Why Do You Like Vintage Pens?

[ethernautrix]

I don't particularly care for vintage pens, but I will say that the appeal of vintage Sheaffers pens is their nibs. Fabulous nibs.

[riff raff]

"Why Do You Like Vintage Pens?"

 

What's not to like? Writing instruments that were, more often than not, built as tools. None of this mamby-pamby "preciousness" wanna-be pocket jewelry. Just day-to-day writing tools. Solid stuff that doesn't "shatter" if it rolls off the desk. Just pick it up and (assuming the nib wasn't bent) go on.

 

An almost infinite number of styles to chose from. And almost as many materials. And we're all aware of the decline of flex in modern nibs.

 

Someone mentioned "soul." I'm not sure about that, but there is something intangible about writing with a pen as old or older than yourself, that has weathered who-know-how-many other owners. That particular feeling is missing from the brand-new pen, oddly enough.

 

Meh. Hoity-toity pocket-jewelry, I say.

 

[jniforat]

i know what i'm about to say is not universally true, but vintage pens tend to be made much better than modern pens, and I like the design of vintage pens more too.

[Mille]

What exactly constitutes a 'vintage' pen? Does it depend (at least partially) on the brand? I gather the filling system and nib both have some influence as well? Would appreciate a brief (as possible) explanation.

 

I consider all pens 1968 and earlier to be vintage. Just because Sheaffer stopped producing PFM and the snorkel system. Then the world went, with a few exceptions, to C/C-pens.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

What exactly constitutes a 'vintage' pen? Does it depend (at least partially) on the brand? I gather the filling system and nib both have some influence as well? Would appreciate a brief (as possible) explanation.

Well, "exactly" may not be the way to put it. I don't think that there's a precise definition of a vintage pen. However, it does have to do with date of manufacture.

 

Some think that a fountain pen made in the '70s can be vintage, others seem to figure that vintage means some time in the '50s or earlier.

 

Basically it's older pens. I've never seen the vintage status of fountain pens from the '40s and earlier challenged. IMO pens from the '50s are vintage too. But each decade from the '60s onward will get more and more dissent, at least until we old guys go away. The definition will change as time goes on. People in the '40s didn't think of themselves as making vintage fountain pens, and now everyone considers that they did. Decades from now vintage will mean what's being produced today.

[nummies]

Value...at least for the ones I purchased. My experience when them (which is not all that long) have been nothing but positive. Simple but yet elegant in design, dependable (as I've always purchased them used and the owner clearly describes its writing...so no hard starts or roughness in the writing), and disposable if necessary (the most I've ever spent on a good vintage was about $100 and if something goes terribly wrong with it, I won't be too bummed).

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have a pen I call vintage,it was one of the first European pens to go sleek and extreme fancy modern with the nib. It's from about 1968-70, that because it has a semi-flex nib is Vintage; no question by me, vintage stops when they stopped making good nibs. Geha 725 Goldschwing (gold wing).

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/2003g.jpg

 

With permission of Penboard.de...some real fancy top flight shape, vintage pens there. Some with semi-flexible nibs.

 

All of the flat modern nibs are to me non-vintage even if it's from 1970, if it does not have a semi-flex nib.

 

Anybody can nit pick and say it looks modern to them, and they are right, the Goldscwing and perhaps a few MB's with semi-flex nibs are modern looking vintage pens.

There are enough '70's pens that look similar that are true modern pens, due to having nibs made for ball point pen users.

 

Anything from the '50's - early '60's is vintage good nib or not,if it's form is still of that era.

Any of the flat spade like nibs unless semi-flex is modern IMO.

 

Not all cartridge pens are modern...some were from the days when some pens had guts in them that the manufacturer was proud of it.

 

I will be the lone voice saying it's the nibs, and not the date. Form and guts can be an indicator, but there must be some old in era cartridge pens with semi-flex nibs. I don't know which, but there's lots I don't know.

 

This about the nib, is just an unsupported opinion, but sure makes it easy to classify vintage pens. Those built for writers verses those built for ease of manufacturing.

