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

[Bo Bo Olson]

I can understand that.

But I find my 915 sterling silver green Hunter Toledo too big. ...as are all my three 800's, including the much heavier Toledo.

When the right numbers appear, a 700 Toledo is what I'll buy...along with a couple late '30's tortoises.

[mana]

Pelikan 400 Black-Striped, one of my latest acquisitions. The nib is a relatively pedestrian M, and a rather stiff one at that, but it has started to grow on me especially with my all-time favourite ink, Diamine’s Eau de Nil. That, plus a bit of tuning, that is

[yubaprof]

100 Gray/Black (vintage 1939) with an extra fine CN flex nib. I always have mixed emotions when I use this pen being that it is from the Nazi era. I know that the pen is an object and has no feelings or political philosophy, but it still bothers me. I purchased it in Madrid while on my way to the airport. I had about 15 minutes to make a decision and if I had it to do over again I would not have walked out with it. I only use it about once every three months. It is the oldest Pelikan I own; it's in great condition.

[stoen]

21 minutes ago, yubaprof said:

100 Gray/Black (vintage 1939) with an extra fine CN flex nib.

 

Congrats!

I’ve never posted to this thread, AFAIK.

Considering the place of purchase, your pen may have also been from Spanish Civil War era.

 

Hope I also have a nice pen to show here.

 

I am fond of old pens, and I prefer writing with them regularly. Mostly, they happen to be much more versatile writers than new ones.

Here’s my “today’s pen”. I got it rather recently. Springy F nib.

 

Now inked with 4001 Brilliant brown.

[mana]

25 minutes ago, yubaprof said:

100 Gray/Black (vintage 1939) with an extra fine CN flex nib. I always have mixed emotions when I use this pen being that it is from the Nazi era. I know that the pen is an object and has no feelings or political philosophy, but it still bothers me. I purchased it in Madrid while on my way to the airport. I had about 15 minutes to make a decision and if I had it to do over again I would not have walked out with it. I only use it about once every three months. It is the oldest Pelikan I own; it's in great condition.

This is an interesting read on Pelikan and it’s activities during the Nazi-Germany era > https://thepelikansperch.com/2020/05/02/pelikan-concessions-of-war/

 

I also have a similar 100N but with a 14k gold nib. While I recognize when and where it was manufactured I don’t

associate it with the NSDAP and the Nazi-goverment or any of it’s entities (and this is coming from someone who is a devout anti-fascist, and whose recently passed fiancée and best friend of fifteen years was Jewish).

 

As a physical object it is a piece of history, never entirely separable from it, but also, never really significantly connected to it either. It would be a different thing if there was a stronger historical connection, provenance such as paperwork, photograps or a dedication/engraving on the pen linking it to the dark figures, events or organizations of that era.
 

Now it is just a pen, and while there is no denying of what it is and where it came from, it is devoid of any meaningful connection to the Nazis. As such, I wouldn’t be bothered by it, but rather, the Nazis themselves, and the horrors they visited unto this world, and on so many innocent people. Darkness like that should never be let prevail.

 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have a pre-August 13, 1942 CN 100 with bands, but a barely goldish looking single wide rilled band.

It is rilled (or like on other war pens) like the picture shown in Pelikan Perch of the rilled double band with no metal. But on mine there is some sort of something that at least looks metal.

 

Neither the CN nib on that pen nor another I have are more than normal springy regular flex...not the semi-flex or even superflex some have. I was much disappointed with that, both times.

[inkstainedruth]

@mana While in principle I agree with your stance, you have to also remember that corporations and banks helped fund the Nazis.  So I can see both sides of the issue (and my best friend growing up was Jewish); for that matter, I found out years after my grandfather died, when my great uncle died and my parents went to my great uncle's funeral, that they were both of Jewish descent (there were people there that my dad didn't know, and of course my mom had never laid eyes on before, so my mom asked my great aunt who the people were, and got told that they were my great uncle's "Jewish relatives" (so, by extension, my grandfather's as well).  So the family could very well have emigrated from Warsaw to escape the pogroms.... 

