Red Tortoiseshell M600

[dms525]

38 minutes ago, Ed333 said:

I now have to decide whether I REALLY REALLY TRULY  want a red m101n, to go with my m600 and my red tortoise m101n, before they disappear.  Or not.

 

I'm guessing you really truly want one. I'm not sure about really really truly, though.  

 

Personally, I didn't really truly struggle with the decision, but I realize YMMV. I don't think I would struggle much deciding on a red tortoise M800 either. Sad but true.

 

 

Happy writing (whatever you decide)!

 

David

[Frank C]

15 minutes ago, dms525 said:

 

 

 

Happy writing (whatever you decide)!

 

David

That photo convinced me. I love my other red Pelikans. I do agree with one of the previous posts, this would be fantastic in an M800 or M1000.

[Ed333]

Yes, a red tortoise m800 would be great.  But I would want the old style binde, the true tortoise, not what they gave us with the m101n red tortoise, that disappointed me.  Looking back on it, I regret not getting a Stone Garden m800.  My only 800 is black with the green ink window, no complaints, but the visuals are important to me as well as the feel and the writing.  I accept black polished ebonite because the feel is so marvelous.  I am all done with paying big bucks for black plastic, the only thing 'precious' about "precious resin" is the price.  I always think of that old Fernando LLamas TV advertisement, with his richly intoned "rich Corinthian leather" whenever I read "precious resin".

[sansenri]

honestly I'm happy it's an M600

there are so many M800s with interesting colours but the M600 seems more neglected...

This time Pelikan has come up with a very nice one, wonderfully deep red, and the irregularity in the striped binde is a nice change.

My pics although late

 

 

 

[dms525]

3 hours ago, Frank C said:

That photo convinced me. I love my other red Pelikans. I do agree with one of the previous posts, this would be fantastic in an M800 or M1000.

 

Let's see ... That's 400 E.P.'s (enabler points). 🤣

[N1003U]

4 hours ago, dms525 said:

 

I'm guessing you really truly want one. I'm not sure about really really truly, though.  

 

Personally, I didn't really truly struggle with the decision, but I realize YMMV. I don't think I would struggle much deciding on a red tortoise M800 either. Sad but true.

 

 

Happy writing (whatever you decide)!

 

David

Thanks for the lovely photo. I have complained for some time that my Pelikan flock is light on red specimens. I still think that is true, but it is less true now than it was a year or so ago...

 

Really enjoy the red tortoise K/M600. The bright red M101N is nice too, but it inspires me much less. I’ve not seen an M101N in red tortoise, so I guess the jury is still out on that one.

[amk]

On 5/16/2021 at 6:18 PM, Ed333 said:

I ordered mine from Fritz Schimpf, with their custom italic grind on a broad nib, and could not be more pleased with it.  Sebastian Stoltz of Schimpf walked me through the process with clarity and efficiency.  I will say that delivery took a while, not on Schimpf's part, but the carriers.  They put it out for shipment on Jan.22d, and it was March 5th when I received it.  But have faith, it will arrive in good order.  Congratulations!

I have ordered exactly the same! Thanks to all the people who have told me about Schimpf's grinding service - I was very impressed by the trouble they took and I hope I won't have too long to wait!

[amk]

It arrived! Wonderful service from Fritz Schimpf, and a nice nib with loads of line variation. And the tortoise is really wonderful - I could look at it all day. 

 

I've now got the opposite of FOMO, having got my torty and looking at the light green stripy new Pelikan which is just 'meh'. (IMHO)

[chromantic]

Grats, amk! It is indeed a beauty. Have you decided on an ink for it?

[candlejack]

Before I post some pictures of my new M600, I would like to share with you how I got to this point. 

 

I have maintained an interest for handwriting and fountain pens and mechanical pencils for basically my entire educated life. I learned to write in school using a Parker 51 clone (Hero) and have used this pen up to the last year of college (I may have gone through a few of them, but they were all some copy of the Parker 51). I joined this forum probably about 10 years ago because I was finally making some money and could afford a nice pen, but needed some guidance. Since that time I have collected a few more some pens, mostly Pelikans. My collection would probably be considered on the modest side around here, but I hate the idea of having more than I can practically use, so that keeps the number of pens under control. However, I haven't been active on the forum since then, even though I've consumed other kinds of media regarding fountain pens (Youtube videos, etc.). This is probably because the rabbit hole goes very deep and I'm primarily interested in the writing, the pens are somewhat secondary, or at least that's what I tell myself. 🙂

 

Anyway, a few weeks ago I was writing in my journal and the pen that was on duty that day was a standard green stripe M1000 with an EF nib. I love how bouncy and wet this nib is, but this pen has frustrated me from the moment I got it. It's through no fault of the pen, I just can't seem to be able to write with it. Despite having large hands, my writing technique has been molded by so many years of the Parker 51 shape and size that I cannot adjust to the girthy grip of the M1000. The M800 may be the limit for me. And it's not that I cannot write at all, of course, it's that I cannot control my hand movement well enough to write as nicely as I can with a narrower pen. After about 5 years of trying to push through it (I do love that nib), I though to myself: it's time to find this pen a new home. 

