Sourcing a M1000 with ink visible

[7enderbender]

I’ve long been interested in adding a green striped M1000 to my small pen collection. 
I recently noticed that the new models are different than the old ones in that they are no longer translucent apparently. 
As these things go, now I’m again looking for something that has been discontinued resulting in a premium (or not). 
 

im sure this has been discussed, but what is a good source for a recent model that still has the translucent stripes. Any specific model numbers that would help identify those during a search? Photos in advertising for brand new Pelikan M1000 pens seems to be misleading often (still showing the prior model). 
 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Geek com sells pens, ask there.

1998-@ 2010 Bock made semi-flex 1000 nibs.

After Pelikan took those spec nibs back In House, the 1000 became a normal springy regular flex, instead of semi-flex.

(IMO in you want a used pen, why not go for semi-flex?)

and a used 1000 will be as good as new and cheaper....

I don't know when the new pens became darker.

Try Applebloom or even Penboard.de for a pen that is 5 years or older

[7enderbender]

Thank you. I’ll check there. Good point on the nib. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Penboard.de would the place to hunt for a Bock nib semi-flex 1000.

Sometimes one has to pay the price for better.

[Runnin_Ute]

The non translucent/no ink window pens only happened in the last couple of years if memory serves me correctly. Doing a search on The Pelikan's Perch blog, there is a post about it in first quarter of 2022, so had happened by then, but could have happened as early as 2021 sometime. Any Souveran (M400, M600, M800, M1000) made before then would have the translucency you seek.

[7enderbender]

Thank you. I think to be safe I’ll hunt for one pre 2010. Either way, they seem

to be hard to find. Saw one or two in Japan on eBay (they had fine nibs and I’m looking for M I think. 
Nothing on any of the fountain pen sites that I found. 

[Mercian]

On 9/6/2024 at 7:53 PM, 7enderbender said:

I’ve long been interested in adding a green striped M1000 to my small pen collection. 
I recently noticed that the new models are different than the old ones in that they are no longer translucent apparently. 
As these things go, now I’m again looking for something that has been discontinued resulting in a premium (or not). 

Could I be cheeky, and ask you for a favour?

 

I would be grateful if you would contact Pelikan to tell them that you want to buy a striped M1000, but don’t want to buy one of the current-production models, whose barrels lack any way to determine ink level.

Please them know that you are now looking to buy a pre-2022 pen, with the barrel that is transparent between the chatoyant stripes.

That feature is not only beautiful; it’s the best ‘ink window’ that I have ever seen.

 

Pelikan sold pens with barrels that were transparent between the chatoyant stripes for over 70 years.
It was a ‘unique selling point’ of Pelikan pens.
The stripe material is difficult to manufacture, but its production is, very clearly, not ‘beyond the capability of human ingenuity’.

 

If the company gets messages from a lot of potential customers who say that they are not going to buy a current-production pen, but are instead looking for one of the older ones that do have the transparency between the stripes, it might persuade the owners to return to the better functionality offered by their traditional product.

 

Ok, it might not persuade them, but if nobody sends them such messages they certainly won’t revert to the transparent barrels.

 

Slàinte,
M.

[lamarax]

3 hours ago, Mercian said:

Ok, it might not persuade them, but if nobody sends them such messages they certainly won’t revert to the transparent barrels.

 

Hear, hear!

 

I confess my guilt over having bought a "new style" M1000. Although one could argue that it looks slightly better than the classic due to the more defined stripes, with such a gusher of a pen, being able to see the remaining ink is almost imperative for practical reasons alone -never mind tradition.

[Karmachanic]

6 hours ago, 7enderbender said:

pre 2010

 

Change took place 2022 . My 1005 F wrote like an M, but Anabelle fixed that.

[Lithium466]

Last time I complained about the new barrels, I got comments on how you can just weight your pen, or know with experience how full it is, by its weight or how the ink sloshing inside sounds, and how the old translucent barrels were not allowing to see the ink level that well after all, and that if I really want to see the ink level there are still some models with an ink window, etc. etc...

