Pelikan Changing to Non-translucent Binde

[TSherbs]

17 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

 

....Any fat nail nib will give you what a 800 has to offer.....

 

Ouch. That is a harsh assessment!

[Bo Bo Olson]

1 hour ago, TSherbs said:

Ouch. That is a harsh assessment!

Yep....I like the bit of springyness or softness of a nice springy regular flex nib,...'82-97 Pelikan, or the 200. (Which was still so great until 4 or so years ago they ruined that nib by making it a double ball nib...read my signature....

Regular flex = soft.

Semi-flex = soft ++

Maxi-semi-flex = soft +++

Those three are in the 3 X tine spread class. Over stressing the nib to more...will lead to a sprung nib...sooner than later.

 

Regular flex one has to really mash it, to get to 3X tine spread over a light down stroke. You really can't write with it at 3 X....if heavy handed the nib will write to 2 X. A comfortable springy ride.

 

Semi-flex reaches 3 X tine spread with half the pressure of a regular flex...(One does need a regular flex...Japanese soft nib to judge semi-flex IMO) There is natural line variation of parts of the first letter and here and there parts of other 'heavy' letters. Unless you have a very light hand; one needs to to do nothing to get line variation, it's natural to your writing.

 

Maxi-semi-flex needs half the pressure of a semi-flex to reach 3 X, or 1/4th the pressure needed to mash a regular flex to 3X.

I have a few '50-60's German pens that are 'unmarked' maxi-semi-flex.

Only Osmia with it's small diamond-mostly nib sized marked nib= often semi-flex.***

Osmia large diamond and or Supra= often maxi-semi-flex. ***

 

1932? Degussa the gold and silver producer of Germany takes Osmai's fine nib factory for debt. In none of the workers would move 50Km to Pfortzheim, the nib factory stayed in the Osmia factory. Degussa continued to make nibs for Osmia, and in the two alloy's for semi&maxi. They also supplied gold nib ribbon wheels to all other producers.

 

In none of the other firms, MB (1 maxi), Pelikan (2 maxi), Geha (1 maxi & Degussa made Geha's nibs*) or the other firms where one can luck into a maxi said, or marked their pens to a maxi.

 

I believe Degussa would ship a gold ribbon wheel to who ever ordered one, with out telling them they were getting a nicer nib material. Either Degussa was shipping the cheaper of the gold ribbon wheels or which ever one was nearest. (even then gold prices varied a touch)

None of the other pen companies even acknowledged they had made and sold pens with a maxi-semi-flex nib. ... If they knew.

 

 

**** Having what I thought a lot of Osmia pens....8 or so, thought I'd hit on 'the truth'

One guy with 80 or so and another fine poster with 30-40 said....not all the time, there were occasions where large diamond/Supra nibs were semi-flex and small diamond, maxi.

But with Osmia you have the better chance to get a maxi...........and the steel nibs are just as good as the gold and come in semi&maxi.

 

* Two posters I respect said that Geha nibs were a bit better/springier than Pelikan of that era '50-60's. I tested 4 Geha vs 4 of that era Pelikan nibs and found they were right. The Degussa made Geha nib was a touch better....springier.

Ergo Osmai nibs also.

 

[TSherbs]

I am not interested at all in flex nibs, nor would I buy a Pelikan in pursuit of one. But I would expect a writing experience superior to my Jinhao 100 (which is quite nice). 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Flex nibs by you is a huge word.

Not by me.

 

Nail is your thing....

Be aware, semi-nail can be had in modern 400/600....of course if you have a heavy hand you can get it to flex out to 2X. so stay away from the 400/600.

 

The @ 2012-now 1000 is regular flex............there are those who like the Bock semi-flex 1000's nibs '97-2012. So that is jet another pen you need not interest your self with.

 

And flex you dislike is a huge word....oddly I think of flex as superflex. I do have a 100n with a superflex nib.

 

I don't think of regular flex as flex at all, in it was one of the normal flex rates of normal pens of the '50-60's. A springy smooth riding nib IMO.

 

I am the opposite of you....I don't chase nails.......do have a couple .... ah ha....the Pelikan H nib is a manifold nib (don't have), but what you want is the D nib, the nail's nail. The one taken with you when climbing the north face of the Eiger or to dismantle main battle tanks.

Got one of them............I've never used, nor will I.

If they ever fix the sales section here....it would be on it.

 

 

[Vintage_BE]

FWIW I took possession today of a M1000 Stresemann (after a 6 month wait, ouch 😣). The binde does appear to be translucent. See below picture. 

