209 The PENNANT 2005 Winter Vol. XXII, No.2
Transcription
209 The PENNANT 2005 Winter Vol. XXII, No.2
T NIBS PENNANT The A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E P E N C O L L E C T O R S O F A M E R I C A , I N C . All about THE NIB WINTER 2005 $9.95 PENNANT Inside The Winter 2005 Vol. XXII No. 2 FEATURED PEN ARTICLE 4 A History of Making Metal Pen Nibs by L. Michael Fultz et al FEATURES 10 The Invention and Perfection of the Gold Nib: The George Sheppard and John Holland Story by J.G. Leone 18 19 20 B. Grieshaber and Sons: Nibs and Pens by L. Michael Fultz 22 29 32 35 36 38 35 41 Modern Parker Duofold Nibs by Michael J. Conway Parker Nib Making & Materials From the 1950s Through the 1970s by Dean Hackbarth and L. Michael Fultz Parker “51” Nib Tipping Materials: ’R U’ Ready for a Better Nib by Don Hiscock Sheaffer’s Gold Nib Department by Dan Reppert Using a Fountain Pen: Why Bother? by Susan Wirth A Little Levity by Ian Kreisberg American Pen, Pencil, Parts, and Gold Nib Manufacturers, 1931 by L. Michael Fultz Smoothing Scratchy Nibs by John Mottishaw DEPARTMENTS 28 41 48 51 The Bookworm: a Book Review by Sam Fiorella Cryptonibology: It’s Just a Matter of Tines by Daniel Kirchheimer Remembering Two Friends Arthur Twydle by Jim Marshall George Richard Swartz by Jack Leone et al From the Stacks by Dan Reppert IN BRIEF 2 3 3 37 From the Editor Letter to the Editor New Editor Announcement Coming in the Next Issue 38 P.C.A. RESOURCES 3 50 50 51 52 52 52 53 53 54 55 56 56 56 P.C.A. Pen Available From the President by Craig Bozorth PayPal Now Available for P.C.A. Membership Local Clubs Upcoming Shows P.C.A. Supporters Back Issues P.C.A. Membership Corporate Sponsors Contributors Pen Repair Directory P.C.A. Contributor GuidelineS Board of Directors Marketplace 29 32 FROM THE EDITOR PENNANT The NIBS & MORE NIBS Here, after some delay, is your Winter edition of The Pennant, the magazine of the Pen Collectors of America. Together with last Fall’s double “painted pens” issue, you are now current in PUBLISHERS PEN COLLECTORS OF AMERICA receiving the magazine. This edition, subject to the guest edi- P.O. Box 447 Fort Madison, IA 52627-0447 Phone: 319.372.3730 Fax: 319.372.0882 Email: info@pencollectors.com Web: www.pencollectors.com tors whim and interest, is devoted to the subject of nibs. If you like the idea of issues dedicated to a single subject, please write. It is winter here in Southern Wisconsin—15 degrees and 6 inches of snow—a good THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS CRAIG BOZORTH President DAN REPPERT Vice-President VICTOR CHEN Recording Secretary time to reflect on pens and pen people. First, a sincere thank you to those authors who contributed so much original research and material to this issue. Others simply could not have written the articles such as those by Dan Reppert and Don Hiscock. BOARD MEMBERS Susan Wirth’s irreverent humor and rampant common sense are so refreshing after CRAIG BOZORTH VICTOR CHEN L. MICHAEL FULTZ JOEL HAMILTON ANNMARIE HAUTANIEMI BERT HEISERMAN CARLA MORTENSEN LEN PROVISOR DAN REPPERT listening to entire pen shows worth of arguments about what a “left oblique” actually is. Jack Leone writes about another long-time nib maker. The real hard work of editing this issue was done by Tom and Dede Rehkopf, unsung heroes of the P.C.A. The ADMINISTRATIVE reproductions of original catalog material are available from the P.C.A. library, a very ROGER WOOTEN DAN REPPERT Treasurer Librarian L. MICHAEL FULTZ Guest Editor TOM AND DEDE REHKOPF Associate Editors TERRY MAWHORTER JAYSON HANES Advertising Manager P.C.A.Webmaster FRAN CONN /PENDAPRESS Art Director underutilized resource in my view. John Mottishaw has contributed greatly through his expertise on nib repairs. Dean Hackbarth, the last boss of Parker’s nib department, has written about that firm’s nib making history. In this Winter season, we mourn the loss of several friends, pen collectors and pen company executives: Bobbi Barston, Arthur Twydle, Fr. Terrence Koch, Walter A. MEMBERSHIP Sheaffer II, George S. Parker II, Howard Rossen, Sue Courtier, George Swartz and PEN COLLECTORS OF AMERICA U.S., one year, $40 three years, $105 Outside U.S., one year, $60 three years, $150 U.S. others. Pen collecting is not, really, about pens but rather about people. I know of no other collecting hobby whose members are so generous and so friendly. ADVERTISING Finally, The Pennant has a permanent editor. The P.C.A. Board is to be congratulated for their selection of Jim Mamoulides, who started work February 1. See the announcement elsewhere in this issue. Good luck, Jim. If you have an article ready or near ready, please contact him at jim@penhero.com. Oh, yes, remember that your dues are due! !"##$#% 4HE ! 0 5 " , ) # !4 ) / . / & 4 ( % 0 % . # / , , % # 4 / 2 3 / & ! - % 2 ) # ! ) . # !LLABOUT Good hunting, Fultz 2 5)&/*# 7 ) . 4 % 2 Deadline: March 15, 2006 Inside front cover (full-color) $1,100 Inside back cover (full-color) $1,000 Back cover (full-color) $2,000 Last page (full-color) $800 Full page (full-color) $700 Full page (black & white) $300 Flyer insert $300 Half page $150 Quarter page $100. P.C.A. Repair Directory listing (3 issues) $75 Business card $50 Classified ads (per word) $0.50 ON THE COVERS Front & back covers: Photos courtesy of L. Michael Fultz. Photos by David Bloch, Chicago Photos are identified on page three. WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT LETTER TO THE EDITOR NEW EDITOR ANNOUNCEMENT Dear Editor, JIM MAMOULIDES NAMED PENNANT EDITOR Thank you, thank you very much. “The Search for the Lost The Board of Directors of the Pen Collectors of America is Sheaffer, The Story of Antoine’s Lost Pen” was wonderful, pleased to announce the appointment of Jim Mamoulides as a thriller to the very end. Editor of The Pennant magazine. I can think of no better publication for the birth of a new Jim brings a considerable creative talent to the P.C.A. and writer than The Pennant. Congratulations to Antoine Patterson has shown a long time dedication to serving the pen collecting for a superb story. community through his writings and website publications. Jim will be attending local and national pen shows to meet Sincerely, Will Thorpe On the Covers Front Cover: Tools of the nibmaker’s trade. Back Cover: Clockwise from top left: 1) Corona Pen Co. Janesville: Steps in nib production: blank, formed and finished nib. 2) Special Parker Osmium alloy tipping material for calligraphy nibs. 3) Five early nibs: Aikin Lambert No.5 nib on A. G. Day’s Patent fountain pen; 1877 Newell Prince’s 1855 fountain pen Stenographic fountain pen; Mabie Todd’s Patents 1881 and earlier Calligraphic fountain pen; Mabie Todd’s Patents, 1881 and earlier; Kurtz & Monaghan dip nib on Goodyear’s Patent dip pen/pencil holder, presentation by Wisc. Legislature. 4) Electric brand Falcon nibs metal box. 5)Early tipping materials, possible native iridium, from C. E. Barrett Co., circa 1890. 6) F.T. Pearce & Co. pocket calendar, 1904. 7) L-R, Tiffany & Co. solid 14K gold tuxedo pattern dip holder with John Foley Dip Pen, Unger Brothers sterling figural dip holder with Chicago Gold Pen Co. No. 3 nib. 8) Sheaffer nib tipping material, probably osmium. 9) Early Waterman nibs: horseshoe nib probably by John Foley, star pierced nib by Leroy Fairchild, Falcon nib by Aikin Lambert. 10) Parker 025 Jointless with Falcon nib. 11) Center overlay: L-R, S. Johnson offset copperplate nib, Aikin Lambert No. 6 dip pen nib. —Corona Pen nib samples, Parker and Waterman pens from the Sachs-Fultz collection. Other items from the collection of the editor. fellow pen collectors in the pursuit of articles and content for The Pennant. We encourage you to meet Jim and discuss topics that you would like to see in future issues of The Pennant. Jim Mamoulides was initially drawn to fountain pens through his interest in calligraphy. He didn’t become an avid collector until he lost, of all things, a Montblanc ballpoint while on a business trip. His efforts to replace this prized pen led him on an intense search through many pen stores and the internet, only to discover a world of interesting pens much larger and more varied than he realized. He has a great interest in the history of fountain pens and his articles and photography can be found on his website, PenHero.com. (He eventually replaced the ballpoint). Jim resides in Raleigh, North Carolina. P.C.A. Pens Now Available from Jim’s Fountain Pen Site Limited supplies of the Pen Collectors of America Limited Edition Pen are available and may be ordered directly from www.jimgaston.com or email: jim@jimgaston.com Jim Gaston Jim’s Fountain Pen Site The Board of Directors of the P.C.A. wish to thank Jim Gaston for handling the sales and marketing of this very special pen on their behalf. www.jimgaston.com • email: jim@jimgaston.com THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 3 Before the introduction of modern metals, reed, bamboo, and large bird feathers were the staple materials of writing pens. These pens were cheap to make, but it took skill and J ust who invented the metal pen nib is lost to history. American, practice to cut and shape them English, French, and German mechanics each claim to have invented the metal dip pen nib. They seem to be claiming second place, though. In into serviceable dip pens. They also February, 1933, the Paper-Zeitung of Vienna wrote: “There are grounds for the belief that the first fountain pen was in existence about 4000 B. C. During the course of excavatings in Egypt in 1929, a hollow stem in the form and size of a lead pencil was found. didn’t last very long, so it is At the lower end, a piece of copper was fastened, similar to a modern steel pen nib.” A History of Making Metal Pen Nibs understandable that both writers and inventors sought better pens By L. Michael Fultz With help from John Foley, Henry Bore, and others The history of the making of steel dip pen nibs is cloudy too. In 1890 Henry Bore published The Story of the Invention of Steel Pens (Ref. 1), in which he wrote: “In Paris, France, in 1884, a pamphlet was published on the subject of the steel pen and the writer says: ‘The by experimenting with better invention of the metallic pen is due to a French Mechanic — Arnoux — who lived in the eighteenth century, who made as far back as 1750 a number of metallic pens as a curiosity. materials. This invention did not have any immediate result in France but spread to England, and became, in Birmingham, about 1830, a very prosperous industry.’” John Foley wrote in his self published book, An Interesting History, Gold Pens: Who Invented Them, When, and Where (Ref. 2): “In the year 1805, Mr. Wise, an Englishman, made the first steel pen.” About the American invention of metal nibs, Mr. Bore writes: “There appeared in the Boston Mechanic, August, 1835, the following notice: ‘The inventor of steel pens, says 4 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 5 Mabie, Todd & Bard nibs, 1880. 6 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT the Journal of Commerce, was an THE PROCESS American and a well-known resident of our city (New York), Mr. Peregrine John Foley, in his combination History of Pen Making and Catalog, published in New York in 1875, gives us a step by step account of his process of making a gold nib: Williamson. In the year 1800, Mr. W., then a working jeweler, at Baltimore, while attending an evening school, finding some difficulty in making a quill pen to suit him, made one of 1 steel. It would not write well, however, for want of flexibility. After a while he made an additional slit on each side of the main one, and the pens were 2 so much improved that Mr. W. was called to make them in such numbers as to eventually occupy his whole time, and that of a journeyman…. The English borrowed the invention and some who first engaged in the business realized immense fortunes.’” Maryland, received a United States Patent on November 22, 1809, for a metallic writing pen. lic pen to the English inventors, John Mitchell, Joseph Gillott, and Josiah Mason. He credits them not so much for their invention of the steel pen but rather for their invention and development of the machinery to make such steel pens quickly and cheaply. Bore writes: “the balance of testimony tends to prove that steel pens were first made by tools, worked by a screw Camden, New Jersey, but he did not claim priority, only to make a superior product at a good price. The saga of the invention of the gold dip pen nib is as cloudy as the invention of the steel nib. Why gold? Just to have a shiny tip to one’s writing stick? Well, no. Early inks (and some current ones) are extremely acidic. THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 nib might be measured in days or even hours. Gold is practically immune to attack by acids. The making of a nibshaped piece of gold is simple: just cut it out from a sheet of the metal with a jeweler’s saw. Even a slit to improve ink flow and retention can be cut with such a saw. The problem is that gold, even alloyed to fairly low karat, is very, very soft, and writing materials 4 a burring machine grinds a recess in the end of the nib blank to receive the iridium pellet. written with them rapidly grew wider. 5 iridium pellets are hand selected, picked up with a small brush dipped in borax solution, and placed on the recess in the nib blank. gold nibs wore away quickly, and lines Early mechanics realized that the solution was to tip the gold nib with some very hard substance. In England, experiments were made 6 the iridium pellet is sweated (soldered) to the gold using a gas burner and flame. 7 the gold blank is rolled to stretch it to its final length, great care being taken not to run the iridium through the rollers, the machinery being designed with a recess to protect the point. monds and rubies set in tiny gold set- 8 the nib blank is now hammered on a small, curved anvil so as to increase its hardness and flexibility. metal seemed the obvious solution for 9 the outline of the hammered blank is trimmed to final size and shape in dies with a press. 0 a screw stamping press is used to emboss the name and other lettering into the gold nib blank. ¡ in a screw press, the nib is rounded or curved lengthwise from its earlier flat form. ing countries, with the idea of using Ô the iridium point is now slit with a copper disk coated with powdered diamond. family metals to tip nibs. Hawkins was £ the rest of the nib is slit in a special slitting lathe with a steel saw. began his process of attempting to ¢ the nib is burnished, that is, the tines are hammered to bring them close together and close the gap left by the slitting saw. ing several of the leading chemists in In 1858, Richard Esterbrook founded the United States Steel Pen Works in alarming rate so that the life of a steel like paper are very abrasive. Untipped press, about the beginning of the third decade (of the 19th century).” in nibs made from that material at an using a press and dies, nib blanks are stamped from the gold ribbon. Bore, however, gives most of the credit for the invention of the metal- that bar is rolled between steel rollers until its length is increased to a ribbon perhaps 10 times the original and the thickness of the ribbon is only about 1/32nd of an inch. worse, they rusted or ate away the steel 3 Whatever the merits of his claims, Peregrine Williamson of Baltimore, Fine gold is mixed with small amounts of silver and copper to form an appropriate alloy, then melted in a furnace, and cast into a bar about 0.5 inches thick, 1.5 inches wide, and 20.0 inches long. They softened the quills and reeds; in tipping gold nibs with minute diatings. These nibs were said to write well at first, but the settings quickly wore down and the stones fell out. A hard tipping the gold nibs, but what metal and how to attach it to the points? John Isaac Hawkins is generally given credit, at least in English speakiridium and other very hard platinum an American living in England. He tip gold nibs with metal by interviewthe country. Professor Wollaston, a noted expert at Oxford University, ˆ the two tips of the point are now set even with each other. § the nibs are ground so that the slit is even, the points are smooth and the nib is made fit for writing. ¶ the top of nib is polished, made bright, but the underside of the nib is slightly roughed with a scotch stone so that the ink will cling to it. which had been mined in the Ural Finally, the nibs are inspected, graded, tested, and offered for sale. he learned the tricks of soldering it in suggested using platinum family metals. Hawkins eventually obtained a small sample of native iridium pellets Mountains of Russia. It was expensive, but proved very effective after place then slitting the ball of iridium and the gold nib together. 7 8 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT In 1834 Hawkins made and sold several nibs. However, manufacture to gold nibs. Randell’s system proved effec- he soon found that the supply of iridium was unreliable tive and profitable. With modifications and technical and, even when available, expensive. He continued to improvements, it remains in use today. make nibs as the market and materials were available but The making of fountain pen nibs continued in the found the business less than rewarding. In 1835 Hawkins same vein. Early fountain pen nibs, such as those used sold his process, list of customers, suppliers, and the few by Newell Prince and Paul Wirt, lack breather holes special tools to Aaron Porter Cleveland who was financed and are identical to dip pen nibs. Later, when Lewis by New Yorker Simeon Hyde. Charles Cleveland, an Waterman perfected the underfeed, a breather hole was American minister, arranged the sale. Hawkins retained punched in the nib to aid the flow of return air into the or perhaps reacquired the rights to make and sell iridium ink chamber. pointed nibs in England and was to pay a small royalty By no imaginings should the reader conclude that the on the nibs he made and sold in England. It is reported making of gold nibs was or is an easy and trouble free pro- that Cleveland paid Hawkins £300 for the rights and the cess. At each step, skilled hand labor was required. While process. The Reverend Cleveland had Hawkins train his brother in the process. Aaron Cleveland returned to the United States to instruct Simeon the replacement of The making of gold nibs by hand was…not an especially profitable enterprise in the early Hyde’s agents in the nib making system. Cleveland Detroit jeweler, to learn the Hawkins’ system and make nibs as a business. greatly reduced the price of modern gold nibs, it is also responsible for the loss of flexibility in nibs and also in the general unevenness of days. Worse, each worker trained and Hyde arranged with Levi Brown, a this hand labor has quality and performance in modern nibs. Modern nibs, was almost certain to become a competitor… Somewhat later, the making of gold nibs. are produced and ground by automated machinery, and are very rarely hand ground, hand Isaac Hawkins moved to New Jersey and also helped train workers in almost exclusively, set, write tested, or even inspected. Cheaper, certainly; better, no way. Special thanks to John Mottishaw for lending his orig- Brown trained several workers, including George inal Foley book. For a somewhat different view of Levi Barney, the Bard brothers, and John Foley. In 1840 Levi Brown’s role in the development of gold nibs, please see Brown relocated to Brooklyn, New York and established Jack Leone’s article, “The Invention And Perfection Of both jewelry and gold nib manufacturing businesses The Gold Nib,” beginning on page 10. ! there. The making of gold nibs by hand was, perhaps, not an especially profitable enterprise in these early All rights reserved by the author. days. Worse, each worker trained was almost certain to References: become a competitor, if not now then some day, since 1. Henry Bore, The Story of the Invention of Steel Pens, the process was becoming public knowledge and could (London, New York: Ivison, Blakeman and Company, 1890); not be patented nor otherwise protected. John Foley’s 2. John Foley, An Interesting History, Gold Pens: Who steps in making a gold nib are described in the accom- Invented Them, When, and Where, (New York: self pub- panying sidebar. lished, 18 75); Among Levi Brown’s workers was John Randell, also of Brooklyn, who applied the techniques of machine THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 3. Beulah G. Groehn, Before the Ball Point Pen (pamphlet published by the Detroit Historical Museum, circa 1960). 