End of the road for Pelikan?

[Nethermark]

On 11/3/2022 at 5:17 PM, kazoolaw said:

If there are no new striped bindes then the Pelikan world may grow more vintage pen collectors.  A charming possibility.

If you mean, they want vintage for the transparency of the barrel, they may get disapointed: on many of the older Pelikans, especially from the 1930s, the barrel has ambered so badly that ink visability is virtually nil. That doesn't keep people from collecting and using them though. So maybe there is a life for Pelikan without transparent barrels after all...

[stoen]

2 hours ago, Nethermark said:

on many of the older Pelikans, especially from the 1930s, the barrel has ambered so badly that ink visability is virtually nil.

It ain’t necessarilly so. Ambering is a natural process for celluloid (cellulose nitrate), which does not really impair visibility, though many of old celluloid barrels have stained from inside, due to poor maintenence, aggressive inks and neglect. This is the main reason for “virtually nil” visibility. 

In restoration this can be cleaned to a degree, not easily, but it can, unless the celluloid has decayed, which is also often the case.

 

On the other hand, vintage barrels from late thirties (cellulose acetate), forties, fifties and sixties, seventies and eighties (acrylic + acetate) do real well.

🙂

 

[AceNinja]

Not sure if this is an appropriate thread for this, but here goes some pelikan news:  Pelikan International in talks with prospective buyers to sell major assets, business interest

https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/668221

 

[USG]

6 minutes ago, AceNinja said:

Not sure if this is an appropriate thread for this, but here goes some pelikan news:  Pelikan International in talks with prospective buyers to sell major assets, business interest

https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/668221

 

Thanks for posting, that's interesting but not unexpected.

[TSherbs]

6 hours ago, AceNinja said:

Not sure if this is an appropriate thread for this, but here goes some pelikan news:  Pelikan International in talks with prospective buyers to sell major assets, business interest

https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/668221

 

 

very interesting, who owns it now?

[TSherbs]

2 minutes ago, TSherbs said:

 

very interesting, who owns it now?

 

The corporate structure map of their holdings on their website is a twisted tree . . . 

[langere]

I hope the Germans buy it back!

 

Erick

[Misfit]

The Pelikan’s Perch blog had a post about this. A potential buyer is in Italy.  
 

https://thepelikansperch.com/2023/05/27/pelikan-planning-major-asset-sale/

[TSherbs]

5 hours ago, Misfit said:

The Pelikan’s Perch blog had a post about this. A potential buyer is in Italy.  
 

https://thepelikansperch.com/2023/05/27/pelikan-planning-major-asset-sale/

 

That is very interesting. Thank you for sharing it.

[inkstainedruth]

+1 to what TSherbs said.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[mke]

On 5/26/2023 at 12:25 PM, langere said:

the Germans

Who's that?

Montblanc? GvFC? Otto Hutt? Waldmann? Lamy? Staedler?

 

Anyway, hopefully, the new owner adds a real EF nib.

[tacitus]

2 hours ago, mke said:

 

Anyway, hopefully, the new owner adds a real EF nib.

 

Quite!!

[Karmachanic]

2 hours ago, mke said:

Anyway, hopefully, the new owner adds a real EF nib

 

Anabelle ground the nominal F on my M1005 to a 0.5 CI.

[mke]

On 6/1/2023 at 10:19 PM, Karmachanic said:

0.5 CI.

 

0.5 is an M for me. I prefer 0.3 mm.

 

Problem is that e.g. fpnibs only does customization if you buy the nib/pen there too. Other nibmeisters do probably the same.

Like the Urushi studios which recently popped up. They only do a pen coating if you buy the pen with it.

 

But nearer to here, I wrote to a famous nibmeister in Japan - he didn't even bother to answer. No excuse with not understanding enough English as I wrote in Japanese.

 

The only nibmeisters which are responsive are in the US which would add $100 for shipping.

 

 

[USG]

On 6/1/2023 at 9:19 AM, Karmachanic said:

 

Anabelle ground the nominal F on my M1005 to a 0.5 CI.

 

Out of curiosity, what ink are you using in your M1005?

[Karmachanic]

5 hours ago, USG said:

Out of curiosity, what ink are you using in your M1005?

 

Whatever strikes my fancy.

[Karmachanic]

5 hours ago, mke said:

Like theTamenuri Studios which recently popped up. They only do a pen coating if you buy the pen with it

 

Michal will do custom work for "regular customers".  I was fortunate enough to get a pen coated before he started making his own.  Negoro Tamenuri. I have also purchased one since.

[A Smug Dill]

6 hours ago, mke said:

Problem is that e.g. fpnibs only does customization if you buy the nib/pen there too. Other nibmeisters do probably the same.

 

I think it can be reasonably expected that, once a producer of goods or provider of services engaged in for-profit business enterprise has established enough of a good reputation, and built enough of a following or fan base, the logical thing to do is to concentrate its work efforts on business that is more profitable. It's not so much deliberately turning it into a zero-sum game or win-lose situation, but simply that everything has limit capacity, and “you” — or the “random” consumer who does not have give it frequent custom and revenue on an ongoing basis — are not going to be given undue consideration in its necessary prioritisation.

 

Even scaling up one's productive capacity, through automation or by hiring and training more workers, would mean investment, risk, and hence reduced profits in the near-to-medium term, which isn't necessarily what one- or two-person operations want or can afford.

[Harold]

On 6/1/2023 at 12:52 PM, mke said:

Anyway, hopefully, the new owner adds a real EF nib.

They should do the same at the other end of the spectrum. Instead of having that useless, half-assed BB nib on the M800, delete it from existence and bring back the 3B. Just weld the biggest damn blob of tipping you can muster onto the nib, call it "extra broad" and be done with it. Seriously, what person who is interested in a BB has ever said to themselves "the BB is so practical, but the 3B really is a step too far for me"? We're well past the point of practicality at that point and people who want nibs that broad just want the biggest, fattest ink hose they can get their hands on.

[mke]

17 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

win-lose situation

 

You forgot something.

While it is a lose situation for me as I don't get my 5 nibs dealt with, it is also a lose situation for them as I am not considering in buying new nibs from them neither.

Actually, I will sell these pens in autumn (two Pelikan M1000 F, a MB149F or M, a Sailor KoP M, a Pelikan M400 M) and concentrate on the other pens I have.

At the end, it might turn out as a win for me.