What's With All The Metal Pens?

[jar]

Those of you who have been following along might remember that I really like all metal pens.

 

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[kazoolaw]

I'm not sure we have this right. As DET noted above, Wahl manufactured a line of all metal pens in the 1920's:

http://www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Eversharp/Pics/WahlEversharpArtDeco11.jpg

http://www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Eversharp/WahlEversharpArtDecoMetal.htm

They were not particularly heavy if the rolled silver pen I have is typical. And the metal used in them is rather thin.

 

The Eagle Pencil Company pen is referenced above:

http://www.penbox.co.uk/images/ref_715_eagle_pencil_small.jpg

 

More digging will have to wait for others to be referenced.

 

gary

[kazoolaw]

Jar,

 

Always with the beauties!

 

gary

Edited March 20, 2015 by gary

[sombrueil]

Except for the overlays of the late 19th/early 20th century, I associate metal, aesthetically, with two things, cheapness and post WWII. Often but not always both. I associate metal caps with the Parker 51, a pen I could never own because it reminds me of cigarette smoke and mandated hemline lengths -- the gray conformity and narrowness of the 1950's. Yeah, I was there, noticing. I think all-metal pens remind me of that era as well. That ugly machine-like jewelry, or the so-well-named Brutalist style.

 

Metal sections I associate with cheap kit pens and I cannot warm to them even when they aren't. I do not understand why people like heavy pens. I guess men have in the past 50 years gradually have grown much larger hands so that ordinary-sized pens are too small for them now. I can't think of a less-likely fountain pen purchase for me than a huge fat heavy metal pen. And yet, a lot of people must love them. Why O Why doesn't everyone have my exact taste?

Edited March 20, 2015 by sombrueil

[rwilsonedn]

Metal pens are very old. I have a portable dip pen made from brass tube stock that must date to at latest the beginning of the 20th century. As to why there were so few early metal fountain pens, perhaps part of the issue was that early fountain pens were eyedropper fillers, and metal tends to react badly with early inks. So the manufacturers would have needed to use a material that would not react with ink. By the time self-filling pens became popular, the infrastructure and market expectation for ebonite and celluloid were already in place. So metal remained decoration on the outside of the pen rather than the base material. There were, as DET illustrates so strikingly, wonderful metal-bodied fountain pens from the lever-fill period, but they seem to have been high-end--perhaps because of the cost of decoration and finish.

ron

[RudyR]

Correct me if I am wrong but aren't most modern mid range to high range Watermans, also made of Metal? Definitely not cheap when you consider the Edson. Oh, and my Montblanc Cool Blue Starwalker is made of metal which cost me quite a few 100 smackeroons. I also found Watermans very well balanced and not heavy at all and customers never complained about it. Most actually liked the "just a little bit more heft" of the Waterman.

 

The only metal section I have no complaints about is the one on my Cool Blue Starwalker. The worst was my Lamy Studio. The shape seemed to exasperate the discomfort and slippery nature of the metal section. I ended up giving it away. It was too bad, because I really did like the looks of it.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Jar, there are metal pens and grand pens that are like yours.

Signature pens extraordinaire.

 

OK, when one has enough they become normal writing pens.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Bo Bo Olson

[Polanova]

Except for the overlays of the late 19th/early 20th century, I associate metal, aesthetically, with two things, cheapness and post WWII. Often but not always both. I associate metal caps with the Parker 51, a pen I could never own because it reminds me of cigarette smoke and mandated hemline lengths -- the gray conformity and narrowness of the 1950's. Yeah, I was there, noticing. I think all-metal pens remind me of that era as well. That ugly machine-like jewelry, or the so-well-named Brutalist style.

 

Metal sections I associate with cheap kit pens and I cannot warm to them even when they aren't. I do not understand why people like heavy pens. I guess men have in the past 50 years gradually have grown much larger hands so that ordinary-sized pens are too small for them now. I can't think of a less-likely fountain pen purchase for me than a huge fat heavy metal pen. And yet, a lot of people must love them. Why O Why doesn't everyone have my exact taste?

…apart from the cigarette smoke, which i like, I`m with you on this one!

Now imagine everyone had your taste

For me, heavy pens have zero - and huge pens very limited appeal (Fat pens is another matter, though)

Well, each to his own & taste is subjective.