9 THE INVENTION AND PERFECTION The George Sheppard and John Holland Story OF THE GOLD NIB by J.G. Leone This story starts in 1840 in Detroit, Nibs” elsewhere in this issue for another view Michigan, a frontier fur-trading town on the role of Levi Brown and others in the of 5000 inhabitants. The new steel pens invention of gold nibs.) arriving from England intrigued a local The gold pen business prospered gunsmith, George W. Sheppard. (What and Sheppard soon moved it to larger we now refer to as ‘nibs’ were called quarters at Sixth and Walnut Streets. ‘pens’ at that time.) The steel pens Many needed supplies were purchased were an improvement over the quills at the nearby Armstrong’s Drug of Mother Goose, but left much to be Store. It was in this shop that our next desired. They were crudely made; they important development occurred. corroded in both ink and the open air, JOHN HOLLAND JOINS THE COMPANY and they were expensive because they had In 1845, John Holland and his fam- to be replaced often. ily emigrated from the area known as THE FIRST GOLD PENS George Sheppard decided to make a pen “Holy Ground:” County Cork, Ireland. from gold instead of steel. A Detroit jeweler named Levi Brown supplied the gold, and They settled in Cincinnati where John’s John Holland Sheppard experimented with solving two major problems: tempering the gold for a combination of strength and flexibility, and tipping the point so the friction of writing would not ruin it. Sheppard eventually solved both problems and crafted the first father found work as a bricklayer. After a brief stint in public schools, John Holland became a clerk at Armstrong’s Drug Store. In the summer of 1853, fifteen-year-old John caught the attention of George Sheppard. John soon was employed as an apprentice pen maker at a salary of $3.00 per week. durable gold pen. He realized that his handiwork would require a Holland was a quick learner. By 1858, he had become a master larger market than Detroit. The first railroad line had just been craftsman and had acquired a one-third partnership in Sheppard’s completed between Lake Erie and Cincinnati, so Sheppard used gold pen company. it to leave Detroit and find his fortune in Cincinnati, a city of 50,000 and the largest city in the West. In 1841, above a barber shop on Main Street, between Seventh & Eight Streets, George Sheppard founded the first gold pen factory in the world. (Author’s Note: In 1916, John Holland made the claim that George In 1859, John Holland made his first fountain pen, as he saw the appeal that such an instrument would have. However, the holders for the pens had to be made of non-corrosive materials such as solid gold, which was cost prohibitive. In 1861, John’s brother, Timothy Holland, also became a master pen maker at the factory. The gold pen business continued to thrive. Sheppard invented the gold nib and built the first factory for producing However, the tensions of the approaching Civil War weighed them. See L. M. Fultz’s article, “The History of Making Metal Pen heavily on George Sheppard’s mind. He was convinced that the 10 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT Fig.1. 1883 Holland advertisement showing Extra Fine (323), Falcon and Oblique nibs. Fig. 2. Holland #8 nib with integral ferrule and holder, and a Falcon nib. Confederacy would win the war, leaving Cincinnati, now a city of more than 200,000 people, vulnerable to the victors located just across the Ohio River in Kentucky. Sheppard decided to sell his pen company, retire to a farm along Hogan’s creek in nearby Aurora, Indiana, and live in peace for the rest of his days. (His peace was short-lived – see sidebar on page 14.) In 1862, John Holland bought the business from Sheppard and made immediate innovations to the product line. Until then, the company’s gold pens had been made with nibs of long, short and stub lengths with iridium points in various widths. They expanded the product line with Bank, Extra Fine (323), Falcon, IXL, Oblique, Record, and Spade nibs (Figs. 1, 2, 3). During the Civil War, John Holland served in the Union Army. It is not known whether Timothy also served, or remained at home to run the flourishing gold pen business. However, Timothy had become a partner, and the business was known as “John Holland and Brother” (Fig. 4). INNOVATION AND GROWTH The Hollands continued to experiment with fountain pens and stylographic pens and began to sell them in small numbers. When the company issued 60th anniversary blotters in 1901, they stated, “Gold pens since 1841—Fountain pens since 1865” (Fig. 5). Although Charles Goodyear received a patent in 1844 for vulcanized rubber, it appears that hard rubber became commercially available on a regular basis only after the Civil War. John Holland wrote, “In 1867, we began turning hard rubber parts in our nib factory. The fountain and stylographic part of the business had grown to such proportions THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 11 that we established a separate factory for turning and working hard rubber, being the pioneer in this line of business. By 1869, we began to regularly make fountain pens and stylographic pens from hard rubber.” Today, if we think of stylographic pens at all, we think of them as suitable for technical drawing. However, they were popular in the 19th century for general writing, particularly where a thin, even line was desired, as in bookkeeping. Some referred to them as ink pencils (Fig. 6). The early Holland eyedropper filling fountain pens had primitive feeds. They used a black hard rubber ‘overfeed’ on top of the nib, and a cylindrical, slitted hard rubber feed under the nib (Fig. 7). Lewis Edson Waterman’s breakthrough feed design would come about 15 years later. Fig. 3. Holland dip pen nibs with different ‘breather holes’—crescent, oval, ‘V.’ Fig. 4. Civil war era nib with “J. Holland & Brother” nib imprint. It was about this time that the company name was changed to the John Holland Gold Pen Company. We do not know the reason for the change, but the Cincinnati city directory of the era no longer lists Timothy Holland as a gold pen maker. He is mentioned as a lithographer. John Holland continued his innovations, receiving patents for various fountain pens, feeds, mechanical pencils (added to the line in 1870), gold toothpicks, and iridium tipping (Fig. 8). JOHN HOLLAND AND IRIDIUM NIB TIPPING Perhaps John Holland’s most enduring contribution to the pen industry was his work with iridium for tipping pen points. 12 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT Fig. 5: 1901 blotter stating when Holland started making nibs and fountain pens Iridium, similar to platinum and the hardest of all metals, had been known since 1803. Decades after its discovery, it still was expensive to buy and difficult to use. The processing of the ore had progressed only to the point where iridium was available as a fine powder or in small grains. It was devilishly difficult to fuse iridium to gold and shape it into pen points, as is evident in the number of old nibs with missing iridium on the tips. In the late 1870s John Holland conducted experiments to create a better tipping material. His objective was to create a compound containing iridium and another more malleable, less expensive material. He discovered that if he heated iridium ore in a crucible until it turned white, then added phosphorus, he could fuse the iridium with gold and form a pen point in the desired shape. The importance of his invention was recognized in 1891 when John Holland received a medal as an honorary member of the Parisian Inventor’s Academy in France for his work with iridium and gold nibs. HOLLAND AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FOUNTAIN PEN Today, Waterman is often credited with creating the first practical fountain pen in 1884. Waterman made this claim in its advertising, and it has been widely accepted as fact. However, it is clear that Holland (and others) were making and selling serviceable fountain pens prior to 1884. The historical record seems to support the claim that the John Holland Company was the first U.S. manufacturer to introduce a commercially successful fountain pen in the late 1860s. There are earlier patents and earlier fountain pens that have survived. However, Holland appears to have been the first to make and sell them in quantity in the USA. The next fountain pens to emerge were the stylographic pens of Alonzo T. Cross and Duncan MacKinnon. They did not become popular until the 1870s, about five years after Holland’s second factory was built. By the 1880s, Wirt, then Waterman, began to dominate the American fountain pen market. Other major players would emerge. George S. Parker moonlighted selling John Holland pens in the 1880s before he founded the Parker Pen Company in 1888. Walter Sheaffer’s pens would appear 15 years later. THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 Fig. 6. Red hard rubber Stylographic pen or ink pencil. 13 The Civil War Comes to the Midwest by John G. Leone and L. Michael Fultz When George W. Sheppard sold his partnership interest in the John Holland Gold Pen Company in 1862 he said he feared that the Confederacy would win the war HOLLAND’S DECLINE The John Holland Gold Pen Company entered the 20 th century as a major manufacturer, selling pens across the USA and abroad; yet, the company was beginning to fade. The main reasons appear to be twofold: sporadic advertising and lack of investment in industrializing its manufacturing operations. and take reprisals against Cincinnati and its merchants. Although a neighboring soap & candle company was Sheppard retired to southeastern Indiana, feeling that it was the leading advertiser of the era, John Holland did not a safer location. While his fears of a Southern victory were unfounded, his timing and choice of a safe haven were flawed. follow Procter & Gamble’s example. As the years rolled by, Holland’s weak advertising put it at an increasing competitive disadvantage. By the 1920s, advertisements for During much of 1862 and the spring of 1863, Confederate Holland pens were disappearing from national magazines Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan and his troops conducted and only appeared in Cincinnati newspapers when new raids harassing, in particular, the L&N Railroad, a major line of supply for the Union army occupying sections of Middle Tennessee. models were introduced. It is not clear why Holland did not make the investment in the equipment required for automated mass production. Perhaps cash flow did not provide sufficient On July 8, 1863, Morgan’s Raiders commandeered riverboats earnings to pay for automation. Perhaps the Holland and crossed the Ohio River into southern Indiana. For several family did not want to dilute control by bringing in out- days his troops destroyed railroad junctions and telegraph lines and burned bridges, buildings, and homesteads. Pursued by side investors to raise capital. Following incorporation in 1884, the founder and his four children (James, John, Robert, and Teresa) owned nearly all the stock and kept Union troops, Morgan headed east, left Indiana near Sheppard’s it that way. Perhaps Holland simply believed that bench- ‘safe haven’ on Hogan’s Creek in Aurora and entered the state made nibs were the key to a quality product. (The founder of Ohio near the town of Harrison. He proceeded east, skirted is reputed to have tested every nib that went out the door, heavily defended but badly panicked Cincinnati and began to well into his 80s.) By the 1920s, Holland’s major competitors had auto- work on the second objective of his raid, the procurement of mated their pen production. Holland never did get there. horses and money for the Confederacy. He is said to have cap- When the auction of the John Holland Pen Company’s tured nearly 1000 horses, and it is alleged that his men also assets occurred on February 22, 1981, following the death robbed banks. Morgan’s Raiders continued east along the Ohio River but were opposed by Federal troops, militia and even gunboats on of Robert, the founder’s last surviving son, observers commented that the Holland nib-making equipment belonged in a museum as it was clearly from the 19th century. It became scrap metal instead. the Ohio. On July 26th, some of Morgan’s troops crossed the When John Holland died at the age of 85 in 1924, the Ohio at Buffington Island, Meigs County, back into Virginia (now company lost its guiding light. His sons had long worked West Virginia). However, a major part of his force was killed and Morgan himself was captured. His raid represented the in the business and were willing to experiment with new ideas—painted pens, celluloid pens—but they lost the innovation race, and the downward trend continued. longest and northernmost excursion of Confederate troops The Great Depression also took its toll on Holland’s into Union territory during the war. After several months of business. By the end of the 1930s, the quality of Holland incarceration in a Federal prison in Columbus, Ohio, Morgan products had deteriorated, and they were no longer a top- escaped and returned to the South but was killed by Federal troops in Greeneville, Tennessee on September 4, 1864. Both authors are interested in Civil War History as well as pens. tier manufacturer. Annual production had dropped to about 20,000 pens and pencils by the end of the 1930s. During World War II, raw material restrictions placed on pen manufacturers made it even worse. Production plummeted to barely 3600 units in 1947. By 1950, production had ceased, and salesmen were no 14 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT Fig. 7. Circa 1885-1890 Holland eyedropper pens with primitive hard rubber feeds. THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 15 Fig. 8: Circa 1877 advertisement showing Holland products. Holland blotter advertising its gold and silver pens, gold toothpicks , charms, etc. longer on the road. The once proud manufacturer had become a retail shop and repair facility that sold and serviced writing instruments made by other manufacturers. Between 1953 and 1957, fewer than 1000 John Holland pens were sold, presumably assembled from existing parts. The halcyon days of the John Holland Gold Pen Company were in the late 19 th century. Its pens earned top honors at the Vienna Exposition in 1873, at eight consecutive Cincinnati Expositions, and at the U.S. Centennial The author wishes to thank the Cincinnati Historical Society, Exposition in 1876. Mike Fultz, Rick Horne, Dick Johnson, John Mottishaw, and Abe Holland pens have faded into history, but John Holland, the Schwartz for their contributions to this article. inventor, left an important technical legacy that deserves to be Pen photos by David Bloch & L.M. Fultz rescued from obscurity. The journey to make gold nibs may have All other photos by L.M. Fultz. started in the frontier town of Detroit, but it came to fruition in Images of paper items by Tim Smith of Tim Smith Design. Cincinnati. All the gold nibs that we cherish today are descendents Pens and ephemera from the collections of Abe Schwartz and of the efforts of George Sheppard and John Holland. ! Jack Leone. All rights reserved by the author. 16 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 17 B. Grieshaber…and Sons Nibs and Pens By L. Michael Fultz Most pen collectors associate the name Grieshaber with fountain pens of medium quality made in Chicago from about 1910 through about 1940. The family has a much longer history and association with pens, however. The company was especially active as a supplier of gold nibs to other pen manufacturers, including Sheaffer and Parker. B urkhardt Grieshaber emigrated from Germany to New pen repairs. Its “Umpire” brand eyedropper filled fountain pens were York before 1850 and learned the nib making trade from advertised with the slogan “Keeps to the Write.” Levi Brown. Brown had been a jeweler in Detroit before moving to Pens made after about 1910 carry the name B. Grieshaber & Sons, New York City and becoming the first gold nib maker in America and by 1920 the pens are labeled B. Grieshaber Sons, suggesting that (see “A History of Making Metal Pen Nibs” in this issue). Among Burkhardt had passed on. In his autobiography, Walter Sheaffer those who worked for and were trained by Levi Brown was the young recounts that many of the earliest Sheaffer pens were made with Burkhardt Grieshaber. After his training, however, Grieshaber elected nibs purchased from Grieshaber. Sheaffer recounts how he arranged to move to Detroit and work as both a nib maker and a jeweler. to gain access to certain U. S. patents by agreeing to buy nibs from He was first employed by Charles Piquette, a jeweler, who another supplier if that supplier could match Grieshaber’s price and advertised among his other wares, “Piquette’s Superior Gold quality. They couldn’t, and Sheaffer continued to be a Grieshaber Pens.” By 1857, Burkhardt Grieshaber is listed in the city direc- customer. Even after Winfield Kaye was hired by Sheaffer to start a tory as a “gold nib maker,” with his own business in Detroit. nib manufacturing department, some of the less expensive Sheaffer It has been impossible to learn when Grieshaber relocated to and nearly all Craig pens were fitted with Grieshaber nibs. Chicago since all the records and directories from before 1871 George Parker was also a regular Grieshaber nib customer, at were destroyed in the great Chicago fire. However, Burkhardt least until he formed a partnership with George Gilman and they Grieshaber appears in the first post-fire directory as a maker and jointly founded American Metals on the top floor of the Parker seller of gold pens. His business continued to grow and prosper. plant on Court Street in Janesville. No doubt many other Midwest During the 1892-1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, pen makers bought their nibs from Grieshaber, too. Grieshaber nibs were “Awarded the highest premium and medal over all competitors for superiority and general excellence.” By 1900 the firm was named B. Grieshaber & Co. and was located at 84-90 State Street in Chicago. The firm advertised “Gold Pens, In the 1940s, B. Grieshaber Sons was renamed Grieshaber Manufacturing and relocated to the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village. Little is known about the fate of Grieshaber Manufacturing after their move to Elk Grove Village. ! Fountain Pens, Holders, and Pencils.” It seems to have made these items and sold them both at retail and at wholesale. The firm also did All rights reserved by the author. Grieshaber invoice, 1909. 