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My new bird, plus its two baby birds.


Severn

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Very happy to finally have this M800 join the flock. I'm guessing it's from the early nineties and the seller said it has been unused since bought. It still has its sticker on the barrel and although there is a little tarnishing on the nib it probably wasn't used. I did notice a plastic tab for an R800 in it's box, so I presume the owner used the roller ball and didn't touch the fountain pen.

 

 

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Wonderful find, made better by the fact that there's no shrinking or issues on the barrel bind. I'm not an expert on Pelikans, but does this have a small PF or E|N mark on the left nib collar?

 

The topside of a nib is its face, the underside its soul (user readytotalk)

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Thank you. Yes, it does have a small stamp on the left of something, I can't make it out; and on the right it has PF. What is the significance? It's for import reasons?

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7 minutes ago, Severn said:

Thank you. Yes, it does have a small stamp on the left of something, I can't make it out; and on the right it has PF. What is the significance? It's for import reasons?

 

Lucky you! AFAIK, this stamp apparently signifies this pen was produced for the Swiss market in the early 90s, according to: 

https://thepelikansperch.com/2014/09/22/the-pf-pn-nibs-explained/

 

Hearsay also tells me these nibs are more interesting than those found in modern nail-like M800s, which have a separate charm.

 

The topside of a nib is its face, the underside its soul (user readytotalk)

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That's very helpful, thanks. It's interesting too that it has PF as I picked this up in Paris, so according to the link if it was French it would normally have the E|N stamp.
I'm also finding it difficult to remove the sticker on the barrel even though I plan to use it! 

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Hmm... well, usually rubbing alcohol helps, but I wouldn't put it anywhere near a pen.

 

Water and rubbing with a towel can also help, but again, it's too easy to induce scratches and marks this way. Frankly, I would leave the sticker be and let it fall of on its own, which it usually does after enough use.

 

Although more frankly, I wouldn't use this NOS pen at all, just stare at it in my collection. But I'm weird like that, haha.

 

The topside of a nib is its face, the underside its soul (user readytotalk)

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Beautiful! Use and enjoy it :) 

 

As for removing the sticker, I find water the best option - once you can get the top 'shiny' layer off, the rest is pretty easy. 

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Turns out the sticker was a non-adhesive plastic one that just peels off very easily. It's inked up now and writes with that buttery Pelikan style.

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What a beauty! Grats!

It's hard work to tell which is Old Harry when everybody's got boots on.

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Should be a nice springy comfortable regular flex, which was what the 800 was until '98.

 

Will be a bit narrower than 400/200/600 of the same era.

Just for the 800, Pelikan made it it's own nib width.

Somewhere I have an old chart....pre-Japanese appearing on the main market.

It's an Old chart.

Conway Stewart was by far the widest, then Parker, Shaffer, Pelikan 200/400/600, and alone the 800.....and the then narrowest main pen (outside of Aurora) was Waterman.

:yikes: Back then Pelikan EF was narrowest of them all; not counting Aurora which was not on the chart.

 

I swore up and down the only 800 I'd get was a W.German one; but the '91-97 is a good nibbed pen.

It took me quite a few years to grow into using Large pens, preferring the vintage and semi-vintage standard sized ones.

 

The W.Germany nibs are a slight tad more springy, but you have to have both nibs; (W.Germany &Germany) of the era to hunt and find the slight difference.....so don't worry about it. .

 

I do like regular flex....I rant in favor of it often.:bunny01:

 

M is a very good width....even if it gets no respect on the com.

Regular flex is good for two-toned shading inks, and IMO M is a tad better than F.

Then there is the rough Classic Laid and Linen Effect papers, where an M or B is better than F.

 

Right now I have a sheet of 120g/36pound linen effect paper out for notes. It is not as rough as I'd remembered....perhaps I'd been using a F nib. Pleasant. Pull out 800 and scribble, and the paper is rougher on my hand than on the nib.

Laid paper, has more of that ...hummm interesting.

Linen paper use to be the only real paper for a couple centuries, in linen was the most common rag.