 

But this would be new territory for me, as I've never had a pen worth selling that I wanted to sell before. I figured selling it on the fountain pen forum would be the best idea. So I logged back in after I don't know how many years and went to the classified to see if I am eligible to post a sale. Reading thorough the rules it turns out I don't meet the criteria for number of posts (but I was close, only needed 4 or so). Tough luck, but easy fix. So I started browsing through the forum seeing if I could find a thread I could contribute something meaningful to. Since most of my pens are Pelikans I came to this forum. And that's how I stumbled over this thread for the new M600.

 

The M600 is my preferred size out of all the Pelikan pens. It's really comfortable and I love writing with it. I waited a few years for Pelikan to release an interesting model in the M600 size but it never came, so in the end I caved and a couple of years ago (actually the same week my son was born) I got the M600 in the blue stripes (it turns out I really love the look and don't regret having to "settle" for a regular edition Pelikan). But my desire for a more "interesting" M600 never waned. And wouldn't you know it, the tortoise pattern if probably my favorite one of everything Pelikan has ever done (my M800 Brown Tortoise is what really started it all for me). And this Red Tortoise M600 may not be quite as beautiful to my eyes as the Brown Tortoise of the M800, but it's really close. 

 

Ok, so the irony is: I came to the forum after all this time looking to sell a pen and ended up buying one instead! 🙂

 

Finally, here are the pictures of my latest addition to the flock (some of them may feel a bit redundant, but I think they may help show some of the aesthetic nuances in this pen):
 

 

Bonus pic of the M1000 that caused this:

 

 

Edited June 8, 2021 by candlejack
Added a bonus picture

[candlejack]

The pictures above were taken in controlled lighting environment, aimed at showing the pen as I see it, but here is a side-by-side with the same picture taken in direct sunlight.

 

Edit: I see that that the pictures are compressed quite a lot, drastically reducing the image quality. I took and processed these pictures with great care, is there any way to have them displayed in original quality?

 

 

Edited June 8, 2021 by candlejack

[OCArt]

Hello CandleJack,

I have the same pen, purchased from Appelboom and ground to a cursive italic by their nibmeister Anabelle Hiller. This is my favorite of the M600 series, a really lovely pen that makes me smile every time I use it. 

 

I hope you will enjoy yours as much as I delight in mine!

[chromantic]

In contrast to the (to me) understated elegance of the standard striped models, the M400 Brown Tortoise screams "look at me!". This M600 Red screams it even louder.

The last times people notices and commented on my FPs was with those two pens.

[candlejack]

9 hours ago, OCArt said:

Hello CandleJack,

I have the same pen, purchased from Appelboom and ground to a cursive italic by their nibmeister Anabelle Hiller. This is my favorite of the M600 series, a really lovely pen that makes me smile every time I use it. 

 

I hope you will enjoy yours as much as I delight in mine!

That's nice to hear. Maybe for my next Pelikan I can splurge on a nib adjustment. I love Italics/Obliques. This time I was late to the party, so I could only find the Red Tortoise on Amazon. A nice discount over the likes of Appelboom and La Couronne du Comte, but the service is not the same, obviously. 

 

I've only had mine for about a week, but I'm already sold on the looks. The nib writes well, but is broader than what I expected (it's an M but so is my other M600 and they are very different in actual width).

[candlejack]

6 hours ago, chromantic said:

In contrast to the (to me) understated elegance of the standard striped models, the M400 Brown Tortoise screams "look at me!". This M600 Red screams it even louder.

The last times people notices and commented on my FPs was with those two pens.

 

That just shows you are surrounded by people with great taste! 🙂

 

Seriously though, I've never handled the M400 Brown Tortoise, but I've had the M800 in the same finish since circa 2014. I would expect it to fly under the radar more than the green/blue/red standard stripes. Those seem louder to me than the mellow brown tortoise. I think that instead of shouting out "look at me" it instead winks playfully. That's how it gets all that attention. 🙂 

[amk]

My torty is currently enjoying some Diamine Oxblood. It's a nice slightly-browner-than-red red.

[candlejack]

8 hours ago, amk said:

My torty is currently enjoying some Diamine Oxblood. It's a nice slightly-browner-than-red red.

Pics or it didn't happen.

[Intensity]

Question for this pen's owners: 

- Is there actual red in the barrel binde?  Descriptions I've seen are something like "orange and brown", but I think I can see some red bits as well, to match the section/cap/finial--is that right?  If there's variation in the binde, maybe I could ask the store I buy from to select one with more red in it?  Not sure if that's possible.

- The "warm red" of the cap/section/finial: it's still definite red, not in any way orange?

 

I was just confused by a couple of online store descriptions that made me think I was going to get orange-red resin with some warm orange-brown binde...

 

I own and LOVE a red tortoiseshell M101N (and a brown one) and was going to add yet another M101N (like in Bright Red, which in person looks really nice and has good depth of finish), but now I'm thinking it should be this M600 Red Tortoiseshell instead.

[TitoThePencilPimp]

The binde has a combination of colors. Mine has  black stripes (a few), gold stripes, red leaning toward orange, and a few red. The noticeable red color on my binde, looks something like blotches of red ink. Reminds me of a lava map. These blotches appear evenly throughout the barrel, but do not appear busy.

 

Overall, I like the m600 Tortoise, and think it is worth a purchase at a reasonable price. The

[Uncial]

As above for my experience of the red torty. It's a real stunner of a pen.

 

But what is this brown one you speak of? There's a somewhat brown one, but be aware it's a bit more aubergine. Also a beautiful pen.