I admit that when I recently held a TWSBI 580 in my hand, it`s weight suggested to me that it weren`t a cheap pen

[sombrueil]

…apart from the cigarette smoke, which i like, I`m with you on this one!

Now imagine everyone had your taste

For me, heavy pens have zero - and huge pens very limited appeal (Fat pens is another matter, though)

Well, each to his own & taste is subjective.

I admit that when I recently held a TWSBI 580 in my hand, it`s weight suggested to me that it weren`t a cheap pen

 

I'd work on controlling that liking for cigarette smoke if I were you. I'm lucky it makes me nauseated.

If everyone had my taste there would be warehouses full of carefully-aging celluloid rods, and a thriving industry devoted to flexible nibs. Ballpoints would be a niche market. I can dream, can't I?

[wspohn]

There were lots and lots of metal bodied or ornamented pens right back to at least 1920 and earlier pens often had at least metal bands.

You just haven't been looking in the right place. Go to Ebay and search 'vintage sterling fountain pen'. You'll get a a lot of hits on early pens.

[Cepasaccus]

There are a lot of old silver, gold and rolled gold overlay pens with a hard rubber base. I suspect the Wahl pens are also "only" with overlay. I suspect it has to do with

- material properties:

- cap and section have to endure iron gall inks

- price:

- full metal silver or gold is expensive

- even other metal was expensive

- production style:

- rolled gold is metal sheet and hence not so massive

- repousse work can be only done on thinner metal sheet

- main pen line was done in rubber

- writing style:

- it seems people were more used to lighter pens

- tradition:

- never underestimate what people are used to

- pens started as eyedroppers with full body contact to the inks

 

Cepasaccus

[kazoolaw]

There are a lot of old silver, gold and rolled gold overlay pens with a hard rubber base. I suspect the Wahl pens are also "only" with overlay.

Sorry, but not overlays.

[Cepasaccus]

Is just the section an overlay? Because there is a black ring.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

There were a couple of almost all metal versions of the original Conklin Crescent Filler, as I recall, although with hard rubber sections. They are on my "maybe someday" list. I almost had a gold filled one once, it seemed, but the eBay seller apparently got two orders mixed up, sent me a Parker Duofold instead, and then claimed not to be able to get "my" pen back from the person he had sent it to. I got all my money back, at least, including the cost of shipping the wrong pen back.

 

There has been some talk of plastic or hard rubber with metal overlays, but I believe that the modern Pilot Vanishing Points are the reverse, metal bodies with some sort of lacquer or plastic coating. There are other pens like that as well, and not necessarily high priced ones; I think the Jinhao 159 would be an example.

[jmccarty3]

I recently bought a Faber-Castell E-Motion, which has a very smooth metal section. Besides being rather heavy and difficult to post, the pen is slippery, and while I was writing it slipped out of my hands. The pen, observing Newton's First Law of Pen Motion, landed nib-side-down on a hard surface, bending the broad steel nib at a 90 degree angle. So it's off to the nibmeister to be straightened and stubbed, while he's at it.

 

Be careful out there.

[KBeezie]

Some are just sexy...

 

http://static.karlblessing.com/pens/murex/full.jpg

 

http://static.karlblessing.com/pens/murex/disassembled.jpg

[Karas Kustoms]

I think a lot of material choice had to do with cost and the latest manufacturing advancements. Injection molding wasn't very cost effective with many of the early plastics because of their mechanical properties. Aluminum wasn't available as a material for mass production until the 1920s(?) and was very expensive, on par with platinum. Jewelry and other items were made from aluminum early on so it was seen as being very desirable, unlike today where is it used so commonly. Metal is almost always perceived as being more durable than plastics (and often is), especially older thermoset plastics, which tend to be brittle. Pens were like computers, the latest technology was the most desirable. Most of the materials that pen collectors seek out are actually inferior to most modern plastics and alloys, but tradition dictates that those materials be used in order to fit in with the existing tastes of pen aficionados. Many metal forming processes (not machining) require specialized tooling, but allow for lightweight, strong shapes to be manufactured quickly and cheaply. This is perfect for commodity goods like pens. I find it fascinating that items that were state of the art in their day are now looked down on because technology has progressed to the point that we see things as being "cheap". I like pens made from every different type of material.