| Old Hard Rubber Pens. |
[Feb. 12th, 2007|01:53 pm] |
The Blackbird was one of the no-frills, everyday pens of the Mabie Todd range. This one is slightly faded but otherwise perfect and has an excellent oblique nib. It's a delight to use.
Even I would have to admit that it's a slightly dull pen, so here's a pretty no-name mottled hard rubber vest-pocket pen that's still a work in progress, needing a little more repair before it's good as new.
There's some colour variation in these photographs. I blame that on the fact that I can never stop playing with PhotoShop. |
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| Morrison's Patriot. |
[Jan. 7th, 2007|04:44 pm] |
I'm not terribly well up on the slightly lesser-known US pens, but I grab one for a look whenever I can. This is a Morrison's Patriot – not one of the more usual flat-topped ones with a services insignia, but a baguette-shaped example with a machined pattern. So far as I've seen, they're usually in that khaki colour.
( Read more... ) |
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| A Wee Shiny Pen. |
[Nov. 15th, 2006|05:02 pm] |
This little pen (3.8” long) was sold as French and maybe it is. Then again, it may be an export Waterman – it certainly has the look of one, though there's no number on the barrel end. It has “PSF” an abbreviation that Waterman used, on the box-type lever. The nib is warranted 18k with no maker's name.
Be that as it may, it's in wonderful condition. The mottled rubber has a particularly deep hue and the gold-plated overlay remains perfect.
The pattern is a series of wavy lines in rectangles and is deeply incised.
The line variation is impressive for such a small nib. It's often said that 18k is too soft for good flex but this one is fully responsive. For the moment, I can't date the pen with any assurance. Vest pocket pens seemed to become popular in the teens of the 20th century and appear to have remained on the market throughout the 1920s. |
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| The Swan Transformed. |
[Jul. 17th, 2006|01:50 pm] |
Around twenty years separate these two pens. Superficially, they resemble each other. They're roughly the same shape, they have domed caps, they're made from chased vulcanised rubber and they're eyedropper fillers. Nonetheless, no other period of twenty years would see fountain pen design go through such a fundamental change.
( Read more... ) |
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| Wing Sung 235. |
[Jun. 30th, 2006|03:43 pm] |
There aren't many real fakes out there, apart from the Mont Blancs that flood eBay day and daily. There are pens that look like other pens, though, and not entirely by accident. That's not a new trend. For instance, there were many Duofold clones long ago, and Parker's 51 gave rise to a whole industry of blatant copies.
( Read more... ) |
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| Laban Mento Chapter 2 |
[May. 12th, 2006|04:12 pm] |
I posted some pictures recently of a Laban Mento I'd bought. I've had time to use and consider it now and here's a few thoughts on it. Some had reported problems with skipping, others found that it dried out quickly. Maybe the manufacturers have addressed these problems. I didn't experience them, anyway. Despite being big, it's light. Even posted, the weight was never a problem. The balance is, though, for me. There's something a little unwieldy about it, posted, but it's fine without the cap. Much thicker than the pens I usually use, I could nonetheless write with it all day.
( Read more... ) |
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| The Laban Mento |
[May. 2nd, 2006|12:30 pm] |
We all have our moments of weakness. I had one last week.
I've never bought a pen for its looks. Ever. Mrs. Pilchard regularly says, “Oh, not another black pen!”. My interests lie with nib characteristics, filling systems and the ergonomics of different pens and black pens are generally cheaper when, as I mostly do, you buy old pens. I have a few colourful ones, true, but only because they formed part of a collection or a spares or repair batch that I bought.
( Read more... ) |
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| Filling Systems. |
[Apr. 19th, 2006|02:38 pm] |
In comparing filling systems – or just about anything else – in pens, there's no objective best and worst. Much depends on personal preference. Like everyone else, I think my choices are considered and rational. Like everyone else, I'm probably wrong, but on a one to whatever scale, my choice would be:
1.Plunger fillers of the Onoto, Sheaffer or Wahl type.
2.Eyedropper fillers.
3.Sac systems except the Sheaffer Touchdown.
4.Screw piston fillers.
5.Aerometric/Pressac fillers.
6.Syringe fillers.
7.Bulb fillers.
8.The cartridge filler.
