Pelikan Souveran M 400

**Laurie** · June 4th, 2015, 07:54 PM

Trolling through some local adverts here in Australia and I found for sale a Pelikan Souveran M400 pen for sale. Asking $175 AUD. I offered $150 (abut $115 USD) and he accepted and I am going to meet him on Monday to view the pen and hopefully complete the purchase. I have had a look at the for sale forum on this website and others and checked out Ebay and this appears to be a very good price. Would you agree. Also I did a search for fakes and saw one post that said unlikely to find a fake Pelikan. However what should I look for on inspecction of the pen for authenticity and secondly for faults. I would appreciate any advice

**tandaina** · June 4th, 2015, 08:32 PM

I've never seen a fake Pelikan. Ever. So long as it has a 14k nib that's a good price.

**Laurie** · June 5th, 2015, 12:12 AM

My seller rang and I picked up the pen a bit earlier. It is 14 ct and very good condition. A few scratches on the top. I have some liquid micro finish. Can you polish these out with those liquid abrasives or what is the best way to get them out (if possible)

Pen is a real delight to write with. Just love it. Now I have two Pelikans a 200 and M400

**earthdawn** · June 5th, 2015, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by Laurie

My seller rang and I picked up the pen a bit earlier. It is 14 ct and very good condition. Very scratches on the top. I have some liquid micro finish. Can you polish these out with those liquid abrasives or what is the best wah to get them out (if possible)

Pen is a real delight to write with. Just love it. Now I have two Pelikans a 200 and M400

Very nice and congrats!

Pelikans are outstanding writers and fun pens to use. I would love to see some pics of them.

As far as polishing goes do be careful. While there are many safe cleaners/polishers pens can vary even within the same manufacturer. Year to year the actual materials can change so while a new pen of said brand may take on a polish well one from the 80's may not even if they look to be the same.

BUT in general side with caution and you can try a small spot on the pen where it would be least seen... if possible, and then use a loupe to see if the cleaner you are using leaves any swirls or scratches on the pen.

**Laurie** · June 5th, 2015, 05:44 AM

Thanks for the sound advice. I cautiously rubbed the scratches with a very fine micro mesh binded onto foam which I had bought for fine polishing of plastic model aeroplanes (which is a hobby I have and still am involved in) Very light and graduated down in fineness. Then I used the liquid Micro finish with perfect results. The cap looks like it has never been touched. Great result. I then thought I better empty it and clean it out. So I emptied out the ink. Found the piston to be a little tight which to me indicates that it may need a bit of silicone. Googled Richard Bender's site and he has an instruction on how to to grease the piston. I then sucked up a bit of dimeralised water and expelled it till it ran clear. I then removed the feed from the body and have it soaking in a Goulet pen flush. I then used some cotton ear cleaners which I dampened with a littlle of the Goulet pen flushed and cleaned out the space from where the nib feed came from. Found a lot of mixtures of various ink colours coming out on the cotton ear cleaners. Red, green, blue etc. So I dont think this pen was ever cleaned very much in between change of ink colours. Put a small amount of 100% silicone on a bamboo skewer. Retracted the piston and then inserted the skewer and placed some of the silicone on the inside of the barrell close to the edge of the piston and then moved the piston up and down a few times. Much more free now. Very happy. Obviously the ink doest react with the smear of silicine that will be on the inside of the barrell.
Hope I am doing the right thing . I will try and post a decent photo of this pen after I removed the scratches from the cap. It looks stunning from the outside and hopefully I cant have the inside the same. I think I enjoy the cleaning as well. What an addiction I have found.!!!!!!

**earthdawn** · June 5th, 2015, 07:02 AM

Sounds like a winner.

Silicone is easy. The nib unit will simply twist out. Do you know how to do that?

The swab a little silicone In a qtip and go through where the nib unit was and swab inside using the slightest amount of greesem.

**tandaina** · June 5th, 2015, 09:20 AM

I think when he talked about soaking the feed he meant he just unscrewed the nib unit. Hope so!

All sounds right. I honestly never use anything but water to clean my large flock of Pelikans and they do just fine with that.

**Laurie** · June 5th, 2015, 02:54 PM

Thanks All. Yes I googled and found out that you have to unscrew the nib and geed. There was a lot of dried ink in there and the barrel. As I said there were three colours. A little in the top of the cap. Is it worth while cleaning in there as I did read somewhere about caps swelling if wet. Or was that with the old models? What does everyone think about the price I paid?