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Jeph
August 10th, 2013, 05:46 AM
I finally broke down and purchased my first 14K nib pen, a Pelikan IBIS.

It is in reasonably good shape for an unrestored pen.

It has IBIS Gunther Wagner written twice around the clip retainer.
The piston mechanism has a white painted “M” imprint.
The nib reads:
IBIS (with circles inside the outline)
585
14 KARAT
+

The pen does have some issues. There is a longitudinal crack at the piston mechanism end about 1/4 inch long. There are also stress cracks between the visulated section and section for about 60 degrees of the circumference. The visulated section is very cloudy. There are 2 empty cap band rings and the grooves are not particularly precisely cut. There are also numerous scratches but nothing out of the ordinary. I do not think that any of that is going to interfere with the operation of the pen.

I do have some questions about a few of the other issues.

1) Unsurprisingly, the piston draw is weak. The piston mechanism (less the housing) looks exactly like the post 1946 100N resin version shown here http://www.penboard.de/penpoint/images/pelipistonmechs.jpgcomplete with the center seal being smaller OD than the lands to either side. I measured the lands and the barrel ID and I see no way that this can properly draw ink without replacing the center seal. It implies that my end disk is retained by reverse threads. It shows no inclination to be removed by (reverse) unscrewing, so I want to verify that this is indeed the case. I do not want to drive a threaded part off by force thinking this is friction fit to the end when it is not.

2) The cloudy visulated section bothers me. I think that this is permanent, and have never heard of any repair for this condition other than soak and scrub with a soft brush. Everything is in to soak now, but I am curious if there are any public knowledge tricks out there beyond simple cleaning.

3) The nib shifted on the feed when I removed the nib unit from the section. It was very stubborn. That is common on my other pens but those are all cheap. I have inspected carefully and can see no cracks. Should I be concerned?

4) Inside the section, just behind the nib unit threads is a metal sleeve. I have not seen anyone mention this. Is this sleeve supposed to be present? I don’t see one on pictures of IBIS nib units so I do not think that it came from there. What is this thing, what is it doing, and what should I do about it?

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Jeph
August 10th, 2013, 10:57 AM
I got complaints for no overall picture :) so here ya go.

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cedargirl
August 11th, 2013, 06:01 PM
Hi Jeph

I can't help with any advice, but I'm very interested in how you go with it. Hopefully someone here can help you.

KrazyIvan
August 11th, 2013, 08:09 PM
I'll be watching too. Just got the same pen myself. I think it's in better condition but I will subscribe to this thread.

Ernst Bitterman
August 15th, 2013, 09:50 AM
A random thought rather than an informed opinion; might that sleeve be something put in be a previous owner to address the stress cracks you highlight?

Jeph
August 16th, 2013, 03:21 AM
A random thought rather than an informed opinion; might that sleeve be something put in be a previous owner to address the stress cracks you highlight?

Yes, this thought had crossed my mind.

I put it back together, and as long as there is plenty of silicone the piston draws ink, albeit not very well. I am letting it sit for a few days and then test the draw and if that passes I will leak test it again. Honestly, the 14k nib does not impress me much. It is not bad, simply uninspiring.

Jeph
August 23rd, 2013, 03:02 AM
It is with great sadness that I post an update.

I could not stand this pen just sitting with my clunkers unused, so I re-assembled it and subjected it to may water leak test for 2 days. There were no leaks. I applied a liberal coating of silicone grease to the piston seal and the ink draw was useable. So that only left the nib to deal with.

