What's With All The Metal Pens?

[Jamesbeat]

I have a modest collection of vintage pens.

All of them are made from plastic, or plastic-like substances, such as celluloid or hard rubber.

 

Metal pens seem to be a relatively recent phenomenon.

The first I know of are the Parker Flighters, although I'm sure there must have been others around the same time.

 

Nowadays, there are absolutely loads of metal-bodied pens. Even pens that look like plastic are often painted metal, and I'm curious to learn why.

 

I do not believe that this is the result of some sort of technological improvement.

Metal-forming technology has been around for a long time. If the old pen manufacturers had wanted to make, say, brass-bodied pens, they could easily have used the same technology as ammunition manufacturers used to make small-arms cartridges.

 

A drawn-brass pen would probably have also been a lot easier and cheaper to make than machining pens from scratch from rubber or plastic.

 

It seems that, despite the fact that making a metal-bodied pen would have been possible, few (none?) of the manufacturers did so.

 

Plastic has several advantages over metal for use in pens.

It is 'warmer' to hold, often lighter, more resilient (does not dent like metal), can be colored easily, and has through-body color (a scratch will not expose different-colored material underneath).

 

With the advent if injection molding, plastic parts are also inexpensive to produce.

 

So, what's up with all the metal pens?

 

Could it be a perceived quality thing, ie consumers associate light plastic with 'cheap' and heavy metal with 'expensive'?

 

Have cheap disposable plastic ballpoints skewed the way consumers view plastic pens?

[The Blue Knight]

I like both to be honest I think metal gives lower cost pens an air of quality that injection molded plastic really can't especially on very cheap pens. There is decent number of plastic pens in the sub £100 category however the gift pen market i.e. mid range pens tend to be metal as the heft of a metal cap and body creates a perceived that the untrained eye can see.

 

Metal when done right can look stunning take the pen that is my avatar Diplomat Excellence A Carya. The cap looks as good as any resin cap I've ever seen.

 

However i can't stand chrome metal sections.

 

http://www.officesystem.lt/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/0/0/007-243.jpg.bigimage.jpg.jpg

Edited March 19, 2015 by The Blue Knight

[Jamesbeat]

I hate chrome sections too.

 

I get what you are saying about the heft of a pen being equated with quality, but do you think that is a modern phenomenon?

 

I'm sure the people who paid a lot of money for their (original) Duofold, Balance or P51 didn't worry that their pens were plastic (or rubber in the case of the Duofold).

 

It seems as though metal-bodies pens came about at roughly the same time as the advent of the ballpoint, ie when the 'arms race' ended and the fountain pen switched from being an innovative product to being a luxury product.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Jamesbeat

[grahamtillotson]

Totally agree that chrome sections are the worst.

 

My issue with metal pens -- the classic brass with the finish on top -- is the "game over" scenario when you get wear or scratches and the brass is exposed. It looks horrible and there are no easy repair options like sanding and buffing with plastics. Brassing on finished pieces like clips and bands is one thing and is easier to tolerate, but those blemishes on caps and bodies are awful.

 

I do like the increased weight, but that too gets tricky with metal. I have a Hero 1000 that writes really well but is totally clumsy when posted. A lot of the Jinhao pens are the same -- hefty with a solid feel but the balance isn't quite right.

 

Other posts mention how Jinhao (probably other manufacturers too) create metal versions first to test out interest and then switch to plastic if a model takes off.

 

Graham

Edited March 19, 2015 by grahamtillotson

[deepak23]

If the pens coming out of China are any indication, metal is far cheaper.

[Jamesbeat]

Good point. I bet the tooling for a metal pen is a lot cheaper than injection molding equipment.

[DET]

There were metal-bodied pens as far back as the 1920s, if not earlier. Wahl made them, as did other companies. Here's a picture of one of mine, an Eclipse, from another thread:

 

 

[jar]

The material is nowhere near as important to me as how well the pen was made and the attention to detail given.

 

Well made metal sections should be as comfortable to use as any other material.

[bbycrts]

During the heyday of the fountain pen, plastics and other polymer-based products were actually kind of gee-whiz materials. Aside from the beauty of the celluloids, there was a wow factor to this wonder material, plastic.

[Polanova]

Luxury pens from the advent of FP`s (1880ies) were made from ebonite covered with gold & silver. While those were not exclusively made from - in this case, precious - metals, they had the feel of an all metal pen (and obviously were heavier).

 

The first Cartridge Fountain Pen from the Eagle Pencil Company (ca. 1890) was exclusively made from brass - perhaps the first all metal pen.

 

In subsequent years many plain metal covered pens were produced.

 

So it`s not a new phenomenon.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Polanova

[Polanova]

… but I wonder why there were no chromed (is that a word?) pens made.

Btw, I wish there where a (bigger sized) Fisher Space Fountain Pen in chrome

[Jamesbeat]

If the pens coming out of China are any indication, metal is far cheaper.

Makes you wonder why none of the manufacturers in the early 20th century didn't use metal?

 

(Edit: those other people posted while I was typing this. I guess they did make metal pens then! )

 

It can't be because of tradition - they went to great lengths to use the state of the art plastics of the time.

The technology certainly existed to make metal pens, in fact it was probably more mature than plastics technology was at that time.

 

Parker machined the 51 out of solid acrylic stock. Why didn't they release a special edition 51 machined out of 'space age' aluminum?

The tooling would have been practically identical, and material costs would have been close too.

