The Humble Balance Jr: An Inventory

[Estragon]

I've long been enamored of the Balance Juniors that Sheaffer made during the 30s. Distinguished from other long and short slender Balances by the identifying Junior markings on their clips and nibs as well as the $2.75 price code typically imprinted on their barrels, these pens were available in a wide range of colors complemented by understated, nickel-pated furniture. My original goal was to pick up a lever-filling example of this pen in every color offered, choosing long versions over short whenever available. After 4 years or so, here's what I've come up with:

 

 

 

Note that I'm still missing a lot of pencils and a set in Grey Pearl striated. Also, to my knowledge, the short, slender set in Ebonized Pearl with the wide, milled cap bands (#8) is uncatalogued and its typology is uncertain. I've heard these often crop up with Jr. nibs (as did mine) and at least one seasoned collector suggests they are "more or less Juniors Deluxe," so I've gone ahead and included my set for sake of discussion.

 

I've learned a couple things in the course of collecting these pens. First, the grey pearl striated lever filler, which I've yet to add, is shockingly scarcer than one might suppose. Perhaps I've just been unlucky, but my experience tells me it's even scarcer than Roseglow in this model. Second, some early Balance Juniors (e.g. #1) were offered in non-standard lengths and have opaque sections (sans ink-view windows). Third, although all are relatively common in comparison to most other vintage pens from the Big Four, the long variants (same price point) *are* bit scarcer than the short variants (n.b. barrels and caps are different sizes).

 

Speaking of the which, I just picked up the long Ebonized Pearl pen (4) after having presumed for the longest time that this color was only offered in the short size (hence the duplicate #7). In fact, I thought it might be a frankenpen until I received it and confirmed the 275 stamp on the barrel. Does anyone know of or happen to own any long Balance Juniors not represented above (i.e. Grey Pearl marble/striated or Roseglow)?

Edited October 25, 2018 by Estragon

[Roger W.]

Nice. Well you are not going to get a marbled grey pearl in a junior with balanced ends as those ends start in 1937. I do happen to have a marbled grey pearl and it is of the semi flat top design. In 1941 they did offer the junior in carmine per the catalog. I think you can get the rose glow in the longer junior. Grey pearl striated wasn't carried every year which probably accounts for it's scarcity. Golden brown was never offered as a junior which is something I observed going through the catalogs just now. The price point for the junior starts in 1933 yet those are balances. In 1934 they come up with the semi-balance junior in grey pearl (marbled) and jet (black). I'm not sure where most of my balances are currently and I may accidentally have some more juniors as I've never collected them on purpose though, I'm sure I have some.

 

Roger W.

[Estragon]

Thanks so much for all the great info, Roger. I have all the colors (but certainly not all the size variants) of the truncated Juniors (non-Balances) except for the exceedingly rare blue and black, which I seem to recall you having an example of. Been looking for one of those for years!

 

A quick correction on marbled grey pearl: it was indeed available as a short Balance Jr. (see pen #6 above), though I'm unsure as to whether a long version was ever available in this color. That is encouraging to hear that there was a long Rose Glow – something to continue to hunt for! Anyone happen to have any photos of one?

 

These modest pens have flown under collectors' radars for so long, it's interesting to test the waters to get a better sense of the entire range.

[makas]

After looking at this I had to see what I had in my "Someday" box. I didn't take the time to get a good photo but I toke one of the ones I could find. I did find one I didn't know about, it is a button filler. If you want any better pictures I will pull out my light box and give it a try but for now this is what I have.

 

Mark

 



[penwash]

Great collection! The material that is elusive to me is the green "marble" with red veins. Not to be confused with the grey marble (also with red veins). I thought I hit the jackpot recently but it turns out to be a mismatch (green body, grey cap). So now I'm on the hunt for green red veined cap or grey red veined body.

[Estragon]

To my knowledge, Sheaffer never produced a pen in green with red veins. Instead, the grey and red vein color is frequently found discolored to green from outgassing of the sac etc. This often affects barrels more than caps, accounting for your recent find.

