Sheaffer Pens Used In Schools, Circa Mid 1960S.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

But a 1964-65 school kid would still have to wait 4 to 5 years before the Sheaffer No-Nonsense or Viewpoint appeared ...

 

A 1964-65 Sheaffer cartridge pen could look like the red $1.95 pen with hooded nib shown in this 1964 ad (this pen was introduced in the early 1960s):

 

 

In 1964, Sheaffer introduced the so called "1 dollar" cartridge pen. The earliest version of this "1 dollar pen" had an open nib and a pyramidal cap and barrel top like the one shown in this past ebay auction:

 

 

 

In 1964-65, I was using the bottom, orange, form of the Sheaffer cartridge pen. It was not called a "school pen" then. It had been around for a while by 1964.

 

I've been trying to remember when I first started using the Sheaffer cartridge fountain pen, but it had to have been around 1960, maybe a bit earlier. That $1.95 model above with the semi-hooded nib was not something I ever owned. Maybe I saw one, or some, but I never got one. The classic Sheaffer cartridge pen was something I used at least in high school, maybe even in the last year of grammar school. I think that $1.95 was pretty pricey in the '60s, for me.

 

I still have one of those Sheaffer cartridge pens from my school days. Actually, I have two or three of them, but try as I might I can only find one of them. I also acquired a few others from buying pens, mostly here on FPN, years ago. They are great writers. The Type I Sheaffer cartridge holds about 1½ mL of ink and so I can refill one and write for a quite long time with the 50 to 60 year old Sheaffer cartridge fountain pen. And in my experience they do not have a lot of problems. They just write. For the purposes of writing, they seem a better buy than some seriously priced pens these days.

 

[Estycollector]

 

There is still no better way after what? sixty years? to get every last drop of ink from the bottle into a pen.

 

Now makes sense. Thank you. However, I could probably figure out how to pour the last drop into a shallow container and suck up as much as possible.

Edited April 19, 2020 by Estycollector

[Parker Quink Turquoise]

The pen I used back in high school was a sheaffer lever fill Economy Pen.These were sold in blister packs at drug stores and such.It was made in Canada .I had a cartridge fill pen, like the one in the above post as a back up,except mine was gray.It was made in the USA.For myself at the time,I believed if it was not a lever fill,then it was not a real fountain pen:)

 

The two ink colours I used were ,Parker Super Quink Turquoise or Sheaffer Skrip Peacock Blue,depending on what was available at the two stores I knew of who sold ink.Both inks were made in Canada ,by the respective companies Canadian divisions .This would have been in the very early 1970 s.

Edited May 18, 2020 by Parker Quink Turquoise

[HDoug]

When I was a kid, my mother had a gray snorkel pen that I found endlessly fascinating . . . but from a distance. No way my mother was going to let me get my hands on that prized possession.

Me too! Except it was burgundy. I finally found one:

 

 

[pajaro]

Me too! Except it was burgundy. I finally found one:

 

 

 

 

 

Weren't pens like the pictured pen earlier than the 1960s?

[HDoug]

 

Weren't pens like the pictured pen earlier than the 1960s?

[HDoug]

Weren't pens like the pictured pen earlier than the 1960s?

Yeah. Sorry, part of a Snorkel digression. Circa 1952.

[Pedro Puckerstein]

On 3/12/2020 at 11:38 PM, markofp said:

This is a long shot, but I am wondering what models of Sheaffer fountain pens would have possibly been school-issued to be used by an elementary school student, let's say circa 1964 or 65. I am literally "asking for a friend" in this case, she remembers them as cartridge fillers, which she loaded with Sheaffer Peacock Blue. I'd love to find one to give to her. She also remembers them as available in various colors.

 

All help appreciated!

 

On 3/12/2020 at 11:38 PM, markofp said:

This is a long shot, but I am wondering what models of Sheaffer fountain pens would have possibly been school-issued to be used by an elementary school student, let's say circa 1964 or 65. I am literally "asking for a friend" in this case, she remembers them as cartridge fillers, which she loaded with Sheaffer Peacock Blue. I'd love to find one to give to her. She also remembers them as available in various colors.

 

All help appreciated!

 

On 3/12/2020 at 11:38 PM, markofp said:

This is a long shot, but I am wondering what models of Sheaffer fountain pens would have possibly been school-issued to be used by an elementary school student, let's say circa 1964 or 65. I am literally "asking for a friend" in this case, she remembers them as cartridge fillers, which she loaded with Sheaffer Peacock Blue. I'd love to find one to give to her. She also remembers them as available in various colors.

 

All help appreciated!

Excellent question especially since fountain pens were on CBS Sunday morning today :). I was in a Brooklyn NY public school in that time frame. Some how those messy pens became a fad and I remember buying them. There was Shaeaffer and another company, I forgot the name, waterman, both used cartridges, blue or black. We got ink all over the place and I'm sure it annoyed the teachers. My next adventure into the fountain pen was in graduate school for my thesis, a total waste of money. I don't use pens or pencils anymore

[Vladpu]

On 1/23/2022 at 2:59 PM, Pedro Puckerstein said:

My next adventure into the fountain pen was in graduate school for my thesis, a total waste of money.

