Impressions Of A Geha Schulfüllfederhalter Fk

[TheDutchGuy]

With the assistance and guidance of Bo Bo, who has really educated me on Geha pens (they dont even have a chapter in Lambrous book...), I have been hunting down a clean Geha Schulfüllfederhalter from Ebay.

 

 

^A clean pen without much wear and tear. It is a slim pen that can be used posted and unposted. It weighs nothing and is very comfortable to hold and use. The materials dont feel exactly high-end (they feel like cheap plastic), but the workmanship is a good example of German design and Deutsche Gründlichkeit: all the parts are engineered very well and everything functions as intended. The piston feels solid and straight away everything works as it should.

 

 

^The Geha clip design is a detail that I really like.

 

 

^The ink window is nice and clear.

 

 

Steel nib and what appears to be an ebonite feed. The section can be easily unscrewed from the barrel. The greenish rod activates the unique reserve tank feature of these pens, allowing another 1 to 2 pages before a refill.

 

 

How does it write? Geha was pointed out to me my Bo Bo as part of my search for a modern pen with a vintage writing experience. Contrary to what Bo Bo and I expected, the nib of my Schulfüllfederhalter is rigid. Under moderate pressure, it can be induced to produce a bit of line variation but clearly this nib was not intended for that. It is not a nail, it offers a bit of cushioning which I like a lot, but normal writing with minimal pressure does not offer even the slightest bit of line width variation. That was a bit of a letdown, but on the plus side this pen writes very well. Line width is what we would now call western-EF and I really appreciate the crispness and thinness of the lines in conjunction with the nibs smoothnessa and degree of control. The nib initially needed a bit of attention, because it loved cursive italic writing at a certain angle (clearly it had been used a lot in exactly the same way for many many years) but did not like any other style of writing. That was easily fixed and the pen is a pleasure to use.

 

For what I paid for it, this actually is a very nice pen and it will be in regular use. That this pen still works 100% after many decades is a testament to how well it was made. The attention to detail and the high degree of engineering more than compensate for the economy-grade materials.

[ardene]

Too bad the nib is rigid. This pen looks wonderful though.

[eachan]

I'm not sure that I could tell the difference between cheap and expensive plastic. My Geha School pen is never off my desk and feels absolutely fine to me, comparable in weight and feel with most post-war plastic pens. I don't care about flex and find it an excellent nib. Mine is a fine. Compared with low-cost British school pens of the period, it's really wonderful.

[TheDutchGuy]

My Geha School pen is never off my desk and feels absolutely fine to me ... I don't care about flex and find it an excellent nib.

The more I use it, the more I like it!

[txomsy]

Congratulations. It is a fine pen even if it is not flexible. Enjoy it, that's what it's all about after all.

[TheDutchGuy]

For such a slim pen, its ink reserve is excellent. And the fine line of its FK nib is great for writing on dotpad or 5mm grid. Very practical. My Geha is getting a lot of use.

[txomsy]

Double congratulations then

[Bo Bo Olson]

Geha school pen, should be regular flex like the Pelikan 120.

FK= fine kugal....the American Bump Under was called a kugal by Geha.

 

On German Ebay, there was a 5 pack of Geha school nibs.....I didn't know they didn't fit the Geha 790.

At E-12 and less don't know ehy I'd not bought a Geha School pen, but I was a gold snob...semi-flex snob also back then.

I had a passed pal in England, I'd trans-mailed Pelikan 200's nibs and a few other things in there are fools in Germany who refuse to mail out of Germany. We did a swap, I kept the most springy of the 5 school pen nibs. The school pen came in and the nib didn't fit. So he sent me the nib that was on it.

That is a Maxi-semi-flex.............so very unexpected.

Somehow I got another Geha School pen, it was a tad narrower, and had the normal regular flex nib (or so I thought until today) .....that Did Not fit the other School pen.

 

So we have two sizes of school pen, that the nibs don't interchange. We have a maxi-semi-flex....like the Surpra nib of the Osmia, regular flex I sent to England and Dutch's stiffer nib.

:Looking again at that thin Geha school pen, the nib was a bit stiffer than regular flex, more like the P-75's semi-nail nib.

Assumptions and laziness mix very well indeed.

 

Well I think the Geha School pen a Best Buy as a piston pen for regular flex. Should be able to get one for E12-19 on German Ebay.........

In no one bragged their Geha School pen's 'flexi' nib, my maxi is scarce.

No one reported a nail/simi-nail instead of regular flex, that I can recall. Some might not know the difference.

 

One of my Geha School pens is very similar but just a tad longer in size, width with the Pelikan 140. Compares with the standard sized 400

The slightly thinner, slightly longer of the two Geha school pens, is a medium long pen, as long as a modern Pelikan 600. Or the thin medium-long Geha 725.

I must admit I hadn't looked hard enough to realize it was a thin medium long pen.

It could be that after the Geha 725 came in and it was a very expensive pen for the time, as expensive as MB....360DM...or $90 when my P-75 cost me 22 blue seal...exchange in any bank for silver dollars cost me $22......$18 for the Parker "75" BP/MP...which depended on what cartridge one put in it, was a pall point or mechanical pencil.

It could be they redesigned their school pen to more resemble the new 725, in the older pen really looks like the old 790.

 

Those nibs I sent to England were regular flex.

The nib on my thin School pen, is semi-nail.....instead of the regular flex I thought. I had loaded it, in it's a piston pen with just a touch of GvFC Moss Green, but....assuming it to be regular flex wrote lightly.... me...will wonders never cease.

 

The plastic of the Geha piston pens are top of the line solid. (Don't buy a Geha cartridge pen, in there are no cartridges that will fit it...sadly.)

They competed directly vs Pelikan from '50-71 or 72, as against MB with their 725 series...IMO better than the MB thin 220-222 pens.

 

(Oh, on a semi-flex 790 a steel nib is just as good as gold....made by Degussa like for Osmia.)

 

The 790 similar Geha School pen is 12.8 cm, the longer thinner school pen is 13.3.

 

Which do you have Dutch? Think it would be the second because of the nib.

 

Thanks for waking me up to how much difference there was between the two...."era's", later '50's vs mid '60's.

[TheDutchGuy]

The 790 similar Geha School pen is 12.8 cm, the longer thinner school pen is 13.3. Which do you have Dutch? Think it would be the second because of the nib.

Mine is 13.3 cm length when capped. Widest barrel diameter is 11 mm.

[TheDutchGuy]

 

As time goes by, I love this little pen more and more. It weighs nothing and melts into my hand and I forget it’s there, no cramp, nothing that disturbs or bothers or hinders me in any way. A perfect fit. I can use it for hours on end without fatigue. Not many of my pens have that quality. The nib is magnificent, easily my favourite steel nib of all my pens (new or vintage). Last but least, this is one of those pens that improve my handwriting, regardless of the style of writing. It just make me look better than I actually am. I use Sailor kiwaguro black in it and that’s a really good pair.

[Carrau]

Bo Bo got me interested in these as well, and my experience has been like yours. It’s one of my best writing pens, and is very similar to my vintage Pelikan 400 that way. I would use it as an EDC however it’s a bit small for my hand (as is the Pelikan 400) and if I lost it, I’d be afraid I wouldn’t find a replacement that wrote as well.