular finish on those! As envious as everyone else! Enjoy. 

[Lam1]

On 5/28/2025 at 4:59 AM, stoen said:

Thanks, @Lam1, it’s really nice. I agree with @carola this particular model counts among the most beautiful Pelikans. Perhaps the only model even more beautiful and elegant to me is the so-called “dark tortoise”. Its color is substantially darker, it has a different, elongated pattern and has a black mechanism:

 

I agree that those are among the most beautiful Pelikans.

Having a little weakness for red pens, I must say that I'd have a slight preference for the one with red finial - but I'd be over the moon to own any of those. Your collection is simply fantastic.

[stoen]

 

On 6/8/2025 at 5:36 AM, Lam1 said:

Having a little weakness for red pens

Thanks for your comment, @Lam1. I do agree there’s something special about red pens, but I haven’t seen a legit “dark tortoise” with red mechanism so far, possibly because it wouldn’t aesthetically work. There are too many nuances of black in the celluloid cap and binde.

I’ve also seen “normal tortoise” pens with black mechanisms, but they don’t appeal to me. 

There are also “in-between” pens with captop colors matching those of the mechanisms - I believe some of them have been re-created in the “Originals if their time” series. I don’t have any of them now, although I find the short-captop model, the so-called “officer’s” model also very beautiful.

 

Please, pardon my possibly going off-topic.

 

 

[stoen]

Just thought this photo of my recent addition resting on my laptop would be kind of fun posting. Two “literacy devices” spaced 87 years apart…

 

[carola]

22 hours ago, stoen said:

Just thought this photo of my recent addition resting on my laptop would be kind of fun posting. Two “literacy devices” spaced 87 years apart…

 

 

And while one is still in working order after such a stretch of time, with infinite time to go, its younger brother probably won't be around in 10 years' time.

[OCArt]

@carola Wow, what a beauty!  As we say in our pen club "please put my name on it in your will."

[stoen]

44 minutes ago, carola said:

[…] its younger brother probably won't be around in 10 years' time

You’ve precisely and unmistakenly made the point, @carola .

🙂

[lamarax]

23 hours ago, stoen said:

Just thought this photo of my recent addition resting on my laptop would be kind of fun posting. Two “literacy devices” spaced 87 years apart…

 

 

This is my dream pen, bar none.

[carola]

55 minutes ago, OCArt said:

@carola Wow, what a beauty!  As we say in our pen club "please put my name on it in your will."

 

Though this isn't mine (it's stoen's pen and post), I could indeed, as I own the same pen. 😄

[Barry Gabay]

On 6/30/2025 at 7:09 PM, stoen said:

Just thought this photo of my recent addition resting on my laptop would be kind of fun posting. Two “literacy devices” spaced 87 years apart…

 

Absolutely beautiful.  Congratulations on your recent Pelikan, sir.  Very happy for you. One of your two devices works without electricity.  Quite a contrast. 

[inkstainedruth]

@stoen That pen is GORGEOUS!  I'm so jealous now!  Because I'm betting I can't afford one of those....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[stoen]

Hello, guys,

Thank you for your kind words, @Barry Gabay, @carola, @OCArt, @lamarax, @inkstainedruth.

Your kind words do justice toward how I feel about this beautiful little pen. I haven’t hoped for it, yet there it was. I couldn’t miss my chance, considering the price for which it was offered to me.

Except for thorough cleaning, not much restoration work was really needed:

- recorking

- replacing the broken feed

- fixing a cap lip crack

- replacing the clip

 

I put a feed for a post-war 100N. It made the nib somewhat drier, which I like. The nib is fine, springy and allows for remarkable line width variation and ink flow control.

 

It’s a great feeling, writing with such a tiny piece of history. 

🙂

I wish everybody coming across your dream pens bar none soon.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Just finished cleaning 4-5 cups of dirty pens. Three of the Pelikns needed lubing.

 

My Blue Pastel is packed up and ready to get mailed back to Pelikan, the gasket leaks, and it's still under guarantee.

I have one at Frances's for repair and two more for repair in the next lot. That was a huge amount of pens for repair. When done, I'll have no more pens needing repair. Over 15 years of collecting, one can end up with a lot of pens that need repair.

I counted my Pelikans, and only have 29, not the 35 I thought. Including those down for repair. Such happens when one don't keep good records. 

 

My oldest is a 1936 superflex nibbed 100 5 X tine spread that I strive to keep at 4 X max, with MP. I had thought the FP a 100n, until I got a CN 100n.

 

I have a 500 30 degree grind OBBB maxi-semi flex. A pure signature pen. A full legal name of 15 letters takes up 2/3rds-3/4ths of a page.

Someone else's picture of a Pelikan 500. The 500 was made before they started marking the nib, and not the piston knob. This was eyeballed in the rolled gold piston covering, covers any nib marking. I do have a few OBB's so could eyeball it as OBBB.

I have a '54 transition (nib marked-not piston knob) 400 tortoise with the same light coloring, that has a great semi-flex B on it. I had that pen's semi-flex B in my 605 for ages before I had Francis stubb the 605's double ball BB nib down to B for me. Of the two, I'd keep the 400, in the rolled gold cap of the 500 makes it top-heavy. I could always put in a nib from another Pelikan of that era on the 500, but it's not worth the effort. 

 

And I have a 1994 Pelikan 915 Hunter Toledo in B. A heavy pen. The black pen across from it is an OM W. Germany 800. Auction picture.

Now that I have a Handy, sometime soon I'll learn how to make a picture. Imgur much of the time lately don't load my pictures.

Lately I've been falling over tortoise 400nn's. I now have three. One with a 350 BP in a beautiful in shape, call it near mint etui, they came in.

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have 31, not the 29 Pelikans I thought. I got red marbled 200 ordered through my B&M coming eventually, which will bring it up to 32. 

Right out in plain sight, I have two display 200's NOS, an FP single and an FP/MP/BP full set.

[Tom Kellie]

~ This afternoon a recently released fountain pen arrived.

 

It is a Pelikan M200 Special Edition Apricot Achat with an EF nib.

 

The pen's understated hue is offset by gold furnishing.

 

While neither pale nor pastel, the Apricot Achat has a moderate color which looks well-suited for prolonged writing/sketching sessions.

 

This is the 40th Pelikan fountain pen on my writing desk.

 

As with the others, the build quality and writing experience is excellent.

 

         Tom K.

[Pravda]

Image courtesy of Tom Kellie 

 

 

[eerestis]

Purchased a green-striped Pelikan 400NN with an OBBB nib. I guess you know what the pen body looks like, so I'll just put pictures of the nib here. Strangely I have an OB nib that produces pretty much identical line. The only practical differences are that the OB has sharper corners and has been cut to a bigger angle. I'm not really sure of my OBBB is narrower than intended or my OB wider (or both). Well, this is not the first time I observe high variance in the old nibs, but I certainly didn't expect this. Below, the right nib is OB and left OBBB.

 

[Christopher Godfrey]

Could it be, eerestis, that the OBBB has rather too much curvature of the tip material, so that that part of the nib in contact with the page is actually less than how it seems from <above> the nib?  (While, presumably, the OB has a flatter underside)  The writing specimens <do> look to be identical, don't they?  Curious...