Adding To The Flock

[OCArt]

@carola OMG, those light tortoise are SOooooo beautiful!!

[Oh, and the 450 pencil in Light Tortoise has arrived today. I just can´t help sharing a picture... don´t those two look like a happy couple of newlyweds? 😍

[carola]

7 minutes ago, OCArt said:

@carola OMG, those light tortoise are SOooooo beautiful!!

[Oh, and the 450 pencil in Light Tortoise has arrived today. I just can´t help sharing a picture... don´t those two look like a happy couple of newlyweds? 😍

 

Thank you, OCArt. I got very lucky with the pen a few years ago and when I saw the pencil come up, I thought those two would just be perfect together. Not that I needed another pencil (other than the pens I don´t use them a lot), but well... those two were simply made for each other.

[Lam1]

2 hours ago, carola said:

 

 

Oh, and the 450 pencil in Light Tortoise has arrived today. I just can´t help sharing a picture... don´t those two look like a happy couple of newlyweds? 😍

 

Oh, my! Those are simply gorgeous!!

Congratulations on the wonderful pair!

[Penguincollector]

10 hours ago, carola said:

 

What you have described here about the "frankenpiston", is basically what my repair guy told me had happened. And that the friction fit assembly had already been broken when he removed it. Exactly this very unprofessional repair attempt is why I want to have a word with my father at our next meeting, because there is a fair chance that he was somehow involved into first breaking and then trying to repair the pen. 😉

 

Here are some pictures of the restored pen. (You can still see some a little bit over enthusiastically applied silicon grease in the ink window, but nevermind, it is mostly gone by now.)

 

Oh, and the 450 pencil in Light Tortoise has arrived today. I just can´t help sharing a picture... don´t those two look like a happy couple of newlyweds? 😍

 

  The pen has a tiara and the pencil a top hat!  👰🏻‍♀️🎩 

[carola]

6 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

 

  The pen has a tiara and the pencil a top hat!  👰🏻‍♀️🎩 

 

In German, it's "die Füllfeder" (fountain pen, female) and "der Bleistift" (pencil, male), so this pretty much nails it. 🤣

[carola]

13 hours ago, Lam1 said:

 

Oh, my! Those are simply gorgeous!!

Congratulations on the wonderful pair!

Thank you, Lam1.

[eerestis]

Went to Tokyo to buy a German pen apparently... Anyway, couldn't miss the addition of 520N to my collection. The nib is not correct, but I'll change it. Here's my current collection of the N-series:

[Ceilidh]

On 11/19/2024 at 2:58 PM, carola said:

 

Oh, and the 450 pencil in Light Tortoise has arrived today. I just can´t help sharing a picture... don´t those two look like a happy couple of newlyweds? 😍

 

Indeed! 😄 Lovely pair.

[mana]

4 hours ago, eerestis said:

Went to Tokyo to buy a German pen apparently... Anyway, couldn't miss the addition of 520N to my collection. The nib is not correct, but I'll change it. Here's my current collection of the N-series:

Cooooooool… 😍

[Lam1]

5 hours ago, eerestis said:

Went to Tokyo to buy a German pen apparently... Anyway, couldn't miss the addition of 520N to my collection. The nib is not correct, but I'll change it. Here's my current collection of the N-series:

 

WoW!! Impressive collection! 

Congrats! 

[RedPie]

Looking good @eerestis! Nice pens you have there.

[Black Spot]

So shiny...

[Bo Bo Olson]

Some two minutes ago, I ordered by telpehone to my B&M, a 200 Copper Rose EF.

 

Since covid, my B&M is not going well, pens he once had on hand, he has to order. (He has the basic 15 or so MB's and a row of Graf von Faber Castel, it's just the Pelikans that are in short supply by him.

Or at least the 200's I can afford new.

I do normally buy old, used pens...Vintage or semi-vintage, liking the nibs better. I'm pretty much cought up on that....I keep telling my self....and still keep buying.

 

I could have gotten it cheaper on line....but am willing to pay stock prices to keep my B&M around...besides which I like him, his wife and mom; whom I knew slightly from the old days. We sat next to each other in a couple auctions a while back...pre covid. 

 

My wife has been using that shop since she was a child. She remebers the father. I don't quite, not by sight. (if he's out of the shop) It's been tweny or so years since Jr. and his wife took over.

 

[Merrick]

Managed to snag two Pelikans that had low bids on eBay and they are both in perfect condition.

 

1. M400 old style, green striped, OB arrow nib. Minimal flex but nice variation through the oblique. Mainly grabbed this because I was curious about the 1980s era oblique nibs.

 

2. 400NN, green striped, OB nib. This is the closest nib I have to a wet noodle, it flexes a ton with just a little pressure. I can still apply the natural pressure of regular writing without getting a big flex so I wouldn't call it a proper wet noodle, but I was shocked at how much flex I could get with so little pressure.

 

Very happy with these two, especially the NN.

[Bo Bo Olson]

4 hours ago, Merrick said:

1980s era oblique nibs.

They are springy regular flex...a nice nib for two toned shadening inks. But not really much of an oblique...just a whisper compaired tothe '50-65 era ones.

 

4 hours ago, Merrick said:

400NN, green striped, OB nib. This is the closest nib I have to a wet noodle, it flexes a ton with just a little pressure. I can still apply the natural pressure of regular writing without getting a big flex so I wouldn't call it a proper wet noodle, but I was shocked at how much flex I could get with so little pressure.

