For The Love Of School Pens

[Noihvo]

 

 

 

 

 

[sandy101]

Written with a Pelikan Pelikano - with a Royal Blue cartridge. I have the Helix Oxford Fountain pen at work (16-18 college) which works well enough. It has a fine steel nib, and the lacquer is starting to peel off after three or four years of use, but it is a reliable writer with the cheap royal blue/black cartridges

[pajaro]

Written with a Pelikan Pelikano - with a Royal Blue cartridge. I have the Helix Oxford Fountain pen at work (16-18 college) which works well enough. It has a fine steel nib, and the lacquer is starting to peel off after three or four years of use, but it is a reliable writer with the cheap royal blue/black cartridges

 

Thank you. Easier to read.

[chromantic]

I love school pens. I started with Sheaffers and Pelikanos but have since gravitated to Waterman JIFs due both to the F nibs and, being 5/8" longer uncapped, more comfortable to use un-posted than the Sheaffer. They're also very easy to flush, making them ideal for testing new inks. I always have several inked. Their only drawback is the not-very-airtight caps, which can present a challenge with drying out with many inks when not used every day.

 

That's today, of course. Back when I was in jr/sr high, the two main school pens were the Sheaffer and the Parker 45. I always yearned for a 45 but they were the province of the more well-off students. That was ok, though, as Sheaffer had Peacock Blue and Emerald Green.

[CraigR]

Mid 1960s and I was using Sheaffer's school pens regularly. I still own 2 from that period and 2 more from the 1970s. When I was in school you could get a pen and several cartridges for under $2.00 USD. I just finished a cartridge in one of the school pens last week. All of the ones I own still write beautifully. Here is a picture of my favorite of the four, a hooded nib and a bit of an upscale model.

[catbert]

Looking to replace my lost school pens is what brought me here.

Technically, my school pens were not ’school pens’ but lower-end 'regular' Sheaffers and hand-me-down Parkers (61, 45, 75). I broke then lost both Sheaffers, lost the 61, chewed through the barrel of the 45 (used to be a chewer). At least the 75 survived university with a Waterman Jiffie and Lamy Safari as backup. I still have all three today.

More recently I’ve been into older Pelikanos.

[Bo Bo Olson]

If one is looking for a Best Buy with nice springy a regular flex nib, the vintage Geha School pen, with the serial number can be had in German Ebay for E12---if one hunts to E19. Anything over that is robbery.*** Mostly they are KF...in this case the Kugal/ball means that American Bump Under nib, instead of the stubs of that era. Is half a width narrower than modern.

At least as good as a 120, and at E19 a much better buy.

 

The seller has to take Paypal and ship out of Germany....many don't and won't.

I have two, and they are slightly different. They look much like the semi-flex 790.

 

*** If you polish it up your self....well, there are German Pirates who sell a polished Geha School pen for only $89 in the states. There are other copy cats that see 'what's a polite word'....buy for too much and start their E19 pen for 2 or 3 times that amount. ...The world is large and full of folks lining up to be Barnum'ed.

Edited August 9, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[Octo]

I started with the original Sheaffer cartridge pens (later called school pens) that hung on pegs in grocery stores, drug stores, etc., and sold for $1. I have used them continuously since, and one is still among my three EDC. I also have and use a Waterman Reflex, a school pen with a very smooth nib.

[Noihvo]

Written with a Pelikan Pelikano - with a Royal Blue cartridge. I have the Helix Oxford Fountain pen at work (16-18 college) which works well enough. It has a fine steel nib, and the lacquer is starting to peel off after three or four years of use, but it is a reliable writer with the cheap royal blue/black cartridges

 

 

[pajaro]

Mid 1960s and I was using Sheaffer's school pens regularly. I still own 2 from that period and 2 more from the 1970s. When I was in school you could get a pen and several cartridges for under $2.00 USD. I just finished a cartridge in one of the school pens last week. All of the ones I own still write beautifully. Here is a picture of my favorite of the four, a hooded nib and a bit of an upscale model.

 

I had one of these and have a couple now in red and in light gray. $2.95 originally. I found it works better with the old Sheaffer pushbutton converter.

[sub_bluesy]

I bought my Mom a Jinhao shark pen a few weeks ago to celebrate shark week I can see the appeal. Seems like a good pen and I can see why kids would love it.

[jmccarty3]

I learned to write with a Sheaffer school pen (clear plastic barrel), beginning in the third grade, about 1958. Later got a red Sheaffer with a steel Triumph nib, and in 7th grade a PFM I, but it was lost or stolen. My first nice pen was a graduation gift in 1967, a Parker 75 Sterling Silver, which I still have.

[Honeybadgers]

I don't remember the first fountain pen I used in high school. I do remember begging my dad to buy my mom a waterman phileas for her birthday, which I now have and use regularly. I got back into fountain pens when I started making them in the shop, and then stopped using them because the basic fountain pen kits wrote really badly. Then I tried again, one last time, with a $5 pilot penmanship and it was all over from there.

[Corona688]

I missed the "school pen" era by one generation. They had us use plain pencils for many years, then one day just handed us biro's. Writing was always a chore until I discovered better instruments.

[InkofLife]

I have a plastic Waterman with a very fine nail of a nib that I probably paid $20 for as a teenager, maybe less. Still one of my faves despite the shelf of Montblancs, and has held up for a decade and change.

[bugsydog55]

I also remember the clear barrel school pens from the 60's. We had to get a fountain pen for penmanship class in grade school. What a horrifying mess that was-25 kids who didn't know what they were doing with liquid ink everywhere. I and my friends had ink on our hands, shirts, pants and faces along with smeared and spattered papers. Of course, I had no idea what I was doing but I did know that I hated those inky stinkers. That was then-this is now. Pen cases full of assorted pens, shelves full of inks from around the world. Sometimes I feel that I could kick myself for the 53 years I could have been using these things but then I realize that up until the last several years, I would not have appreciated them. I even have two upper scale "school" pens inked right now and I just love them.

[TSherbs]

I bought a Sheaffer school pen in college and used it off and on for 20 years, but I keep it now only for nostalgia. I don't like the way it writes or fits my hand now.