18 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT Modern Parker Duofold Nibs by Michael J. Conway LEFT RIGHT OBLIQUE OBLIQUE ITALIC Nib Chart Designation Standard or Regular Nibs 18K Gold Oblique Nibs (right hand) 18K Gold Reverse Oblique Nibs (left hand) 18K Gold Italic Nibs 18K Gold Oblique Italic Nibs (right hand) 18K Gold Reverse Oblique Italic Nibs (left hand) 18K Gold STANDARD Current production Parker Duofold nibs fall into four main categories: standard, oblique, italic, and oblique italic. While the nib sizes are different for the two Duofold sizes (Centennial and International), they both use the same numbering system for nibs. Standard nibs have a rounded writing point with sizes ranging from a fine needle point to an extra, extra bold. These nibs are suited for any writing speed. Size is largely a matter of personal preference for the lightness or darkness of writing and thickness of lines. Oblique nibs are cut on an angle to provide a thick line on the downward stroke and a thin line on the upward stroke. They also are fitted with a rounded pellet for smooth writing. Oblique nibs add flair to one’s handwriting. A reverse oblique nib, which slopes to the right, often is preferred by left-handed writers. Italic nibs have a precision sharp, straight cut, suited for special writing purposed, and tipped with a pellet to glide effortlessly across the page. Italic nibs, designed for slower, more methodical movement, create the crisp thick and thin strokes of formal writing. Oblique italic nibs are cut at an angle and tipped with a beveled pellet. These nibs are best suited for meticulous writers with controlled and consistent handwriting, using few connecting strokes or letter combinations in one movement. A reverse oblique italic is available for left-handed writers. Duofold Centennial and International Size Nibs use the same numbering system. Nib Size Flowchart Extra Fine Medium Italic Fine Medium Oblique Medium Medium Left Hand Oblique Broad Needle Point THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 Broad Italic Fine Oblique Broad Oblique Fine Left Hand Oblique Broad Left Hand Oblique Extra Broad Extra Broad Oblique Extra-Extra Broad Extra-Extra Broad Oblique 19 Parker Nib Making & Materials From the 1950s Through the 1970s by Dean Hackbarth and L. Michael Fultz Dean Hackbarth was the last supervisor of Parker’s nib department in Janesville. When he retired, the nib department was closed and all nib production moved to England and France. After he retired, Dean kept his personal notes about nib making. The data below are taken directly from his papers. The Parker nib department alloyed its Yet another formula for making making own gold for making nibs but sometimes 13.6kt nib gold was calculated especially 0.215 to 0.183 started with pure gold bars from the U. to use up 5979.30 dwt of 18kt gold scrap 0.183 to 0.160 S. Treasury or bullion refiners Handy and which Parker had on hand (Fig. 1). 0.160 to 0.141 Harmon. The department also occasion- After the gold alloy was melted, it was ally started with gold scrap purchased on poured into molds with each 1980 dwt. the open market. melt making five bars of about 20 Troy Second annealing Third annealing 0.141 to 0.108 0.108 to 0.092 Parker had an active Technical Division ounces each. The alloy was then rolled At this point the gold bar has become that worked out the formulae and supplied to the appropriate thickness in a series of a strip, which while no wider than when it them to the nib department. A 1956 for- steps. While fine gold is very soft and does started, is many feet long; too long for easy mula to make 13.6kt gold reads as follows: not appreciably harden during working, handling. So it is cut in half, annealed, and All virgin gold formula (13.6kt) alloy gold must be annealed (heated, then the rolling resumed. Fine gold 1122.1 dwt. cooled) from time to time or it will begin 0.092 to 0.070 Fine silver 228.5 dwt. to crack. Parker annealed its gold several 0.070 to 0.060 Fine copper 174.4 dwt. times during rolling using a large electric Patent alloy 455.0 dwt. furnace. The gold strips were placed in 0.060 to 0.047 1980.0 dwt. Total Fifth annealing the furnace at full length, brought up to 0.047 to 0.039 For those unfamiliar with the language of temperature, held at annealing tempera- 0.039 to 0.034 precious metals, fine gold is 24 karat or 0.999 ture for an hour, then pushed through the 0.034 to 0.029 pure gold; a “dwt” is the standard abbrevia- rear door of the furnace into the quench- 0.029 to 0.026 tion for a pennyweight, and there are 20 dwt ing liquid. 0.026 to 0.024 in a Troy ounce (a unit of weight for pre- In annealing, the gold was brought to Again the strip has become too long cious metals, equal to approximately 1.1 1240 degrees Fahrenheit, then quenched and is cut in half, annealed, and the rolling ordinary ounces). Moreover, 14 karat gold in water, and the rolling process resumed. resumed. must, legally, be at least 13.5 karat fine—that The steps in rolling (measurements in 0.024 to 0.019 is, containing 13.5 parts fine gold out of 24. thousandths of an inch) were 0.019 to 0.0175 1980 dwt is 99 Troy ounces. This quantity Bar thickness to 0.480 0.0175 to 0.016 was selected since Parker’s induction fur- 0.480 to 0.454 nace for melting gold had a capacity of 100 0.454 to 0.424 0.016 to 0.015 ounces Troy. Final annealing 0.424 to 0.403 0.015 to 0.014 Another formula was prepared in 1963 0.403 to 0.370 0.014 to 0.013 for making 18kt nib gold using commer- 0.370 to 0.330 0.013 to 0.0125 cial 14kt scrap: 0.330 to 0.317 0.0125 to 0.012 18kt gold formula The rolling process could, of course, 13.6 scrap 1000.00 dwt. 0.317 to 0.275 be stopped at any stage depending on the Fine gold 924.24 dwt. 0.275 to 0.244 thickness of gold stock needed for the pro- 55.76 dwt. 0.244 to 0.232 duction of a given nib style and flexibility. 1980.00 dwt. 0.232 to 0.215 For comparison with the above measure- Fine silver Total 20 Then anneal WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT ments, the rim of a new U.S. one cent coin is 0.055 thousandths of an inch thick and a human hair is 0.0025 thousandths of an inch in diameter. The special alloys Parker (and other nib makers) used changed from time to time. The article by Don Hiscock in this issue details his analysis of the metals and processes used. Milton Pickus and other engineers at Parker Pen received U. S. patents for their pioneering metallurgical work. From the 1940s, Parker nib pellets were made from powdered metal. This powder was pressed through a heated extruding die, forming rods of pellet material. This was somewhat soft and was formed into the appearance of a string of beads in another press using special dies. The individual pellets were then broken free of the rods, the scrap material between the pellets was separated and recycled, and the nib tipping pellets were then sintered (melted and hardened) in an electric furnace. Still, there remained a band of metal around the pellet. Parker developed a special process called “lapping” to make the pellets of nib tipping material a precise size. Batches of rough pellets were rolled with diamond abrasive and oil between two Fig. 1. Formula for making 13.6kt gold using scrap. precisely ground parallel steel plates. A pellet that was too large would be scraped through the abrasive until worn smaller, while other metals using a die set. Then the nib blank was curved and one which was the correct size would simply roll along. Tapered shaped in a series of additional dies, after which the pellets were rolls were used to sort polished pellets by size. added. The exceptions to the “formed first” approach were the Parker had only a few standard sizes of pellets which were later ground into the various nib widths and shapes. A chart from the 1950s shows which size (in thousandths of an inch) pellet was used to make which nib: tubular/semi tubular nibs for the 21, 51, 61, and 75 pens, which were tipped before forming. After forming, the Parker name and other information was stamped onto the nib blank, and the pellet and nib was slit with 0.030 Accountant, Needle, Steno, Extra Fine, a special abrasive saw. These saw blades were custom made for 0.033 Fine, Medium Parker by Bahr-Manning and were about 5 inches in diameter 0.039 Broad, Fine Arabic when new, but only 0.004 inches thick. All nibs were first ground 0.052 Medium Arabic and polished by machine, but the larger nibs were then hand 0.062 Medium Stub, Broad Stub ground and adjusted. At various times Parker calculated that there Medium Right Oblique, were about 300 steps in making a nib, but more than 50 of these Medium Left Oblique, were inspections. While Parker maintained its own quality con- Music, Executive, trols including an internal metallurgical laboratory, samples were Extra Broad, also sent to an outside laboratory to verify that the nib gold met Custom Broad federal standards for karat content. These pellets were induction (electromagnetic) welded onto As can be seen from the above, creating nibs from scratch nib blanks which had been cut from the gold strip rolled at Parker. was a complex, multi-step process. Parker, like other pen man- In addition, Parker made its own nibs from titanium as well as a ufacturers who made their own nibs, developed special equip- special stainless steel alloy which the company called “Octanium.” ment and processes and employed a highly skilled labor force Tip welding was performed in a special inert atmosphere of argon to manufacture its nibs. Many of those skills have been lost for titanium and nitrogen for gold and Octanium. Parker made today as automation has taken over and nib making has been the tipping equipment itself, which included high precision hold- consolidated down to a relatively small number of pen and ers that were ground to hold the nib blank and the pellet in per- specialty manufacturers. ! fect alignment. This tipping was only one step in the process of nib making, All rights reserved by the authors. however. First, the nib blank was stamped from the rolled gold or THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 21 Parker “51” Nib Tipping Materials ‘R U’ Ready for a Better Nib? by Don Hiscock Among the many innovations that made the Parker “51” a breakthrough pen were several so “back of the house” they’ve never been fully appreciated. The development of the Parker Pen Company’s expertise in powder metallurgy is one of these innovations. Parker found a way to improve quality, increase consistency, enhance automation and productivity, and never really bragged about it. This article discusses this evolution of nib tipping materials in the early years of the Parker “51”, based on a review of patent art and analysis of nibs from the period. “Iridium” is the term we collectors universally use for tipping ELEMENTAL, MY DEAR WATSON Parker noted in 1940 that nib tipping had to satisfy several materials, although by 1930 the pen companies were writing ad requirements (Ref. 1). It must: copy using terms that weren’t quite “iridium,” and it seems that 1. Be hard and wear resistant for long life, they weren’t quite using iridium in making the nibs, either, but 2. Be corrosion resistant to inks that’s getting ahead of our story a little. 3. Have uniform and fine grain structure to wear uniformly and The Parker Pen Company used different names for its nib- prevent roughening, as well as freedom from voids and cracks tipping materials in advertisements over the years. In the late to prevent chipping, and, 1920s Duofold ads, it called the tipping simply “iridium.” 4. Weld readily to the nib body. In the Vacumatic and “51” era from the mid 1930s until the Nib tipping materials have traditionally been drawn from late 1940s, nibs were tipped with “oil smooth Osmiridium.” the Platinum Group of Metals (PGM), consisting of six ele- In the 1950s and later, Parker used the name “Plathenium” for ments: iridium, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, and the pellet. ruthenium. These metals are similar chemically and are often found as byproducts in the extraction of other metals. In the early “51” era, from around 1941 to 1944, the imprints on the nib show things were changing in some way. Earliest nibs Parker “51” and Duofold Nibs Analyzed by EDX Date of Nib Imprint Dominant PGM in Tipping Comment 1941 None Osmium 1944 OS-PL Osmium 1944 1944 RU-PL None Ruthenium Osmium 1947 RU Ruthenium 1951 PU Ruthenium Strange “PU” imprint seems to not make sense 1952 PU-PL Ruthenium Again, “PU” on a ruthenium tipped nib 1953 1965 BP Octanium Palladium Ruthenium 1929 Duofold C Osmium English-made nib Chromium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and iron found from the eight-metal alloy in the nib body. From Parker Moderne Black & Pearl straightline threeband Senior, c 1929 - 30. Typical nib from first-year Parker “51”. Estimated date. “Short” nib from Parker’s shell-mounted “51” nib development program in mid 1940s Table 1. Parker “51” and Duofold Nib Tipping Materials. 22 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT to offer powder metallurgy to others. This company, SSI Sintered Specialties, is still a leader in powder metallurgy and is still in Janesville, Wisconsin. In its earlier patent filed in September 1940 (Ref. 1), Parker heated platinum and from two to 20% carbon to near the melting point of platinum to produce platinum carbide. Platinum isn’t the most oxidation-resistant Platinum Group Metal, so it will react with the carbon. This compound was ground to make most of the particles less than five micrometers (or µm) diameter, which is about one tenth smaller than the diameter of a human hair and finer than Fig. 1. Parker Chief Metalurgist Robert Pickus from circa 1939–1940 Collier’s ad. flour. This platinum carbide powder was mixed with a binder metal, similarly have no imprints. Later nibs have imprints with RU or OS, some- powdered. The binder metal was chosen to have a melting point times in combination with PL, and sometimes other odd imprints substantially lower than that of the platinum. 14kt gold was used, show up on nibs. What do they mean? What was the Parker Pen based on a gold, copper, and silver alloy, because it was similar Company thinking? to the nib body and would eliminate electrolytic corrosion at the The promotional names for Parker tipping alloys weren’t just point where the pellet joins the nib. marketing fluff; they were based on metallurgy. Table 1 shows the The powder was compressed into small pellets, sort of like composition of various tipping metals analyzed for this article. In packing a snowball between one’s hands. Parker used 35–50 ton/ almost all cases, the dominant metal in the alloy is reflected in the square inch (480–690 megapascals, or MPa) and rubber tooling name used by Parker. to do this. These compressed powders were sintered in an inert DUST TO PELLET or reducing atmosphere into dense solid metal pellets which were In 1941 Parker noted that osmium was “almost universally employed” compact, uniform and void-free. The temperature for this process as the preferred nib tipping material from within the platinum group is controlled by the binder metal, 14kt gold in this case, because of metals and was used in common with many others of the group the hard material doesn’t melt. (Ref. 2). Osmium has a good combination of corrosion resistance and In Parker Pen’s next nib tipping patent, filed in December 1941 hardness. It seems to have completely supplanted iridium at Parker (Ref. 2), it went in a different direction. In this second, and prob- by at least the late 1920s. It was processed using conventional (melt) ably more important, patent on powder metallurgy for nib tip- alloying. The “Osmiridium” name began the transition from iridium ping, Parker disclosed the use of ruthenium powder, alloyed with to osmium and other PGMs. smaller amounts of other PGMs. Ruthenium had, of course, been The Parker Pen Company received two patents in the early considered by others, including Parker, as a candidate for tipping 1940s for new nib tipping materials and processes based on pow- material over the years. Parker found it couldn’t be used due to der metallurgy. Both were the invention of Milton Robert Pickus, brittleness, despite its economic attractiveness and good wear- Parker’s chief metallurgist (Fig. 1). resistance. The key to this 1941 invention was to keep the ruthe- In contrast to conventional metallurgy, by which metals are nium level high (85 to 98% of the total weight) and to prevent alloyed by being melted together, powder metallurgy combines diffusion of the ruthenium into the minor PGM. Parker found metals into unique combinations by blending finely-divided that too much diffusion of ruthenium into the other metal gave a powders of the different metals desired into a compressed raw resulting alloy that was too brittle to be processed in grinding and state and then sintering (a process of melting and hardening) the slitting. This occurs, for example, with platinum at about 15% by mass at high temperature into a solid form. Powder metallurgy conventional fusion (melt) alloying. If the minor PGM were kept gave Parker the ability to make better pellets out of materials it low enough, say 2%, fusion could be used to make a useable pellet couldn’t use before. These inventions turned out to be so useful but the melt processing at these levels wasn’t practical commer- they formed the kernel of a new company founded by Parker Pen cially. Powder metallurgy was the solution to control composition THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 23 FUN WITH ELECTRONS AND X-RAYS The analytical tool used for the original data in this article was developed using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) with an Energy Dispersive Analysis of X-Rays (EDX) detector. Typical of a highly technical field, jargon abounds. A scanning electron microscope is a completely different kind of instrument from the one you used as a kid in biology class. For one thing, it doesn’t use any light to create images. The SEM uses a beam of electrons, sort of like the gun in a TV picture tube, to scan the surface of the object under inspection. The SEM has lenses like most microscopes, but they’re rings of strong magnets to bend and focus the electron beam. The sample to be examined is sealed in a vacuum chamber. The electrons strike the surface of the sample and most are carried away to ground (the sample having been coated with a conductive material during preparation). A portion of the electrons are scattered from the surface or are re-emitted after being absorbed by the sample. These are the electrons that show the surface of the material, usually on a TV screen. SEMs are only in black and white, but image analysis software can do a good job of adding false color. The biggest advantage of SEMs is the high magnification that can be obtained (over 20,000 times diameter, far more than the 1000 times that a very good light microscope can achieve). The other main advantage of SEMs is that the images are not limited by depth of field, in which the focal plane becomes more narrow as magnification increases. Scanning electron microscopes have perfect depth of field, which makes them perfect for things like the fearsome enlargements of insects you may have seen. By the way, images taken with a microscope are called micrographs. If taken with a light microscope, they’re photomicrographs. If taken with an electron micrograph, they’re electron micrographs, and in the case of a SEM, scanning electron micrographs. If you see something called a scanning electron photograph, it should probably be a picture of the instrument, not its product. So what about the other part of the analytical jargon, EDX? One of the things that happens to some of those electrons bombarding the sample in the SEM is that they can be absorbed by the material under the beam, which raises the atom to a higher energy state. A little jolt of subatomic caffeine, you might say. These higher energy atoms are unstable (again taking the caffeine analogy), and they pretty quickly settle down by emitting the excess energy in the form of X-rays. A SEM can be equipped with a specialized detector that measures the energy distribution of these X-rays. Through complex software and the characteristic X-ray fingerprint of each element, the composition of the sample can be identified. Furthermore, because the electron beam is painted over the surface of the sample, the distribution of the elements present can be mapped to show where it is on the sample. In the case of the Platinum Group of Metals, the very similarity that leads these to be grouped together makes it hard to pull them apart in analysis. The X-ray energy distribution tends to overlap for many of the PGMs, and only with effort and high energy X-rays can we start to tell them apart, especially the minor PGM components in a blend with other PGMs For further reading about nib analysis, see John Mottishaw’s articles “How Can We Talk About Iridium?” and “Where’s the Iridium?” (Ref. 4 and 5). within these ranges. A typical ruthenium pellet in 1943 would JUST THE FACTS, MA’AM have used about 95–98% ruthenium powder, 2–5% platinum or Parker “51” collectors have probably noticed that many of the nibs another platinum group metal and would have been sintered for 2 are marked with technical imprints in addition to a USA origina- hours at 2950F (1620C) to produce a pellet with ruthenium grains tion mark and a date code similar to that used for the pen barrels. dispersed in a matrix of another platinum group. A number of “51” nibs with common and not-so-common imprints This same process and composition were being used by were analyzed to confirm the code used on the nib describing the Parker Pen as “Plathenium” well into the modern era (Ref. 3) tipping material and process. This included several non-imprinted and presumably still form the basis of tipping materials used by nibs, the most common type found on first year “51’s. A straight- the company. line Duofold nib and a “51” Special octanium nib were included 24 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT Fig. 3. Elemental Analysis of Nib + Tipping Nib: ca 1944 Unmarked Parker “51” Short Shell-Mounted Nib Region: 14K Gold Nib Body – Gold (Au), Copper (Cu), and Silver (Ag) Region: Tipping – Osmium (Os) for reference to the generation before and after the key patents in the early 1940s. Figure 2 shows the elemental map of a “51” nib and tipping, with the image of the nib in black and white. Note how the gold, copper, and silver signatures dominate the nib body, and ruthenium dominates the pellet at the tip. Figure 3 shows the characteristic “fingerprint” identifying each element found in the area Fig 2. Elemental map of nib body and tipping material. THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 of the sample being analyzed. Charts like this were prepared and analyzed for each of the nibs, whose composition is shown in Table 2. 