What's Up At Christof's

[tmenyc]

Christof -- Those are great "strongly influenced by the Parker 51" pics -- do you have the Inoxcrom 55 ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tim

 

[christof]

Tim

No, I dont have an own example but know that pen. It's spanish, right?

Even the clip is from P21 copyied.

Thanks for your pics.

C.

[tmenyc]

It is Spanish, I believe Barcelona. This model is mid-60's.

 

Tim

[christof]

...just another Rotring Tintenkuli. A nice early one. Maybe I should start to build a small selection of this cool stylographs?

 

 

And a matching advert from 1936:

 

 

C.

Here's a picture of the Rotring Altro, the modern version of the Tintenkuli. I used this pen a couple of years at the university. It's not a bad pen at all!

 

 

C.

Edited February 7, 2016 by christof

[christof]

Sometimes, one find strange things on fleamarkets. See what I catched last saturday:

 

 

I am unable to say what pen this is, but let me make clear that I do not claim this pen as original. I am quite sure it is a Franken pen. Here the facts:

 

Cap is from a Pelikan 300

Barrel is Pelikan 400/300 size

there was no nib there when I found the pen

 

There are several confusing things:

 

Cap top and mechanics are red, but the rest of the pen is black.

the barrel is solid black with ink window, not striped as Pelikan 300 usually are...

Here a picture of the known 300's:

 

 

The inkwindow is smaller that the ones on Pelikan 400 and 120/140 are.

also the color of the inkview is different.

 

As already said, clearly a franken pen, built from Pelikan parts and an unusual/ unidentified barrel. Now the question is: who did build this pen? It surely is not a modern assemblage. Maybe a custom pen? Back in the 50's, Pelikan had an office, repair center and ink manufacture in Zurich. Maybe someone did a "end of work job" with spares? But where did come the barrel?

Here' a picture of a solid black Pelikan 400:

 

 

I decided to keep the pen as it is and did a careful restoration job. Here's the result:

 

 

And to make the pen even more special, I give it a quite uncommon nib. A SB nib, "Scheibenspitze, Breit", which meanes Disk tip broad.

 

 

These are funny nibs! Like a Ball point tip with a huge flat spot:

 

 

(picture borrowed from Gerhard Brandl)

 

C.

Edited February 21, 2016 by christof

[piscov]

Can´t help you confirming originality, but I really like the look! The color combination looks great!

 

I´ve only handled two Pelikan 300 so far and one has the 300 engraved in both barrel and cap and the other has it only on the barrel, so all barrels I've handled have 300 engraved. I know this is a really short sample

I´m not sure about the 300 caps, but I believe they also should have 300 otherwise it´s a early 140 cap

 

Maybe your barrel is from a Gimborn 150 or Pelikan 400, 400NN or 500????.

 

That is definitely a keeper!! Fully original or not, It´s a pen that may have been made by a tasteful person and is now owned by tasteful artist!!

 

Great catch!!

[Christopher Godfrey]

<Maybe your barrel is from a Gimborn...>

 

Vasco's suggestion is exactly the sort of question I was asking myself. Were there also one or two <other> manufacturers who made "Pelikans", as well as Gimborn?

 

I think it looks really <nice> with those red ends, Christof! It seems that you have done a fine job on cleaning out the barrel/reservoir <and> the polishing of the clip, which looked as though it might have needed re-plating in the first photos. Good job!

Edited February 21, 2016 by Christopher Godfrey

[Raif79]

Could be a prototype or mockup. It's pretty neat!

[christof]

Vasco, Christopher

 

If you have a look at Dominic Rothemels site, you can see that Gimborns ink window was identically to Pelikans:

So this mistery exists still.

 

And yes, Pelikan 300 are marked on both, capring and barrel. This barrel is not marked at all.

 

Could be a prototype or mockup. It's pretty neat!

yes, this would be nice, but honestly, I don't think that it's the case. I rather think of a custom work or parts pen.

