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Is there a cure?


Pen Ffynnon

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For a year and a half, I was happy with my little Pelikan M205 Star Ruby. It wrote like a dream and we were a happy couple. I happily read the Pelikan forums. The "Show Us Your Flock" never induced me to post, after all, a single pen could hardly be a flock, could it?

 

Then, some ruffian (okay, several of you ruffians) posted the M600 Souveran Red Tortiseshell. Sure, I could resist it! I did! For about 2 days, and suddenly, one was ordered. All right, I had a small failing, such things are not unknown in human events. Fine. I would have 2 fine red birds and could rest content. And then....the M200 Gold Marbled reared its (positively gorgeous head). "But it wasn't red!" my soul cried. "We don't do translucent barrels!" my brain said. My emotions said, "It looks like something a duchess would use. So pretty. So ivory and gold...." and...

 

Then there were 3 (soon to be) birds in my personal nest. You are a bad influence, every one of you! And I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate you. 

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No, and you have fallen far and fast, there many gorgeous 600's, and the 200's can be addictive.

I now have 6, and only wanted the 215 for the 200's nib....having then a 1990-1 to 1996, in it was tortoise and they stopped that pen and regular flex nib a year before the end, in 1997 of the semi-vintage 400, and 400nn, and a couple 140's. I didn't need a 200.....well....:happyberet:

 

I can remember as a noobie thinking 12 pens would be much more than enough....and a dozen inks..........80 pens and 70 inks, and 40 types of paper later....I'm still a paper noobie, in my mind.

 

Chase the nib.....what nibs do you have, what nibs do you need. There are if you alternate from EF to BB your stubs and CI's only some 45 nibs in various flexs. Not counting XXF.....and I do not need a semi-flex OEF....in it's really too narrow to show such a nib off.................unless one has young strong eyes.

I am not into nails.........but they crawl in after being fed after midnight.

Never buy any oblique that is not semi-flex or maxi-semi-flex....1950-65 ('70) on a couple other brands........even in tad springier regular flex W.Germany nibs, ...they don't do the job. & I'm using a OM W.Germany 200 right now, and have a small W.Germany 600 in OBB....no cigar. :wallbash:

 

Gold Marbled sounds so much better than brown marbled...if it's the same pen.

And it looks better in real life than this picture from Fritz, with permission.

I'd convinced my self I needed a nice springy regular flex in EF for editing, so instead of buying a nib, bought the pen. I had EF's in semi-flex; but being a tad heavy handed on occasion, can have them write to an F with out much problems.

 

I kick my self to this day for not buying the yellow 200 when I bought the blue 605...both on great sale prices. I still don't have a yellow pen.

But then I was a fool, gold snob. Believing the myth...gold is better. :headsmack:

Nor had I realized how much better a nib the 200's was compared to the fat and blobby semi-nail post '97 400/600.

I was so 'noobie'!:headsmack:

You can fit a 200's (gold plated) nib on your 600......you can also get a vintage '50-65's semi-flex nib:notworthy1: for it.

I do also like my 605's feel.........the 600 balances so well when posted; like the 200.

I don't know what width you got on your 600, but if M it makes a good stub or CI, being a semi-nail.

Do get a M nib, either for your 600 or for your 200, in M is a very good nib width for two toned shading inks....and get some 90g or heavier paper so such inks shade.

It gets much disrespect here on the com, in most start with an M, and get drawn into the skinny or wide traps. I went wide.

My 215, my Amethyst and Ruby red are M's.

 

One needs a B nib for your pens, a BB if you can find one. One looks for sheen, and a wide nib is much better for glitter inks.

 

Enjoy the trip.

 

DSPqv6F.jpg

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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This is probably just small-talk and not meant to be taken seriously but...

Yes, there is a cure but it involves self awareness and self control.

Pick one pen and one ink and lock the others up for a year.

With that pen write down exactly what happens next.

I'm not buying this addiction, enabling, rabbit-hole rubbish!

Maybe we're all just scared out of minds these days and over compensating by hoarding.

We have the choice to buy pens or not buy pens! Why are people pretending lose control and boasting about it? That may be the unhealthy condition that needs a cure.