 

Now, there are indeed 2 similar yet different Sheaffer plastics in grey and red: 1. grey and red VEIN; and 2. so-called grey and red FLECK, which most frequently (exclusively?) appears on long slender Balances with 3 nibs. As far as I know, neither of these two colors was offered on the Balance Jr. while only grey and red vein was offered on the truncated (non-Balance) Sheaffer Juniors (2nd pen from the right in makas' photo).

 

I'll see if I can snap a photo of the 2 different grey/reds along with another with a few non-Balance Juniors here soon.

 

makas: Are you referring to the first pen in your photo (truncated Jr. in grey pearl marble) as a button filler? That one should be a vacuum/plunger filler, but with a removable blind cap (in contrast to the permanently attached blind caps on some of your vacuum-filling Balance Juniors).

[makas]

Estragon you are correct it is a vac filler. Sorry I just pulled it out and it has a strange rod that looks like a button filler. I will have to work on that one to see what I can do to bring it back to life but I have way too many pens in line for that.

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[Estragon]

I like that model with the fully transparent section of the barrel – others had barrels with partially transparent marble like a Vac Jr. Vacuum filler repair is still too daunting for me, so I send em out. Gerry Berg repaired my last Junior vacuum filler and did a first-rate job.

 

A couple quick photos to illustrate the difference between the two greys:

 

 

 

Both are long Slender Balances with #3 nibs (the size that would later be dubbed a "Craftsman" by Sheaffer). In collector's parlance, the top pen is "grey and red veins" while the bottom pen is "grey and red fleck." The latter color is especially prone to crystallization of the ends, manifested in the early stages of decomposition by the plastic becoming transparent. On mine it's limited to the top of the cap:

 

 

Although I've seen a couple clean ones with gold furniture, I've actually never seen one with nickel trim that wasn't infected. If anyone has an uninfected one s/he'd like to let go of, please do drop me a line!

Edited October 28, 2018 by Estragon

[jchch1950]

Nice collection.Thanks for the photos. For me, pen collecting fountain pens is a never-ending process of learning.

[grayautumnday]

On 10/25/2018 at 11:54 AM, Estragon said:

I've long been enamored of the Balance Juniors that Sheaffer made during the 30s. Distinguished from other long and short slender Balances by the identifying Junior markings on their clips and nibs as well as the $2.75 price code typically imprinted on their barrels, these pens were available in a wide range of colors complemented by understated, nickel-pated furniture. My original goal was to pick up a lever-filling example of this pen in every color offered, choosing long versions over short whenever available. After 4 years or so, here's what I've come up with:

 

 

 

Note that I'm still missing a lot of pencils and a set in Grey Pearl striated. Also, to my knowledge, the short, slender set in Ebonized Pearl with the wide, milled cap bands (#8) is uncatalogued and its typology is uncertain. I've heard these often crop up with Jr. nibs (as did mine) and at least one seasoned collector suggests they are "more or less Juniors Deluxe," so I've gone ahead and included my set for sake of discussion.

 

I've learned a couple things in the course of collecting these pens. First, the grey pearl striated lever filler, which I've yet to add, is shockingly scarcer than one might suppose. Perhaps I've just been unlucky, but my experience tells me it's even scarcer than Roseglow in this model. Second, some early Balance Juniors (e.g. #1) were offered in non-standard lengths and have opaque sections (sans ink-view windows). Third, although all are relatively common in comparison to most other vintage pens from the Big Four, the long variants (same price point) *are* bit scarcer than the short variants (n.b. barrels and caps are different sizes).

 

Speaking of the which, I just picked up the long Ebonized Pearl pen (4) after having presumed for the longest time that this color was only offered in the short size (hence the duplicate #7). In fact, I thought it might be a frankenpen until I received it and confirmed the 275 stamp on the barrel. Does anyone know of or happen to own any long Balance Juniors not represented above (i.e. Grey Pearl marble/striated or Roseglow)?