25 PARKER “51” NIBS THAT WERE NOT PRODUCED The tubular nib has always been an essential element of the finned collector and hooded shell ink delivery system that is the heart of the “51”. Parker made several interesting technical detours off this path in the 1940s that show development was constantly underway. One of the more interesting was a nib patent that was issued to Marlin Baker in 1942 (Ref 6). This design involved making a nib using a blank with two points on it, shaped like a rectangle with a V-shaped notch cut into one edge. The idea was that since a “51” nib is tubular, one could tip, grind, and finish the two tines separately and then fold them over until they meet. This saved the slitting and difficult finishing inside the slit and allowed easier access to the pellet. Clever idea, but it doesn’t seem to have ever been practiced. Your author is not aware of any of these nibs in existence, although Parker patent art always seems to have been drawn from actual examples and they probably were made for in-house evaluation at least. (They would be easy to spot with the nib out of the pen, since the slit on the top would extend the full length of the nib, and there would be no seam on the bottom, exactly opposite a normal nib.) The unique shape of the nib blank prior to forming is shown in Figure 4. Rather than the conventional approach of slitting an already-tipped nib with a 0.006 in. (0.15 mm) diamond saw, Parker folded the nib blank into a tube. In this way the seam in the rolled cylinder also served as the slit. What’s more, the patent showed the process of tipping the two halves of the nib before the tube was formed, so the pellet never needed to be slit. They simply ground the ends of the blank and rolled these into a nib. Simple in concept, but maybe not so simple in practice. Other nibs that aren’t found except in the company’s R&D archives include “two-story” tubular nibs with both vertical and horizontal slits in the pellet, nibs made of two tipped gold wires laid sideby-side in the feed, permanently-spaced nibs with less-than-full slits, larger wraparound nibs somewhat reminiscent of a Sheaffer Triumph nib, true solid cone Fig 4. Nib shape from Marlin Baker patent of 1941. shaped nibs with cross-cut slits, and who knows what else? Some of these nibs are illustrated in David Shepherd’s book, Parker “51” (Ref. 7) and could form the basis of another article at some future time. If anyone has a “51” with any of these unusual R&D nibs, the author would welcome the opportunity to discuss details about these escapees from the development department. 26 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT THE ENVELOPE PLEASE of ruthenium as a tipping material transformed the way So, the key to Parker “51” nib-tipping seems to be as fol- nibs were made and continues to be the basis by which lows: “OS” stands for osmium, using the standard naming tipping materials are made today." ! conventions of chemistry. “RU” stands for ruthenium. It seems most likely that “PL” refers to a Platinum Group All rights reserved by the author. Metal alloyed with the main tipping metal, although exactly why some nibs have this imprint and others don’t, awaits further information or research. We think a little platinum might be in the tipping of nibs even without the References: 1. Milton Robert Pickus, Material for Pen Tips, U.S. Patent 2,328,580, Issued September 2, 1941. additional imprint. “PL” technically stands for plutonium, 2. Milton Robert Pickus, Ruthenium Alloy Pen a metal clearly never used in Parker nibs. The chemical Point, U.S. Patent 2,328,580, Issued September 7, symbol for platinum is Pt, which never seems to have been called out specifically on imprints. “51” nibs are made of osmium or ruthenium, often with minor levels of other Platinum Group Metals. If the nib is unmarked, it’s almost certainly osmium. Later nibs are likewise almost certainly ruthenium. Not a speck of iridium was found in these nib samples, even as far back as the end of the Parker Duofold era, 1943. 3. The Parker Pen Company, Material Specification 862, Issued August 3, 1976, personal collection of author. 4. John Mottishaw, “How Can We Talk About Iridium?”, The Pennant, Winter, 1999. 5. John Mottishaw, “Where’s the Iridium?,” The Pennant, Fall, 1999. which was far as this study went. This isn’t a surprise, 6. Marlin S. Baker, Process for Manufacturing Pen really—iridium was commonly in use only as a name, not Nibs, U.S. Patent 2,267,147, Issued December 23, an actual tipping material, by the time the Vacumatic and “51” were developed. The price and availability of iridium provided a strong 1941. 7. David Shepherd, Parker “51”, Surrenden Pens, Brighton, England, 2004. motivation to develop new tipping materials. Ruthenium makes a great target, based on important properties of Acknowledgements the PGMs, and including 1941 metal prices as shown in Special thanks to Jeanne Orr of Reservoirs Environmental Table 2. A ruthenium pellet would have been almost ten Services in Denver, Colorado, for access to the micros- times cheaper than iridium in 1941, and less than half the copy and elemental analysis equipment and technical skill price of osmium, a powerful incentive to develop new in interpreting the results. technology. Thanks to L. Michael Fultz and Brad Torelli for the loan Powder metallurgy gave a new level of control to tip- of odd nibs, tipping materials, and archive information. ping material composition, grain structure, and processing Thanks to Ernesto Soler for initiating the discussion to Parker Pen Company in the 1940s. The development about the wide variety of “51” nib imprints. Table 2. Properties and Costs in 1941 For Platinum Group Metals For Tipping. THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 27 THE BOOKWORM A BOOK REVIEW by Sam Fiorella The Quill Machines that you actually want to cut a quill yourself instead of just col- Dr. Jim Marshall lecting quill machines, there are instructions about how to prop- The Pen & Pencil Gallery, Penrith, Cumbria, UK, 2005 erly turn a feather into a fine writing instrument. ISBN 0-9546304-8-3, $15, 24 pages Today, when we need a new pen, or as is more likely the case, when we want a new pen, we head to the nearest pen shop, either down the street or via cyberspace. And if the nib is not quite right, The Quill Machines is recommended reading for those of you who are curious enough to know what came before the fountain pen! Marshall’s second monograph will be titled: Compendiums, Etuis and Penners—quick now, what is a compendium? ! we can always go to one of the nibmeisters who is at our service today, who will customize any nib to our exact specifications. Not so in the days when a pen was defined as a quill. Most people would pull out their trusty penknife to cut the quill, turning it into a pen. If one had a bit of spare change in one’s pocket, the task could be made easier with a quill machine. The Quill Machines is the first in a planned series of six monographs written by Dr. Jim Marshall. Personally, I am quite fond of the idea of short books detailing a lot of information about writing instruments, especially those that are difficult to find information about in the first place! Be honest with yourself: how many of you reading this review really know what a quill machine is? I know that there are several of you, who, even if you had heard the term “quill machine” or “quill cutter,” might be standing at an antique mall table with dozens of them staring you in the face…and not have a clue that those odd things that you were looking at actually had something to do with writing! Dr. Marshall takes us through the evolution of quill machines, from the simple pocket machine with fold-out blade and built in cutter, to the most elaborate desk-type machines made of malachite, ivory and precious metals. More than just pretty photographs, the book includes patent references, component charts and historical information of the different styles of quill machines. And in the event you decide 28 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT SHEAFFER’S DEPARTMENT by Dan Reppert The history of the Gold Nib Department at Sheaffer Pen Company began in 1895 when Winfield Kay answered an ad for an apprentice at Mabie Todd & Co. That history will end when BIC closes the doors of the Sheaffer plant in Ft. Madison, Iowa, currently scheduled for Spring, 2006. Since its beginning, the Sheaffer Gold Nib Department has been known as one of the premier producers of high quality, long lasting fountain pen nibs. W infield Kay was recruited from his Progressive Pen Co. in 1917 by W. A. Sheaffer to start and head the new Gold Nib Department at Sheaffer Pen Co. He held the position as head of the department until 1929 when, according to his grandson Prescott Smith, he moved to the Personnel Department, partly because Sheaffer Paul Lake looks over the pattern left on a strip of 14kt gold as the punch press stamps out the blanks which will eventually wind up as pen points on Sheaffer fountain pens. had installed auto grinders. Kay was still employed in personnel and sales training at Sheaffer when he passed away in 1938. At approximately the same time that Kay was leaving the department a young Paul Lake started working for Sheaffer Pen Co., starting what would be an 88 year dynasty in the melt room. Paul, who started in 1928, learned his trade from Alexander “Sandy” Fairlie and worked for the company for 47 years. In the early 1960s he trained his son Gary in the art of creating the gold alloy used in Sheaffer nibs. When Gary makes his last pour sometime this coming Spring he will have worked 41 years with the company and will be using the same formula and the same machinery to produce the same gold color that his father was taught when he began. While the Lakes, father and son, together may have set a service record at Sheaffer, no one can match the record of Letta Grosekemper. When Sheaffer’s doors close in May 2006 Letta will have served the company in excess of 52 years, a record second to none. But several others have come close. As mentioned above, Paul Lake worked for the company for 47 years. Alvin Hetzer received his 50 year pin before retiring. Joe Simpson began grinding nibs in 1924. By 1954 over $3,000,000 worth of gold in the form of 500,000+ nibs had passed through his talented hands, under his watchful eye. Others such as Alexander Fairlie, Cora Dye, Bernard Muerhoff, Hilda McMillan and Lawrence Smith all had in excess of 40 years of service. When Lawrence Smith started on June 12, 1924, he thought his job would last “…maybe three or four years. I was sure the market would be flooded with pens by that time.” When he first started, “…all operations were done by hand, and we worked nine hours a day, five and a half days a week. Mechanization has been the big change.” Father and son, mother and daughter and many siblings have made up the history of the Gold Nib Department over Sheaffer’s 88-year history of making its own nibs. Most of these histories have been long. Melting, stamping, slitting and grinding are all THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 Winfield Kay, manager of Sheaffer Nib department, 1924. 29 arts that take years to learn. Having invested those years in learning the trade, many have found 40 years or more of satisfaction in the perfection and practice of making nibs, a practice that created long lasting, high quality writing instruments, which is exactly what W. A. Sheaffer set out to do nearly one hundred years ago. ! All rights reserved by the author. Winfield Kay and giant nib for the float in Sheaffer employee picnic parade. The nib was made of tin by the Gold Nib department. Hilda McMillan on her 40th Service Anniversary, and Lawrence Smith on his 35th Service Anniversary. Both, 1959. 30 Sandy Fairlie pouring moulten 14kt gold into a mold to form a bar, 1948. WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT Earnest Skinner checks the shape of a sample pen point on the contour projector screen, 1958. THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 31 USING A FOUNTAIN PEN: WHY BOTHER? By Susan Wirth TIPS ON HOW TO FIND A PEN THAT ENHANCES YOUR WRITING INCLUDING ALL YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NIB GRADES. Why should you use a fountain pen instead of a ballpoint or (or left). The slant is anywhere from four to 15 degrees, depend- rollerball? What’s the attraction? How do you select the right ing on the manufacturer’s interpretation. (Fig. 5). Obliques nib? After dealing with thousands of customers (and pens), here make the same thick and thin lines as the straight italic. are some important points to remember. Fig. 1. Writing with an italic nib. UNTAPPED VARIETY The best argument for using a fountain pen is that it provides results you can’t get with a ballpoint or rollerball. • A fine italic can be wonderful for general writing and tends to improve legibility. A customer said, “I don’t feel I have a lot of control over my writing, sort of like a car that goes all over the road. But when I use an italic, it Fig. 2.Using a flexible nib. gives me traction.” (Fig. 1) • A flexible nib requires more effort but can produce a dramatic effect. (Fig. 2) • A super fine point, also known as “needle,” is ideal for extensive editing, small printing, or detailed illustration. (Fig. 3) OBLIQUES AND ITALICS: STOP LOOKING AT YOUR FEET AND LOOK AT THE NIB There’s tremendous confusion about nib grades, obliques in particular. When the nib slants up to the right some call it “right oblique;” others “left.” People have tried to clarify by saying right oblique looks like one of your feet. The following is all you really need to know! Nibs fit into two major categories: round-ball and square-cut. ROUND BALL • The round-ball point makes a line that’s the same in all directions. • Nib grades go from needle to triple broad. • Flexible nibs will produce a thick downstroke with a thin upstroke only when the writer uses pressure on the downstroke and almost no pressure on the upstroke. (Think of it like a manual transmission.) SQUARE CUT • The square cut nib (an italic) makes a fat vertical line and a thin horizontal without requiring anything special of the user. (Fig. 4) • Although italics are associated with calligraphic lettering, fine italics 1/64th to 1/32nd inches wide are gaining popularity for general writing. • A straight italic will work for most people who want thick and thin lines in their writing. • An oblique (also known as “oblique italic”) slants up to the right Fig. 3. Writing with a needle/superfine nib (this is from a 3 x 4 in. trip journal) • A 30 degree oblique slants sharply up to the right. One or two Fig. 4. Italic nib. percent of left handers will prefer this over other obliques or italics. Note the sharpness of the angle in illustration. (Fig. 6) WHEN AN OBLIQUE IS NOT AN OBLIQUE The oblique in Parker’s Sonnet is not intended to give thick and thin lines. Their literature states: “the oblique is made to compensate for extreme writing angles and is fitted with a rounded pellet for smooth writing in all directions.” Don’t buy an oblique or italic in a brand or model you’re not familiar with without actually trying the pen. SELECTING A PEN Buying any fountain pen to write with without trying it first is similar to buying a car without ever taking it on the road. Pen shows are one of the best venues for “auditioning” pens. • If you use a certain kind of paper, bring it along. • Sit down when you write. • It’s best to try the pen filled. A Fig. 5. Four degree and 15 degree obliques. pen that’s just dipped can hide Fig. 6. 30 degree oblique (very sharp angle). flow problems (starved flow or flow that’s too heavy). • Pens tend to have fewer flow problems when they can be filled through the nib from a bottle. When a new pen is designed to be sold without a convertor, it can be impossible to find a converter that fits. • Try different nib grades for some of the different kinds of writing you do. • Write the kinds of things you expect to use the pen for. A physicist wanted a fountain pen for writing formulas; so he tested pens by writing formulas. (Fig. 7) • Write at least two lines of cursive and/or two lines of printing. (Don’t just test a pen with your signature.) • After you find the type of nib you want, try several different pens in the same grade. They will all feel a little different. FINAL STEPS • Try to determine how the grip feels: too fat, too thin, too slippery, just right? • Then consider the pen for heft: Is it too heavy? Too light? • Finally, check the options for finish and color. • If one particular pen writes better for you than any of the others, buy it. Pens of the identical model and nib grade often don’t write exactly alike. • If you don’t buy the pen that writes beautifully for you, make sure to keep a sample of how it wrote. Fig. 7. Testing a pen by writing formulas using a flexible nib. CAUTION: BEAUTY IS AS BEAUTY DOES SUMMARY Sometimes I hear, “This pen writes better than anything I’ve ever • One size does NOT fit all. known, but I wish it weren’t so plain.” A pen that writes beautifully • Different nib grades are best for different purposes. for you will make the process of writing more pleasurable over • When buying a pen to USE, try before you buy. time. It will actually encourage its use and experimentation. ! All rights reserved by the author. Fig. 11. Using a Sheaffer No-Nonsense italic nib. (Twelve-year-old girl). Fig. 8. Testing a nib for cartooning. Fig. 9. Trying a slightly flexible Duofold Junior. (Eight-year-old boy). Fig. 10. Trying a nib for sketching. A LITTLE LEVITY BY IAN KREISBERG THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 35 American Pen, Pencil, Parts, and Gold Nib Manufacturers, 1931 Compiled by L. Michael Fultz The Keystone Jeweler’s Index, published by the Keystone Publishing Co., Philadelphia, Pa., was America’s preeminent trade paper for the jewelry and related industries during much of the 1900s. It was so powerful that its name, “Keystone,” has been given to the standard mark-up formula used even today in the retail and wholesale pricing of jewelry and related items. The Keystone Jewelers’ Index was (and is) a sort of business to business yellow pages for the industry. One of the categories in the 1931 book (Fifth Edition) is “Pen and Pencil Manufacturers;” another is “Pen and Pencil Parts.” Listed there are the following firms: Aikin Lambert Co.