Pen Ffynnon what exactly made you fall 'out of love' with your beautiful Ruby Star?

You were happy, now you say you are not. Be honest with yourself. You've traded your happiness for something else. More happiness or just an endless search for something you already had?

What do you think about my comment?

G

πTom

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The thing is, I haven't fallen out of love with it. It's my go-to pen whether I'm doodling or writing or just jotting down a quick note. It's a wettish writer which I appreciate since I tend to hold pens lightly, but not so wet as to be problematic.

 

It was more a case of, "Here's a beautiful thing (okay, so two beautiful things). I already know that I adore the beautiful thing I already have. This would give me a beautiful thing that I could leave at work for the days I'm in the office and still keep the Star Ruby here at home, safe from the hazards of travel back and forth. I could enjoy writing at work instead of making do with either the really awful stick ballpoints that work supplies or the box of (somewhat) better gel pens I bought myself. I could use something other than standard-institutional-black. Meeting notes in green or purple or oxblood. Work notes in sky blue."

 

I blame my Star Ruby for having been a faultless pen straight out of the box, likely fooling me into thinking the other two will be the same, but I'm hopeful. Or, to put it another way, I have a gorgeous Rosa Alba Maxima. That doesn't stop me from wanting a Champney's Pink Cluster. :)

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There are too many pens, with slightly different nib flexes, and balance points....and some are stunning beautiful....to us. Perhaps even to ball point barbarians. However, we pay for our precious, which don't make us invisible. :unsure:

 

Do Not join the Pen of the Week in the Mail Club. (Been there wrote a five book saga on it.)

Nor the Pen of the Month. (Only a two book saga.)..........

After resigning from both clubs, one does have enough 'cheap' pens....even if they were once flagships.

 

Joining Pen of the Quarter Club, allows much research and saving up ..... after all a bottle of 22 year old single malt will become empty, and no one pays for old bottles.

You are going to be just as broke at the end of the year as if one joined the Pen of the Week Club......but allows you to buy inks and papers in the meanwhile. And :puddle: over grail pens.

 

Three days to a week after your Grail Pen arrives, the ghost of another grail pen will creap out of the woodwork.

 

Take your time, savior and enjoy the dithering, and chase the nib.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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There is that. And I really don't want (well, yes, I do) 40 bazillion pens. They deserve to be used. The 2 I've recently purchased brings me up to a total of less than 10 pens--enough to indulge my "pretty thing--want!" urges, but not so much that they won't be used.

 

Some day, I will find a vintage pen that calls to me and that will round out things, nicely. :)

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You need a semi-flex German nib....and if so, get an Pelikan in you can swap nibs. An oblique could/should be the second vintage '50-65 era Pelikan pen.

Be aware, those nibs are factory stubbs, and don't have the American Bump Under tipping.

 

I have all the obliques from OF to OBB in 15 and 30 degree grinds; (the latter luck of the draw) , OEF is too narrow for me to see the pattern.

There is more to it of course than a simple bald statement.

 

Tortoise is something to look at; but you need to know the difference between the vintage and semi-vintage feeds to know what you are getting.

Green stripe is common. Tortoise with any luck on German Ebay is not more expensive than green stripped.

 

Take your time and read.

Semi-flex is a flair nib .....semi=almost.....Semi-flex not semi-flex.

For years I wondered why good posters were always saying writing with a semi-flex nib was so slow.........they were practicing nib abuse :angry:and spreading the tines more than a max of 3 X a light down stroke. Trying to use it as a calligraphy nib, when it is not so designed.

 

Just write normal and one gets the flair, be it a straight nib or an oblique. An OB is a writing nib back in that era, not a signature blobby modern nib.....sort of like a slightly fat modern M.

Vintage and Semi-vintage German nibs are half a size narrower (or more) than modern.

 

The pictures show Semi-flex nib abuse....IMO.

The small..."thin" lines are close to OK, in it is a B nib...but the fat lines are well over the 3 X max.

Then they sell the nib already sprung for your convenience on Ebay.

 

Just write normal, the ease of tine spread, will make letters a bit fatter where you naturally add some pressure, and nib width thin where you don't.....giving you that old fashioned fountain pen flair.......................with out having to do anything, much less anything fancy!!!!!

