My Second Oldest Pen...

[Tools]

Way back in 1912, Walter Sheaffer turned his jewelry shop into a Pen Factory...and some history was born.. He invented the lever fill for Fountain Pens and revolutionised the Pen industry....

This isn't about the lever fill though, but the follow-on and the pen as we know it now.. Before 1929, Sheaffer's were flat at both ends...However, in 1929, he then developed what was called the Balance Pen... a pen that was tapered at both ends.. It's the way most Fountain Pens look today.. (I do have one of those from the early 30's, lever fill)...

Since Sheaffer started out as a jeweler, there were broad gold bands and gold clips etc on his fine pens... He was also one of the few who put the pen and mechanical pencil together..

From the mid-1940's, I have this set:


Sheaffer's have been made in the original factory since then, although everything is downsizing today:


This "Balance Pen" is from the time they were downsizing and making pens a bit slimmer than earlier versions:


This was also one of the first "Vac-Fil" pens of the day that used an unscrewable piston in the end to suck up the ink and this may have been the future if Waterman had not invented the cartridge system in the 50's:


Photography does not do this pen justice as the colors of red's, greens, and blacks change depending on the light..


This old gal is showing her age with some discoloration of the gold and nib...but I'll bet that if she was cleaned up and filled, it would still make a fine writing instrument: