An Fp Tyro Cannon Balls Into The Pool In Earlier This Year.

September 3, 2013

I was was tired of ballpoints. I found Jetpens and really liked all the tricky products with great aesthetic appeal. In March of this year, I bought a Keweco Sport and thought it was fun. I bought a Preppy 05 and liked it too. A better writing experience than BP. I always liked the notebooks on the site and ordered them for stocking stuffers. I also liked all the stationary/tape items and bought the fun ones (full disclosure: I worked at 3M for many years).

I ordered Lamy Safaris for the twin grandsons. I read on the site that you could convert a Preppy to an eyedropper. I googled and found Mr Goulet and his videos. I ordered the kit and a bottle of Monteverdi Brown. This was suddenly fun.

This was not my first view of fountain pens. I had learned joined up writing in the Philadelphis schools using stick pens, ink wells, and pen wipers. Then moved on to Esterbrools.I remember my Dad had a Parker 51. But at around 7th grade, the Reynolds pen made its appearance. And M. Bic.

Years passed and I wrote a lot on yellow pads with a Dixon Ticonderoga # 2. I even persisted during the period I spent 3 years at Parker in Janesville WI as part of a team to get the company into lower price points. By definition this focused me of Jotters, Vectors, and the attempt at a disposable Parker BP, the Itala.

Now, many years later, after a career involving using words glibbly, I am finding a real interest in pens. And in ebay! I bought two Heros and was amazed at what could be sold and shipped at a price from China we might have considered at Parker an unrealistic manufacturing cost before marketing and distribution!. I bought a Noodlers Flex, a Waterman Kulture and a Waterman Laureate and some blue ink.

I was in the pool but hadn't found the right lane.

Then I saw a fun-looking school pen ... The Resolve 1745 in black and green. With just a bit of research the Pelikan comes up and I bought a black and green 120. Then I saw that classic look, indeed remembered from two years in the Army in Germany in the '50s, black with striated green. Pelikan was the lane. The aesthetics, the look, the line, were right.

I now have 2 100s, 1 100n, the 120, 2 250s, 2 400s and the MK 10 (shades of the Parker 51). I also have 2 brown inks, an orange, a blue, and a black/green. I load the Pelikans with either Pelikan Brilliant Brown or Diamine Black/green, depending on the pen. I don't really know that what I have is a 'collection', but to me they are great functional designsi ncorporating attractive materials and colors. I have examples of the pens in black with green, both marbled and striated, and in brown with boyh green and tortoise/gray.

I look at the new Pelikans and don't find them as attractive. I do remember the Parker FP introduced in 1984. It was very big and had lost a sense of belonging in ones hand rather than in ones pocket as a status symbol. Is this what has happened with the models that go beyond 400 and have been dubbed Souverin?

September 3, 2013

Welcome to the Fountain Pen Network, glad to have you with us! I agree that the newer Pelikans are not as attractive nor better writers than the vintage Pelikans. I do not think that the newer Pelikans are just "status symbols", though. I think the newer ones are still quality writing instruments.

Regards,

Vincenzo

Edited September 3, 2013 by collectiblepens.com

September 3, 2013

I look at the new Pelikans and don't find them as attractive. I do remember the Parker FP introduced in 1984. It was very big and had lost a sense of belonging in ones hand rather than in ones pocket as a status symbol. Is this what has happened with the models that go beyond 400 and have been dubbed Souverin?

As a recent postulant at the altar of Pelikans, I'm going to defend the Souverans... somewhat. My flock's earliest member is a 140, and I've got representatives from each decade from then to now, and I think that the Souverans represent their ancestral 400s pretty well. I also think that the pocket-jewelry aspect is not entirely absent from them, and I look towards the M800 and M1000 as the major offenders (I use the word in its lightest sense) in that regard; I got an M600 as being not too big and not too expensive, although it is one of the most expensive I own. M800 and M1000 are gargantuas, and the MSRPs on them suggest a certain appeal to the "prove you can afford this" urge... but less so than in a certain other German pen-maker. They astonish but don't rise as far as outrage. It's a rare maker today that can resist entirely the received wisdom that FPs are luxury goods; Pelikan certainly has symptoms, but they also offer Pelikanos, Twists and Griffixeseses so they have at least one foot on the ground.

All that being said, one's likes in pens as in any field is subjective; I may not agree but I can't say you're wrong. There's certainly some things in your collection I'd make off with given opportunity, and your inks are ones I regularly resort to. Today's P488 is consigned to Kaweco blue-black, as I don't keep a lot of cartridges about the place....

September 3, 2013

Thanks, Guys, for the insights into the higher end Pelikans. I think I am attracted to vintage and nothing higher tham 400 because (well, in addition to money), I tend to think of them as pens of the people. Particularly the stuff from the 50s when the 'economic miracle' (Wirtschaftswunder) was just beginning to happen.

As an bookmark smudged by ink-stained fingers: I have converted both of my Kawecos to inkdropers. Easy ... just follow Goulet's video. Much more ink capacity and the ink can be of your choosing.

And in some small recognition of the German high-price spread, I did find a less conspicuous black MB 254 on ebay. So I do have one but the middle price-line with that birdwing nib. On the flip side of this modesty, I have loaded it with Noodlers' Apache Sunset.