 

I'm afraid that if they cost more (and they probably do), Pelikan won't revert to semi translucent barrels. I hope many people will complain and that they will switch back, but I don't have high hopes!

I tried ordering a pen from an obscure shop (which I hoped had old stocks), basing myself on pictures and all, but failed miserably and got a non-translucent version. Apart from asking the retailer or buying in person, or a used model with clear pictures of the very pen you'll receive, I wish you good luck.

[Bo Bo Olson]

On 9/7/2024 at 9:27 PM, Bo Bo Olson said:

1998-@ 2010 Bock made semi-flex 1000 nibs.

I believe the 'quote' pre-2010 had to do with the nib, not the visible ink looking at a light source; of which 2022 sounds right from the complaint echoes.

[Mercian]

On 9/9/2024 at 11:44 PM, Lithium466 said:

Last time I complained about the new barrels, I got comments on…

 

…and how the old translucent barrels were not allowing to see the ink level that well after all,

 

This one…

 

…is now 70 years old. It’s my Pelikan 400 from 1954.

 

’Hopelessly opaque’, isn’t it? 😉

Note that it is still transparent in front of the lampshade - one does not need to use an arc lamp to be able to see through the barrel.

Hold it up in front of a window in daylight and it’s at least this transparent.
As are my 1990/91 green-striped M800, and my 1991-97 M400 in ‘Brown Tortoiseshell’.

 

But who knows, maybe I just ‘lucked out’, and happen to have acquired the world’s three most-transparent Pelikans? 😉

 

Edit to add:

Here is what my green Pelikans look like when lit from above:

 

…i.e., to the casual observer, the striped barrels do not appear to be ‘outrageously transparent’.

 

The ‘ink window’ effect is discreet/subtle, and yet it offers superb functionality - being a view of the inside of the whole of the body of the pen - when one holds up the pen and looks through it towards a light source.

[Lithium466]

What can I say...some people can be so invested in the "possible perceived perception" of some brands they like that they can resort to extremes  Consciously or not, to put it mildly.

Nice pens that you have there.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Back inthe day of the lever sac pen, one filled it in the morning before going off to school...could do that to tho the light blocking Pelikans...just another routine, like shaving one's teeth.

[MuddyWaters]

On 9/7/2024 at 3:27 PM, Bo Bo Olson said:

Geek com sells pens, ask there.

1998-@ 2010 Bock made semi-flex 1000 nibs.

After Pelikan took those spec nibs back In House, the 1000 became a normal springy regular flex, instead of semi-flex.

(IMO in you want a used pen, why not go for semi-flex?)

and a used 1000 will be as good as new and cheaper....

I don't know when the new pens became darker.

Try Applebloom or even Penboard.de for a pen that is 5 years or older

 

Hi Bo Bo, 

 

Which nib do you prefer between the 1998-2010 Bock nib vs the 2010-present in-house nib? I would be getting a fine or extra-fine, hoping for some flex and want to avoid baby bottoms at all cost. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

First I've only tried a 1000, in it is way too big for me....I think the 800 as a Large pen....not one I reach for much. That was back when Bock nibs were still available n in-stock 1000 at my B&M, and I didn't know there had been a change. It was semi-flex...but others had gotten Pelikan In-House that were just springy.

 

Any nib master can fix baby bottom.

I don't know if Bock produced baby bottom, like Pelikan did.

I would suggest getting a semi-flex Bock nibbed 1000, and worry about it then.

 

I really don't know how you can tell by markings if it's semi-flex. (a reason I didn't chase the 800, not knowing how marked if, pre'98 was.) You have to go to a reputable dealer, like Penboard.de ...Appleblum...and or if Fountain Pen Hospital is still in business....and wait for one of them to show up.

Regular flex..ie springy, is better for many two toned shading inks, in semi-flex is often wetter...but with semi-flex one gets the no effort line variation.

