Oblique Pelikan Nibs

[Bo Bo Olson]

The Ductus was rather expensive and heavier than other Pelikans. It's not often that new flagship pens are so ignored as the Ductus.

 

When I tested the 1000 eons ago, I found it real huge in I was use to standard and medium-large pens. In the mean while I got a few Large pens and when I did get my 1005, it wasn't quite as huge as it once was.

 

The Ductus cartridge type pen....I don't even know if it has a converter. I do have some cartridge pens...5-6 out of 70. A four sac pens left, and the rest are piston pens.

 

Cartridges are now, and have always been expensive even back in the days of the Big nickle Snickers. To expensive for a worker's kid.

 

Another minus point.

LE edition Pelikan inks are very, very expensive in cartridges, much more than their regular ink cartridges.

[Kalessin]

I think all cartridge-filled Pelikans can take the Pelikan converter, which is the size of two Standard International cartridges placed back-to-back.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Gee, I didn't even know Pelikan had a converter.

I've two Celebries and a 381...but they are a bit thinner than the new cartridge P-Pelikan ...I think.

 

I'll have to go down to my B&M.... and ask...take one with me. Both, the Celebry is a tad thicker than the 381.

[inkstainedruth]

Bo Bo, the lower-end student grade pens tend to be c/c. I have a 1980s era Pelikano that I picked up last spring at the Baltimore/Washington Pen Show. Nib is a nail, but very smooth. After I picked it up I ran over to the Andersons' table in the large ballroom to get a converter for it (which cost more than the pen did ). But while I'll mostly use the converter, having that Pelikano means I can finally use the tin of cartridges of Edelstein Amethyst from my first Pelikan Hub -- I didn't really have any c/c pens that took International Standard, with the possible exception of a Jinhao 599 and a couple of junker pens from the nib smoothing class I took at my first pen show.

Back on topic. I only have one bird with an oblique nib -- a 1950s era 400, with an OB nib. I don't think of it as being flexy but it is very nice. My first Pelikan, a 1990s era M400, isn't flexy either, but the nib (a very juicy F) has some give (spring?) to it.

The OB nib gives nice line variation even without flexing (right now I've been finishing up a fill of Edelstein Olivine (from this year's Pelikan Hub). I'll try to get some scans or photos up this weekend, but I'm really bad about uploading pix....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

""the tin of cartridges of Edelstein Amethyst"" Being on a !@#$%^& retired budget there are times when I end up not thinking ahead...so getting late to my B&M meant all the bottles were gone and I had to pay @ E15 for three tins....and the bottle would have cost 16. One of the reasons I dug out my Celebries and the 381...to use those cartridges. (Ever since the start in the '50's cartridges have been very expensive. & Still are even for the cheap ones....in one can get cheap bottled ink.)

 

 

"""Back on topic. I only have one bird with an oblique nib -- a 1950s era 400, with an OB nib. I don't think of it as being flexy but it is very nice. """ Ruth that's a problem that just won't go away...a semi-flex nib is not really 'flexi' in the sense of superflex. If you take your '90's springy regular flex ..write a light down stroke, then mash it so the tines expand 3 X.

Semi-flex takes half that pressure to go 3X...might not be able to get 3 X out of an B/OB...but the ease of tine bend and spread will be there. Needs only half that pressure..........unless you got lucky and have a maxi....then 1/4th. I'm trying to get folks to stop thinking semi-flex and to think semi-flex. ..............it has been a losing battle.

 

It could be that all that flexi writing you see on theTube, is a guy with a maxi-semi-flex that don't know it. I do though suspect someone must maxing a normal semi-flex. Going to flex it come hell or high water...after all it says semi-flex..............which is a lot of hard work, drawing all those letters at max.

 

Coming back to fountain pens after over 40 years with a ball point I was Ham Fisted....might well have been back when I did use a fountain pen, in I did have the Death Grip even then.

So with my first semi-flex a 140 OB, I being ham fisted did max the nib almost all the time. It took three months to get a lighter Hand so I wasn't maxing the nib all the time. (I was not drawing fancy letters, just scribbling in chicken scratch.)

 

Yes, you can 'write' fancy with a semi-flex, but it's work. Being Lazy....I might do a fancy decender at the end of the paragraph....where I have space....or go back and cross a T fancy. Mostly what I get is that old fashioned fountain pen flair....the first letter a bit fatter, a nice trail off on the end of a word e. Some of the tall looping letters might get a bit of flair...

 

I'm sure many of those showing on Utube, how wide they can overstress a semi-flex have no idea the nib shouldn't be made to go more than 3X....IMO with the 3x as max in I've yest to spring a nib staying at or under that. (Richard has a great article on metal fatigue...that could help folks stay away from maxing a nib...........I strive to stay under max with my superflex nibs....only going BB instead of taking it out to BBB....or staying at B instead of maxing at BB.

 

Drawing a fancy letter with semi-flex is work....maxi does it easier.

 

 

""My first Pelikan, a 1990s era M400, isn't flexy either, but the nib (a very juicy F) has some give (spring?) to it. The 82097 400's and the 200's have a nice springy regular flex nib. Half a width narrower & it is not fat and blobby as the semi-nail double kugal/ball modern one so one has a nice clean line.

""The OB nib gives nice line variation even without flexing."'" Oblique will do that, and does it best in the '50-65 era pens, in you do get some easier tine spread, even if you don't go much for it (automatic flair)....and the nib is a stub.