Do you happen to know where I can find terms to describe the color patterns? I have a non-white-dot

"Sheaffer Jr" stamped clip

black pearl cap

body appears black pearl on the blind cap plus pearl patches over what seems almost black but up close is actually black pin-line spiral striations between very dark red pearl slightly thicker spirals.

 

 I'm soaking the pen now to try to dissolve some of the dried ink in the hopes of taking a closer look for any other stamps or marks.

 

Came nibless with a broken feed - the center rod the broken top feed slides off of seems intact, so I wonder if it's a snorkel?

 

Man I wish Richard Binder had written a special edition on Sheaffers as well - I couldn't ever afford several hundred dollars each for the Marshall or Dubiel pen repair books!

 

Thanks for taking the time to read my message - hope it's not annoying and too much a hijack of your post thread!

[FarmBoy]

The Dubiel book was always around 20 dollars.  The fourth edition of M & O is available new for 65 from Pentooling.com

[GlenV]

Your Junior is not a lever filler?  If it's a vac filler they had usually had some transparency in the black so could see the ink level, 

thanks for resurrecting this thread those pictures are nice..

[grayautumnday]

On 10/3/2024 at 11:47 AM, GlenV said:

Your Junior is not a lever filler?  If it's a vac filler they had usually had some transparency in the black so could see the ink level, 

thanks for resurrecting this thread those pictures are nice..

Yep. I have since acquired a lovely but quite worn, simple, black with silver trim LF balance jr (reddish window on the section) with a working sac.
 

The previous owner had dropped it nib down and one of the tines was a bit sprung, but not terribly so. Some light pressure with one thumbnail right below the bend in the tine, plus pulling that tine from right above the bend backwards against the thumbnail pressure... I got the tine straightened out enough that the tips lined up, and a bit of gentle cross pressure to get the tips touching lightly in exactly the right alignment... and I'm quite grateful to have a working pen with a nice soft fine nib.
 

Does anyone know what size/type nibs the short balance jr's use? Are there any other sheaffer models I can look for as-is pens to hopefully acquire a new nib & feed for the vacfil jr?

 

 And does anyone know if the vacfill jr had a threaded or friction fit join of section to barrel? I need to separate the section from the barrel (don't I?) in order to get a look at the vac stopper -- Water leaks past the stopper to run out the plunger shaft hole at the bottom, so I'm guessing the stopper held a vacuum by using some sort of o-ring around it to seal off the reservoir?

 

 Thanks so much to the users who have responded, and to the pointer to the marshall & oldfield book - would it have all/most of the details I'd need on which parts I need and how to get it disassembled & repaired? 

[GlenV]

I think there was only one size junior nib, but they are very nice. Only the Self filler nibs (expensive) and the Student special 22 (my favorite) are regularly more flexible. I like to adjust the shape of the junior to get more flex, but the short tines limit how much can be done, and they can nearly approach the student special.

  The Vac fills are "all" threaded with sealant as far as I know, requiring soaking (overnight or longer for me) and heat to remove.  Ron Zorn is an expert in these pens. If one is ok with learning how to repair one of these it is an excellent idea to start with an open nib pen, since triumph nibs offer other problems.  You can buy the filler unit seals and the piston seals for not that much I like the shape of the newer filler unit seals rather than the o-ring shape but haven't tried one yet.  Best plan is to drill out the old unit from the front after removing the piston rod from the front after nib/feed/section removed, is tricky work but learning on a junior is a good as they can found still quite easily if replacement parts needed. 

[GlenV]

On 10/3/2024 at 10:59 AM, FarmBoy said:

The Dubiel book was always around 20 dollars.  The fourth edition of M & O is available new for 65 from Pentooling.com

Can they ( Dubiel) still be found for that price? Looking at used ones has been discouraging, and I don't have one yet ha.

[FarmBoy]

I see them at pen shows regularly.