 

AdtsC9R.jpg

uh0c0kL.jpg

Such a spread, encourages a sprung nib, through metal fatigue.

Repaired sprung nibs will never be exactly the same as before and are $$$$.

Semi-flex is not a calligraphy nib.

 

Richard Binder has a great article on metal fatigue on his sight.

If you've not read it for the full three days it takes, Richard's sight, do so. I go back to review.....for the fun of it.

 

Once 95% of all I knew came from there; now it's only 92%....after all, one is supposed to learn something in a decade hanging around here.

 

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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Best wishes Ffynnon. I'm also trying to navigate the 'urge' slalom course! Many of my pens were accidents or impulses and I knew I would have to face the music one day!

I had to bring a spending spree under control and take a more sustainable approach.

As the wise ones say, "it's difficult to reason yourself out of something you didn't reason yourself into"!🤔

The greatest gift here is the advice and experience of contributors such as Bo Bo Olson who have worked out all the confusing 'newbie' stuff ages ago.

Thank you Bo Bo Olson.

I'm finding a perverse pleasure in restraint and I genuinely do practice my own advice. I'm using one brand new ystudio, Copper, pen with a Schmidt Medium nib and one 1937 Swan, Mabie Todd with a vintage #2 Oblique Medium nib. Both using the same Blue/Black ink and I will stay with those 2 pens for a few months even though I have many others. That way I get to love them and learn all their charms!😊

I guess it is a good 'reset' button for me as well.

I only have one little Pelikan in my nest but it's a cutie! M101N Brown Tortoise! That will be on my next roster.

Gary

πTom

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There was a thread here about Pelikan’s breeding in secret. Sure enough, it happened to me.  It will happen to anyone reading Pelikan threads. 

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If 3 dogs constitutes a pack then I think 3 birds constitutes a flock.  I have 2 Pelikans, I will buy one more, and then that’s it.  Flock complete. Must be strong...

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Stealth birds, I can remember my first four clearly.

A miss labeled 400 at a live auction. It was not a '50's one, but a '91-96 Tortoise; and the dealers knew it, so I got it at start price.

The first semi-flex I traded a real fancy  Franklin Mint, Robert E. Lee pocket knife.....that really couldn't be put in the pocket for a semi-flex 140; (&3 East German and a Chinese pen) and as soon as I tested the 140's semi-flex nib against my thumb nail,  I knew what all the fuss was about.

Then my auto mechanic knowing I 'collected pens; may have had 10, gave me a 120. That was four.

 

I must have 20-25 now....too many to count........only need 5 or 6 more....even if I keep saying only need three.

 

Then there is all those super expensive used 600's. I'd been a fool for a decade, saying why should I spend good money for a fancy 400; called a 600, back when they were much cheaper. Did get one, an OBB.

Never really wanted a 1000; but there were not many there at the live auction (dam telephone and computer bidders all to hell!!!!), so was willing to get a dirt cheap one, (at same live auction), being too cheap to spend E-3 on a catalog, having a piece of paper with the numbers of interest; bid a bloody fortune for a 600:angry: I was going to have come hell or high water; that turned into a cheap 1005, ten seconds into the next bid on the real 600, gotten for reasonable prices. (well both were black pens; both were OBB)

 

Did finally get a W.Germany 800 after a decade since admiring the nib of one I trans-mailed.....but am too poor to collect them.....unless a depression comes.

 

I need a 400 seaweed/sea green or what ever, a late '30's full tortoise......a blue or red stripped 400 is not needed............but what has need ever had to do with it?

Hummmm, you know I don't have a Rapen!!

I don't need a 100, have a 100n.............of course that full tortoise and a Jade, and a.......

 

 

Just realize, there is no hurry, you have the rest of your life ahead of you and your flock.

 

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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My little flock of 3 became a flock of 6 within the last month.  My latest is a brown marbled that perfectly matches my 400NN.  