 

The Bock nib is semi-flex...the post @2010, is springy regular flex like on a 200, and the 1000 is a double ball tipped nib since it came out. That was the spec's Pelikan gave Bock when they closed their nib factory in '98 and let Bock make their nibs to their specs.

 

Everyone, (in most didn't like the semi-nail, nail double ball nibs,) was when they heard Pelikan was going back In-House.....then...... the nibs remained exactly the same....out side the 1000 which was now springy regular flex instead of semi-flex**, regular flex like a 200....which is IMO still better than the semi-nail 400/600 or mostly nail 800.

 

** Too many heavy handed folks use to semi-nail or nail Pelikan nibs, for them to repair all the sprung semi-flex 1000's nibs.

 

I was quite heavy handed before my semi-flex 140 slowly trained me to having a lighter Hand.

 

You know, I've not read of baby bottom on the 200.

[Mercian]

4 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

I was quite heavy handed before my semi-flex 140 slowly trained me to having a lighter Hand.

 

A less-expensive way to train oneself to write with a lighter hand is to buy a Lamy Safari/Vista/Al-star/etc that has an ‘EF’ nib on it.

Another advantage of Lamy’s inexpensive Z50 nib is that it is a robust steel ‘nail’, so is unlikely to be damaged by the pressure that is usually applied by a user who has grown up as a ‘ballpoint barbarian’ (as I did).
 

Once one has learned to write with an ‘EF’ Z50 nib in such a way that it glides effortlessly across the page, ‘skating’ on the drop of ink under its tipping, one’s hand is light enough to try pens that have more-flexible nibs 

[Mercian]

On 9/16/2024 at 1:44 PM, Bo Bo Olson said:

I really don't know how you can tell by markings if it's semi-flex. (a reason I didn't chase the 800, not knowing how marked if, pre'98 was.) You have to go to a reputable dealer, like Penboard.de ...Appleblum...and or if Fountain Pen Hospital is still in business....and wait for one of them to show up.

Regular flex..ie springy, is better for many two toned shading inks, in semi-flex is often wetter...but with semi-flex one gets the no effort line variation.

 

The Bock nib is semi-flex...the post @2010, is springy regular flex like on a 200, and the 1000 is a double ball tipped nib since it came out. That was the spec's Pelikan gave Bock when they closed their nib factory in '98 and let Bock make their nibs to their specs.

One can identify the era in which a Pelikan M800 (& also, presumably, an M1000) was produced by checking the details of the cap logo - because the logo on the cap was changed in 1989, 1997, 2003, and 2010.

 

See e.g. the photos of the changing cap logos near the bottom of:

https://thepelikansperch.com/2020/11/15/pelikan-m800-history-explored/

 

That page is about the M800, but the cap logos were (as far as I know) changed across all models simultaneously.

 

So, if one wishes to buy an M1000 that was made between 1998 and 2010, one could start by searching for pens that have the black plastic cap top with one of the two versions of the screen-printed logo (i.e. not buying the pens that have the post-2010 laser-engraved metal cap tops).

 

Slàinte,
M.

 

Edit to add:

This is of course no guarantee of which nib one will get - the nib/feed units unscrew easily, and are interchangeable.
Some previous owner might have swapped nibs between a pen produced in, say, 1998, and one produced in, say, 2012.
One could identify a swap like that one, by counting the number of chicks in the logo on the pen’s nib.

Early nibs have two chicks in the logo. Nibs with only one chick on the logo started to be introduced in 2003.
But a nib from e.g. 2009 and one from 2013 would both be ‘one-chick-logo’ nibs, and so are not (as far as I know) visually-distinguishable from each other.

[Bo Bo Olson]

WoW!!! Great info link.

[PJohnP]

I saw an M1000 yesterday at Santa Fe Pens in the "used" case, but I didn't stop to check it in detail. 

 

Like Bo Bo, I find the pen too large for my use, so I just registered seeing it there.  I don't see the M1000 on their site, so one might have to telephone them for details on the pen.

 

 

John P.