Have I missed any? Probably, but here's the rationale anyway. The plunger filler is technically elegant, most of the space is devoted to holding ink and it's a relatively robust solution. Eyedroppers are just so beautifully simple; they just work. Admittedly, as the level of the ink in the barrel drops, increasing air pressure can quite suddenly make the pen flow too freely but that's not a major drawback. Sac fillers hold variable amounts, of course, and are not especially robust – sacs perish and pressure bars and other parts tend to fail – but they're generally easily and cheaply repaired. I make an exception of the Touchdown filler because it appears unnecessarily complicated and fragile to no particular benefit; my apologies to Touchdown aficionados. Screw piston fillers are pretty good but many of them utilise surprisingly little of the barrel for ink. The Aerometric-type filler is sort of okay, but removing the barrel to access the filling system is getting a smidgen technically inept. Syringe and bulb fillers are a step further down that path; a stage more brain-damaged, and they both have a tendency to suddenly flood because of their inherent failings. I reserve my especial contempt for the cartridge filler. It's a cop-out, a dreadful descent from the ingenuity of earlier days. The pens exist to sell the cartridges.
Going back to the apex of my list, plunger fillers have one distinct problem; through either constant use or neglect, the seals will inevitably fail. If it's a Sheaffer, the repair is a little challenging. You're into power tools and solvents. Onotos, on the other hand, are quite easily repaired without special tools. The Onoto has another advantage: a cut-off valve which not only switches off the ink but allows you to regulate the ink-flow. That said, once competently repaired, either is good for a decade or two. Purely on the basis of the technology I favour the Onoto, but both are great pens. Much as I love my flexy-nibbed Onotos, my little Sheaffer Triumph 1250 rarely gets a rest.
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| Burnham Celluloid. |
[Apr. 7th, 2006|02:39 pm] |
Burnhams are a bit of a puzzle to me. As many will be aware, the original Conway Stewart line of pens is very well documented in Jonathon Delahaye's website but there's nothing equivalent for other British makes of pen. I find it difficult to equate model numbers with specifications; for instance I have two B48s, one with a combined nib/feed screw-in unit, the other with the more traditional separate nib and feed. The pre-war Burnhams I have are sober,black, sometimes quite elegant pens, probably aimed at the same part of the market as Summit or Croxley. Post-war, they become cheap 'n' cheerful, brightly coloured pens with interchangeable nib units like Osmiroid or Esterbrook, though a slightly upmarket Burnham with an excellent flexible nib is also still offered, it seems. I have a vague notion that the model numbers with a 'B' prefix are more inexpensive than those without it but I don't know whether or not they were made at the same time.
( Read more... ) |
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| Onoto The Pen. |
[Mar. 7th, 2006|02:01 pm] |
“Oh, God!” I hear you say, “Another black pen, just like all his other bloody black pens!” But no, gentle reader, it isn't. Appearances deceive, for this is a De La Rue Onoto, the prince among pens. Mont Blancs, Pelikans and the rest of the modern pack retire in haste before the magnificence of that paragon of pendom, Onoto The Pen.
I'm sure you'll be tolerant about the ubiquitous fag-ash and bits of tobacco that are an ever-present part of my close-up photography.
The Onoto was the first commercially successful plunger fill pen. In other words, there were predecessors but they didn't damn well work. This one did from the first in the early nineteen hundreds until the last in 1958. Equally importantly, they could be easily serviced. You can replace the seals in one of these pens in an hour, whereas the Sheaffer, Parker and Wahl Eversharp versions of the plunger filler require scary and potentially destructive use of noxious chemicals and/or power tools.
This particular example is not the most expensive of Onotos. The trim is nickel plated and it's black chased hard rubber rather than one of the decorative mixed-colour patterns they come in. That's ok by me; you don't write with the gold trim or the colour. You write with the nib and this one's satisfyingly flexible and delivers as much or as little ink as I want at a twist of the shut-off valve. For someone whose pens are expected to work pretty hard rather than sit in a display case looking pretty, this is the pen to dream on.
That's it now. I have the perfect pen. I won't be buying any more. Yeah, right. |
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| Mentmore Diploma. |
[Feb. 5th, 2006|03:08 pm] |
Mentmore was one of the major British manufacturers back in the day. Their pens were justly well-regarded; Mentmore nibs are very good indeed. Such evidence as there is suggests they felt the competitive pinch even before the ball-point began sweeping all before it. Quality standards declined a little and the company reinvented itself as Platignum. The Platignum story – by no means a happy one – is for another day.
This is one of the last of the Mentmores and it's probably aimed at the schoolkid/clerk market. It's a substantial pen with some pretensions to design originality though there's a slight nod in the direction of the Parker 51 with the tapered barrel and the vague resemblance to a hooded nib. Of course the nib isn't hooded, nor is it of the wrap-around construction Parker used in the 51. It's just a small nib. A normal-sized pen with a tiny nib was always a choice that some British users favoured; Wyvern produced fine examples of this style of pen. The other stylistic show-piece of this pen is the translucent barrel end which I've tried to capture with my “on top of the lampshade” shot.
Ok, it's crap but give me a point or two for trying. The translucency is two-stage, in other words two additional colours of plastic go into the gradation.
