Fountain Pen Day Tragedy Narrowly Averted

[jmccarty3]

I very nearly lost my Pelikan M800 Renaissance Brown today, which would have been a terrible way to celebrate Fountain Pen Day.

 

I'm at a medical meeting in Austin, and when I got up to leave the afternoon session, I stopped by the silent auction to see what they had. A former president of the organization is a rather skilled kit pen maker, turning out some beautiful finishes, and he has about a dozen of them in the auction, along with a couple of bottle of Iroshizuku ink. I told the ladies there that it was fountain pen day, and got my case out to show then the M620 Grand Place and the M800 Renaissance Brown I was carrying today. Imagine my horror when the M800 was missing! I went directly back into the meeting room and found it under the chair in front of where I had been sitting.

 

With a huge sigh of relief, I went back out to show it to the ladies. If it hadn't been for those kit pens I had noticed, I probably would not have recovered the Pelikan. So don't ever let anyone tell you that kit pens aren't good for anything! I am tempted to go back and buy one of them out of gratitude. I already have bottles of Take-sumi and Kon-peki, so I don't think I will bid on any of the ink.

[BillH]

Close! I love happy endings.

[zaddick]

It's a Festivus miracle! Wait, wrong holiday...

[Chrissy]

That was close indeed.

[sargetalon]

Halloween was Tuesday. A little late with the horror story. Glad to hear that you found the pen. I can only imagine what that empty spot in the case looked like. Thanks for sharing and happy FPD!

[Bo Bo Olson]

 

Yes, some times it's nice to show off and M620 Grand Place and the M800 Renaissance Brown are something to show off.

I missed....well with my wallet on years long strike...ever getting the Grand Place....

 

I have been to that square. In a real old fashioned wooden little bar on it, had a shot of Genever; dutch gin; which has a high surface tension. As a bartender I admired the skill of the bartender poured the shot so it was convex over the rim of the shot glass. It's the type of drink you will know immediately if you've had too much, by getting wet fingers. Mine were dry....but I didn't press my luck.

 

If I had an W.Germany nib...that M800 Renaissance Brown would have been something to dream about....but I prefer the 600 size.

[jmccarty3]

 

If I had an W.Germany nib...that M800 Renaissance Brown would have been something to dream about....but I prefer the 600 size.

 

Don't worry Bo Bo, I have a W Germany M800 nib I can put in it anytime. I must admit I prefer the M600 size as well, although I do love the nibs on the M1000.

[Bo Bo Olson]

OK...which of the two nibs do prefer?....Ah, what sizes are they?

 

The W.German and perhaps to '97 800's had their very own size. Narrower than regular Pelikan, not as wide as the skinny Waterman set. (Waterman had two nib sets it turned out...one exactly matching Pelikan.) Parker was wider than Sheaffer, which was wider than Pelikan....back in the day.

This was so far back in the day....Japanese nibs were not on it....so '90's.

Funny the Pelikan EF's on that chart were narrower than all, even the Waterman. The 400=800 in EF on it.

That of course was before the Ball Point Barbarian Invasion.

 

You should lay hands on a '50-65 400/400nn or 140, they are stub semi-flex.

In various makes, I've 26 semi-flex and 16 maxi-semi-flex from that era.

 

I only had a 1000 in my hands once at my B&M, to see if the nib was springy regular flex or semi-flex. It was semi-flex....it for me is a huge pen. So was the 149. What I didn't look to see was was the 1000 was stubbish......

My B=BB 'Springy'** MB Woolf is stubbish....I have mostly older MB's. The '50's once are stubs, the '70-80 146 is not...it's regular flex.

** good tine bend but only 2 X tine spread....is what I define as 'Springy' like a Falcon, or the new Lamy Imporum.

Edited November 4, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[inkstainedruth]

Good that there was a happy ending. Gives me hope that the second M200 Café Crème is still hiding in my living room someplace in a crate.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[mitto]

Nice that you got back your pen. I had some sleepless nights mourning the missing of a flat top 0 marked ciselè 75 FP BP set. Yesterday (exactly on Fountain Pen Day), I was rummaging through my pen cases and storage drawers to arrange more space for pens and lo and behold! When I opened a Sheaffer pen case, there the set was lying stuffed in with a Sheaffer Sterling Silver Imperial pen.

Edited November 5, 2017 by mitto

[KaB]

Lucky guy! Good you were in time to retrieve the pen.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

It stays in my hand, shirt pocket, or belt pen carrier. Your lucky.

[jmccarty3]

Luck visits me rarely, so I am most grateful for what happened this time.

[Tasmith]

As a location architectural photographer, I developed the habit years ago of when done shooting a view, to look back and check if I left anything behind. Very easy to get rushed and forget a piece of equipment.

 

I now do this everytime I get up to leave a public place, restaurant, client meeting and so on, and it has saved me on several occasions from leaving an item behind.

[PAKMAN]

Whew! Glad things turned out all right!