English "homelink" Aluminium Fountain Pen

[nissenk]

Hi all,

 

This English made "Homelink" fountain is unusual in that it has an alumium barrel and cap. There is very little information on the web about the pen and the company so I was wondering if any of the FPN members could tell me more about the company or the pen itself. The imprint reads "Homelink Reg, Pat App For, Made in England" so it would appear to be an independent company.

 

I'd also like to know what nib and section was originally fitted if anyone has one of these pens . This example came with a Mabie Todd and Co #2 nib which has been bent at some time in the past. The reason for this is that the nib and exposed section length is too long for the cap to be fully screwed on - the nib and section length of the Mabie Todd is 37 mm while whatever was originally fitted could not be any longer than about 24 mm without the cap binding on the tip of the nib.

 

The pencil line on the barrel shows where the cap fits when fully screwed on.

 

Thanks (in advance) for any information you may be able to provide.

 

Karl

[significantpass]

Can't help you, but i'd like to say that this is interesting.

[eckiethump]

I have a couple of these as button filers, also had a few where the blind cap was totally seized. Aluminium threads to aluminium threads do that.

Pens I have are Bowler in make, but the same section style and cap/clip as you have here. Tried to find out more about Bowler, but other than they were a London, UK company, no success. One of them has a Bowler 14kt nib, I have come across more than a few Bowler steel nibs

et

[nissenk]

Thanks eckiethump

That's a company I haven't heard of - seems even harder to find information on Bowler brand than the Homelink brand. Would you be able to post a picture of the pens?

 

Do your pens both use "own brand" nibs - you said that one has a Bowler nib but is the other pen the same?

 

This is interesting - it looks as if the parts may have been used in a couple of different manufacturers - or were the companies related in some way? One parent company (or a contractor) supplying barrels and caps using the same tooling? The imprint would have had to be done independently but this may be part of a contract to supply these parts as this would be a metal stamp on the barrel once the part was manufactured and fairly easy to set up.

 

If the section style is the same between the Bowler and Homelink I'm wondering if the nib and feed on my pen were replaced at some time but the section is original?

 

Karl

[Ray-Vigo]

That looks like an interesting pen. I'd love to find one of those. Do you have any guess as to the year? Prior to WWII, aluminum was somewhat expensive and rare compared to the 1950s and later.

[nissenk]

A further update on the Homelink aluminium pen - a few days after I posted this another one turned up on the UK Ebay site at a reasonable price. This one was a Homelink Deluxe with a blue anodised aluminium body.

 

"Aha!" thought I, "a second example of this may tell me more about the parts that make up the pen and may also tell me which nib was used!" A bid was made and the pen eventually arrived and was disassembled along with the original "standard" Homelink that started this all off.

 

No such luck on the nib - this one had an Osmiroid 35 steel nib, so am really not sure what these pens would have had fitted as far a a nib went. It is possible that the Homelink manufacturer used a variety of nibs from other companies so this may in fact be the correct nib. Both nibs are 25mm long and seem to fit the feed (that is not too big or small and the nib diameter seems to be correct).. The feeds are identical except for the feed channel - one is a little bit wider than the other, but this seems to reflect in the nibs fitted as the wider channel feed has a medium tipped nib while the narrow feed has a fine tipped nib.

 

The nibs and feeds have been disassembled at some time - the standard Homelink was not in far enough (leading to the nib damage seen to the Mabie Todd nib) while the Deluxe had the feed exposed at the sac end by 2-3 mm so was too far in. Using a Conway Stewart as a model the end of the feed should be flush with the sac end of the section.

 

The feeds are very similar to those in the Conway Stewart and Unique pens that I have so it is possible that both the nib and feed were supplied by one of the larger English pen manufacturers - I don't recognise the section as a Conway Stewart section, furthermore these two sections are not interchangeable as the barrel (and the section) of the Deluxe is a little bit bigger than that of the "standard" Homelink. The assumption is that these may have been made by the Homelink company to fit the pen model.

 

I've attached another photo to show the pen parts - nib and feed on the left are from the Deluxe. I'd appreciate any further information on the nibs, or any advertisements that would help date these pens if only to the correct decade.

 

Regards,

 

Karl

[Inkysloth]

Sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but I have a Conway Stewart with a 14kt Bowler nib, and haven't been able to find anything other than this about the company.