C.

Edited February 22, 2016 by christof

[BMG]

Funny, I came across just such a pen at the recent L.A. Pen Show. It too was solid black, and was labelled by the seller as a 300. The cap band was marked Pelikan 300, but there were no markings on the barrel and the nib was like that of the Pelikan 400s I have. As far as I knew, Pelikan 300s were made only with striated barrels, which were marked at the bottom: Pelikan 300, often with Export added as they (all?) were produced for export. I too thought it might have been a Gimborn 150 barrel, as those *were* made in solid black, but did a bit of research and found that those too were marked at the barrel. In short, I concluded it was a Franken pen and opted not to buy it.

 

At first I thought that the barrel was that of a 140, but wouldn't that be too short? And were solid black 400s ever made? If not, where might such a barrel have come from? A custom-made job, as Christof suggests? Possibly an authentic Pelikan 300 barrel that for some reason was left unmarked?

 

I also wondered about the nib: were they the same as those found on Pelikan 400s?

[ScottieDarin]

Thanks to all for the compliments and nice comments. But I think it's time to forget about comic books and great customer service and get back to the really important things in life: cool vintage fountain pens!

 

I recently had the opportunity to work on some very cool vintage Soennecken. Perhaps you remember my antique store find with the green tin? There has been some coole pens inside. Also a post war Soennecken Präsident 1. I didn't posted pictures because the condtion was to poor. But now, the pen has been finished. Tom Westerich has been so kind to replace the missing cap ring and push knob, and I did the rest. Means: straighten the bent nib, complete disassembling and cleaning, polishing and reassembling with a new ink sac. Voilà:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8475/8096122653_33973ba958_c.jpg

This pen is fantastic, isn't it? Well, I have to admit that I got a little bit in a "presidential fewer" and bought another one from a reputated and well known seller. It's the pre war Präsident, completely made of hard rubber with a fantastic designed bulky cap band also made of hard rubber. I really would love to know who had the idea for this design feataure and how did he presuade his bosses to produce this... not an easy task I can imagine, haha.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8472/8096129614_83784c9dd3_c.jpg

An interesting detail: The pen is fitted with an 18ct. nib. Not that common for prewar pens, except for the french market.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8191/8096135520_cd3a8c156d_c.jpg

The third pen I worked on is an interesting Soennecken 116 from early post war time. This one is a piston filler.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8049/8096134826_0981f42dc9_c.jpg

The pen looks like the luxury version of common 116's. Three cap bands in different sizes and a huge "presidential" nib. Quite interesting I think.

The different filling mechanisms: Casein push knobs of the Präsidents and the hard rubber knob of the piston filler.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8048/8096135170_114148dbff_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8051/8096135906_4ce079682b_c.jpg

Btw, the Präsident works in in my opinion similar to the Waterman's inkview. There's just a push knob instead of a lever. Interesting that Germans invented this system. The black tube around the casein knobs is just a securing mechanism, which can be screwed inside of the barrel while filling the pen.

The last picture shows the hard rubber Präsident with two other hard rubber push knob fillers, a Parker Lucky Curve and a Montblanc Meisterstück 124S.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8473/8096136236_134e6a4f1b_c.jpg

 

...hope you did enjoy this little review and let's see what's next.

I am swooning over these Soenneckens, Christof.

Just discovered your thread recently. Had great joy reading the nice sketches and posts!!

[christof]

Another thread on this Forum inspired me to take out all my Duofolds and Duofold-like pens and make a group picture:

 

 

The second and the fourth pen from left are no Duofolds and the pen on the right isn't even a Parker - it's a German "Duroll". Funny, isn't?

 

C.

[Azuniga]

Very nice pens as usual Christof !

 

In such a blue, Osmia, Kaweco, Goldfink and even Matador were 'Parker alike' as Duroll, but you know that. I knew about Durell but never actually saw one, son thanks for showing it here.

