Help needed in identifying pen

[Philip1209]

I received this Cross pen from my dad a couple weeks ago. It writes like a charm and the nib is slightly flexible and writes very smoothly. The nib is yellow gold, but I have no idea of its purity. Can anyone please help me to identify this pen? I'm guessing that it is 90's era, but I can't be sure.

Thanks!

 

 

Black lacquer body

 

 

 

The clip is engraved with "cross"

 

 

 

Screw-on top; medium size nib with some ornamentation, a breathing hole and the word "cross"

 

 

 

The side of the nib. I can see no external anchors for the gold part of the nib (such as on the Lamy pens)

 

 

 

Uses standard Cross cartridges (which are very handy, might I add)

 

 

 

All of the parts

[RLTodd]

Cross "Solo." I believe it was a subcontract job by Namiki/Pilot. It is considered a keeper and they don't seem to change hands very often.

[Tweel]

The nib and trim are stainless steel plated with 23k gold (seems to be a good, wear-resistant plating job, too); the cap and barrel are acrylic. I'm not sure what you meant by "anchors", but if you look at the underside of the feed, you'll see that it has shoulders that fit against the nib for alignment. I *think* the Solo was introduced in 1994, and produced until a few years ago.

 

-- Brian

 

[Philip1209]

Thanks a lot. I really like the way the pen writes.

23 karat gold? wow.

[osnofian]

Cross "Solo." I believe it was a subcontract job by Namiki/Pilot. It is considered a keeper and they don't seem to change hands very often.

 

Finally I understand why I can change the nib section on my Pilot/Namiki Custom 66 with this Cross pens... fantastic!

BTW it is a excellent pen for it's value and it writes beautifully with the 14K Pilot #5 gold nib

 

 

[Sheaffer USA]

That pen would be a Solo Classic. The regular Solo was trimmed in black. They also did a Solo with Chrome Trim

in the Classic colors like Black, Blue, Burgundy and Green. I sold a TON of those back in the 90's when I was in retail.

They even did specialty Solo pens with sublimated prints and pad printing for Hallmark. I think I still have some that

were even packaged with Flower Seeds and Journals. Those were great little pens. I gave them to most of my family

and most of them are still in use nearly 10 years later.

 

Dave M

Edited May 14, 2008 by Sheaffer USA

[doctorjah]

What a resource The Fountain Pen Network is! I have one of these Cross Solo Classic pens as well, but I didn't know that's what it is until I found this thread. It is a smooth writer. But I don't have a converter for it so I can't use bottled ink in it. I haven't searched the Cross web site or elsewhere for a converter yet, having just identified the pen, but thought I'd go ahead and post the inquiry... Thanks.

 

[doctorjah]

I meant to ask, how do you know it's 23k gold? I see no markings to that affect on mine...

[Tweel]

The Solo uses Cross's green converter. There are no markings on the pen regarding the gold plate, but it's in the pen's documentation.

 

[Edit: It's a little amusing that I'm still around to respond to your question regarding my post of almost 7 years ago! And still using the same Solos and Radiances that I had back then -- good pen.]

Edited March 17, 2015 by Tweel

[doctorjah]

I'm glad you are around to give me that information. I agree that it's a very smooth-writing pen, much smoother than my Pelikan M200 and possibly smoother than my several sadly now broken Waterman Phileas's (I wonder if their tendency for their nib to break off is why they've been discontinued?). I also wonder if the Solo Classic documentation is available anywhere online? I can't find any information about them on the Cross web site.

 

I'm also glad this thread was still here. After finding out what kind of pen it is from the thread, I immediately called Cross and found out that it uses the green converter, which I ordered from Amazon Prime and have already received.

 

Thanks!