** 3 Dey St. Bay State Gold Pen Co.** 10 East Street Blaisdell Pencil Co. 141 Berkley Brown & Bigelo, Inc.* Byers & Hayes Co., Inc.* 133 Monroe C. E. Barrett & Co.** 315 S. Peoria St. C. H. Ingersoll Dollar Pen Co.* 545 N. Arlington Ave. New York, NY Hill & Hill, Inc. 40 W. Broadway New York, NY Mansfield, MA Hutcheon Bros. 241 Centre St. New York, NY Philadelphia, PA Inkograph Co., Inc. 159-201 Centre New York, NY St. Paul, MN Interstate Mfg. Co. 149 Cleveland Hoboken, NJ J. Harris & Co. 110 E. 23rd New York, NY John Holland Gold Pen Co.** 127 E. 4th Cincinnati, OH Jos. B. Bechtel & Co. 725 Sanson Katchem & McDougall, Inc. 15 Maiden Lane New York, NY L. E. Waterman Co.* 191 Broadway New York, NY Laughlin Mfg. Co.* 939 Majestic Bldg. Chicago, IL East Orange, NJ Philadelphia, PA Caws Pen & Ink Co.* 200 Broadway Century Pen Co. 35 Centre Crocker Pen Mfg. Co. 160 2nd. Street D. E. Makepeace Co. Pine and Dunham Attleboro, MA Leboeuf Fountain Pen Co.* 4 Birnie Ave. Springfield, MA D. W. Beaumel & Co., Inc.** 17-27 Vandewater New York, NY Leonardo Novelty Co, Union Square New York, NY Duryea & Co.** New York, NY Providence, RI Whitewater, WI Boston, MA Hackensack, NJ Liberty Fountain & Gold Nib** 380 Canal New York, NY Mabie, Todd & Co.** 15 Maiden Lane New York, NY Manhattan Novelty Co. 227 Canal New York, NY Marlboro Co. 309 5th Ave. New York, NY E. O. Weigle & Sons 587 S. 10th St. Eagle Pencil Co.* 703 E. 13th New York, NY Eastern Products Corp. 21 Gordon Providence, RI Eberhardt Faber Pencil Co.* 37 Greenpoint Brooklyn, NY Master-Craft Pen Corp. 59 Park Place New York, NY Eclipse Pen & Pencil Co., Inc. Chrysler Bldg. New York, NY Masterlite Mfg. Co. 110 E. 23rd. New York, NY Edw. Todd & Co.* 100 6th Ave. New York, NY McCoy’s Pen-Pencil Service 760 Market San Francisco, CA Electric Time Corp. 401 N. Broad Philadelphia, PA Michael-George Co. East Church St. Libertyville, IL F. M. Stark** 61 E. 53rd Brooklyn, NY Monroe Fountain Pen Co. Chrysler Building New York, NY Franklin Fountain Pen Co. 51 N. 10th Philadelphia, PA Morrison Fountain Pen Co. 1600 Broadway New York, NY Gaydoul Gold Pen Co. Inc.** 117 Fulton New York, NY Narragansett Jewelry Co. 74 Clifford Gem Fountain Pen Co.* 53-61 Park Place New York, NY National Pen Products Co. 319 S. Peoria St. Globe Import Co., Inc. 31 Union Square New York, NY New Diamond Point Pen Co.* 333 Hudson Gordon Pen Co.** 450 Palisade Ave. 36 Newark, NJ Detroit, MI West New York, NJ Providence, RI Occult Novelty Co. Chicago, IL New York, NY Whitestone, NY WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT Oriental Art Studios 11-35 W. 35th Paul E. Wirt Fountain Pen Co.* New York, NY Bloomsburg, PA Penographic Pen Co. 152 W. 42nd. New York, NY Pen-O-Pencil Co., Inc. 1 W. 47th New York, NY Reliable Pen Co. 15 Park Row New York, NY Rider’s Pen Shops* 636 State Madison, WI Salomon & Co.** 33-37 E. 17th Brooklyn, NY Salz Bros, Inc.* 102 W. 101st. New York, NY Samuel Kenner Long Island City, NY Coming in the next issue of The Pennant George S. Parker Arrives At Janesville 1880 Taxonomy Of Late 1940s Sheaffer Models Schoellner & Bock Mfg. Co.** 359 Mulberry Newark, NJ Crafting Pen Repair Tools Schoellner & Herback Co.** 276 N. J. RR Ave. Newark, NJ Interview With Son Of Henry Fenenbock Skidmore Pen Co. 3519 Jackman Rd. Southern Pen Co. 215 Washington The Carter’s Ink, Co. 239 1st. Street The Chilton Pen Co. 100 3rd St. The Conklin Pen Co.* Factories Bldg. The Edison Pen Co. Inc. 219 Washington The Fox Novelty Co. 258 13th St. The Friedlander Co. 49 W. 23rd. The Improved Pencil Co,, Inc. 158 Pine The Moore Pen Co.* 63 Franklin The Parker Pen Co.* Toledo, OH John Gibb, Parker White House Salesman Petersburg, VA Boston, MA Long Island City, NY Toledo, OH Cliff Lawrence, Interview And Commentary Pen Photography For Anyone Ethics In Vintage Pen Collecting Petersburg, VA Long Island City, NY New York, NY Providence, RI Inks, Inks, Inks Pen Display Cases Tech Talk Boston, MA Janesville, WI Pens For Kids The Sager Pen Co.* 36 S. State Chicago, IL Pen Show Reviews The Wahl Company, Inc.* 1800 W. Roscoe Chicago, IL Pen Clubs News The Whitney, Richards Co. 2063 E. 4th Cleveland, OH Theo. W. Foster & Co. 100 Richmond Providence, RI U. S. Victor Fountain Pen Co. 2 Lafayette Utility Pen Co. Inc.* 30 W. Washington W. A. Sheaffer Pen Co.* New York, NY Chicago, IL Ft. Madison, IA W. S. Hicks Sons* 19 Maiden Lane Weidlich Pen Mfg. Co.** Central Park & Jackson Wm. Welty Pen Co. 36 S. State More Book Reviews New York, NY Cincinnati, OH Chicago, IL Contributors Wanted! Have you been thinking about writing an article on vintage fountain pens? Have a great photograph you'd love to share with your fellow pen collectors? * Thought to produce gold nibs for the companies own pens. ** Advertised as producing gold nibs for the trade. The reader should note that the above list contains only those firms which paid for a listing in the publication and there were, without doubt, other makers of gold and steel pen nibs active in the U. S. which are not included. THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 We'd love to hear from you. Contact the Pen Collectors of America at info@pencollectors.com 37 -EGGL@AF? (A:K BY JOHN MOTTISHAW One of the pleasures of writing with a fountain pen is the procedure is only for the brave, who realize that the pen might feel of the pen on paper, as it glides effortlessly across the sur- end up in other hands for the problem to be solved. A conserva- face. Writing with a scratchy nib, on the other hand, is a less than tive approach might be to start out with a “trainer pen” instead of pleasing activity. Anyone who uses fountain pens regularly has had a “writer pen”; no need to unnecessarily traumatize your nib any this other experience. further should things not go, well, smoothly. Fig. 1a. Misaligned tines with left tine up. Fig. 1b. Misaligned tines with right tine up. I have often been asked if there is anything that can be done at Hold the loupe close to your eye while pointing the tip of the home to cure a scratchy nib. While there definitely is, I am con- pen toward the loupe. This all occurs within a few inches of your cerned, however, that the cure sometimes may create more prob- face. Look for a close symmetrical arrangement of the tipping, lems than it solves. With that caveat in mind, the following dis- with both tips at the same level and little or no space between cussion describes the steps that I take to troubleshoot a scratchy the “iridium” shapes. (A very firm nib will have a very small gap, writing pen. while a flexible nib will be touching.) If you see one side more If a nib that previously wrote smoothly has suddenly turned than 5% above the other, test the tips by gently moving the low scratchy, it has probably suffered some sort of trauma. The first side up with your fingernail. If it moves up an equal 5% amount thing to look for, and the most common, is misalignment of the above the first side, try the other side to see if it moves up again to tines (Fig.1a & 1b). If bumped or dropped, one of the tines can its original position or the same amount. If this is what occurs and move in relation to the other. Misalignment puts one tip ahead the tines are of the firm kind, you have a well-balanced nib (Fig. of the other on the paper, exposing a sharp inner margin of the 2). If one side is well above the other as you test both tines, you tipping to the paper. It also can play havoc with consistent ink have isolated the likely reason for scratchiness. flow. In order to see the out-of-alignment tipping, a ten-power If this is the case, look to see if the nib is centered on the feed. loupe is necessary for those of us with mortal eyes. The following If it is pushed off to one side, the cure could be simple. Gently 38 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT most pronounced. I put an arrow to show the direction of the circle and, using pencil, mark the part of the arc where the scratch occurs. Then, returning to the loupe or to a microscope if you have one, look for that leading edge. It is most likely on the inner margin, where the slit meets the writing surface. Now comes the tricky part. You will need some Micromesh 12,000. It comes as 3” by 6” sheets of abrasive on a rubberized fabric backing. I like the Micromesh rather than a hard surface abrasive, such as an Arkansas stone or Mylar disks, because it gives, sinking under the weight of the tipping. I like to put the Micromesh on a small stack of newspaper, to add to the cush- Fig. 2. Tines balanced. ion and the sinking effect. With ink in the pen, move it on the push the nib back to center on the feed. Push from the middle of the curve of the tine, not from the shoul- Fig. 3. Foot creates a flat plane with sharp edges. der and not from the tip. If you have gone too far, gently push again from the other side, this time taking care to move the nib only a small amount. Repeat this process until the slit lines up with the center of the feed. (There are some nibs and feeds that write best when they are not lined up, but that discussion is for another time.) Always, the test of a well-adjusted nib is on paper and with ink. The ink acts as a lubricant and the paper offers resistance. If the nib still feels scratchy, it may have sharp corners or edges that are catching on paper. At this point, I like to draw big circles and ask myself where on the circle the scratch is the Fig. 4. Round inner margins, the ink will not contact the paper. Micromesh two or three times in the direction of the scratch. Return the nib to the paper and draw that circle again. If you have caught the sharp edge or corner against the abrasive, it should have gone away. Repeat the process taking care to observe the effect of the smoothing with your ten-power loupe. Warning: Micromesh, even though it leaves a polished surface, is extremely aggressive. Overusing it can remove the tipping material from the end of the nib. This smoothing process can yield the exact opposite from the intended result. It can create a flat foot on the tip, making sharp edges in all directions (not good). (Fig. 3.) Because people differ in what they prefer in the way of a pen tip, the process of smoothing is more art than science. Below is a list of attributes that various tips may possess which will appear positive in one light and negative in another. Understanding these parameters will help the writer in choosing their own compromises. THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 39 1. Extra-fine point Fig. 5. Increasing ink flow carefully at home that feels right nibs. Because the extra for the writer. (See fine point is capable of warning above.) very small marks, it is fre- 5. Wet nibs write quently used for making smoothly. All things notes in margins as well being equal, a wet as editing documents. writing nib will feel Currently there are several smoother than a dry kinds of throwaway pens one because the ink that make extremely fine acts as a lubricant and marks and are not difficult the more ink under to use. These pens oper- the tip the smoother ate in a different way from the pen will feel. A pen fountain pens and may that delivers too much be the best solution for ink can be a nuisance, some writing situations. leaving a wet mark that Preferred by most of our takes a long time to grandparents, the extra- dry and bleeds into the fine point can be very leg- paper. The bleeding ible. But, if used with all reduces legibility and but the lightest touch, the can be less than attrac- extra-fine point will have tive. If the pen is writ- excessive “tooth” and be ing too dry, a simple experienced as scratchy by adjustment can be used many people. to increase the ink flow 2. Round inner-margins. Many current production pen tips are of a nib. Decreasing the flow, on the other hand, is more difficult, sold with rounded inner margins. This is roundness at the place so beware of overdoing this adjustment. This adjustment is not where the slit meets the paper (Fig.4). Manufacturers do this for the faint of heart, as the nib can easily be made to write more to insure smoothness. However, skipping can result. If ink does scratchily if the tines do not balance. (See paragraph 2 at the top not reach the paper when the tip touches, the writer can be frus- of this article.) trated with skipping, especially on the initial stroke. Some work To increase the ink flow, hold the pen with the nib pointed with Micromesh can “break in” the tip so that it does not skip. By upright, and looking at the underside of the nib (the feed), catch each removing some material from the tip, the slit is brought closer to shoulder of the nib with your thumbnails (Fig.5). Pull gently apart the writing surface, making the intimate contact between ink and while pressing down gently on the top of the nib. It is best to have paper possible. (But, see the Micromesh warning above.) light coming through from the back so that one can see the slit gap 3. Creating a “foot.” The foot will act as a flat plane under which open. Proceed with caution, testing the pen after each effort. Because the ink will flow (Fig. 3). When working with a light pressure, on the nib will need to be tested after each try, you will want to have the right paper and at the right angle, the nib will hydroplane. This paper towels at the ready and not be headed for a dinner engage- effect can happen for one person and not for another. It also can be ment, as you will most likely get ink on your fingers. elusive. The “flat” necessary for this effect, if it has sharp edges, can catch and drag. A tip with a foot can be heaven or hell. 4. High-angle foot or low-angle foot. Nibs are created and pens Decreasing the ink flow is more difficult, as the nib may have to be removed from the pen. Some minor decrease of the ink flow can be accomplished by pinching the shoulders together evenly. are sold with the average writer in mind. Because the smooth- As may be noted from the above, a smooth nib is the result of est point will have a round cornered but flat “foot” at the angle several dynamics. The process of balancing a nib requires skill and where the tip touches the paper, each person’s foot is slightly dif- patience. Pitfalls abound, but the rewards are great. ! ferent. Most people write holding the pen at about 55 degrees above the paper. Those who prefer a higher or lower angle may All rights reserved by the author. find that the way the tip is cut is not good for them. Again, using When not writing articles for The Pennant, John Mottishaw the Micromesh smoothing cloth, a new foot can be customized smoothens nibs at www.nibs.com. 40 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT CRYPTONIB NIBOLOGY: IT’S JUST A MATTER OF TINES By Daniel Kirchheimer experts. Nibmeister John Mottishaw opined, “I have seen this Sheaffer Feathertouch-style music nib groove just behind the tipping and on the top. I have also seen it on Waterman’s pens. I believe it was thought to make better ink flow characteristics. The logic may go: reduce the cross-sectional area just before the tipping to increase the velocity and turbulence of the ink just before it Fig 2. Sheaffer nib with tip groove 2 reaches the paper. This works for This issue’s column will examine a potpourri, or smorgasbord if me, although I you will, of nib-related items. That is to say, I couldn’t come up have not seen with a single coherent theme, so it’s an all-appetizer meal; think these nibs as of it as the tapas bar of Cryptopenology columns. A tapas bar with appreciably better just smoked oysters and breadsticks. Maybe some olives. than conventional THE NICK OF TINE ones. It looks Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three tines is a music cool, though.” nib. Three times, however, is enemy action, as Auric Goldfinger I also put this observed, or in the present context, penemy action, one could say. To question to vin- wit: have you ever noticed how some nibs have a crosswise groove on tage pen historian the top surface just aft of the tipping material? At first (and second) and dealer David glance, this just appears to be unfortunate damage—ascribable to Nishimura, and happenstance, or perhaps mere coincidence when encountered for he offered the fol- a second time. However, when this feature keeps turning up (so to lowing: speak), the nibs seem otherwise undamaged, and the attribute seems “No immedi- confined to just a subset of brands, the cryptopenological mind ate conclusions. I’ve always called this a hollow grind, rather than latches on and begins to suspect that something interesting might a groove. I probably see it more on Swans than on Sheaffers. [I] be afoot. After starting to believe that this might be an intentional have sometimes puzzled a bit over why such a recess would be feature rather than random damage, I discovered that it appears desirable.” on some Sheaffer Feathertouch (two-tone) nibs with the platinum plating on top of the groove, clearly indicating that it occurred during manufacture before the nib’s platinum mask was applied. Lastly, I inquired with restorer Richard Binder, who has a specialty in nib customization and repair. His take on the question: “There is no question in my mind that the grooving is inten- Figs. 1 and 2 show some examples of this strange score we’d like tional. I’ve seen bunches of nibs like that one, including Onoto, to settle. I am at a loss to concoct a well-supported explanation for Swan, and other non-Sheaffer examples….If you are dealing this phenomenon, so I did what all top-flight investigative jour- with very firm nibs, as these Sheaffers (and all the others like this nalists do—passed that I’ve seen) seem to be, it is possible that the grooving may the buck to be to allow more easy alignment of the tip. If that’s the case, I have someone to thank—it’s sure helped me out of a couple of ugly ones. As to why it’s on the top, your guess is as good as mine. I suspect, though, that putting it on the top provides for more confidence that a worker aligning the nib won’t mess up the feed. Vintage feeds approach the tip much more closely than do most modern ones—look at your photo and see where the feed ends. The Fig. 1. Sheaffer nib with tip groove 1 THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 closer to the tip the feed is, the greater the risk of feed damage.” 41 A FEATHERTOUCH IN YOUR CAP In one of the most durable and widely-imitated of the numerous innovations from Sheaffer, 1931 saw the filing of the patent on, and the debut of, the Feathertouch nib. Patent #1,869,950, issued August 2, 1932, embodied the principle of a nib with a slit lined with a plati- num (or other metal) coating to improve writing characteristics. This Fig. 5. Feathertouch patent detail showing saddle. feature was to prove a far more significant stylistic innovation than a technical one, as it turned out; in reaction, nearly every major competitor brought out their own version of a two-tone nib, and today this aesthetic is so entrenched that a modern luxury fountain pen seems somehow unfinished with just a plain yellow gold point. IS YOU IS OR IS YOU AIN’T A FEATHERTOUCH? To first approximation, as Dr. Brody, my college physics professor, was wont to say, identifying a Feathertouch nib is simple—it says “Feathertouch” right on it. Of course, if that was all there were to it, this magazine would be noticeably thinner. It is fairly well recognized by sea- Sheaffer grooved nib soned collectors that two-tone Lifetime nibs from the ‘30s are also prop- Fig. 3. “Lifetime Feathertouch” text from 1940 catalog erly called Feathertouch nibs, as they have the requisite platinum plating, and indeed Sheaffer referred to such nibs as Lifetime Feathertouch points (see Fig. 3, detail from 1940 catalog). Less well known is the existence of other varieties of the Feathertouch nib. Fig. 4 shows that Fig. 6. ‘Seagull’-saddle Lifetime Feathertouch nib, straight-saddle Feathertouch nib. Sheaffer employed the platinum plating ploy on some varieties of the workmanlike 5-30 line, though two-tone examples of this variety are the exception. Fig. 7. Straight-saddle Lifetime Feathertouch nib. When examining Feathertouch nibs, there are two attributes that appear to characterize them: Fig 4. Feathertouch-style 5-30 nib most obviously, the distinctive white-and-yellow pattern, and secondarily, the ‘saddle’, or incused line, that separates the two colored areas, which even appears in the original patent drawings (see Fig. 5). The saddle, interestingly, is not always the same shape; in open-nibbed pens, as a general rule, the Lifetime nibs have a graceful rounded wave- or ‘seagull’-shaped saddle (sadly, the nib-smoothing cabal has laid claim to the term ‘baby bottom’) as shown in the patent, whereas the less-prestigious non-Lifetime Feathertouch points generally have the cruder straight-line saddle—perhaps a subtle marketing touch to help stratify pens bearing otherwise similar-looking nibs (see Fig. 6). Of course, those scamps in the nib-making department in Ft. Madison were not above planting the seeds of confusion for us cryptopenologists, and occasionally a straightsaddled Lifetime Feathertouch nib makes an appearance, as in Fig. 7. The renegade Canadian operation marched to the beat of a different drummer, producing such oddities as the meandering W-shaped line seen in Fig. 8. 