 

They still make it and in many companies, so get your self some, for the fun of it.

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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18 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

...

 

Hello Bo Bo Olson,

 

It's been a few years since I've been here, and I'm glad to see you're still posting with your distinctive perspective. My tastes go towards the modern, forgiving, nail-like Pelikans, but I can appreciate the world of more expressive flex.

 

The topside of a nib is its face, the underside its soul (user readytotalk)

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When you live at the semi-flex well (Germany)....I ended up with 35 of them and 14 maxi-semi-flex......so went that direction of explain what they are and their IMO limits and fun factor.

I have mellowed a bit.....liking regular flex a lot now.

 

There are noobies, from the US where semi-flex is rare....and why shouldn't they too have fun....safely. :happyberet:

 

 

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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Thanks for that story Bo Bo Olson. Yes, the nib defiantly has some flex to it which is nice. Not as flexible as my 1950 400, but I wasn't expecting it to be. What is also great about the M800 is the weight. Just feels like quality.

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That some flex, is 'regular flex'; a nice springy comfortable ride. And with a nice clean line.

Your factory stub which was normal in semi-flex pens back then, also writes with a clean line.

 

My 'first' semi-flex, a 140, which I've told how just the thumbnail nib test so impressed me, I knew what all the fuss was about at the flea market where I swapped a Franklin Mint R.E. Lee knife for it and four other mox-nix* pens, wasn't really my first semi-flex; but I was too ignorant to know better; and there was little to no info on Osmia pens.

 

Some 12 years ago, we were going to go to the flea market to sell for the very first time. We dug out of the dark of the drawer; 5 or six pens, a couple MP's and antique ball points with caps that had sat there for 15 years.. They had sat in my wife's Aunt's draw for a generation also.

What do we ask for these my wife asked.........1 Euro for the worthless obsolete fountain pens of which only the Esterbrook rang a bell, and E5 for the pretty one.

Eventually my wife had to shake the German forefinger at me, tasking me with finding out what they were worth.

At 20:00 I went on the net, stumbled across FPN...but found out that pretty one was worth $250:yikes:

My One Man, One Pen; P-75 had already done 15 years of a life sentence  locked up in my wife's jewelry jail. They wanted $225 :yikes:for my $22 silver money fountain pen.........so by 02:00 I had a pen collection. 3qPLO3y.jpg

ndEYUCd.jpg

 

First I was an ignorant noobie, thinking some shadetree mechanic had stubbed that pen, and the other German ones, use to only the American Bump Under tipping......nope, factory stubbing that was normal on semi-flex nibs.

As a 'noobie' I thought it wrote the wet line all 'noobies' were demanding then....not knowing semi-flex was a wet writer, especially in the hands of the Ham Fisted.

The pen lasted 3 months before the cork gave up the ghost.

It was well into the next year before I got my 140....so never related the fact that my nice wet line writing pen was semi-flex.

xxxxxxxx

By the way Osmia came in both semi-flex and maxi-semi-flex and it's grand steel nibs are as good as it's grand gold nibs....was one of the top 5-6 German brands, but didn't have an office supply company to carry the pen, like Soeneecken, MB, Pelikan, and later Geha, so was often broke and was bought up by Faber-Castel a second tier pen maker (pencil empire) to up grade their pen line, but being so arrogant of a bought a Duke title, the Grafs from Faber-Castel erased Osmia from Osmia-Faber-Castel pens over the next 8 years or so.

Oh Well the ball point killed O-F-C anyway, like Soennecken and the Original Reform (not the cheap pen we mostly know...made by Mutschler. The Original Reform was so good, right after the war, the foreign import companies sent him cash in advance so he could start his factory up again right after WW2. In the mid-50's he shut down his factory, rather than make second class pens. ( I have a couple solid war pens.)

 

I do have to get some of his early '50's pens, very classy and very modern looking even for today. Now that my Biden came in, I can take a look or three. :eureka:

 

*mox-nix, an Americanism of the Americans stationed in Germany, meaning nothing special & German.

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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