Guider Vermillion Celluloid Jumbo

[hari317]

Guider pen works is by now possibly well known on FPN with reviews dating back to 2008. They started in 1946 at Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh, India. Since they started under the guidance of their mentor from the famous pen making firm Ratnam and brothers, the firm was named Guider.

http://guiderpen.in/about-us/

 

In addition to Ebonite, Acrylic and Solid Silver, they also have vintage stocks of genuine cellulose nitrate tubes for making pens. Their stocks from the 50s and 60s have now dwindled as nitrocellulose is very hard to come by nowadays. I have a few of their small sized Mandarin Yellow and Red celluloid pens and one Green celluloid pen.

 

I was understandably excited when Mr Rao of Guider offered me some Vermillion Celluloid pens of large size. In the past, I could never quite manage to convince him to part with the few pieces he had remaining. But somehow he decided that I deserved a few of these pens and offered them to me one fine day out of the blue. This was sometime in mid 2017. I have been using the pens since and this is my attempt to document the existence of these pens.

 

I had the choice of no cap band, single cap band or twin cap bands. I opted for one example each of the latter.

 

The other thing he did was to accept my request to install my favourite Schmidt nib units so that I could use cartridges or converter and thus avoid ED mode and potential staining of the celluloid.

 

Here are the pens:

 

The Single band model:

 

 

 

The twin band model:

 

 

 

With some other Guider nitro celluloids:

 

 

For size comparison with an English Duofold Maxima and a Big Red.

 

Nitro cellulose is a wonderful pen material. The colors are superb and it is a live material which has the potential to change and age over time depending on how it is cared for.

 

If you have any questions, pls do feel free to ask.

 

Best,

Hari

[markiv]

Amazing ensemble of pens there.

Well deserved recipient too

 

Wonder if he had any more of them; would love to add one.

Edited February 26, 2018 by markiv

[bmillicent]

Gorgeous!!

[hari317]

Gorgeous!!

 

 

Amazing ensemble of pens there.

Well deserved recipient too

 

Wonder if he had any more of them; would love to add one.

thanks!

who knows, drop him an enquiry email or whatsapp message. He is quick with the latter.

[fountainbel]

Nice pens with a perfect finish, congratulations Hari !

The celluloid is breathtaking , but as I understand unfortunately not available for sale ….

Francis

[amk]

Wow! So bright!

 

Really lovely bunch of pens. As I'd expect from Guider!

[shrujaya]

Aah... nice to have you back with more Indian pens, Hari ... lovely looking big celluloid pens by Guider, and with your own filling system ... nice of Mr Rao actually ... he he ... and you have also given a back story ... nice also to have some emotion in the pen stories ... I also love the green celluloid FP ...

 

Jai

[hari317]

Nice pens with a perfect finish, congratulations Hari !

The celluloid is breathtaking , but as I understand unfortunately not available for sale ….

Francis

Thank you Francis, the credit goes to Mr Rao who is an expert with celluloid. He also knows the art of increasing the diameter of celluloid tubes (expanding). He might have some material left, I saw some pictures of his stash, most of the material had differentially discolored. He selected some good portions to make my examples.

 

Wow! So bright!

 

Really lovely bunch of pens. As I'd expect from Guider!

 

true. Thanks amk,

 

Aah... nice to have you back with more Indian pens, Hari ... lovely looking big celluloid pens by Guider, and with your own filling system ... nice of Mr Rao actually ... he he ... and you have also given a back story ... nice also to have some emotion in the pen stories ... I also love the green celluloid FP ...

 

Jai

 

There are some Guiders too which deserve a mention, I hope to cover them later.

You are right Jai, I generally don't write about it.

Edited February 27, 2018 by hari317

[mikhasan]

Very nice material! What is the purpose of the hole in some of the caps? I've noticed many vintage pens have this, including my Vacumatic.

[hari317]

Very nice material! What is the purpose of the hole in some of the caps? I've noticed many vintage pens have this, including my Vacumatic.

thanks! Those are cap breather holes. They are there to help rapidly ventilate the inner cap volume when the pen is being uncapped. If these are absent, ink might be ejected from the pen when it is uncapped due to the resulting negative pressure inside the cap. With modern finned feeds this is a non issue. This was an issue with the older simple feeders.

[Sagarb]

Lovely pens Hari and nice documentation as well..But I am missing your background mat I must say.

[hari317]

Lovely pens Hari and nice documentation as well..But I am missing your background mat I must say.

thanks! The loveliness is to the credit of Mr Rao and his father who had the excellent taste and foresight to import and stockpile this wonderful material from Japan and Germany.

[Sagarb]

thanks! The loveliness is to the credit of Mr Rao and his father who had the excellent taste and foresight to import and stockpile this wonderful material from Japan and Germany.

Very true.

[mikhasan]

thanks! Those are cap breather holes. They are there to help rapidly ventilate the inner cap volume when the pen is being uncapped. If these are absent, ink might be ejected from the pen when it is uncapped due to the resulting negative pressure inside the cap. With modern finned feeds this is a non issue. This was an issue with the older simple feeders.

Interesting. Never knew they served a function!

[Abhik]

Nice review Hari. You sent me one small yellow way back in 2008/9. This colour combination looks good. Remarkable is shift from ED to other filling system.

Enjoy.

[Barry Gabay]

Beautiful Guider fountain pens, Hari. Thank you for sharing and documenting such an interesting model. I appreciate all of your very informative contributions here. I still enjoy my first Indian eyedropper, a Gama which you very kindly acquired and sent to me. Best wishes, Barry

[hari317]

Nice review Hari. You sent me one small yellow way back in 2008/9. This colour combination looks good. Remarkable is shift from ED to other filling system.

Enjoy.

Thanks Abhik, I had around 5-6 yellow celluloids bought as EDs over the last decade, all of which Guider retrofitted last year with schmidt nib units and converter capability.

 

Beautiful Guider fountain pens, Hari. Thank you for sharing and documenting such an interesting model. I appreciate all of your very informative contributions here. I still enjoy my first Indian eyedropper, a Gama which you very kindly acquired and sent to me. Best wishes, Barry

Thank you Barry. I am glad you still use the Gama.

Edited March 9, 2018 by hari317