42 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT Fig. 8. W-saddle Canadian Lifetime Feathertouch nib BELLA FLEX But the presence of the saddle on Sheaffer’s bi-color points was, in some instances, implied rather than explicit. On some of Sheaffer’s flexible nibs there is the usual two-tone appearance, but the saddle is absent, presumably because it would interfere with the performance of the flex point. A broad flexible Triumph Snorkel nib of this sort is shown in Fig. 9, and the 3-tined music nib depicted at the top of this column shares this attribute. The stamped saddle line separates the platinum-masked forepart from the unplated area to the south. We’ve seen that in the case of Lifetime nibs, the word ‘Feathertouch’ doesn’t actually appear on the point, but the plating is there and Sheaffer called those tips Feathertouch nonetheless. But what category does a Lifetime nib with the stamped saddle but no plating at all fall into, we wonder (avoiding ending the sentence with a preposition)? Often, Sheaffer’s flexible Lifetime nibs found on pens dating to the 1930s appear to have been manufactured sans plating, as shown in Fig. 10; perhaps Sheaffer was concerned about possible flaking of the plating due to the bending action of the flexible nibs’ tines. It would seem, then, that the definitive test for a Feathertouch nib, or more precisely, for a nib employing the Feathertouch principle, is that telltale silver and gold appearance alone. However, much to the delight of the cryptopenologist, there is another wrinkle. The early ’60s Sheaffer Target (later the Imperial III) sported a twotone nib that looks for all the world like any gold Triumph-style nib with platinum plating on the forepart (see Fig. 11). However, this is a canard—a Feathertouch nib only in the Bizarro world, as the Sheaffer 1962 repair manual explains that this particular point is actually solid palladium-silver, with gold plating on the rear por- Fig. 9. Broad flexible Triumph Snorkel 2-tone nib. Fig. 10. Lifetime flex nib with saddle but no plating. tion. (For more on the Sheaffer Target, see Jim Mamoulides’ profile of that model on his web site, www.penhero.com) I suppose it could be argued that a gold nib with palladium (rather than platinum) plating on the slit would com- Fig. 11. Target nib Fig. 12. WASP 2 tone nib. ply with the Feathertouch principle, and therefore a solid palladiumsilver nib perhaps would qualify as well, no? Sheaffer literature is silent on this point; they may have had more important matters to attend to, such as the making of pens, I suppose. Further complicating the task of nailing down the criteria for a Feathertouch nib is the existence of items such as that shown in Fig. 12. This is the nib on a WASP pen, which was a low-priced sub-brand of Sheaffer; the brand name is actually an acronym formed from W. A. THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 43 Sheaffer Pen. Here, Sheaffer applied white metal plating in the area forward of the dividing saddle line—but in this case, the saddle line intersects the ink slit about one-fourth of the way towards the tip, leaving the first quarter of the channel uncoated. Is three-quarters of a Feathertouch still a Feathertouch? In this topsy-turvy world, what do we know for sure about these reservoir pens? At least we can take some comfort in the fact that even if we know little else, if the nib actually says Feathertouch, it’s a Feathertouch. Or is it? CECI N’EST PAS UNE FEATHERTOUCH To ensure that pen collectors would have something to puzzle over, Sheaffer produced an object that went Magritte one better: the all-gold, unplated, Feathertouch nib. How, you ask, could any nib with no platinum plating possibly be considered a Feathertouch nib, lacking, as it does, the defining characteristic of that breed? The answer is that such nibs exist that are marked Feathertouch! Close examination shows that these are not merely examples where the plating has worn or been polished off, as there is neither residual plating in the slit nor any on the underside of the point where it would have been protected from the effects of polishing Fig. 13. Unplated Feathertouch nib. (see Fig. 13). So, a Feathertouch nib says Feathertouch, unless it doesn’t, but it’s still a Feathertouch nib if it’s got that saddle line, unless there’s no plating, or if it doesn’t have the saddle but it’s silver-colored on the front half (or third?) and gold-colored on the back half, unless it’s just gold-plated PdAg, unless that qualifies, but if it’s just plain gold all over it certainly isn’t a Feathertouch nib…unless, of course, it says Feathertouch right on it. Got that? There will be a quiz later. A closing thought: The mystery surrounding the meaning of the numbers on Sheaffer Lifetime nibs is well known, but an interesting fact that only deepens the mystery is less-well noticed: some non-Lifetime Feathertouch nibs also sport such numbers as seen on the ‘naked’ nib in Fig. 13. MAPLE LEAF RAGOUT For reasons shrouded in mystery (well, to me, anyway), Canadian variants of pens from U.S.based penmakers often diverged in interesting ways from their American cousins. Sheaffers from the ‘30s often bore clips not seen stateside, Waterman cranked out such oddities as the diminutive #51 (rarely seen in U.S.-made examples), and Vacumatics from Canada sport delightful flexible points with a frequency not encountered in American production. Fig. 14 shows a neat example of a pen from our Canadian neighbors. It’s a Parker Duofold, but it has a somewhat odd shape—it seems to be the Streamlined model, to be sure, but the profile is rather different from the usual contour and it has but one cap band. It is possible that Fig. 14. Canadian Duofold with decorative grooves . this item started life as a non-streamlined pen and was converted to a semi-streamlined pen through Parker’s program of modifying existing dealer stock when the streamlined pens were introduced at the end of 1929. Dan Zazove and L. Michael Fultz wrote in these pages in the Fall, 1998 issue, “Parker’s advertising brain trust came up with…rather ingenious methods for dealing with the old style Duofold stock…the entire pen could be returned to the factory, which turned down the back end of the barrel, fitted it with a streamline blind cap and a new streamline cap and returned it to the dealer at a cost of 5%.” (“The Duofold Story, Part VI —The Swan Song: 1929-1935,” The Pennant, Vol. XII, No. 2). But perhaps most interestingly, this particular example also bears narrow color-filled grooves at the end of the barrel and the top of the cap, reminiscent of the details used by Conklin in some of its writing instruments. My opinion is that these decorative details are original, though that is open to debate in the absence of any specific supporting evidence. However, I will note that the October 2, 1998 sale catalog from Bonham’s auction house shows a similar (though non-streamlined) pen in man- 44 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT darin yellow, also with Canadian imprints, as item number 423, and the description in that catalog notes, “as the mandarin yellow color was a slow seller, Parker and also retailers tried to ‘jazz up’ the pens with engraved bands, chasing, and solid gold trim to make them more saleable,” though no citation is provided for this information. Further confusing the matter, the red pen shown here bears the numeral 7 stamped on the rather dramatically tapered barrel blind cap. The pen also has an interesting nib, which conveniently provides an excuse—um, I mean reason—for presenting it in this column. In Fig. 15 we can see the large flexible arrow nib marked “Made in England” tipped with what seems to be an ingot of iridium the size of a toonie. Perhaps it was to be used for covert action by Her Majesty’s Secret Service… NOT IN THIS LIFETIME According to the highly-questionable, yet oft-repeated, conventional wisdom, Sheaffer nibs were commonly available on top-line pens in deliciously flexible form (in line with the offerings from other makers) prior to the Lifetime era. Then in 1921 they suddenly turned into nail-stiff chunks of gold that may as well have been hewn from granite. It does make more than a little sense that if Sheaffer were to hold the line on the cost of supporting that lifetime guarantee, they needed to engineer a very durable nib that could not be easily damaged or Fig. 15. Nib of Canadian Duofold sprung, as could a traditional flexible point. (Incidentally, it should be pointed out that the commonly-held belief that all Lifetime pens were guaranteed for life is in error, unless the term ‘pen’ is interpreted in its earlier meaning of ‘nib’: it may come as a surprise that from 1921 until about 1926, only the point carried that guarantee, not the whole pen, as evidenced by statements in Sheaffer catalogs and advertisements.) But does it make sense that if a customer wanted Sheaffer’s largest, best-quality pen fitted with a truly flexible nib, Sheaffer would turn that customer away? The story of the big flexible nib during the first decade of the Lifetime era is actually interesting and veined with subtlety and gradual changes. In the earliest catalog I’ve seen in which Lifetime pens appear (in zigzag chased or plain black hard rubber, with clips bearing the SHEAFFER-CLIP stamp), most likely dating from 1921, Sheaffer also continued to offer their largest regular pen—the grand No. 8C, with an impressive No. 8 SELF-FILLING nib (see Fig. 16), at $8.25. This was just fifty cents less than the Lifetime pen with regular trim (the ‘C’ in the model designation indicated that the pen bore a clip as standard equipment). The regular pens were available with a wide variety of points, but the full-page description of the new Lifetime pen proudly proFig. 16. Nib of 8C from 1921 catalog claims, “With pressure the ‘Lifetime’ point will make five carbon copies. This super-point cannot bend spring, scratch, or get out of order.” This appears to indicate that the Lifetime pen was available only with a manifold nib, and it is interesting to note that in the description of the various nib styles available for pens in general, the catalog declares, “there is an additional charge of fifty cents Fig. 17. Nib of 8C Lifetime for manifold points” (presumably due to the significantly greater quantity of gold needed to make such a heavy nib)—exactly the difference in price between the No. 8C and the 8C Lifetime. Indeed, the description of the Lifetime pen includes the note that the 8C Lifetime pen is, in fact, the “same as 8C, except for the addition of the Lifetime nib.” Fig. 17 shows an example of this “super-point” in one of my artier photos. The fact that the non-Lifetime 8C and the 8C Lifetime pen differed only in the furnishing of a manifold nib for the corresponding surcharge, and the bestowing of a lifetime guarantee to that nib (and, again, not to the pen as a whole), leads to speculation that perhaps the birth of the Lifetime concept was simply a result of the recognition that manifold nibs didn’t seem to come in for repair nearly as often as did all other varieties (which were made from a significantly thinner piece of gold), and so a market- THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 45 ing benefit could accrue from leveraging that fact without incurring a major cost to support the new guarantee. In a subsequent catalog (No. A1), which dates to circa 1923, there are some interesting changes with respect to the Lifetime line and the availability of an oversized pen with a flexible point. The still hard rubber Lifetime (celluloid was about a year away) is no longer merely a pen from the regular line fitted with a different nib; it now has acquired a distinctive vertical ribbon-line chasing pattern not available in non-Lifetime pens, perhaps to provide a distinctive exterior appearance to these premium products. If a customer wanted an oversized pen without the super-stiff Lifetime point, there was only the model 8½C available (the ½ indicated a ¼” wide cap band, in yellow gold filled in this case) at exactly the same price as the largest Lifetime pen with basic trim—$8.75. However, the catalog notes that the 8½C is “made only with special bookkeeper and court reporter points” (Fig. 18); perhaps Sheaffer was trying to lead all but the most hard-core Fig. 18. Detail of 8½C nib area from 1923 catalog showing text users of flexible nibs towards the Lifetime line. In Sheaffer catalog A2, circa 1925, there are dramatic changes, as the Radite pen has Fig. 19. Broad stub flex 7-30 nib. debuted, bringing with it such flowery (and questionable) ad-speak as “pinnacled” and “allurement.” Sheaffer is in a period of change, as Lifetime pens are concurrently offered in ribbon-line chased hard rubber as well as the new plain black and jade green Radite materials. The Lifetime nib continues to do its part in making the Lifetime guarantee one Sheaffer rarely needs to deliver on, as the catalog notes “all Lifetime points will make carbon copies,” though they are available in a half-dozen tip widths. For the customer that desired an oversized top-quality pen with a flexible nib, there was…nothing, at least in traditional black. The cherry-red celluloid Secretary pen, available in the same size as the largest Lifetime model but at the lower price of $7.00, came with a nib “in the special Sheaffer Secretary size, made either flexible or semi-manifold,” but that catalog offered no comparable item in black. Nearly all the Secretary nibs one encounters today are of the semi-manifold variety, so it certainly seems that the flexible nib was falling out of favor. More changes were brought to the Sheaffer line in 1928. If you wanted a Lifetime pen with a flexible point, you were still out of luck, at least if the 1928 catalog is any measure. However, at last Sheaffer does offer an oversized black Radite pen that can be fitted with a flexible nib: the 7-30 line has jade and black pens that are dimensionally identical to the oversize Lifetime, though continuing the Secretary’s price point of $7.00 and now bearing a 30-year guarantee on the entire pen. The catalog mentions “flexible points furnished on request” for these nonLifetime models—a notation tellingly absent from the description of the point styles available in the Lifetime line. Fig. 19 illustrates an example of a broad stub flexible 7-30 nib. As a side note, this catalog is the first of which I am aware that indicates that the Lifetime guarantee now applies to the entire pen (or pencil), though magazine advertisements with text to that effect appeared at least as early as 1926. After the disappearance of the No. 8-sized pen in hard rubber, and before the availability of the 7-30, what was a potential purchaser to do if he or she wanted an oversized plain black pen (preferably in the “practically indestructible” Radite) with a truly flexible Fig. 20. Two Sheaffer No. 8 pens. Fig. 21. No. 8 pen barrel stickers and cap tops . 46 nib? Sheaffer catalogs are mute on WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT Fig. 22. No. 8 pen nibs Fig. 24. Flexible Lifetime nib (non-Feathertouch) has the pen for you. By recent research, even the action and shading of any steel pen is duplicated by Sheaffer. And Sheaffer’s is the only Lifetime guarantee.” (I have a hunch Craig Sheaffer performed the ‘recent research’!) Fig. 24 shows the relatively-fragile yet fullyguaranteed flexible Lifetime nib, available at long last. The Lifetime pen had gradually evolved over nine years from a regular-line pen with a super-stiff guaranteed point to a model with a bumper-to-bumper warranty that even covered the available, though delicate, flexible nib. A decade and a half later still, that legendary guarantee was to revert to cover just the point before disappearing almost entirely for well over a decade, but that’s a story for another column… Fig. 23. Detail from flex nib Balance ad “THAT’S WHAT I MEANT” DEPARTMENT (CORRECTIONS, ETC.) LAPIS LAZULI X-PEN? this point. However, I have found two items that demonstrate that Last issue’s Cryptopenology showed a lapis blue Permanite (celluloid) Sheaffer indeed manufactured a pen during this period specifically Parker essentially identical to a flat-top Oversize Duofold save for the to satisfy this type of customer. lack of the word ‘DUOFOLD’ in the imprint and the presence of the Figs. 20-22 show two oversized black Radite flat-top Sheaffers same nib used for the model 7X. The appearance in on-line articles of with their original price stickers intact, and they have some very pictures of a maroon celluloid pen apparently identical to this lapis pen interesting attributes. The stickers indicate that the pens are both down to the barrel imprint (though with unknown nib) lends some sup- simply model No. 8 in Radite—no “Lifetime” (and no ‘C’, for port to the speculation that these items were actually extremely short- some reason)—and that they bear flexible nibs in fine and medium lived members of the X-pen family that included the 3X, 5X, and the grades; the pens are priced at $8.25. The nibs themselves are huge, 7X, usually known only in hard rubber. graceful, and wonderfully flexible, as advertised, and they are BON TON ROULETTE marked “8 SELF-FILLING”. Perhaps the most intriguing feature Also last issue, I discussed a set of pens with a thread of similar attri- is really the absence of a feature: the caps have no White Dot, as butes that seemed to connect them. Among them was a pen marked the pens did not carry the lifetime guarantee that the dot would Bon-Ton as well as a Solar with a Bon-Ton nib; I speculated these confer during that period, in keeping with Sheaffer’s practice of might be Sheaffer products, perhaps made in the factory Sheaffer limiting that coverage to the durable rigid-nibbed pens only. The apparently acquired as a result of defeating Kraker in a lawsuit. As combination of the cap, nib, and sticker are mutually supporting revealed by Dennis Bowden of Parkville Pen on the Lion & Pen on- as regards the correctness of these pens’ configuration. line discussion board, a review of Kraker’s incorporation papers lists What about a flexible Lifetime nib? It seemed that Sheaffer wasn’t willing to offer a Lifetime guarantee on a part so delicate throughout among their assets over six thousand Solar pens, which only deepens the mystery as to the provenance of these brands. the decade of the ’20s. However, the door seems to have cracked in The author would like to express his thanks to Richard Binder, the June, 1930 catalog, which says, “dealers and consumers alike are L. Michael Fultz, David Isaacson, Jim Mamoulides, Al Mayman, urged to submit special nib or point problems to Sheaffer with the John Mottishaw, David Nishimura, David Wimmer, Roger assurance that it is easily possible for Sheaffer nib experts to exactly Wooten, and Dan Zazove. ! duplicate any steel point, either flexible or manifold and which will be backed by a broad and definite guarantee.” Finally, in a 1930 adver- All rights reserved by the