I am not sure if it clear in the picture, but the nib tipping was somewhat distressed. There is about twice the amount of tipping material on the left tine than there is on the right tine. Some of the edges were rough but not clearly broken. I set to work on my buff sticks, and after a period of three days of slow and careful work, I made absolutely no progress. It did not write poorly, it just did not write well. I flipped the buff stick over to the coarsest portion, but then stopped and put it and the pen away to let the frustration wear off before I did anything stupid. A few days later, I picked it back up and resumed my slow, careful work dressing the tipping. It was just more of the same thing, that is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing and more nothing. And then, as if by magic, it suddenly just started writing wonderfully. That got me excited, and I quickly touched up the few very small areas that still offered some tooth and then it was right. And then I tried the nib and was blown away by the way that it wrote. Suddenly 14k nibs DID make sense. So I filled the pen with Quink black, returned it to the leak test position for the night and went to bed with visions of a full day of 14k flex writing dancing in my head.

The next morning I checked the pen, and there were still no leaks. I carefully put it into one of the pen slots in my bag and went to work. When I went to take it out, there was a puddle of black ink. Not good. I checked the pen and it looked to be coming from the piston knob area. I cleaned up the mess and sadly wrapped the Ibis in a paper towel and put it away.

When I got home I emptied the ink, took it apart and put it back in to soak. The next day (yesterday) I dried everything off and started my inspection again. There is a very small ridge of material in the barrel, located where the band of light is visible in the middle of the barrel in the lighted picture. It looks to match the position of the piston when I got the pen, not quite fully retracted. I scrubbed and scrubbed but could not get the ridge to go away. With an already marginal sealing capability I did not want to try using a jeweler's file as I saw no practical way to remove only the ridge and not any adjacent material. With the number of cracks already in the barrel, the added stress of an o-ring also did not seem like a good idea. Add that to the fact that I could not drive the seal end cap off previously made me discard the material removal option. My theory was that the ridge caused enough distress on the seal that it let ink past into the knob area. So I readjusted the piston to give up about 1/3 of my ink capacity by stopping the piston just before the ridge of material. I did draw tests on water and the results were very encouraging. So I put it back together, filled it with some Red Dragon and put it in the leak test position again for the night. My static leak test position is standing nib up in a clean, dry ink sample bottle with that sitting in a clean, dry plastic tub I use for cleaning pens.

This morning I checked the pen, and there were once again no leaks. So I tossed it in my bag again and off to work I went. I pulled it out of the bag and … no leaks this time! Success! So I did some work type things and then proceeded to let a colleague try out the pen. As I was handing it to him, I saw a tiny drop of ink sitting on the piston near the knob. It was not leaking from the crack I show in the picture. It was not even leaking from the next largest crack. It is leaking from a crack so thin that even under 10x magnification if the red ink residue had not been there I doubt that I would have seen it.

With the multitude of issues going on with this pen, I think I will write it off and be on the lookout for a similar pen that needs a nib. Unfortunately the Ibis nib unit has the threads towards the back, not at the shoulder like on the modern Pelikans so my transplant options are limited. All it will take is some patience though, so now I wait. Just to torture myself, I am adding a writing sample to be part of the historical record.

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carlos.q
August 23rd, 2013, 05:32 AM
I am very sorry this did not work out for you. However, at least your hard work was rewarded by discovering the wonderful world of vintage Pelikan nibs!

KrazyIvan
August 23rd, 2013, 08:24 AM
You win some, you lose some. Here's to your next pen being a win.

cwent2
August 23rd, 2013, 08:26 AM
You win some, you lose some. Here's to your next pen being a win.

+1 Hoping your next pen is a success!

gentlyom
August 23rd, 2013, 12:05 PM
Hi Jeph,

I am sorry that the pen has many problems. I am no repair expert, but regarding point #3 which the nib shifted on the feed, from the pictures above it seems ok to me. The feed appears to be in the middle of the nib, and unless the tines are misaligned, you should be fine.

If you are looking for using this nib on other modern Pelikans, have you considered taking the nib and feed out of the nib unit? The nib I think should be about the same length with a Pelikan 140 nib, which is compatible to the M200 and 400 pens. What you need is to get one of the M200/400 pens, and knock out the modern pelikan nib and replace with the ISBS nib together with or without the vintage feed. I have no ISBS nibs, but I do have a bunch of vintage 100, 140 and 400 nibs, and I put them in my modern Peli pens.