[Ayami_109]

@Vintage_BE It is great to see that the binde is translucent on your new pen! I can understand "ouch" about the long wait though

[Vintage_BE]

@Ayami_109 A long wait in itself is not the end of the world (in any event not for someone who already has more than enough fountain pens); however, the lack of transparency as to what was (not) happening at Pelikan, and the lack of any perspective as to a delivery date gradually created a “this is not going to happen” concern. But all is well that ends well. 

[Ayami_109]

@Vintage_BE Yes, totally! I had similar "this might not happen" concerns with my Pelikan, too. But perhaps fewer concerns as i only waited 3 months instead of 6.

 

But hey, things gained through patience are more treasured. This was a treasure worth waiting for. Enjoy your new pen! 😀

[Bo Bo Olson]

I was at my B&M, and he can't get Pelikan nor MB....so it's not just Pelikan.

[marlinspike]

Is there any confirmation the switch is actually happening.  Pelikan told my dealer my backorder red will be opaque when it comes, but I have yet to see any pictures of opaque ones. 

[bunnspecial]

On 8/11/2022 at 7:33 AM, marlinspike said:

Is there any confirmation the switch is actually happening.  Pelikan told my dealer my backorder red will be opaque when it comes, but I have yet to see any pictures of opaque ones. 

As a data point, I just bought an M1000 green from Appelboom and it's most definitely not translucent.

 

I bought it expecting this, but also am glad I didn't pay US retail for it...

[Olya]

Has anyone heard anything regarding their solid coloured pens and the translucent window?

I have read a few weeks ago on penexchange that apparently the ink window is no longer, either and now I have read the same on reddit.

 

So no ink window at all in any pen anymore???

[tao980]

It seems so, yes. I have recently bought a new blue striped barrel as a replacement for my M805's broken one, and there is no transparency, and no ink window at all.

[Karmachanic]

On 2/12/2023 at 6:36 PM, Olya said:

so no ink window at all in any pen anymore???

 

Pens that had ink windows still do. Black 200/205/400/405/600/805/Toledo

[Olya]

2 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

 

Pens that had ink windows still do. Black 200/205/400/405/600/805/Toledo

Yeah, I know, even their brand new website still shows the ink window in the solid colours, so I remain hopeful.

I also didn't write about this rumour immediately after reading, as I didn't want to stir up unfounded worries/discussions, but then it was repeated elsewhere and I was thoroughly thrown... If the ink windows were to go away from the solid colours, then just wow.

[The Elevator]

Very disappointing to see this I'm a newbie, so I wasn't aware this was happening until now, but I had at one time a Pelikan M400 Green on my list of "to buy in the next few years." I wonder if they are trying to push translucent or transparent barrels up to a higher price point. It would be interesting to see if they introduce a new line of piston fillers with translucent barrels at a significant markup or "Limited Edition."

[Mercian]

1 hour ago, The Elevator said:

Very disappointing to see this I'm a newbie, so I wasn't aware this was happening until now, but I had at one time a Pelikan M400 Green on my list of "to buy in the next few years." I wonder if they are trying to push translucent or transparent barrels up to a higher price point. It would be interesting to see if they introduce a new line of piston fillers with translucent barrels at a significant markup or "Limited Edition."

It appears that they’ve ‘merely’ decided to stop making the translucent barrels, rather than attempting to do so on a temporary basis to try to test ‘price elasticity’.

 

They used to have only one source for the material, which was a small old company.
If its owner has decide to close the business down, they might have difficulty sourcing the material - but then they haven’t said that that is what happened.

If Pelikan’s owners/executives annoyed the small company’s owner sufficiently, s/he may just have refused to sell them the material any more, or the IP on how to make the material.

In light of Pelikan’s gnomic announcements about the change of material, I suspect  - but, n.b. I don’t know - that the latter is what happened.

 

Of course, if Pelikan perceive sufficient demand for a return to translucent barrels at a higher price, they may decide to start making them again.

Personally, I really hope that they do start making them again. The company has spent the last decade pushing the prices of its piston-fill pens up far faster than background inflation.

I am convinced that the company’s Executives’ intent is to reposition the price of Souveräns in the rarefied territory that is currently occupied by Montblanc.
For that ‘strategy’ to work, IMO their pens need to retain their ink-windows - like the piston-fill pens of both Lamy and Montblanc do.