author. tisement, Sheaffer declared in a bold heading, “Now, even a flexible Photo credits: Fig. 11, Copyright © 2005 Jim Mamoulides/Penhero. point on Balance Lifetime pens” (Fig. 23). The copy continued, “if com—All Rights Reserved; Fig. 13, Copyright © 2006 David you write flowingly, with shaded lines, or boldly, with lines all of Wimmer—All Rights Reserved; All others Copyright © 2006 Daniel equal weight, obliquely, or any one of fifteen different ways, Sheaffer Kirchheimer—All Rights Reserved. THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 47 Remembering Two Friends ARTHUR TWYDLE - A PERSONAL APPRECIATION OF A UNIQUE MAN War hero, businessman, innovator, pen master, teacher, March 1940, and that was the last she saw of him for 5 years. Arthur began in the pen business shortly after returning from international repairer and curator. World War II. He opened his first specialist pen shop in 1949 by Jim Marshall and over the years built a chain of shops in the North of England. It is February 1997, and Arthur Twydle and I are in He was trained in pen repairs at the factories of all the major pen Escondido, California meeting Peter Amis of The Pen Sac companies in the UK and Europe—Parker, Sheaffer, Waterman, Company to purchase some bits and pieces and more sacs. Arthur Montblanc, etc., and went on to open a service department to at this time is Peter’s biggest cus- undertake repairs for all the UK’s major department stores and tomer for pen sacs. We end up buy- stationers. Over a period of 30 or so years Pen Corner branches ing two new suitcases to carry the in Doncaster, Wakefield, Leeds and Hull catered to the needs of ‘stuff’ back to the UK. Yorkshire’s penmen. During this period they were often the first It is June 1997, and we are on shops to introduce a new brand or model and during the 1970- our way to look over the surplus 80 period, Arthur was acknowledged as one of the foremost pen parts from an old pen factory owned retailers in the North. When he decided to sell his Hull shop and by the Caltagirone family near finally retire, he was almost 70. But ‘retirement’ turned out to be Le Mans. We travel back from Le only a word to Arthur. He still spent his time restoring vintage Havre with a van full of ‘stuff’ and pens, designing repair tools and teaching others via his famous a promise to return to collect what “Masterclass” courses. we could not carry! Our next visit in One had to meet him personally to really know him. He had December will involve a reconnaissance of a private wine cellar presence, he could inspire and he was a great encourager of oth- and one of the most memorable meals in a crumbling chateau, ers’ ideas and projects. And you knew that there would always be while buying 40,000 rods for making pens. some spontaneous fun or mild adventure on a trip with Arthur. It is January 2002, at the Paperworld Trade Show in Frankfurt, He left pen collectors and restorers a legacy of good practice and from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. I have been trying to keep up with a and his friends a wonderful treasury of memories. Arthur Twydle man 20 years my senior as he moved from stand to stand and hall passed away in November 2005, at the age of 87. to hall. It is Arthur’s 84 birthday and we are being entertained th by Conway Stewart, but although I am ready to go to bed, I will GEORGE RICHARD SWARTZ have to wait until he has had a dance with the wife of a pen manu- by Jack Leone with Rick Horne and John Mottishaw facturer from Taipei. No doubt in his small talk he slipped in the A beloved member of the pen collecting community, question, “Does your husband have any spares?” These are a few of my memories of a unique man with incredible stamina, intellect, inventiveness, experience, business judge- George Swartz, died November 1st, 2005 at home with his family in Venice, California. ment, friendship and generosity. He was without doubt one of George was born on December 6, the most significant influences on vintage pen repair this century, 1938 in Santa Monica and gradu- more specifically in the UK, but he was an international man and ated from Loyola University in loved the buzz at the U.S. shows and the fun of those early shows Los Angeles in 1959. (Those in the 1990s. He loved discussing repairing with Frank Dubiel who knew George appreciate and had provided a lot of information on English pens for Frank’s how it amused him to be the lone Third Edition, which was in hand when Frank died. But Arthur Episcopalian among the Jesuits.) was much more than just a pensmith. After graduation George Arthur Twydle was born in Suffolk in 1918 and grew up in the served in the U. S. Army North of England. In 1939 he was one of the first wartime volun- Counter Intelligence Corps in Germany. Upon his return teers and by July 1940, was on his way to Singapore as an officer to California in 1963 he married Donna Karen Swartz with in charge of ordinance. He had married his girl friend Eileen in whom he shared a deep and lasting love for 43 years. 48 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT George’s career was in the lumber business, like his father and of directors of the P.C.A. The Swartz duo, along with Chris grandfather before him. George was past president of the Lumber Odgers and Harvey Raider, organized the Los Angeles Pen Association of Southern California and served as its represen- Show from 1993 though 1997. tative to the National Lumber and Building Materials Dealers Association. George is missed by his wife, Donna, his two sons and their wives, Mark and Jennifer, and Andrew and Kristine Swartz, as George was very active in Rotary International. Although he traveled widely, he had 43 years of perfect weekly attendance. well as his grandchildren, Emma and Nicholas Swartz. George’s friends miss him. They remember his love of his fam- Donna and George became interested in collecting vin- ily and remember his integrity, his wry humor, and his gracious, tage pens and pencils and pursued it with their usual energy patient manner. He was sophisticated yet unpretentious, a fun-lov- and good humor. Their collecting passion was Parker and ing person of extraordinary humanity. A group of George’s friends Carter pens, Autopoint pencils, and Carleton Ware desk bases. have made contributions to the P.C.A. in his memory. George was soon elected president of the Southern California Pen Collectors Club. Donna served as a member of the Board All rights reserved by the author. PCA From The Board T The P.C.A. Board of Directors meeting was held Friday, November 4, 2005 at the Clarion Hotel in Dublin, Ohio. In attendance were Vice President Dan Reppert, Board Members AnnMarie Hautaniemi, Len Provisor, Bert Heiserman and Joel Hamilton and Treasurer Roger Wooten. Pennant Associate Editor Dede Rehkopf and Copy Editor • accept the membership of the P.C.A. • accept the assets of the (former) P.C.A., Inc. By-laws for the new P.C.A. were reviewed and amended, and will be rewritten by Roger Wooten for final approval by the entire Board of Directors. The meeting was adjourned at 7 p.m. and subsequently reconvened on Saturday, November 5, at 7 a.m. Tom Rehkopf presented issues concerning the production AnnMarie will review preparations for credit card and Paypal and publication of The Pennant, with excellent suggestions services. Roger Wooten will be able to set this up quickly once and guidelines for improving the production of the magazine. it is approved by the Board. They departed after their presentation with sincere thanks and appreciation for their efforts by members of the Board. AnnMarie will work with volunteer Ron Lee on maintenance of the membership data base and renewal mailings and Treasurer Roger Wooten presented the P.C.A.’s financial ask Ron if he would be willing to maintain the P.C.A. website. status and balance sheet as of Sept. 30, 2005. He also gave AnnMarie and Ron will also investigate the P.C.A. website an update on the incorporation of the P.C.A. as an educa- password process, including the P.C.A. privacy policy. tional 501(3)c non-profit corporation. The P.C.A. is in excel- The Board of Directors discussed the need to form a Board lent financial health and is up to date filing with federal taxing of Directors nominating committee as well as creating a mini- bodies. Income taxes have been paid on the sales of the P.C.A. mal set of qualifications and responsibilities for new Board Limited Edition pens. members. The following resolutions were passed as part of the requirements for incorporating the new non-profit P.C.A. To: • dissolve the (former) P.C.A., Inc. • gift transfer assets of the (former) P.C.A., Inc. to the new P.C.A., NFP (Not For Profit) • accept the by-laws of the new P.C.A. THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 A discussion was held on having three levels of terms for Board members: three members would serve one year, three would serve two years and three would serve three years. The corporate sponsorship fee was set at $500 per year. Each Board Member agreed to accept duties and responsibilities for the P.C.A. as discussed during various meetings. 49 PCA Notes FROM THE PRESIDENT GROWTH AND THE P.C.A. I’m writing this message on New Year’s Day and am trying to reflect on so many things that happened last year. The P.C.A. is lucky to be in a good financial position, but unfortunately we have less than six hundred members. You read right folks; we need more members, a lot more, so I am asking each of you to sponsor a new member. I want to share with you something that one of our Pennant contributors said to me just the other day. I visited his house and he asked me point blank, “Why are most of the members old?” (he’s fourteen) and “Why aren’t there many kids like me in the P.C.A.?” I thought for about ten seconds and after giving him my best answer, he reflected that he’d like a pen-pal his own age. I told him that I’d see what I could do. Fourteen years old, likes pens, likes to write about them. Isn’t this what we want in the P.C.A., more young members? Hey, I’m up there with a lot of you: started in the 70s, still shopping for a great find at the fleas, but Antoine is right. It’s only fair that he should have members his own age with whom to interact. I think I want to dedicate the remainder of my presidency canvassing for new members who don’t know a “51” from a ‘Morrison,’ but who share the passion of collecting and learning about writing instruments. Care to join me? Six hundred times one new member each, plus our current 600, looks like a healthy membership of 1200 to me. I want to thank Len Provisor for being such a help to me while I recovered from two Atlantic hurricanes earlier this year. Len worked with our CPA Roger Wooten to correct some internal issues and create a new payment method for renewals. Terry and Dan, I didn’t forget you either. Thanks for doing your jobs so well, and Dede and Tom, you are the best. Just a reminder that those who work on The Pennant are dedicated professionals who provide their services pro bono. Speaking of The Pennant, I’m sure that there is a budding writer in you! Why not contribute some of your knowledge by way of an article for publication? Our members would love to read all that information you’ve gathered. Feel free to drop me a line and share your thoughts. I’m a hobbyist just like you, and wish you a wonderful year full of great finds. See you at a pen show. Craig Bozorth I PAYPAL NOW AVAILABLE FOR PCA MEMBERSHIP It is now easier than ever to join the P.C.A. You can make Gift subscriptions are also available for that special per- your choice of a one or three year membership and simply son. Indicate this is a gift subscription in your comments and click on the PayPal button to make your membership pay- we will include a gift card at no additional cost. Your recipi- ment. Go to the P.C.A. website (http://www.pencollectors. ent will receive all three issues for 2006 plus two of the most com), click on “Join PCA,” then “Join Today.” recent back issues. Whether you are in the U.S. or anywhere worldwide, you With all new membership applications you should com- may now conveniently submit your membership without the plete the application form and mail to Pen Collectors of expense of international money orders or bank drafts. America, Roger Wooten, Treasurer, P.O. Box 174, Garden In an effort to attract new, younger members the P.C.A. is 50 Prairie IL 61038-0174. also introducing a new Youth Rate. If you are 18 or younger New members joining now will receive all three issues of your rate is one-half the normal membership: $20 for one Spring, Summer and Winter for 2006 plus two of the latest year. This rate is available for U.S. membership only. back issues of The Pennant. WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT PCA PCA Local Pen Clubs JOIN A CLUB LOOKING TO NETWORK WITH FELLOW PEN COLLECTORS? CHECK OUT ONE OF THE LOCAL PEN CLUBS LISTED BELOW D.C. METRO PEN CLUB Contact: Harry Shubin • shubin@mwzb.com Ph: 703.812.5306 FLORIDA PEN COLLECTORS CLUB Contact: Giovanni Abrate • www.tryphon.it/fpc email: fpc@tryphon.it KANSAS CITY PEN CLUB Contact: Dennis Bowden • email: sales@parkvillepen.com LAS VEGAS PEN CLUB Contact: Chris Burton • email: onsight512@yahoo.com Ph: 702.610.4045 From The Stacks LIBRARY ADDITIONS By Dan Reppert, P.C.A. Librarian A short one this month. No ramblings; just new info. 1. FROM L. MICHAEL FULTZ: This will be listed twice: Once as ARISTOCRAT and also CROCKER Crocker 19?? Small ad 1 pg Aristocrat 19?? Small ad 1 pg Crocker FACTS 19?? Small card 2 pgs This one will be listed twice: once as PENMANSHIP, once as SPENCER & RICE. Penmanship 1918 Boys First Lesson in Penmanship 5 pgs LONG ISLAND PEN CLUB Spencer and Rice 1918 Boys First lesson in Penmanship 5pgs Contact: Nancy Handy • email: nhandy@optonline.com Waterman 8pgs NEW ORLEANS PEN CLUB Contact: Thomas Bickham • email: tbickiii@hotmail.com Ph: 225.677.9448 NORTH TEXAS FOUNTAIN PEN COLLECTORS Contact: Lowell Lindsey • email: llindsey@airmail.net PORTLAND PEN CLUB Contact: Carla Mortensen email: carla_mortensen@hotmail.com RICHMOND PEN CLUB Contact: Sam Marshall email: richmondpenclub@marshall-assoc.com ST. LOUIS AREA PEN CLUB Contact: Bruce Mindrup • brucem@gtec.com or Jake Leventhal • jakespens@earthlink.net 1992 Jif catalog in French Appears to be a reprint of a Patrician era catalog. Printed sheet measures 16” X 22”. 2. THE BELOW ADS ARE FROM JACK LEONE WITH MANY MORE TO COME: Parker 1930 Ad Desk convertible 1 pg In color Waterman 1929 Ad 7 points 1 pg In color Waterman 1948 Ad 100 year pens 2 pgs In color Parker 1940 New “51” 1 pg In color 3. FROM DON HISCOCK A YEAR AGO WE HAVE: Eversharp 19?? Service manual 22 pgs 4. FROM BRUCE MINDRUP: SEATTLE PEN CLUB Parker Dec. 1933 Parkergrams Contact: George Long • email: george.long1@comcast.net Ph: 206.365.5998 A Complete Rebirth of The Pen Business 16 pgs SOUTHEAST PEN COLLECTORS CLUB Contact: Glen Cheatham • email: gjc@mindspring.com TAMPA BAY PEN ENTHUSIASTS Contact: Ray Roewert • email: rroewert1@tampabay.rr.com Ph: 727.743.8890 The P.C.A. is happy to provide a complimentary listing for local pen clubs. Email your club information including contact name, email and phone number to: info@pencollectors.com THE PENNANT PENNANT THE WINTER2005 2005 WINTER 51 PCA Upcoming Shows Location and dates may be subject to change; please contact the show organizers to verify information below. The P.C.A. keeps an up-to-date listing of current and pending U.S. pen shows on the P.C.A. website: www.pencollectors.com, courtesy of Susan Wirth. ATLANTA PEN SHOW March 24- 26, 2006 Sheraton Buckhead/Lenox Contact: Boris Rice 281.496.7152 MIAMI PEN SHOW July 7-9, 2006 The Biltmore, Coral Gables Contact: Jim Rouse 410.539.7367 MICHIGAN PEN SHOW September 15-17, 2006 The Hilton Detroit/Troy Contact: C. Eric Fonville 734.355.9408 BOSTON PEN SHOW April 22-23, 2006 Holiday Inn Somerville Contact: Rob Morrison 828.277.7026 PORTLAND PEN SHOW July 14-16, 2006 Embassy Suites (downtown) Contact: Carla Mortenson 503.282.0020 LITTLE ROCK PEN SHOW September 16, 2006 Contact: Sam Highsmith 501.231.1005 CHICAGO PEN SHOW May 5- 7, 2006 Westin O’Hare (Rosemont) Contact: Don Lavin 847.272.2745 TORONTO PEN SHOW July 30, 2006 International Center Contact: Robert Bridge 905.274.7242 DALLAS PEN SHOW September 30, 2006 Holiday Inn, Richardson Contact: P. Kirby 972.529.6364 or Walker 214.943.5675 RALEIGH PEN SHOW June 9-11, 2006 Embassy Suites, Cary NC Contact: Terry Mawhorter 740.454.2314 DC SUPER SHOW August 11-13, 2006 Tyson’s Corner Contact: Bob Johnson 864.963.3834 COLUMBUS PEN SHOW November 3-5, 2006 Clarion Dublin 17a & I-270 Contact: Terry Mawhorter 740.454.2314 Show organizers are encouraged to submit show details for this column to the editor. P. C . A P e n S h o w S u p p o r t e r s The P.C.A. expresses its gratitude to the sponsors of the following pen shows for graciously donating table space. Thanks for your generosity! PHILADELPHIA • Bert Oser, Ken Jones and Jim Rouse MIAMI • Bert Oser, Ken Jones and Jim Rouse LOS ANGELES • Boris Rice, Stan Pfeiffer, and Chris Odgers PORTLAND • Carla Mortensen GREAT SOUTHEASTERN • Jimmy Dolive and Boris Rice SAN FRANCISCO • Harvey Raider and Detlef Bittner NEW ENGLAND • Rob Morrison OHIO • Sonya and Terry Mawhorter CHICAGO • Michael Fultz, Daniel Zazove, Donald Lavin MICHIGAN • Michigan Pen Collectors Club RALEIGH • Sonya and Terry Mawhorter Pennant Back Issues Back issues of The Pennant are available. Most are photocopies. All are $10 each + $5 postage and handling in the U.S. per order, overseas postage will vary. All requests for reprints should be addressed to: Dan Reppert, P.C.A. Librarian, P.C.A. Library, P.O. Box 447, Fort Madison, IA 52627-0447; e-mail: wasp1908@mchsi.com 1993—March, July, October 2000—Spring, Fall, Winter 1994—February, May, August 2001—Spring, Fall, Winter 1995—Spring/Summer, Fall/Winter 2002—Spring, Summer, Winter 1996—Spring, Summer/Fall 2003—Spring, Summer, Winter 1997—Spring, Winter 2004—Spring/Summer, Winter 1998—Spring, Fall 2005—Spring/Summer 1999—Spring, Fall, Winter 52 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT PCA Membership SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP LEVELS REGULAR MEMBERSHIP OUTSIDE U.S. PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE LEVEL $60/1 year or, $150/3 years $150 per year 3 issues of The Pennant Six issues of The Pennant (two of each issue) 1 free classified ad Two free classified ads Access to library, $.15 per page Complimentary P.C.A. Lapel Pin Fifty pages of reprints from P.C.A. Library Members at special sponsor levels will receive certificates Acknowledgement of sponsorship, redeemable for classified ads and library reprints to be presented at time of redemption. Certificates will be included each issue of The Pennant in Sponsor Packet. Certificate Of Sponsorship PATRON LEVEL The P.C.A. membership year runs from January–December. $100 per year Membership renewal notices are sent each November to those Three issues of The Pennant due to renew. If you join the P.C.A. between October 1 and Two free classified ads December 31, your membership is automatically extended Complimentary P.C.A. Lapel Pin through the following year. Twenty-five pages of reprints from P.C.A. Library Acknowledgement of sponsorship in As a current member, don't forget to send any updated personal information to info@pencollectors.com. If you've each issue of The Pennant moved, changed your name, changed your email, added Certificate Of Sponsorship a FAX line, or made any other changes, it will not be cor- SPONSOR LEVEL rect in the listings unless you tell us! We are pleased to offer $75 per year membership levels with added benefits. As a non-profit, all- Three issues of The Pennant volunteer organization, the P.C.A. is only as good as the sup- Two free classified ads port it receives. Your contributions keep The Pennant arriv- Complimentary P.C.A. Lapel Pin ing on your doorstep three times a year, help support the Ten pages of reprints from P.C.A. Library P.C.A. projects and enable the P.C.A. to continue to grow Acknowledgement of sponsorship in and improve. When you renew your membership this