Need Assistance In Identity Of A Wahl Signature

August 30, 2010

I have seen and handled any number of Wahl and Wahl-Eversharp pens with the double check marks on the gold seal. However, I have recently acquired a Wahl pen identified as a Signature

with the letter "X" or some such symbol in place of the checks. What is it and what does it stand for? Anyone??

Perhaps now that I have a photo you may know what I am talking about.

http://www.alumagrips.com/img/pens/wahl02.jpg

Edited August 31, 2010 by jaxxon

August 31, 2010

The "X" seal has been discussed many times and it origins and meaning remain clouded because there is no written evidence to support one or the another view. But after a great deal of deductive reasoning, over the last 10 years or so, 2 main thoughts emerge as possibilities of which one stands out for me.

Possible Conclusion#1: The "X" stands for experimental. The problem with this view is that there are Flat Top Gold Seal pens, Equi-Poised pens and maybe one other all found with "X" seals. That would mean that this method for labeling experimental pens was something that covered many eras and 3 different pen models/lines. And What was the need to mark a pen as such? Who would need to know if it were experimental or not?

Possible Conclusion 2: The "X" was put on "x-out" pens (closeouts) at the tail end of a model run whereby the pen would not carry any lifetime guarantee (which came with pens with the double check mark gold seal). The arguing question that has been made is Why would the company go to the trouble of making/putting a nice seal on the pen when in other pens the voided guarantee was accomplished by drilling the gold seal with a tiny hole. The theory goes on that the decision to terminate a line and no longer honor a lifetime guarantee could happen at a time during production. Thus there were finished pens, and partially finished pens involved. In the middle stages of Gold Seal pen assembly, the Cap was drilled for a gold seal. These partially finished pens were unsalable with a raw hole in them. Why put a good un-drilled gold seal into the socket and drill it, when placing a cheaper to make X seal could finish the pen handsomely and in a salable discounted condition. Most if not all of the x seal and drilled gold seal pens came with Warranted nibs and not with gold seal nibs. It has been asserted that nothing "gold seal" was associated with the voided guarantee pens.

Because they are very scarce, the X seal seem to carry a premium value of maybe 30-50% more than standard pens.I have "X" seal Grecian Border Deco Bands in green, black, and Nacre, and Equi-poised pens in Jade, black and Green-Bronze.

Wish there were a more definitive answer, but until so factory records, or a dealer circular comes along to tell us the answer, we are left with only educated guesses.

Syd