[piembi]

Why do I like vintage pens?

• 
  Because of
  
• their nibs - especially if they are semiflex and stubbish
  
• their size and weight - having small hands vintage pens fit better than huge, heavy modern pens
  
• their quality - many of my vintage pens had been the top line pens (e.g. Pelikan 400, Parker 51, Sheaffer Snorkel, MB 144, Eversharp Skyline) and had been produced to last their owners lifetime
  
• their price - I can afford a pen described above but not todays top line pens
  

[wkspear]

I have both, old and new. It isn't true only of pens, but in the case of vintage, a working object (or object that can readily be made to work) sixty years in has proven itself. It is very likely to last another sixty. In a sort of Darwinian manner, anything not made to last has been weeded out. However, it's the case that you can buy a new pen made to last also. The other attraction for me of old pens are the creative designs and clever filling mechanisms. Piston fillers and convertors seem to have become the most common, but I do like the technologies that have been mostly abandoned, rightly or wrongly. This includes the vac-fillers, the button fillers, and the snorkels, for examples. The Second World War was a great design era, giving us pens like the Eversharp Skyline, designed by Henry Dreyfuss (designer of, among other things, the Twentieth Century Limited locomotive and the rotary telephone), the Parker 51, the Waterman Hundred Year Pen (1939), and the Sheaffer Triumph. Sure, there are some great pens made today, but in my opinion, and from a design point of view, 1939-1945 was a golden age.

[all_inky]

Could someone who really likes vintage pens -- as users -- explain to me their appeal?

 

Frankly, I don't like using something that is fragile. Also, for a resin pen, the color is faded or yellowed and probably brittle. I wouldn't wear vintage clothing either. And unless I have a display case for vintage pens or clothing that never get handled, I don't see the appeal.

 

I guess for the same reason I don't see the appeal of using 40 year old Leica cameras or 60 year old Fords. Is this a reasonable analogy to old pens?

 

Great topic to read about. As a newbie, I haven't come to appreciate vintage pens yet, but these kind folks put some perspective on the matter for me.

[nxn96]

Reading some of the recent responses (including my own earlier post), I realize we've gotten away from one of the concerns of the original posting: fragility.

 

I called myself "vintage" because I use a "51" on a daily basis, and most of the pens I bought new 30 to 40 years ago are now considered "vintage". Still, the fragile point is a good one. I have very nice Parker VP that (other than a test-dip to try out the nib) never gets used because I'm afraid I'll do something to break the filler system and leave me with a "parts pen".

 

Granted, I've been pretty lucky with my "51" acquisitions, mostly off of Ebay, and there is probably no sturdier pen out there in the vintage market than the "51" Aero. On the other hand, it seems so many "premium" pens on the current market are nothing more than the same cartridge converter system that Parker pretty much perfected with the old 45 (and that's not just limited to the newer Parkers) packaged as high priced gift/collector items, but offer little value beyond the prestige they propose to offer.

 

All said, if I wanted a good steel-nibbed pen, I'd probably go on Ebay, buy a nice 45 Flighter and call it a day.

[Brian]

A few reasons I like them:

--It represents an object that has survived for many years because of care in using it or maybe because it was forgotten in a quiet place while all around it time continued on. It re-emerged at some point to be liberated and appreciated by us today. I often think about the stories they could tell...

--It represents the design and fashion of its day. It seems every decade can be associated with a particular design, e.g., 1920s flat-top hard rubber and early plastic pens; 1930s streamline; 1940s visible ink supply; and so on. Its kind of like holding a little piece of history in your hand.

--They are a practical alternative to the mass market fountain pens we see today (with a few exceptions) and make fantastic writers embodying a kind of depth not available in a new pen.

[Goncharov]

Interesting topic.

 

All of the bases have been pretty much covered.

 

 

I’d just like to add that I also enjoy restoring them; and I like writing with a pen that I’ve put back into working order myself.

 

There is a nice selection of interesting vintage pens to be found on ebay in the $15-30 range. I just put a few pictures of one in the Sheaffer forum.