year, each issue of The Pennant we hope you’ll consider one of our special new membership Certificate Of Sponsorship levels which are detailed at the left. Even if your member- REGULAR MEMBERSHIP, U.S. ship is not up for renewal, it’s easy to upgrade to one of the $40, 1 year; or $105, 3 years special membership levels—simply drop us a line or email us Three issues of The Pennant at: info@pencollectors.com. Thanks for your support! One free classified ad Access to library, $.15 per page Corporate Sponsors BEXLEY STYLUS SANFORD NORTH AMERICA LEVENGER 2840-B Fisher Street, Columbus OH, 43204 614.351.9988 Parker, Waterman, Rotring, Sensa 2711 Washington Blvd Bellwood, IL 60104 800.323.0749 979 Summer Street Stamford, CT 06905 203.352.1817 420 South Congress Avenue Delray Beach, FL 33445 561.276.2436 The P.C.A. invites pen manufacturers and wholesale pen distributors to be a Corporate Sponsor of the Pen Collectors of America. Contact Craig Bozorth for details: info@pencollectors.com. THE PENNANT PENNANT THE WINTER2005 2005 WINTER 53 PCA Contributors MIKE CONWAY is a tool and die maker with the JACK LEONE lives in Cincinnati with wife Kathy and col- Parker Pen Company and has been at lects pens from Cincinnati makers like Conklin, Parker through all of its different twists Omas, Parker, Pelikan, and Wahl/Eversharp. and turns for 28 years and counting. He He is part of the Bexley Pen Company. has been collecting pens for 14 years. Mike is married, has two children, and is a lifelong resident of Janesville, Wisconsin. SAM FIORELLA is a long-time pen collector, the past JIM MARSHALL owns and operates The Pen & Pencil president of the P.C.A. and co-owner, with Gallery in Skelton, near Penrith, Cumbria, her husband Frank, of Pendemonium, a England, along with his wife and business writing collectibles and pen shop, based in partner Jane. His activities include restora- Fort Madison, Iowa. tion, buying and selling, writing, and regular attendance at trade shows and a few topend antique shows. He is the author of several books about writing instruments, and L. MICHAEL FULTZ is a writer, pen collector and manufacturer. He is a contributing editor to Pen World among his many interests are late 18th and early 19th century dip pens, pencils, quill knives and accessories. International and editorial director of Penbid. He makes and sells his own line of precious metal, JOHN MOTTISHAW of Mottishaw Nibworks (oth- vulcanite, and/or acrylic fountain pens. He lives erwise known as Classic Fountain Pens) in Chicago or in Milton, Wisconsin with his wife smoothens nibs at www.nibs.com. A Martha. “lapsed metal sculptor” with a fine art and metals background, John has been repair- DON HISCOCK has been a pen collector in St. Louis, ing pens and nibs for 13 years. Mo. since elementary school, when lawnmowing money used to be able to buy old stock pens at the corner drugstore. He DAN REPPERT collects off-brand Sheaffers such as works as a paper scientist for DuPont and Univer, W.A.S.P., and Craig. He is vice travels the world providing technical service president and librarian of the P.C.A. He to paper mills. worked for Sheaffer for over 12 years, and is currently involved in historic building DANIEL KIRCHHEIMER has been collecting pens renovation in Fort Madison. since 1974. He has a fondness for Sheaffers, though he performs restoration on many brands, including dent removal for Parker SUSAN WIRTH, a longtime user and collector of “51’s. Other hobbies include playing blues fountain pens, appeared on a 1999 Oprah guitar, lockpicking, gemology, and barbecue. Winfrey show, themed: People Who Are Passionate About Something. She believes one size nib does not fit all, and she can be found at pen shows with her colorful tables, including a place to sit down where you can try before you buy. Her slogan: “A pen for every hand...and some for the other hand.” 54 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT PCA Pen Repair PEN REPAIR DIRECTORY BROADWAY PENS BRAD KNAPP 456 S. Broadway Lebanon, OH 45036 Home: 513.932.2220, Work: 513.932.6070 FAX: 513.932.9988 bknapp@go-concepts.com www.broadwaypens.com Repairs most brands including Parker Button Fill($20) and Vacs($25); Sheaffer Snorkels($25); Sheaffer and Wahl Plunger Fillers($30). FOUNTAIN PEN HOSPITAL 10 Warren Street New York, NY 10007 800.253.7367 • 212.964.0580 FAX: 212.227.5916 Website: www.fountainpenhospital.com Email: info@fountainpenhospital.com Repairs and restorations for all pen makes, models and filling mechanisms. THE FOUNTAIN PEN RECYCLER MIKE CARTER MAIL: P.O. Box 28083 Store: 7000 57th Ave. N., Ste. 103 Crystal, MN 55428 Home: 763.434.7921 Work: 763.535.1599 FAX: 763.535.1892 Email: carterinx@aol.com Repairs to all makes and models.Repairs on most vintage pens, including Sheaffer vacs–fast turnaround, excellent communication. INKPEN VINTAGE FOUNTAIN PENS JOEL R. HAMILTON 1602 Arizona Avenue Alamogordo, NM 88310 Phone: 505.437.8118 Email: inkpen5326@aol.com SHERRELL TYREE 10009 Roe Avenue Overland Park, Kansas 66207 Phone: 913.642.3216 Email: st3836@swbell.net Website: www.ink-pen.com Repairs on most vintage pens, including Sheaffer and Parker Vacs, PFM’s, etc. Excellent communication and all work is guaranteed. “Your Pen Is Our Priority” THE PENNANT PENNANT THE WINTER2005 2005 WINTER PEN HAVEN BERTON A. HEISERMAN LOUIS WOFSY 3730 Howard Avenue Kensington, MD 20895 Home: Berton, 301.365.4452; Louis, 703.323.1922 Work: 301.929.0955 Fax: 301.365.4750 Website: www.penhaven.com Email: bheiserman@comcast.net, or lwofsy@cox.net Specialties: Total restoration to all models. Plastic crack repairs. Replace bands, rings and crowns, Waterman 100 Yr. barrel ends and cap-tops. Plating. PENOPOLY ROGER CROMWELL & VICTOR CHEN 1271 Washington Avenue, PMB 598 San Leandro, CA 94577 Email: roger@penopoly.com Website: www.penopoly.com Restoration and repairs on all makes and models. RICHARD BINDER 31 Fairmount Street Nashua, NH 03064-2523 Phone: 603.882.5384 Email: richard@richardspens.com Website: www.richardspens.com General repair and restoration of vintage pens; nib adjustment and smoothing. THE SOUTHERN SCRIBE RICK HORNE 1868 Mt. Meigs Road Montgomery, AL 36106 Home: 334.263.4169 Work: 334.263.4169 FAX: 334.263.4169 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST Monday thru Friday Email: penfix@thesouthernscribe.com Website: www.thesouthernscribe.com Expert repair on Eyedroppers to Snorkels, difficult & unusual repairs including cracks, goldplating, black hard rubber color restoration, mother of pearl and abalone panel replacement. Now re-tipping nibs. Y Advertise your pen repair service in The Pennant’s Pen Repair Directory. Your listing reaches nearly 2,000 members three times annually. $75 for three consecutive issues. Mail, fax or email your listing. Please include your name, address, phone number, e-mail and a brief description of your repair services. P.C.A.—Pen Repair Directory P.O. Box 447, Fort Madison, IA 52627 Fax: 319.372.0882 or email: Terry Mawhorter, AdvertisingManager, linklady@cyberzane.net 55 P. C . A . PCA Contributor guidelines Board of Directors The Pennant invites you to submit articles of interest to the P.C.A. membership. Contributions should be submitted as email attach- CRAIG BOZORTH ANNMARIE HAUTANIEMI ments, on floppy disk or on CD, using standard word processing 305.858.5635 607.257.8502 software. B4AWL@aol.com fpinks@lightlink.com instruments, pen manufacturers, ephemera, news about your recent DAN REPPERT BERT HEISERMAN finds, and Letters to the Editor. The Pennant Author’s Guidelines docu- 319.372.3730 301.590.7111 ment is available upon request, and members of the editorial staff and wasp1908@mchsi.com info@penhaven.com Articles: We welcome articles dealing with pen collecting, writing P.C.A. Board are available to assist you. VICTOR CHEN CARLA MORTENSEN scanned at no less than 300 pixels per inch. They may be submitted as email 510.444.4119 Not available attachments, as JPG files, or on disk or CD as PSD, JPG or TIF images. vwchen@pacbell.net carla_mortensen@hotmail.com Deadlines: for submission of articles are February 1, June 1 and October L. MICHAEL FULTZ LEN PROVISOR 1. Contributions are subject to editorial review and should be sent 312.642.7968 847.566.4206 to: P.C.A., Attn: Editor, The Pennant, PO Box 447, Fort Madison, IA FultzPens@aol.com provisorpro@earthlink.net Illustrations: When submitting images, be certain that they have been We cannot use images imbedded in text documents or spreadsheets. 52627-0447 or via email to: info@pencollectors.com. JOEL HAMILTON _______________ All opinions expressed in The Pennant are those of the authors and do not 505.437.8118 necessarily represent the opinion of the P.C.A., its directors, or members. inkpen5826@aol.com MARKETPLACE WANTED : POLITE COLLECTOR would like to buy WANTED: Prince Protean, other pre-1880 fountain pens; pens, pencils, advertising material, display cases or other also fancy solid gold/sterling dip pens in larger sizes. Michael information regarding the Hartline Pen Co., that was located Fultz, FultzPens@aol.com, P. O. Box 308, Milton, WI 53563. in Tampa, Florida, and for a short time in Michigan. Please 608-868-3006. contact me at 786.275.0394, collect is fine. Or e-mail me: REPAIRS : Parker “51” ding and dent removal and cus- b4awl@aol.com. Thank you, Craig Bozorth. tom-made pen repair tools by Daniel Kirchheimer. Visit my WANTED: Pens, parts, ephemera, etc. sold as house brands web site for pictures and information: home.comcast.net/ of Rexall, Montgomery Ward or Lipic. Larry Allin, 501 Crest ~kirchh/Pen_Restoration. Court, St. Louis MO 63122 lallin@aol.com. BUY/SELL : www.Parker75.com, Buy/Sell Parker 75, FOR SALE: Visit PenQuest.com (http://www.penquest.com) Premier, T-1, Parker Ephemera, Lee Chait 404-285-5564. for great buys on gently used vintage and contemporary pens. LHC@Parker75.com. Buy • Sell • Trade in The Pennant Marketplace. Your classified ad reaches over 2,000 pen enthusiasts. P.C.A. members are entitled to one or more free classifieds annually based on membership level. Free ad may be up to 25 words in length. Marketplace ads $.50 per word. Deadlines for publication: February 15, June 15 and October 15. Mail to: P.C.A. Marketplace, P.O.Box 447, Fort Madison, IA 52627 or FAX to 319.372.0882 or email: Terry Mawhorter, Advertising Mgr. linklady@cyberzane.net 56 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT DEHAVILLAND 1930 DH80 Puss Moth G-AAXV Kensingtonpens.com MONTBLANC Fine Vintage Writing Instruments Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft mbH All Brands, specializing in the The name MONTBLANC and the star logo is copyright of Rare and Unusual 1922 LVG C VI MONTBLANC INTERNATIONAL GMBH Cliff Harrington and Mark Hoover, Historically accurate reproduction models Visit www.inkblotters.com for ordering information Proprietors 4090 A Howard Ave. Kensington, MD 20895 Telephone 301.530.1183 Email: Kp@kensingtonpens.com Len Provisor email: provisorpro@earthlink.net THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 We Exhibit At All Major Pen Shows 57 !"#$ %&''$ (#)'$ *+',$ +'$ -$ ./##$ +),#/)#,$ '#/0+1#2$ 345'1/+5#/'$ -/#$ 6-/,$ &.$ -$ 78)-9+1$ &):+)#$ 1&994)+,8$ &.$ 6#&6:#$ +),#/#',#7$ +)$ 1&::#1,+);$6#)'<$6#)1+:'$-)7$&,"#/$/#:-,#7$6-/-6"#/)-:+-<$0+),-;#$ -)7$9&7#/)2$=-)8$'45'1/+5#/'$-/#$(>?$9#95#/'2$@&4$1"&&'#$ "&A$,&$6-/,+1+6-,#$B$:#-/)$-5&4,$6#)'<$548$'#::$&/$$,/-7#<$&/$C4',$ A-,1"$-)7$/#-7$,"#$9#''-;#'2$D,E'$.4)$-)7$+,E'$./##F$ G Tuesday–Friday, 9–4. Most Saturdays 10–3. Call to Verify. !"#$%&'"#()*%"&$+"$*",$-**.,//00012"3314"(/.5&3/$ 6#$0#%*5$7"($8"33$)*$*2"3392"3314"($ H$IJJK!L%$ Collector wishes to buy pens by Cincinnati makers John Holland Collins / Pick / Royal / Star Weidlich / Weidlich-Simpson Contact: Jack Leone jackleone@mac.com 513.732.2038 58 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT The Writing Equipment Society Journal is published in England and covers the history and development of writing equipment. For just $65 a year you will receive three colourful issues of the Journal packed with information and gain easy access to the 600 members who are collectors and dealers in the U.K. and Europe. To become a member of the Society, contact: membership@wesonline.org.uk membership@wesonline.org.uk www.wesonline.org.uk Ohio pen show A Premier Vintage Pen Show November 2, 3, 4, and 5, 2006 Exceptional Pre-Show Buying ■ 30+ Tables Thursday, 100+ Tables Friday Vintage Pen Auction ■ Seminars & Parties Featuring Long Time Exhibitors ■ Many Exclusive To The Ohio Show! 150 Tables Saturday and Sunday Vintage and modern pens, inkwells, and a full range of pen related items Clarion Dublin Hotel • Columbus, Ohio $87/Night ( Toll free, 1.866.372.5566) Weekend Registration: $50.00 (Includes Significant Other And/Or Child) Terry and Sonya Mawhorter, Show Organizers 740.454.2314 ■ www.ohiopenshow.com Bexley Pen Pendemonium THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 SHOW PATRONS Luxury Brands USA Inkblotters.com PenWorld Magazine pentrace.com 59 Pen Haven 3730 Howard Ave • Kensington, MD 20895 The Southern Scribe EXPERT PEN REPAIR PHOTOS ON MY WEBSITE • VINTAGE PENS SOLD SINGLE PIECES & COLLECTIONS PURCHASED & APPRAISED NOW RE-TIPPING NIBS IN-HOUSE WITH 4–6 WEEKS 9–5 CST • MONDAY–FRIDAY TURNAROUND WWW.thesouthernscribe.com Rick Horne • 334.263.4169 1868 Mt. Meigs Road • Montgomery, AL 36107 Open: Sat–Sun, 12 p.m.–5 p.m. 301.929.0955 Fax 301.365.4750 Professional Repair & Restoration Vintage Fountain Pens & Accessories Berton A. Heiserman 301.365.4452 Louis Wofsy • 703.323.4452 Email bheiserman@comcast.net, or lwofsy@cox.net www.penhaven.com THIRD RALEIGH PEN SHOW JUNE 8, 9, 10, & 11, 2006 VINTAGE PARTS EXCHANGE THURSDAY, JUNE 8 30+ TABLES THURSDAY (BEGINNING AT 10 A.M.!) • VINTAGE PEN AUCTION, 90+ TABLES FRIDAY FRIDAY, JUNE 9 90 TABLES SATURDAY AND SUNDAY VINTAGE AND MODERN PENS • FULL RANGE OF PEN ITEMS • SEMINARS EMBASSY SUITES HOTEL • CARY, NORTH CAROLINA $97/ CALL 1.800.EMBASSY OR 919.677.1840 FREE HOT BREAKFAST AND EVENING RECEPTION INCLUDED IN ROOM RATE FREE AIRPORT SHUTTLE WEEKEND REGISTRATION: $40.00 (INCLUDES SPOUSE, SIGNIFICANT OTHER AND/OR CHILD) TERRY & SONYA MAWHORTER, SHOW ORGANIZERS www.raleighpenshow.com 740.454.2314 SHOW PATRONS BEXLEY PEN PENWORLD MAGAZINE LUXURY BRANDS USA 60 PENDEMONIUM PENTRACE.COM INKBLOTTERS.COM TRIANGLE PEN CLUB WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT Vintage Writing Instrument Repair, Restoration and Appraisals One Week Turnaround! Pen Collectors of America Reference Library Lever / Button Fill $30 • Parker Vacumatic $35 Sheaffer Vacuum Fill $35 • Conklin Nozak $40 All others call Over 6000 pages of vintage catalogs, brochures and advertisements await P.C.A. members All work warranted. Large parts inventory. We buy! Contact Dan Reppert, P.C.A. PO BOX 2866 • Youngstown, OH 44511 330.507.pens AARON A. SVABIK Email: wasp 1908@mchsi.net repairs@pentiques.com The Pen Mechanic Vintage Fountain Pen & Pencil • Repairs & Sales Specializing in Waterman’s Rivet Clips and 100-Year Pen Barrel End replacements. Reasonable rates and fast turnaround. BILL ENDERLIN 301.585.0600 P.O. Box 197, Kensington, MD 20895 Todd Nussbaum P.O. Box 32166 Mesa, AZ 85275 Email: pen-king2@cox.net Website: www.isellpens.com E-MAIL: THEPENMECH@AOL.COM Are You Looking for the Perfect Gift for a Favorite Pen Collector? CONSIDER A GIFT MEMBERSHIP IN THE P.C.A. Now you can give a gift that will inform, delight and remind someone you know that you are thinking of them everyday of the year! Complete all of the requested information below, print clearly and send this form, along with your check or money order, made payable to: Pen Collectors of America, Attn: Roger Wooten, P.C.A. Treasurer P.O. Box 174 Garden Prairie, IL 61038-0174 Please send a Gift Membership for (check one): Inside the U.S.: Outside the U.S.: ■ ■ One year $40 U.S. One year $60 U.S. ■ ■ three years $105 U.S. three years $150 US Send membership to: Name of Gift Recipient __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mailing Address ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ City __________________________________________ State/Province _________ Country ____________________________________ Postal/Zip Code _________________________________ Email __________________________________________________________________ Phone (______) _________________________________ FAX (______) __________________________________________________________________________ Gift card message___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Check this box if this name should be omitted from publication as a P.C.A. member. ■ Your Name _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mailing Address ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ City ___________________________________________ State/Province__________ Country ______________________________________________ THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 61 CUSTOM NIB MODIFICATIONS SPECIALIZING IN VINTAGE AND LIMITED EDITION PENS We offer competitive prices on Pelikan, Omas, Namiki and Sailor pens • Re-tipping (any size) • Flow adjustments • Re-grinding • Crack repair • Straightening • Original Replacements* *A large stock of vintage nibs is available especially Waterman’s and Parker Stub, italic, oblique, calligraphy and flexible tips made to custom specifications • Re-tip on nib only .............................................................. $60 (extra charge for Stub, Oblique, Xbroad, or Xfine)............... $10 • Nib Removal and Resetting (Whole Pen Charge) .................. $20 • UPS Third-day insured for $100 ........................................... $6 (Any amount of insurance is available. Please add $.50 per $100 over $100) Email: ppgallery@aol.com Website: www.penpencilgallery.co.uk Phone: (44) 1768.484.300 Location: Cumbria, England Limited service from mid–June to mid–September. John Mottishaw P.O. Box 46723 Los Angeles, Ca. 90046 Telephone: 323.655.2641 Fax: 323.651.0265 e-mail: sales@nibs.com Visit our web site at www.nibs.com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nkpen Vintage Fountain Pens ™ Sales • Search • Purchase Repairs on most vintage pens including Parker and Sheaffer vacs. EXCELLENT COMMUNICATION All work guaranteed Joel Hamilton 505.437.8118 inkpen5326@aol.com Sherrell Tyree 913.642.3216 st3836@swbell.net Visit our website www.ink-pens.com “Your Pen is Our Priority!” Purveyors of Fine Inks & Refills Would like to thank all of you for 8 GREAT YEARS! Please contact our friends at Bertram’s Inkwell For all your ink and refill needs • 1.888.311.1025 Sincerely, AnnMarie Hautaniemi THE PENNANT WINTER 2005 Fine Fountain Pens & Writing Supplies Norman G. Haase hisnibs@hisnibs.com www.hisnibs.com 63 Society of Inkwell Collectors Join Us! Newsletter Convention Books & Accessories Networking P.O. BOX 324 MOSSVILLE, IL 61552 PHONE: 309.579.3040 INKWELLSOCIETY@AOL.COM WWW.SOIC.COM 64 WINTER 2005 THE PENNANT Aurora, Bexley, Delta, Libelle, Monteverde, Parker, Pelikan, Recife, Retro 51, Sheaffer, Stipula, Visconti, Waterman NEW! Private Reserve Ink Private Reserve Fountain Pen Inks are among the best inks available today: purchase from one of our dealers - you’ll be happy you did! 28 Vibrant Colors • Neutral ph Excellent coverage Smooth flow • Non-clogging Fast drying • Made in the U.S.A 50 ml classic deco bottle - $7.60 Private Reserve Ink is now available in standard (universal or international) cartridges, each color packaged in a unique plastic recloseable case containing twelve cartridges. Cartridges come in 23 colors! Private Reserve Ink P.O. Box 704, Zionsville, IN 46077 (317) 733-1970 • www.PrivateReserveInk.com Visit our website for dealer listings. Dealer inquiries invited. FOUNTAIN PEN HOSPITAL The Showcase of Fine Writing Instruments Since 1946 World’s Largest Selection Visit our newly expanded showroom for an experience unlike any other. The world’s largest selection of contemporary, limited edition and vintage pens. CALL OR EMAIL FOR FREE PEN CATALOG 10 Warren Street New York, NY 10007 800.253.PENS T. 212.964.0580 / F. 212.227.5916 info@fountainpenhospital.com www.fountainpenhospital.com Just click www.fountainpenhospital.com