Of course, my grandfather on my mother's side was half German and half Irish, and (from my. mom's description of him) sounded as if he was 110% Roman Catholic.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Mercian]

7 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

you have to also remember that corporations and banks helped fund the Nazis

 

Yes. Many of them. BMW and IBM both spring immediately to mind, but there are of course many.

It can even be argued that, in 1939, illegal assistance was given to the Nazi tyranny when a committee of officials from the Bank of England agreed to sell some of Czechoslovakia's gold reserves (seized by Germany after its invasion in March 1939) as being 'legitimately' part of Germany's gold reserves.

 

Sadly, I am not in a position to be able to boycott the BoE 😉

[yubaprof]

1 hour ago, mana said:

This is an interesting read on Pelikan and it’s activities during the Nazi-Germany era > https://thepelikansperch.com/2020/05/02/pelikan-concessions-of-war/

 

I also have a similar 100N but with a 14k gold nib. While I recognize when and where it was manufactured I don’t

associate it with the NSDAP and the Nazi-goverment or any of it’s entities (and this is coming from someone who is a devout anti-fascist, and whose recently passed fiancée and best friend of fifteen years was Jewish).

 

As a physical object it is a piece of history, never entirely separable from it, but also, never really significantly connected to it either. It would be a different thing if there was a stronger historical connection, provenance such as paperwork, photograps or a dedication/engraving on the pen linking it to the dark figures, events or organizations of that era.
 

Now it is just a pen, and while there is no denying of what it is and where it came from, it is devoid of any meaningful connection to the Nazis. As such, I wouldn’t be bothered by it, but rather, the Nazis themselves, and the horrors they visited unto this world, and on so many innocent people. Darkness like that should never be let prevail.

 

 

Of course I agree with you. One of my mother's cousins was executed right after the Spanish Civil War by the fascist government. He had fought for the Loyalist forces. So my family is quite aware of how brutal fascism was in the 20th Century. I also traveled and lived briefly in Spain during the Franco dictatorship and experienced firsthand how repression works. And I know that the pen has nothing to do with all of that, but I'm still bothered.

[Mercian]

48 minutes ago, yubaprof said:

And I know that the pen has nothing to do with all of that, but I'm still bothered.

 

This ↑ is, I think, is the important factor here.

 

Whatever anybody else feels about the object - whether their feelings are rooted in morality, or politics, or whatever - the pen in question makes you feel uncomfortable.
If I were you I would be minded to sell it (and I say that as someone who is not seeking to buy it.)

If the idea of 'profiting' off the sale of such an item discomfits/discomforts you, you could always donate some (or all) of the proceeds of the sale to whichever charity/charities you feel to be appropriate.

 

I hope that whatever you end up deciding to do with the pen brings you peace.

Slàinte,
M.

[lamarax]

I hope nobody walks around in Hugo Boss attire 😉

 

Seriously, in my mind the question is why and how these businesses (using forced labor from occupied countries) were allowed to thrive post-war and by whom, under which political... considerations. You see, capital can never be stained -or restrained- by blood (unlike demonstrator pens).

 

I won't expand, as I fear I'd be breaching forum rules (and I enjoy my -modern- Pelikans + some Boss stuff I happen to have 😛)

[yubaprof]

5 hours ago, Mercian said:

 

This ↑ is, I think, is the important factor here.

 

If I were you I would be minded to sell it (and I say that as someone who is not seeking to buy it.)
I hope that whatever you end up deciding to do with the pen brings you peace.

Slàinte,
M.

Good advice, M. I've had this pen for a couple of years now and I think it's time to take action. I don't enjoy owning it although I know others would not be bothered. Each to his own.

[RedPie]

16 hours ago, mana said:

Pelikan 400 Black-Striped, one of my latest acquisitions. The nib is a relatively pedestrian M, and a rather stiff one at that, but it has started to grow on me especially with my all-time favourite ink, Diamine’s Eau de Nil. That, plus a bit of tuning, that is

Nice pictures and a good pen! 