 

Ariel

[christof]

Here's a better picture of the Duroll:

 

 

and here is a vintage sale advertisement:

 

 

Seems that these were sold together with razor blades...

 

C.

Edited March 14, 2016 by christof

[christof]

Since I currently am engaged in Duofolds, I took a comparison picture of two Black Duofolds, the one from 1926 and the other from 1989:

 

 

 

I have to say that these modern Duofolds are very, very well made pens. It's impressive to see how precise these are made from solid acrylic blocks. They give a really sturdy and robust feeling. Cool pens!

Nevertheless, I wish that Parker made it a little bit lighter, used a little bit less gold rings and made a clip which is a lttle bit more ball clip likely. But that's just me...

Anyway, Duofolds are such iconic pens, I feel that I should work on my (rather humble) Duofold collection. Let's see what's next...

 

C.

Edited March 15, 2016 by christof

[jmccarty3]

I have to say that these modern Duofolds are very, very well made pens. It's impressive to see how precise these are made from solid acrylic blocks. They give a really sturdy and robust feeling. Cool pens!

Nevertheless, I wish that Parker made it a little bit lighter, used a little bit less gold rings and made a clip which is a lttle bit more ball clip likely. But that's just me...

 

 

I bought several of the modern Duofolds when they first came out, some the the less substantial clips and the flat rings, and some of the later design. There's no doubt that they're built like a tank. Unfortunately, their nibs are built like tanks as well, probably as nail-like as any in existence. In the beginning they offered a large array of widths, including L & R obliques, italics, etc, but the widths, which were labeled as XF-BBB, actually ranged from B-BBB. (If you want a fine line from a Parker pen, may I suggest a 75?) At least they offered choices then, now, like Pelikan, not so much. I don't write with mine much now, but when I do, I use the XF nib, which actually shows some stubbish line variation.

[christof]

You are absolutely right. The character of the common sized nibs is modern as the pen is. No flex, no line variation. But most of the vintage Duofold nibs are stiff as well.

I only have this example of a modern Duofold and have to say that it writes quite comfortable. Smooth and wet, as one expect from a pen like that.

C.

Edited March 15, 2016 by christof

[FredRydr]

Just a thought. I'll go off on a tandem as I admire Christof's handsome vintage black Duofold.

 

Vintage pens are like vintage motorcars; I've collected both. As collectors, we like having the pretty colors and eschew the boring black cars and black pens. When I restored a car, inevitably the search began for original paint chips to paint the car the prettiest color combination. Red spoked wheels, anyone? With pens, we generally seek out the jade, the lapis, the big red or the mandarin. But look at any photograph of a 1920-30s street. People chose black, and lots of it! ("You can have any color you want so long as it's black.") It is the same with pens. By far, unrestored pens from the 1930s and earlier are black black black.

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WsE6M_RjBIY/S86EJUp5iII/AAAAAAAAaWI/1hEgFBonD6E/s1600/Cars+parked+diagonally+Omaha+Nebraska+Photograph+by+John+Vachon++November+1938.jpg

 

Okay, some of you will respond that it's a black and white photo, so it proves nothing! Well, that issue has been dealt with.

 

 

 

Anyway, I like black pens. Yes, I like colors too. ;-)

 

Fred

Edited March 15, 2016 by FredRydr

[christof]

Thank you Fred. Yes, me too, I like both. Colorful pens and Black ones. Although I think that nothing can beat RHR, I mostly choose Black pens for my Photo comparisons:

 

 

 

 

Black is the best color to focus view on design and shape of a pen.

 

C.

[FredRydr]

Thank you Fred. Yes, me too, I like both. Colorful pens and Black ones. Although I think that nothing can beat RHR, I mostly choose Black pens for my Photo comparisons.... Black is the best color to focus view on design and shape of a pen.

 

 

Good point!

 

Fred