 

I have enough experience with other era Pelikan obliques ...to go On German stubbed semi&maxi stubbed obliques.

 

 

(right now I've been finishing up a fill of Edelstein Olivine."""..... not a bad color at all, in spite of all the hub bub of it not being martini olive in color.

What width nib are you using.....I think I only gave it a basic 1/4 load to see how it wrote and now can't even remember which pen in the dirty pen cup it was........... Got to clean that cup!!!!

[Bristolian]

Seeking advice on this very topic...

 

I long ago kidded myself that my writing style deserves an oblique nib. I had an old Duofold with a super oblique nib that I loved - and wrote all my uni exams with it. Some while later I invested in a Pelikan OM on an 805 - a sound investment and a workhorse of a pen.

 

Then I overreached myself... Following a good payday in about 2008, I bought a 1000 - of course with a OM nib. It's a total horror - temperamental doesn't begin to describe it : a very limited sweet spot and very unforgiving, even if it does have a great deal of flex.

 

A year ago it started clicking which was the final straw so it went off to Pelikan in Germany courtesy of the UK servicing agents. They have definitely played with it a bit, and it no longer clicks, thankfully - but it is as skittish as ever. Although I have fairly large writing, other folk do have to read it occasionally so I try to keep on a straight line and be consistent, but my 'normal' handwriting seems wholly incompatible. I have however discovered that if I go extra large (verging on clown's shopping list size) the nib starts to behave itself, but frankly i need to get more than 50 words on every side of A4.

 

What do I do?

 

1) Im well out of guarantee - but maybe a heartfelt plea to Pelikan GMBH will get a positive response ?

 

2) Or should I try to find a nib doctor in the UK ?

 

3) Or should I put it down to experience and start saving up the 220 smackeroonies to get a new nib unit (probably in straight M this time)

[Kalessin]

If you get the medium nib, you should be able to easily sell the OM -- discontinued Pelikan nibs tend to sell pretty handily.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Was that Duofold American or British made?.....""I had an old Duofold with a super oblique nib that I loved"""

I was very surprised to buy a '50's British made Jr. Duofold at a German flea market that was semi-flex.The American made if not from the '20s (lever pen) might well have been the nails they became in the '30's. British made were more flexible, in Parker and Sheaffer British factories had to chase Swan who had a nice wide range of nib flexes.

 

You seem to have gotten lucky in at least getting semi-flex in your 1000.....mine a more modern 1005 is only a nice springy regular flex. And OBB too, so only get a shadow of the line variation I get with my vintage semi-flex of that or narrower widths.

(WOG, with no facts to back it up, it could be yours is the last of the Bock nibs, in Pelikan pulled back the 1000's nibs last. From the late '90's to @ the decade Bock made Pelikan nibs.....either way, the 1000 comes in both semi-flex and regular flex........I chased semi-flex to some 27 of them and 16 maxi-semi-flex....so do prefer that to regular flex in obliques.

 

Temperamental Obliques........

Are you canting the nib? Obliques need that. Some call it nib rotation.

 

In I doubt if you are writing posted with a 1000, but to establish the cant angle, post your 1000 so the clip is aimed in the middle between the slit and the right side edge of the nib.

Grip the pen in air following the clip angle....then after trying it a touch to see how that degree of cant places the nib on the paper, you can remove the cap.

 

Then you will know @ how much cant your nibs need.

OM&OF require much more precise nib placement than the wider sweet spot OB.

 

 

Are you maintaining one angle at all costs like holding at 45 degrees just behind the big index knuckle? The 1000 is a huge pen and might want to rest at 40 degrees at the start of the web of the thumb.

By rigidly holding to one angle one courts the Death Grip....which is not good for semi-flex. Too much stress is put on the nib.

Do try to hold the pen like it's a featherless baby bird.....

Just throwing out a net of fishhooks.

 

 

You can send to John Soboda(sp)/ Oxnard on the com (the most well known British nib grinder, and get it turned into a M. ...............or have the thing stubbed......... . I'd forgotten that, that was one of the reasons the '50-65 nibs are so loved, they are semi-flex & stubbed. So one gets the great pattern.

Neither my pre'97 small 600 OOB and my 1005 OBB are as flat as my '50-60's era stubs or oblique stubs.

 

I might do that to my regular flex OBB...or at least think hard about it.......stub will give more of a nice pattern in regular flex. Have to see what the OBB nib is worth first as is...in when one modifies a nib, it could well be worth less than before.

[Bristolian]

  On 10/28/2018 at 6:56 PM, Bo Bo Olson said:

Was that Duofold American or British made?.....""I had an old Duofold with a super oblique nib that I loved"""

 

 

 

It's a British one. It turned out that my aunt bought it for work in the '50s (she ran a building company).

 

Thanks for the other (hugely insightful) advice.

 

I think I need to go back to basics before despairing, and try to hold it properly. Then see where we go from there.

[Bo Bo Olson]

[wastelanded]

  On 10/28/2018 at 6:56 PM, Bo Bo Olson said:

I was very surprised to buy a '50's British made Jr. Duofold at a German flea market that was semi-flex.

I have a couple of UK Duofolds that are semi-flex. The English Parkers can have some interesting nibs, very expressive. They knew what they were doing, not cookie cutter nibs.