I’ll add that, IMO, abandoning the translucent barrels that have long been one of Pelikan’s ‘signature features’ actually dilutes the brand, as well as reducing the utility and appeal - as well as the ‘customer’s value proposition’ - of their pens.

 

But you need to bear in mind that I am a peerlessly curmudgeonly and misanthropic old grouch, who thinks that the people who habitually duckspeak the sorts of ‘business-tiger’ jargon that I have used in this post, and who spend their working lives on the Merry-Go-Round of extremely-lucrative short-term Senior Executive positions at publicly-listed companies, belong on the Golgafrincham ‘B’ Ark.

Perhaps the ‘Marketing’ employees of Pelikan can find a way to make these two seemingly-mutually-contradictory strategies of their ‘genius’ Executives actually come-off.

[Bo Bo Olson]

2 hours ago, The Elevator said:

Pelikan M400 Green

Works really good used............I ended up with a blue stripped roller ball my wife uses, and I wouldn't mind a red stripped fountain pen in both colors.........used of course.....

 

I got 5-6 green stripped ones....vintage semi-flex  '50-54-'56-65.

A couple tortoise both vintage '50-65  and semi-vintage '82-97.

 

I like the clean line of a tear dropped tipped semi-vintage or the flat factory semi-flex stub nibs. The pre-98 nibs are good and smooth, just a slight level lower than the modern liked butter smooth.

 

I do not prefer the modern post '97 double ball, fat and blobby stiffer nibbed era.

If one must have smoother than butter and risk baby bottom, used modern is not very expensive either.

 

New is $$$$.

[twinspark]

On 2/23/2023 at 8:42 PM, Mercian said:

It appears that they’ve ‘merely’ decided to stop making the translucent barrels, rather than attempting to do so on a temporary basis to try to test ‘price elasticity’.

 

They used to have only one source for the material, which was a small old company.
If its owner has decide to close the business down, they might have difficulty sourcing the material - but then they haven’t said that that is what happened.

If Pelikan’s owners/executives annoyed the small company’s owner sufficiently, s/he may just have refused to sell them the material any more, or the IP on how to make the material.

In light of Pelikan’s gnomic announcements about the change of material, I suspect  - but, n.b. I don’t know - that the latter is what happened.

 

Of course, if Pelikan perceive sufficient demand for a return to translucent barrels at a higher price, they may decide to start making them again.

Personally, I really hope that they do start making them again. The company has spent the last decade pushing the prices of its piston-fill pens up far faster than background inflation.

I am convinced that the company’s Executives’ intent is to reposition the price of Souveräns in the rarefied territory that is currently occupied by Montblanc.
For that ‘strategy’ to work, IMO their pens need to retain their ink-windows - like the piston-fill pens of both Lamy and Montblanc do.

I’ll add that, IMO, abandoning the translucent barrels that have long been one of Pelikan’s ‘signature features’ actually dilutes the brand, as well as reducing the utility and appeal - as well as the ‘customer’s value proposition’ - of their pens.

 

But you need to bear in mind that I am a peerlessly curmudgeonly and misanthropic old grouch, who thinks that the people who habitually duckspeak the sorts of ‘business-tiger’ jargon that I have used in this post, and who spend their working lives on the Merry-Go-Round of extremely-lucrative short-term Senior Executive positions at publicly-listed companies, belong on the Golgafrincham ‘B’ Ark.

Perhaps the ‘Marketing’ employees of Pelikan can find a way to make these two seemingly-mutually-contradictory strategies of their ‘genius’ Executives actually come-off.

Very eloquently put @Mercian. 

 

Is there even a risk that the market for "vintage" Pelikans with translucent barrels become more sought after to the detriment of new Pelikan pen sales with new pen buyers being pushed towards Lamy or more likely Montblanc? (I say the latter, purely as there are more styling commonalities with Montblanc than Lamy)

[empliau]

On 2/23/2023 at 2:11 PM, The Elevator said:

Very disappointing to see this I'm a newbie, so I wasn't aware this was happening until now, but I had at one time a Pelikan M400 Green on my list of "to buy in the next few years." I wonder if they are trying to push translucent or transparent barrels up to a higher price point. It would be interesting to see if they introduce a new line of piston fillers with translucent barrels at a significant markup or "Limited Edition."

If you are interested, I would contact Rick Propas at the penguin pen.  He has 1950s 400s in green and tortoise, and more modern 1990 era 400s as well.  In my experience, his pens are great writers and he stands behind them.

 

No affiliation other than happy customer.