You mean the grad school was a waste, or the pen?  I am old enough to have written more than one thesis in pen, and then pay someone to type it for me.  I do not miss those days, neither writing theses nor hiring a typist.  

[inkstainedruth]

On 1/23/2022 at 3:59 PM, Pedro Puckerstein said:

I don't use pens or pencils anymore

And yet you're posting to a pen forum....  So my question to you is WHY?  If you *only* type/keyboard what brought you here?  

There are people here who are collectors.  There are people who are writers or artists (or both).  There are people in all walks of life and we're pretty harmless and mostly agree to disagree on what we like or don't.  Some like fountain pens because they are more comfortable to use than a ballpoint.  I have a friend in the Pacific Northwest (who is NOT on here) who is a tech writer, who fits that category.  She also color-codes the ink to the pen for when she's taking notes at meetings at her job (keeping track on who is going to be doing what part of the project next so she can more easily type up her notes to email out to the various engineers she works with.  Me?  There's only one or two pens that I do that with regularly (and I keep threatening to go all wild and crazy on one with a completely different color one of these days.

I journal, I draw sometimes, I write poetry and have been trying my hand at fiction.  But I also sign checks to pay bills, and make shopping and to-do lists.  Because, well, they're pens....  Today?  I did my daily journal entry this morning, then I paid a couple of bills, including addressing the envelopes they went in.  And wrote in the how much gasoline I put into the minivan, and where, and how much I paid, and the price per gallon, into a little notebook that lives on the drink console in front of the dashboard, for that purpose.  I used a $25 (for me) pen in a mini-composition book that I bought at a dollar store in a 3 pack at 3/$1 US + sales tax....  The current journal?  I think I paid 20 bucks for it, but it's got 600 pages, and decent paper.  

If you're interested in pens (for curiosity's sake if nothing else), frankly, Pedro, you've got a funny way of expressing that interest.  If -- OTOH -- you're just a net  troll, kindly go away, and stop wasting our time.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[Vladpu]

On 2/11/2022 at 3:08 PM, inkstainedruth said:

And yet you're posting to a pen forum....  So my question to you is WHY?  If you *only* type/keyboard what brought you here?  

There are people here who are collectors.  There are people who are writers or artists (or both).  There are people in all walks of life and we're pretty harmless and mostly agree to disagree on what we like or don't.  Some like fountain pens because they are more comfortable to use than a ballpoint.  I have a friend in the Pacific Northwest (who is NOT on here) who is a tech writer, who fits that category.  She also color-codes the ink to the pen for when she's taking notes at meetings at her job (keeping track on who is going to be doing what part of the project next so she can more easily type up her notes to email out to the various engineers she works with.  Me?  There's only one or two pens that I do that with regularly (and I keep threatening to go all wild and crazy on one with a completely different color one of these days.

I journal, I draw sometimes, I write poetry and have been trying my hand at fiction.  But I also sign checks to pay bills, and make shopping and to-do lists.  Because, well, they're pens....  Today?  I did my daily journal entry this morning, then I paid a couple of bills, including addressing the envelopes they went in.  And wrote in the how much gasoline I put into the minivan, and where, and how much I paid, and the price per gallon, into a little notebook that lives on the drink console in front of the dashboard, for that purpose.  I used a $25 (for me) pen in a mini-composition book that I bought at a dollar store in a 3 pack at 3/$1 US + sales tax....  The current journal?  I think I paid 20 bucks for it, but it's got 600 pages, and decent paper.  

If you're interested in pens (for curiosity's sake if nothing else), frankly, Pedro, you've got a funny way of expressing that interest.  If -- OTOH -- you're just a net  troll, kindly go away, and stop wasting our time.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

So, what you are saying is that you drive a minivan???  Oy gevalt!  A Shanda far di Goyim.

[Vladpu]

On 4/19/2020 at 7:33 AM, Estycollector said:

 

Now makes sense. Thank you. However, I could probably figure out how to pour the last drop into a shallow container and suck up as much as possible.

There are in fact a number of cheap plastic sorta-conical tubes that hold about 3 ml, and come with pipettes to fill them from the bottle.  If I recall, the brand is called "Ink Miser".  

When you use a large pen with a large nib, a normal ink bottle affords you only about 3 fills before you're sucking up air, so it's worth the couple of bucks.   

[inkstainedruth]

3 hours ago, Doctox57 said:

So, what you are saying is that you drive a minivan???  Oy gevalt!  A Shanda far di Goyim.

Well, yes.   It's practical and comfortable to drive.  And if we have to take a long car trip where we have to haul a bunch of stuff, or put a lot of people in the car?  Heck yes.  

