A Selection Of Superslim Stilos

February 11, 2017

What's gotten me back into fountain pens and prompted me to join FPN has been picking up a cache of pens at Christmas that used to belong to my Italian father-in-law. Among them were a selection of superslim pens from the 70s and 80s including the most svelte pen I've ever seen. Let me share them with you and perhaps you can help me identify them all.

https://flic.kr/p/QMJwY8

In decreasing order of girth, from left to right (next to that standard unit of fountain pen measurement, the Safari/ALStar) are the following (apologies for the flickr links):

* a German (West German, in fact) Reform pen - this one's mine, actually, a 21st birthday present back in the mid-90s. Don't know the model, I'm afraid, but it lays down a beautiful medium line and is a standard c/c.

https://flic.kr/p/Rs6uQY

* An iconic Aurora Hastil (MoMa etc). Medium nib, but leaks all over the place with both cartidge and trik-trak converter. I only recently realised what a corny joke the name is: "ha stil" means "has style" in Italian.

https://flic.kr/p/RQP8E6

* A Sheaffer TRZ, as far as I can tell, with the logo of the Italian magazine L'Espresso on the finial. Also lays down a lovely wet line, perhaps a little too broad for the girth of the pen. There's a capacious aerometric converter inside.

https://flic.kr/p/QKf1zG

* Now things get really interesting. Believe it or not, the next one is a Delta, or claims to be. I've heard that Delta completely reinvented themselves in the mid-90s, erasing their previous history, and I've never seen what the earlier pens looked like. This one must be from the early 80s - a world away from a Dolcevita, with a clip that is very obviously taken from the Hastil. The collar is badly corroded, but it still writes with buttery smoothness. Inside I found a very slim Sailor cartridge, presumably the same one from the Chalana? 13.4cm long, 11.6 uncapped. Barrel is 7mm at its widest, section 6mm.

https://flic.kr/p/QMKxeg

* Finally, and most remarkably for me, is the slimmest pen I've ever seen. 11.9cm long, 10.7 uncapped, barrel 6mm at its widest, section 5mm. I've no loupe, but it says Japan on the finial and the nib says Sailor F-5. It takes the same cartridges as the Delta. Unfortunately, I've not managed to get it writing properly yet - the feed is badly blocked, I think. Anyone seen one of these before?

https://flic.kr/p/QKg5c9

I realise these are not at all today's fashion and not especially practical. Nonetheless, I'm very drawn to them.

February 11, 2017

Nice. I love slim fountain pens. Never saw an Delta fountain pen like this.

Other ideas:

Lamy linea, cp, st

Elysee fountain pens (from Germany, no longer available or NOS)

Pilot Cavalier

February 12, 2017

Thanks to a commenter on Flickr, I've learned that the smallest one is actually a Sailor Chalana Ultraslim. I hadn't realise they had made them that small - and in quite a different style from its slightly bigger brother.