Nomally the 400nn comes in semi-flex...but it appears you have a maxi-semi-flex nib.

I have a couple from that era, including a 400nn OF and a 500 OBBB....some 15 in all pens.

 

Those are pure luck to get outside of Osmia pens... The Supra or large diamond nib is very often a maxi-semi-flex and the small diamond is very often a semi-flex...out side when both are not.

I only have 8-9, and some folks with 30 and 50 Osmia pens sais, not all the time is a Supra a maxi...once in a while a small dimanod will be a maxi.

IMO...in no other pen company than Osmia 'offered' maxi-semi-flex. They just happened.

Degussa made the gold ribbon wheels for any that wanted a ribbon wheel instead of doing lots of work to make nib ribbons out of gold bars.

Degussa was the gold and silver manufacture of Germany...making the gold and silver bars, and for pens, a gold wheel and a fine steel semi-flex and maxi-semi-flex steel nib wheel.

 

Degussa took over Osmia' nib factory in 1932 for debt; continuing to make Surpa/and or large diamond, maxi-semi-flex nibs along with Osmia's normal semi-flex.

IMO either a bookkeepers decision, shove out the lowest price gold wheel instead of a better gold price, or lazy warehouse workers grabbing the first gold ribbon wheel they had.

 

Advertizing costs lots of money.

So MB, Pelikan, Geha and a few others having maxi-semi-flex nibs from a mistaken gold wheel delevery never mentioned that. And didn't take advantage of the more flexi-semi-flex nibs.

 

A three 3 X tine spread max nib flex set. And not more, even if you can force the nib to more, so you can spring it.

 

Regular flex ie Japanese ground out shoulders..'soft',  tear dropped tipped springy nibs...the '82-97 Pelikan and the '85-now Pelikan 200's nibs. Tear drop tipped until '97 for the 400/600 until @ 2018 for the 200, having a nice clean line like the old pre'97 400/600 tear drop nibs...clean line. A very nice nib for two toned shading inks.

When well msahed a tine spread of 3 X...one can not write when it is maxed.

.........

Semi-flex takes half as much pressure to reach 3 X as regular flex. One can write when maxed....took me some 6 weeks to stop maxing the nib all the time...It took again some 6 weeks before my hand was light enough to 'ask for' line variation, instead of being too maxed to do that.

Maxi-semi-flex takes half as much pressure to reach 3 X tine spread than semi-flex..or 1/4th as much pressure to max the nib than a regular flex.

........................

 

I have a Rupp nib...Heidelberg made nib from 1922 to 1970...It was so unbelievable flexible...but didn't really go over 3 X tine spread......................one can indulge in Nib Abuse by forcing a flare nib to go more than 3 X. Sooner than later, it will spring.

Having that Rupp nib, still my most flexible maxi-semi-flex nib, I walked around in small circles, in a daze for three days, mutterin that certainly is a maxi-semi-flex nib.

I then checked my then 20 semi-flex nibbed pens; and  5 of them were maxi-semi-flex....

And not knowing of maxi-semi-flex, hadn't found they were maxi-semi-flex...in I had had no idea  outside of vauge ...mutters on the com of nibs that were more springy than semi-flex.

 

So on the spot I invented the term maxi-semi-flex....in that was what those 6 nibs were....half again as easy to spread to 3 X than the run of the mill semi-flex.

4 hours ago, Merrick said:

400NN, green striped, OB nib. This is the closest nib I have to a wet noodle, it flexes a ton with just a little pressure. I can still apply the natural pressure of regular writing without getting a big flex so I wouldn't call it a proper wet noodle, but I was shocked at how much flex I could get with so little pressure.

 

 

My 400nn OF was a maxi, but I'd been ignorant of what it was untill after I found that Rupp nib...that Rupp is still the most flexible of my 15 maxi-semi-flex nibbed pens.

 

I am so glad you have a maxi.

 

Just remember it like a semi-flex is a flair nib...not a calligraphy nib.

You get a writing style that shows character with out doing anything, but writing with normal speed and pressure. Great line variation.

 

I had alway wondered why folks said they had to write so slow, with a semi-flex(or maxi)...until I discovered they were doing nib abuse, trying to make a semi-flex (3X) into a superflex, 5-6X tine spread.

Someone elses pictures, where a poster asked me about this tine spread....which I found to be nib abuse. The last line is way too much...and today one can get superflex nibs dirt cheap...instead of rare costly superfles old vintage pens.

The last line is way to thick....so is the second to last line....which I can see on a decender at the end of a paragraph.......too bad I can't write that good....but IMO it is a bit too thick.. The man does have good writing. But is asking a bit too much from his nib. .... for too long.

A flare decender or last word in a paragraph...yes...but not straining the nib ...letter for letter asking more than a 3X tine spread.

[Merrick]

Yeah, I’m not trying to do any calligraphy, just adding some nice character to my regular chicken scratch. 

[RedPie]

Congratulations to your two new Pelikan pens. It always feels good to find some great ones in good condition! @Merrick

[chromantic]

I have the 2023 Red and White on the way.

[RedPie]

17 hours ago, chromantic said:

I have the 2023 Red and White on the way.

Please post a picture when you get it!

[chromantic]

14 hours ago, RedPie said:

Please post a picture when you get it!

 

I will do that because I recently bought a little Levenger brass monkey pen holder which should be ideal for photographing pens.

 

On a related note, I found a good deal on the matching Red-White K600; it should be here next week. Not that I need a BP but they do have some uses. Hopefully, it's a lot lighter than my Stolla III.