724239037_200-400nn-1.jpeg.f3e8e9cb90e12e8c787cf7bd18684352.jpeg1437278776_200-400nn-2.jpeg.7715118eec6992c3dbe5c6b2b89f3399.jpeg454404788_200-400nn-3.jpeg.e78f2066546980e51ef448708297d527.jpeg

 

 

Unlike my M600 which has not been used much because of the boring nib, the 405 and 200's have been nice especially on Tamoe River paper.  Curiosity got the better of me and I'm happy that I explored since my experience has been that the 405 gold nib on my pen that I bought 2 months ago is definitely not a nail and is actually springier than those of the 200's that I purchased within the last couple weeks.  I've already written all 3 dry after a fill so am pretty familiar with the each nib.  Additionally, my gold plated steel 200 nib has no discernible difference in springiness to the 205 steel nib that I am now using.

 

On a not so bright side, all three recent purchases required tine adjustments.  Albeit minor ones.  So in my own experience, I love the Pelikans, but have had the least satisfaction with the nibs out of the box, with them requiring tine adjustments more often than not.  This is with a mere 6 Pelikans, mind you.  Oh, I forgot that I returned the M1000 that I had purchased 2 years back because the tines were badly out.  The nib problem was acknowledged as real and a nib exchange vs full refund offered.  I chose the refund since I thought the pen too big for my liking anyway... the dawn of my realisation that oversized pens were not my personal cup of tea.  

 

Posted M200's and MB145's have hit a sweet spot.  Whether or not I have multiple sweet spots in the ergonomics dept. is yet to be realised but at the moment, I'm loving it.  

 

Finally, the 400nn nib is fascinating.  My only vintage semiflex experience.  Smooth and with considerable flex with great ink flow.  However, and a big however, I cannot simply write with it since on upstrokes the nib tends to catch and scratch on the paper.   In the image, if you look at the nib grind, you will see that the top of the nib tine has an edge, rather than being rounded.  I would assume that's the explanation.  So I write more slowly and a greater angle (from the vertical) to the paper.

 

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Pen Ffynnon... just wait until you happen upon your first vintage Pelikan. There will be no turning back.

 

And I swear... they DO breed!

I started out with a single green-striped Pelikan M400 from the 1980s - now I have got 17 of those birds. Don´t know where they all came from... Plus they seem to attract other pens, too. 🤷‍♀️

 

And another thing: I don´t see big virtue in restraining oneself to only one pen. What for?

If someone only WANTS one pen - fine. But if I fall in love with more than one pen, why shouldn´t I enjoy it? Have some fun, please!

 

The one thing I tell myself: Don´t buy a pen you can´t afford to lose. That´s it.

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1 hour ago, carola said:

Don´t buy a pen you can´t afford to lose

 

Rubbish! Don't take a pen you own but can't afford out of the house.

Fixed it!

Add lightness and simplicate.

 

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I have two primary rules that are quite effective.... a) can I afford this pen without needing to "save up" for it and b) the more effective one... can I share with my wife that I want another pen.  I want a "yes" to both before purchase.

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17 minutes ago, Karmachanic said:

 

Rubbish! Don't take a pen you own but can't afford out of the house.

Fixed it!

@Karmachanic my solution exactly... i have never taken one of my fountain pens out of the house... that's what ballpoints are for!

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38 minutes ago, Karmachanic said:

 

Rubbish! Don't take a pen you own but can't afford out of the house.

Fixed it!

 

What if your house burns down? Or someone breaks into your house and steals the pen?

Not fixed at all.

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@Bo Bo Olson Thank you so much! I do appreciate your reply. I have learned so much in the time I've spent lurking here (and on the old forum--I was never able to get through the sign-up process on the old one) and I do appreciate you taking the time. I have 2 Chet Herbert pens (Church Hill and a black & purple Edgar Allen Poe) and both have stub nibs which I love.

 

Were I to get a nib for a Pelikan and have a nibmeister turn it into a stub, would it be best to use a medium or a broad?

 

I would love to get somewhere where I can try the pens before buying--would a M1000 be too big for my hands? I don't know, so it's a bit of a dice throw with every pen I buy online. I have small hands but am "of a certain age" and while arthritis has not reared it's ugly head, I don't like very thin pens or pencils--my fingers cramp up.

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