[stoen]

My grandpa’s pen - in my family estate since 1938:

Inked with Scheaffer Skrip Red

[Wil D]

P25 black

[RedPie]

[Bo Bo Olson]

4 hours ago, RedPie said:

pedestrian M

Many come to or come back to fountain pens and go narrow.

I had an M, P-75 and went wide. By me narrow F, was only to hold a place until I could find a B or BB..............I never did sell any of those F's.

I now like M, quite well.

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

This is two old posts....on how come I came to like M.

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

Good, I have come to like M very much.

I came back to fountain pens being an unused one pen man....it was M, a P75. I wandered in the ball point wilderness for 40 years.

I went wide, many go narrow.

M gets a bad name, in it was often the common size of nib folks got to the coms on.

 

I have to admit I always found F to be narrow enough for me, and often bought place holder F nibbed pens, waiting for B or wider in them.....LOM kept those F nibbed pens instead of ever replacing them.

 

I went from semi-flex to regular flex (Japanese soft equivalent) in I got into two toned shading inks. Semi-flex unless perfectly matched in ink and paper, is too wet for shading inks.

 

One can get two toned shading with a good F nib, or a B nib. I found myself buying  M's in my 200's.....The EF was for editing. The B was because I'd bought M on 3 of the last 5 bought.

 

I find M to be smoother than F....just like F is smoother than EF and for the same reason, wider.

If you use any of the classic rough paper; laid or linen effect, M does a smoother line...............next time I ink a B, got to bring down some of my rough paper.....and do a test with M and B.

 

Of course most of my  pens are vintage or semi-vintage and so the nib width is 1/2 a size narrower than some modern pens, like Pelikan or MB.

 

An old post of mine....

And I've developed a liking for an western M nib. That is smoother than an F and not real wide............take a look at that disrespected width.

 

"""

M is looked down on this com...in many come in on an M and go skinny or fat....but is a great nib size actually, good for shading inks, glitter inks and better than F on classic rough laid or Lenin papers.

Using MB Toffee a brown shading ink, back when I was newer.

 

F was light with dark trails.

M was 50-50 in shading , breaking my anti-M prejudice I picked up here on the com.

B was dark with light trails.""""

 

Of course you have to have 90g paper or better for two toned shading, except for Rhoda 80g...........I don't have that, I have Rhoda 90g.

Shading inks are for more advanced users.

Some 'noobies' avoid shading, thinking they are having a mistake....

 

I do find mono-tone vivid ink....boring.

[Mercian]

2 hours ago, Wil D said:

P25

 

I had to look that model up.

Do you find that the threads for its cap get in the way of your fingers? Or are they so low down that they are 'forward of' your fingers when you are writing with it?

I know it's a cartridge pen, but I tend to use converters & bottled ink, so I would also be worried that ink would build up on those threads and transfer to the threads inside the cap, possibly affecting the ease of capping/uncapping, and/or the effectiveness of the cap's seal.

Although that would be easy to prevent, by washing the pen's front end & cap occasionally.

[And remember folks, just because you already know that you're paranoid, that doesn't mean that They are not all out to get you! 😉]

[Wil D]

4 hours ago, Mercian said:

 

I had to look that model up.

Do you find that the threads for its cap get in the way of your fingers? Or are they so low down that they are 'forward of' your fingers when you are writing with it?

I know it's a cartridge pen, but I tend to use converters & bottled ink, so I would also be worried that ink would build up on those threads and transfer to the threads inside the cap, possibly affecting the ease of capping/uncapping, and/or the effectiveness of the cap's seal.

Although that would be easy to prevent, by washing the pen's front end & cap occasionally.

[And remember folks, just because you already know that you're paranoid, that doesn't mean that They are not all out to get you! 😉]

There is no thread, so no problem 😉 It is a very nice pen. But expensive, I had to pay 7,50 euro for it.

[Mercian]

19 minutes ago, Wil D said:

There is no thread, so no problem 😉 I

 

Ack, I only looked at the first version of the P25, and didn't check for the second (which is much more attractive IMO)

 

19 minutes ago, Wil D said:

It is a very nice pen. But expensive, I had to pay 7,50 euro for it.

 

😱 Oooh, the profligacy... 😉

 

Great find!