 

I think what it boils down to is that they chose not to use metal because plastic is a superior material for pens.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Jamesbeat

[Bo Bo Olson]

''''''''Parker machined the 51 out of solid acrylic stock.""""""" I think that is 100% wrong. A plastic exclusion (perhaps wrong word) machine was used....that is why soon after the war....all the fancy plastics except Esterbrook vanished.

 

We got a couple of generations of dull plastic pens.....Snorkel, P-51-45, MB-black.

Lamy bought up the pen division of Artus a machinery company that made machines to press plastic, for the machine they would get with it.

The fancy colors took for ever to come back in plastics....like Edison....storing, aging, boring out fancy plastic cost too much. There are only a few small makers left with great fancy plastic.

 

In many coming from ball points think plastic fountain pens are fragile...heavy metal seems more durable.

You got to realize skate borders need a spare axle, if their breaks and can use the metal fountain pen.

They think they can break dance safer with a metal fountain pen than a plastic one.

Carry them in pants pockets instead of buying one of those old fashioned shirts with a pocket.....even if shirt pockets were invented in 1895 to carry fountain pens.

Definitely, to do a three corner bank shot with a pen in the book bag, it is safer if the fountain pen is lacquer covered brass.

 

And some folks like a heavy fountain pen....when starting out.....though I'll not say a bad word about a Dupont.....nope....not at all. Perfection is Dupont. No BS.

Pick up Dupont, pick up Lamy Persona.....do have a Cross Townsend, metal Pelikans and some nice silver overlays.....how odd.

I tend to like pretty plastic pens.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Bo Bo Olson

[Jamesbeat]

I'd argue that the majority of those metal pens are simply standard plastic or rubber pens that have been heavily embellished with (usually precious) metal.

 

They don't use thin metal as a way of mass-producing the structural body of the pen like they do nowadays.

[Crewel]

I would posit that during WW1 and WW2 eras, metal was needed more for the war effort than common/luxury items. Perhaps that could be another reason why majority of vintage pens were made out of plastic of one sort or another. Plus they would be corrosion resistant, moreso than metal especially when you consider the filler systems used during that time, eyedropper, button fillers, lever fillers, vacumatics, etc.

[Runnin_Ute]

Parker Flighter - stainless steel body and cap. (mine is a 45) But I think the first Flighter was a 51.

 

True Writer Silver Anniversary is a brass bodied pen and a lot heavier than my P45 Flighter.

 

Lamy Al Star - aluminum (hence the name- AL the abbreviation for Aluminum from the periodic table)

 

Just about everything else I have is plastic of one sort or another.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I believe on the whole, one wanted light nimble pens for work. The early vintage silver and gold overlay or solid body pens were "signature" pens, or for letters at home, more than for work.

 

There were ornate silver and gold and mother of pearl pens for the well to do, even in the dip pen days.

 

I guess the brass ones got melted for the war efforts, if they had them or many of them. I've seen more brass pencils that didn't get melted than brass fountain pens.

 

In pens were always a status symbol....I don't think many had brass pens, when hard rubber had more class. Hard rubber could be chased, or be rippled. The newer plastics were prettier, 'flashier' than chased hard rubber. More up to date. For decades, each major pen company tried to be the In pen, in being more up to date with filling mechanism's.....even if they were more complicated and took longer to fill than a simple lever of Sheaffer or Waterman.

 

Lever was so old fashioned....not a push button filling for a pen.....where one needed to take the blind cap off to show off....mine's got a button; push or twist.... :bunny01: or even had to unscrew the pen and press the areomatic filler. Pens had to be up to date....after all it was in the One Man, One Pen days....where fashion forced you to buy a new pen every 7-10 years...to stay up with the Jones's neighbors.

 

 

I can remember when Dunhill was The Pen, in the '50's. (No, no one ever heard of an MB back then when the dollar was God.; when the giants Parker and Sheaffer battled for the world.)

 

It was a it was either a metal or a lacquered metal pen....that the man wouldn't even let me touch. I remember that pen so much, in that was what the man bought himself as a reward, when he bought a $1,000*** bill he was waving around in the other hand. He was going to pay his debts off the next day. It was in a trailer park. The man invited over the neighbors for his war dance celebration. Minimum wage was between $0.75&1.00, so a thousand dollars was a real fortune.....so was that pen. I of course didn't know a $1,000 bill existed. I may have seen a fifty....but no hundred. I was in 4th grade. When a dollar bought 10 comic books.

 

***Later at the '64-65 NY Worlds Fair, there was a huge twenty foot plastic circle crammed with US money. There was a $10,000 a couple of $5,000 and some $1,000 dollar bills one could spot. I worked there with the Air Explorers for a week and had enough of us to point out the big bills. We did not spot a $100,000 bill, but it had to have been there too.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Bo Bo Olson

[Cordovian]

The material is nowhere near as important to me as how well the pen was made and the attention to detail given.

 

Well made metal sections should be as comfortable to use as any other material.

X2

 

Example:

[Uncial]

I'm not sure I could necessarily pin point why, but I find a lot of metal pens very ugly (with noted exceptions such as the pen above). Some of them are also very heavy and a bit unpleasant, or just a bit boring looking. I don't actually own any metal pens - at least not plain metal. Most of the metal bodied pens I own have laquer or plastic or paint of some kind over them.

[bizhe]

The awkwardness of having a heavy pen clippd to shirt pocket may have something to do with this.