A Modern 'safety' Pen... Not Quite!

April 8, 2016

Another weekend find.

Again I found a box of pens, took a look, and was convinced the box had nothing in it of interest to me, just Pentel gel pens and pencils. But as so often, a bit of rootling found something interesting.

I thought this was a very odd find; from the outside this looks a very 1980s-ish pen, but when I open it up, it's practically a safety pen! It's not an eyedropper though - there appears to be room for a cartridge inside - and it's much, much heavier than any of my BHR safeties.

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/harleype.jpg

Well, it's a Harley Davidson*, 'Spirit' retractable. It's engineered quite nicely - the twist action propels the nib out, and the clip is flush with the cap but springs out when you push down on the cap top. I particularly like the knurled edge to the cap. The blue is quite metallic.

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/harleypen2.jpg

'HD Spirit' and a number are engraved rather nicely on the cap, while the body has a 'Harley Davidson' cartouche in black metal.

I rather like the nib. It's quite plain, with vertical stripes and a wide 'gold' border, and no breather hole - quite good looking. I haven't cleaned it up and tried the pen yet.

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/harley1.jpg

The only thing wrong with this pen, from my point of view, is that it's too heavy. (A bit like the bikes...) But otherwise, I'm quite impressed with it. I wish I knew more about it; I know Waterman made a Harley-branded Kultur and a sort of 'spark plug' pen, but did they make this one as well?

September 19, 2016

I found another one last weekend, unfortunately missing its cap. Rather a lovely pinstripe.

http://i.imgur.com/VRBEJGCl.jpg

I inked the first pen up. It writes quite nicely, but as I suspected is very heavy. Anyone who uses metal bodied oversize Jinhaos wouldn't work up a sweat, though :-)

September 27, 2018

"I found another one last weekend, unfortunately missing its cap. Rather a lovely pinstripe. I inked the first pen up. It writes quite nicely, but as I suspected is very heavy. Anyone who uses metal bodied oversize Jinhaos wouldn't work up a sweat, though :-)"

I found one of these pin-striped HD Spirits today in a 2nd hand shop, with matching RB but no box or papers. Folks refer to them as cartridge/converters, but the space inside the barrel is way too small for most converters, certainly all the various ones I have... it's mini-cartridges only, unfortunately, in the Watermans/international fit. The FP is numbered, #0009732, does that make it an LE?

The RB does not appear to have been numbered. Its dried out refill is badged "Harley Davidson recharge cap-less for retractable rolling pens P8126." A Google Search suggests that's a Schmidt refill, which is good news for replacement purposes.

Well, it's something different from the rest of my collection!

Glenn.

Edited September 27, 2018 by Eccles