Intro and Schaeffer Pen Identification

[mccornwall]

Greetings all. I've been lurking here about a week and while I haven't intro'd myself formally at the New Members Forum, I thought I'd toss this out as an intro and a question.

 

I've been using fountain pens for a little while now but only recently discovered FPN. I have about 7-8 pens, nothing pricey at all. All very much fun to use. I actually learned to write with a fountain pen in the fourth grade. Our teacher insisted we learn to use one. The pen that was chosen for us to use was a little Schaeffer catridge pen. It uses the Schaeffer Classic Ink cartridges and it is inked with one at this moment. It has a VERY smooth nib, a real pleasure as it glides so easily acorss the paper.

 

However, I really know nothing much about it all seeing as my parents bought it and I don't remember the process enough to remember what model the pen may have been. I'm going to try to insert some pictures here so that perhaps some FPN members might comment on what they think I have...and if I should stop using it or not, and comment as to it's probable value. I probably won't ever sell it, since it was my very first fountain pen and has some slight sentimental value for that very fact but it would be nice to have some idea about it.

 

I am actually wondering if it might be a Schaeffer School Pen. I say this because I was browsing over at Richard's Pens and was looking at the Nib Smoothing Kits. I noticed that the kit had a pen in the picture and Richard made note of the fact that the pen in the picture was NOT one of the pens included in the student kit that in fact it was a vintage Schaeffer School Pen. As I looked at it, I realized that it looked much like the pen I have here, except that mine is green. I do remember that I had a choice of colors. My pen is about 1970-era, give or take a year or two either way.

 

In any case, here are the pictures for your consideration. Thanks very much for looking. Hopefully they will have enough detail despite agressive resizing.

 

 

 

[SallyLyn]

Someone will provide good information on the ID, but do know there were many pens over the years called "school pens".

 

You might want to do a search in this forum, the pen review forum and the Sheaffer forum for sheaffer school pen.

 

Don't worry about having and using modest or inexpensive pens. Amazingly some $3-15 pens are smoother and better writers than pens costing 10 times as much.

 

Welcome aboard!

[Shangas]

Spelt 'Sheaffer'. No 'c'.

 

It may be a Sheaffer school pen. From what I've come to understand, Sheaffer made (still makes?) school pens for a long time and their design changed over the years. The SSPs I remember were shaped like the Sheaffer Balance from the 1930s.

[Iridium]

Spelt 'Sheaffer'. No 'c'.

 

And it's spelt with "ea" instead of "ae"--not trying to be pedantic (although I usually am ) but trying to get the original poster better search hits.

 

It may be a Sheaffer school pen. From what I've come to understand, Sheaffer made (still makes?) school pens for a long time and their design changed over the years. The SSPs I remember were shaped like the Sheaffer Balance from the 1930s.

 

That's definitely a Sheaffer "school pen" or "drugstore cartridge pen." The original design was based on one of the early Skripsert pens, which in turn looks a lot like the Sheaffer Thin Model (nearly the same shape except a bit shorter and even thinner), which in turn was based on the Balance. This is the second major style used, with a cone on the end of the barrel as well as the top of the cap, and the 1970s would be the right era. The later version with the flat barrel and cap ends was my first fountain pen. Sheaffer stopped making these during the early 1990s, I think.

 

I'm going to try to insert some pictures here so that perhaps some FPN members might comment on what they think I have...and if I should stop using it or not, and comment as to it's probable value.

 

Unfortunately, it's not worth a lot, just a few bucks. If you like it, there's no reason not to use it--I still use my original school pen.

[Titivillus]

yep going to say school pen!

 

welcome to FPN

 

Kurt

[mccornwall]

Thanks all. I'm actually relieved that it's not worth much. And I do love to use it. It's really an amazing smooth writer. The spelling is probably why I got almost no hits when I did a forum search before posting my query. I think I'll run it again and see what I get. I just finished tonight's journal entry with my Pelikan M200 Demo. I try to give all my pens some time in use and rotate them so they all get used to some extent.

 

I wish I'd found the Wality reviews before I got a couple of those eyedropper ones. I have the exact same problem with the blob of ink under the feed occasionally blobbing out...enough so that I keep a tissue or something on hand when I'm using one of them so I can soak it up before it goes everywhere. You definitely don't want to gesture with one of those things.

 

My next pen purchase might be one of the Hero's with the hooded nibs...it loks exactly like a pen that was in my parent's desk drawer. In fact, I'm pretty sure my mom still has that pen although the barrel iscracked and the sac is dried out. Maybe it'll be a project some day. I'm in no hurry to acquire it, know what I mean?

 

Anyway, thanks everyone for the warm welcome.

 

Mike