In use, the most noticeable thing about this pen is the flexibility of the nib. It's a broad nib with extreme flex, not something I see often in pens made as late as the 1950s. The writing in the photo is on soft paper. I should have used hard where it really comes into its own. I have a hundred place-cards to make for a wedding and this is one of the pens I can use to good effect. |
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| Sheaffers |
[Feb. 4th, 2006|03:01 pm] |
From the top:
Late seventies Targa
Early forties Triumph 1250 Lifetime.
Late thirties lever-fill Balance
2005 Intrigue |
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| M.& C. Waverley Standard. |
[Jan. 22nd, 2006|12:59 pm] |
In Britain, at least, and maybe elsewhere, the early to mid-twentieth century seems to have been marked by the unusual horizontal expansion of many companies. It wasn't enough to make the paper, they had to publish as well, create stationery empires containing everything from carbon paper to paper-clips – oh, and let's make the pens too.
( Read more... ) |
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| Sheaffer Balance. |
[Dec. 21st, 2005|02:42 pm] |
Modern Sheaffers are disappointing, I find, but the older ones provide a pinnacle of quality that other manufacturers only strive for. This is a World War II-vintage pen. It could well be straight out of the retailer's. Its condition can only be described as perfect. This is a Balance, one of the less expensive examples of that range, yet the gold plate is thick, the nib is like new and the tough plastic is bright and unscratched. It's not a pen for everyone, though. The beautiful Feathertouch nib, like all later Sheaffers, is rigid. It's quite fine, too.
( Read more... ) |
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| Conway Stewart 57 |
[Dec. 14th, 2005|03:08 pm] |
This is a Conway Stewart 'Conway 57' made during the 1960s. It's a splendid pen, an excellent writer, comfortable to use, stylish with its tapered section and Greek key pattern cap ring, but there's a hint of declining standards about it. In the next few years as it struggled to survive Conway Stewart would produce some truly terrible pens. The gold plating on this one is quite thin but it hasn't been used much so it's in quite good condition. Later, plating would become very thin and poor indeed when it's there at all. This little nib is made with the usual Conway Stewart attention to quality. Already at this time, for the least expensive pens, they were importing cheap plated nibs. The 57's cap and body are machined from solid plastic. Soon Conway Stewart pens will be made from heat-bent and joined sheet plastics and the company will have joined Queensway, Stephens and Platignum at the bottom of the pile.
This is a pen of poignancy, then, among the last good pens produced by a company once world-renowned for its high quality.
Incidentally, the company of Conway Stewart was "revived" a few years ago. There was no continuity of any kind, though we are assured that much research was done. Pens have been produced, in limited quantities, at exorbitant prices, using either the original Conway Stewart's more colourful designs or new, lurid patterns. From a marketing viewpoint, they have found it necessary, as have other "luxury" pen makers, to associate pens with famous people. Perhaps the assumption is that if you associate your scarily expensive new "Conway Stewart" strongly enough with Winston Churchill you won't notice that it is a damn poor pen. Certainly, no-one will buy a new "Conway Stewart" just to write with. No-one bought the originals for any other reason. |
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| The Refurbished Miro. |
[Nov. 26th, 2005|09:11 pm] |
German pens are easy to spot. For a start, they're well made. Usually, they're piston filler with a good capacity like this one. The name's usually on the cap, unlike other pens and they have a distinctive cap/clip relationship that you still see on Pelikans to this day. In fact, they all looked quite similar to Pels, or maybe it's that Pels are the only survivors of this group of very similar German pens.
I have a few of these rather unknown German pens including a quite late, hooded-nib example called a Lyra. Though I'm fairly sure they're all at the lower end of the price range the quality's good, hence the survival pf my Miro. On style, I'd guess it's prewar.
It's a splendid pen to use. The nib's white metal and inflexible but smooth and the pen's made with use, rather than show, in mind. I'm also quite fond of it because it's one of the few piston-fillers that I made the effort to replace the seals on. Made 'em, even. With a scalpel, which was an exacting task carried out under a big ole fixed magnifier. So it has a special place in my heart. I keep it filled and in use all the time, because I don't want to take a chance on the seals drying out and cracking.
It has an ink view area, a very handy attribute which you rarely see now. It's quite small and extremely light. |
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| New Old Stock. |
[Nov. 18th, 2005|01:49 pm] |
Allow me to share something rather special with you (Doesn't that sound like a sales pitch? S'okay, I'm not selling anything).
This is that rarest of things, a really old New Old Stock pen. It's a Macniven and Cameron "Waverley Cameron" eyedropper pen which left the Birmingham factory in 1927. It's 78 years old and, at the same time, brand new. Never been inked - never been out of the box, in all probability. I'm particularly interested in Macniven and Cameron pens because they were a Scottish company to begin with though they later moved south. They're most famous, actually, for their 19th century steel dip nibs.
( Read more... ) |
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