Need an ID

[jhsiao]

Ok, I'm stumped.

 

What is this thing?

 

http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/8300/sheaffermf4.jpg

 

(Sorry for the poor image--I'll eventually get a macro box and something more sophisticated than a camera phone).

 

It's a cartridge pen but not a Skripsert. It has a semi-hooded steel nib, but it's not a Stylpoint. In fact, the hood resembles a a wider version of the Parker 45 nib (but can't be swapped out like a 45 nib). The clip says "SHEAFFER'S" which limits it to pre-1965 since I think most of their pens went to the standard "SHEAFFER" in 1965. The cap doesn't screw on, but is a friction cap. The barrel says "SHEAFFER'S Made in the USA" and both barrel and cap's cross section have an octagonal shape.

 

I've not been able to find any websites describing this thing. Not PenHero, not RichardsPens.

 

Any ideas?

 

[jmw19]

No clue, but I have one in red. I'm having no luck online either.

[Univer]

Hi,

 

I'm afraid I can't help out with a name, but I am familiar with the model. This is - to my mind only, and with no disrespect to the little fellow - about the bottom of the barrel among entry-level Sheaffers. If yours is anything like the ones I've got, then you'll notice that the plastic is softer and more "toy-like" than the plastic used for the standard Cartridge Pens or the Stylpoints.

 

So far as I can tell, though, the nib is the same as the Cartridge Pen's, and that's a good thing in terms of writing performance. (This isn't a hooded nib, of course, but a faux hooded nib.)

 

The pen is pictured, by the way, at Richard Binder's marvelous site, toward the bottom of the article on hooded nibs. (There's no model name given there either.)

 

I think your timeframe is correct; I'd peg this somewhere in the early to mid 60s.

 

Cheers,

 

Jon

 

 

 

[jhsiao]

Good catch! Yeah. I totally missed that one on Richard's site. (http://www.richardspens.com/ref_info/hooded_nibs.htm)

 

And you're right: the plastic is _really_ soft. It feels like either someone put moisturizer on the surface of it or it's literally melting in my hand.

 

Eh...I'll see how it writes (it's sitting in a tissue cup with a water-filled cartridge right now).

[bobioden]

I think it is just called a "school pen", also noted on Richard's site. I have them in Grey and Black.

[Univer]

Hi,

 

I noticed the "school pen" designation on Richard's site too; I wasn't sure whether that was a proper name or a catchall term for entry-level cartridge-fillers.

 

"School pen" is such an elastic word, at least in this connection. I think most folks refer to the "classic" slim plastic/chrome cartridge pen as the Sheaffer "school pen," but - to the best of my knowledge - it was always sold simply as the Cartridge Pen.

 

If this one really was marketed as the Sheaffer School Pen, then it - and its 1990s descendant - are the only legitimate claimants to that title. I'd love to find one in the package, but I haven't run across such a specimen.

 

If the nib is undamaged, it ought to write just like the Cartridge Pen - a good thing, in my book.

 

Cheers,

 

Jon

 

PS Am I drawing a blank, or is this the one-and-only faceted Sheaffer model?