Actually, I prefer to drive the Prius on long trips, because it's smaller and is more fuel efficient.  But yeah, one of our vehicles is the quintessential "soccer mom van".  And if we have to really haul a lot of stuff?  It's a PITA to remove the middle seats (the back bench seat folds into the floor).  Nearly 9 years old at this point, too.

And well, also, I AM (mostly) Gentile.... 

Both vehicles are definitely a step up from the first car I owned -- a 1984 Dodge Omni.  They called the color "Graphic Red" that year.   Electrical problems out the wazoo, and the last year I owned it we mostly only used my husband's car, a Saturn (we lived in MA then, and his company paid for his train fare, so I'd drop him off at train station and it was the express train into South Station, then four stops from there to the Cambridge/MIT Red Line T stop).  So my poor little Jenny car sat in the driveway until the bumper rusted off.  OTOH, even though she mostly didn't get used that last year, and got traded in (no value, but the dealership where we bought the first minivan hauled it away for free) she had a pretty good run, in spite of a couple of accidents (as well as being on her fifth battery and 3rd alternator -- and a relay connecting them when the 3rd alternator went in) and she lasted 138K miles.  (At 125K miles, when I was getting the car inspected, the guy doing the inspection said "I've never seen one of these last so long!" 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Estycollector]

17 hours ago, Doctox57 said:

There are in fact a number of cheap plastic sorta-conical tubes that hold about 3 ml, and come with pipettes to fill them from the bottle.  If I recall, the brand is called "Ink Miser".  

When you use a large pen with a large nib, a normal ink bottle affords you only about 3 fills before you're sucking up air, so it's worth the couple of bucks.   

I can't remember what I was commenting on. It's been almost two years...LOL!!

[Doc Dan]

I hate resurrecting threads, but this one is a good one. I used those old Shaeffer (and Parker) cheap cartridge pens when I was in grammar school from the early to upper 1960's. I didn't even know what they were called until I read this thread. They wrote well, but we all had ink accidents, inky fingers, ink stained shirts and pants pockets, you name it. We weren't allowed to use a ball point pen until junior high. I always chose one of the blue ones. I broke quite a few. Nothing like playing football with your friends and forgetting the cartridge pen in your front pocket.

[Sailor Kenshin]

10 hours ago, Doc Dan said:

I hate resurrecting threads, but this one is a good one. I used those old Shaeffer (and Parker) cheap cartridge pens when I was in grammar school from the early to upper 1960's. I didn't even know what they were called until I read this thread. They wrote well, but we all had ink accidents, inky fingers, ink stained shirts and pants pockets, you name it. We weren't allowed to use a ball point pen until junior high. I always chose one of the blue ones. I broke quite a few. Nothing like playing football with your friends and forgetting the cartridge pen in your front pocket.

 

Thanks for the smile.

[etohmartini]

On 3/13/2020 at 5:14 AM, joss said:

But a 1964-65 school kid would still have to wait 4 to 5 years before the Sheaffer No-Nonsense or Viewpoint appeared ...

 

A 1964-65 Sheaffer cartridge pen could look like the red $1.95 pen with hooded nib shown in this 1964 ad (this pen was introduced in the early 1960s):

 

 

In 1964, Sheaffer introduced the so called "1 dollar" cartridge pen. The earliest version of this "1 dollar pen" had an open nib and a pyramidal cap and barrel top like the one shown in this past ebay auction:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just picked up a pen identical to the orange one shown and a Sheaffer cartridge fits it, barely, but won't stay on. The barrel touches the walls of the cartridge and will pull it off when unscrewing.

 

I plan to eyedropper it if I can't find a decent cartridge or converter.

[etohmartini]

Double-tap

Edited October 30, 2023 by etohmartini

[Sailor Kenshin]

26 minutes ago, etohmartini said:

I just picked up a pen identical to the orange one shown and a Sheaffer cartridge fits it, barely, but won't stay on. The barrel touches the walls of the cartridge and will pull it off when unscrewing.

 

I plan to eyedropper it if I can't find a decent cartridge or converter.

Plastic shrinkage of the barrel, possibly?  Did you have just 

one Sheaffer cartridge?

[AmericanMonk]

I've been monitoring Sheaffer converters for years. My used and re-used (and re-re-used) empty cartridges are showing ever-increasing signs of wear. I've always disliked using cartridges (in any brand or pen). The few places that sell converters new seemed perpetually out of stock. Luckily I've seen a resurgence in Sheaffer converters that don't involve buying used on eBay for $30. I have no way of helping a person decide whether or not these new converters are right for their pen, but I have a few in my cart for my 80s-era No Nonsenses and am crossing my fingers that they'll work.

 

Cheapest I've found (UK): https://cultpens.com/products/sheaffer-classic-converter

Cheapest I've found in the US: https://andersonpens.com/sheaffer-fountain-pen-piston-converter/

 

I won't pretend to have done an exhaustive search. I am content to purchase from about ~6 different locations before I feel like the hunt for savings is costing me more time than saving me money.