What Pelikan Are You Writing With Today? (2024 Edition)

[N1003U]

On 6/28/2024 at 3:37 PM, DilettanteG said:

@stoen that dark tortoise 101N is gorgeous. I didn't even know that model existed. If I collected vintage pens that would be on my wish list.

 

Today, I'm writing with my M800 red and black with a modified broad cursive italic nib and a new ink. This pen was produced sometime in Pelikan's modern era, but I can't remember the exact year.

 

Edited to add: Back when this model was a special edition in 2001.

That’s a gorgeous pen, @DilettanteG. The picture motivated me to pull out one of my M800s today (classic green stripe, with a boring F nib) and write a few lines. The experience also brought out an old debate I have with myself almost every time I use an M800:

 

Is an M800 better posted or unposted (note I find it long enough either way)? The brass piston innards tend give the unposted pen a decent back weight, and of course more if it is posted? What do people prefer? For my hand, the balance is a bit too back weighted posted, but not quite enough unposted.

 

For those M800 fans out there: how do your M800(s)? Posted or unposted?

[Bo Bo Olson]

2 hours ago, N1003U said:

For my hand, the balance is a bit too back weighted posted, but not quite enough unposted.

 

I use the forefinger up method of grasping a fountain pen...un-posted the 800 is too short, posted it is way too back heavy.

I like the 400 and 600 posted. They have great balance.

 

Forefinger up is an automatic light grip; takes three minutes to learn. And a week of swapping from brutal tripod to forefinger up to make the switch.

 

Help! How Do You Hold Your Fountain Pen?

[N1003U]

On 7/4/2024 at 3:36 PM, N1003U said:

more

Oh, I am totally with you, @Bo Bo Olson, on the balance of the posted M200/400/600s. I would put the M101N (and its vintage ancestors) in a similar (some would say better) category. They are lovely pens to write with.

 

The M800 seems to have a lot of fans in these pages (and I even keep an example or two handy), and they are nice enough, I suppose. I sometimes try to figure out what I am missing about the pen that people rave about.

[PAKMAN]

[Bo Bo Olson]

Beautiful isn't balance...an 800 or 1000 are IMO good for taking notes.

But I am prejudiced. I find a modern post '70 Large 146, stately...not clunky like a 800.

That and I can't even afford beautiful 600's....used. for the last 15 years the 600 Grand Place, has stayed well above my ouch limit.

 

I'm not into big heavy pens....the 1005 I thought I had, was only an 805.

.........OK......it was lots bigger than the small (black & gold) W.Germany 600 I also won that day....and it was listed as a 1005.

I have a W.Germany 800 with that nice a bit springier nib....and a 915 Sterling Silver Hunter Toledo..regular flex nib of the era..not quite W.Germany springy....which is considerably heavier than my no overlay 800's.

 

I have a 149 that I won in a live auction lot, when I won that Hunter...never used, will never use. too big and clunky.

Will have to flog it.

Will have to over to Geeks and see what they go for. Been waiting for years to sell it here. Of course I could just put it in a live auction. Might as well do the same for the 805.Check Geek prices and tell the auction house how much I want as start bid.

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

I understand someone who grew up much later than me, thinking Large pens are standard...in that was about all they could get....and not knowing about balance, and so not posting  a 400/600. Posted they are not too small.

[Carrau]

3 hours ago, PAKMAN said:

Handsome-what is the ink, and what nib did you get?

[PAKMAN]

Got a fine nib, it was too wet so I had a nibmeister calm it down a bit. Using FPN Noodlers Galileo Manuscript Brown in it.

[Carrau]

10 hours ago, PAKMAN said:

Got a fine nib, it was too wet so I had a nibmeister calm it down a bit. Using FPN Noodlers Galileo Manuscript Brown in it.

Thanks, PAKMAN-good looking ink. It appears you get considerable line variation with that nib.

[Cjtamu]

Boy, this thread has been slow lately! I’m rotating between my F nib blue-striped M800 with Edelstein Sapphire and recently acquired F nib brown marble M200 with Edelstein Onyx this week. The M800 was spectacular out of the box. Hard to put down, a well-tuned Pelikan nib is a thing of beauty. Kirk tuned the M200 before sending to me and it’s also an excellent writer.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I only have 13 Pelikans inked in three pen cups....but, only a couple are EF...doing my editing, a width I use often. And I just got a couple MB's I'd not expected to get in the EF/EEF, so the EEF is out in use, the EF was used up.

Next up is a couple wet wide empty pens (not Pelikan, in most of my wide Pelikans are filled), in I have to give MB Pinocchio/Collodi ink a last chance and I have better paper than then, and know I have to use wet pens.

[Penguincollector]

  I’m using my green striped 1991 W.German M800 with a 14k nib ground to needlepoint by Thomas Ang; still on the Namiki black he used for grinding- so lovely. 🥰 I also have a little Twist P-10  made around the same time inked with Edelstein Rose Quartz. 

[Wil D]

Level 5 blue/black

[inkstainedruth]

Today it's been the M405 Blue Black, EF nib, with (now diluted) Pelikan 4001 Blue Black).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Cjtamu]

2 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

  I’m using my green striped 1991 W.German M800 with a 14k nib ground to needlepoint by Thomas Ang; still on the Namiki black he used for grinding- so lovely. 🥰 I also have a little Twist P-10  made around the same time inked with Edelstein Rose Quartz. 

Wonderful. One day I’ll find the right M800 from that period.

[Penguincollector]

16 minutes ago, Cjtamu said:

Wonderful. One day I’ll find the right M800 from that period.

  I hope you do! Mine has been my constant companion for 33 years. It’s been from pillar to post with me and still looks and writes great. I put my older pens away for a while and I appreciate them now more than ever. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

The springy Pelikan nib era is two. The W.Germany era '82-91 for the 400, '85-91 for the 200, and '88-89/91 for the 800.  Even though I have a 400 size 600 W.Germany...I don't know when they made them.

Only if you have both and are looking for it, is the W.Germany nib a slight hair more springy than the '91/2-97 era.

 

Way back in the when, a lovely passed Spanish lady with a such superb script asked me to trans-mail a W.Germany 800, in the seller refused to mail out of Germany. I got to play with it for three days. I marked it in my mind to get. It was the first W.Germany nibbed pen I had touched.

 

In I didn't know how to tell an 800's springy pre-98 pen on the Bay...from the double ball nail that was post '97....I had to wait a very long time for an W.Germany 800 to fall into my hands.

 

[RedPie]

Still using my Café Crème. A great writing experience! 

[inkstainedruth]

What's the nib on yours?  I lost my first one (B nib) and was able to find one on eBay with a "wide" nib (italic stub) which got replaced with another B nib; then lost the SECOND one.  And now am on my THIRD -- sigh --  Café Crème (also with a B nib).  And which is currently inked up with diluted Edelstein Topaz and which got used earlier today to finish up my morning journal entry.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[RedPie]

@inkstainedruth

Mine is a M nib. I waited quite a bit for it. All other Pelikans I have a F nibs. I am very satisfied with my M. It is currently inked with Noodler's Luxury Blue. 

[yubaprof]

Pelikan M800 green/black stripe with a fine nib. I will be taking notes for most of the afternoon so I need a fine nib. It is on the stiff side, but that serves note taking.