Best of Luck

Li

Jeph
August 23rd, 2013, 01:42 PM
Hi Jeph,

...If you are looking for using this nib on other modern Pelikans, have you considered taking the nib and feed out of the nib unit? The nib I think should be about the same length with a Pelikan 140 nib, which is compatible to the M200 and 400 pens. What you need is to get one of the M200/400 pens, and knock out the modern pelikan nib and replace with the ISBS nib together with or without the vintage feed. I have no ISBS nibs, but I do have a bunch of vintage 100, 140 and 400 nibs, and I put them in my modern Peli pens.

Best of Luck

Li

First, thanks a lot for making this suggestion. In my depression I had not even considered doing this. After reading your post I did a little happy dance and charged my pen work area.

I already have an M200 nib unit taken apart. I took the Ibis nib unit apart and compared the 2 nibs. Leghtwise they were so close I was confident that this solution was a winner even though the Ibis nib was just slightly shorter. But, it just barely does not fit. It is not the length, which could be managed, but the radius of curvature of the nib. The feed on the Ibis has a smaller diameter than the feed on the M200, and therefore the curvature of the nib is also smaller to match. What that means is that with the nib secured by the collar, the tip of the nib is forced away from the end of the feed. Also, becuase the nib is just barely shorter than the M200 nib, either the nib is inserted shallowly into the collar which causes it to pinch and raises it off the end of the feed, or the nib is inserted deeply enough to hold it against the feed where the deflection also causes it to rise and there is very little distance between the end of the feed and the tipping. The diameter difference also means that you cannot use the Ibis feed in the M200 collar, even if the much shorter Ibis feed would still work properly. It is close enough that I could force it to work, but I doubt that the performance would be very good.

It was still a great idea and helped me to learn yet another little tidbit of information about Pelikans.

I got a clunker German pen in the mail today that ended up having a 14k nib, is well built and looks to be readily restorable. And therefore no longer a clunker. I also now have a 140 on the way to help ease my pain. :) Between the 2 of them, the wait until I find a good place to put this nib will be bearable. :)

gentlyom
August 23rd, 2013, 02:08 PM
First, thanks a lot for making this suggestion. In my depression I had not even considered doing this. After reading your post I did a little happy dance and charged my pen work area.

I already have an M200 nib unit taken apart. I took the Ibis nib unit apart and compared the 2 nibs. Leghtwise they were so close I was confident that this solution was a winner even though the Ibis nib was just slightly shorter. But, it just barely does not fit. It is not the length, which could be managed, but the radius of curvature of the nib. The feed on the Ibis has a smaller diameter than the feed on the M200, and therefore the of the nib is also smaller to match. What that means is that with the nib secured by the collar, the tip of the nib is forced away from the end of the feed. Also, becuase the nib is just barely shorter than the M200 nib, either the nib is inserted shallowly into the collar which causes it to pinch and raises it off the end of the feed, or the nib is inserted deeply enough to hold it against the feed where the deflection also causes it to rise and there is very little distance between the end of the feed and the tipping. The diameter difference also means that you cannot use the Ibis feed in the M200 collar, even if the much shorter Ibis feed would still work properly. It is close enough that I could force it to work, but I doubt that the performance would be very good.

It was still a great idea and helped me to learn yet another little tidbit of information about Pelikans.

I got a clunker German pen in the mail today that ended up having a 14k nib, is well built and looks to be readily restorable. And therefore no longer a clunker. I also now have a 140 on the way to help ease my pain. :) Between the 2 of them, the wait until I find a good place to put this nib will be bearable. :)

I am sure you will enjoy the vintage 140, usually they come with semi-flexible nibs and can draw a desirable line. :)

Regarding to the ISBS nib vs. M200 nib, I cannot tell for ISBS nib since I do not have one, but I will check my other vintage nibs 140, 400 and 100N compare them with M200 nib when I get home. I will get back to you my findings. :)