Brown Striated Sheaffer Balance Premier with odd nib

[stub]

I recently found a Golden Brown Striated Sheaffer Balance Premier Lever filler at what was way below market price (I think). I could not quite make the pen out in the pictures but I have always wanted a Premier lever filler (I already have a vacuum filler Premier in Grey Striated Celluloid) and Brown is my favorite color.

Additionally I could see the pen body pretty clearly and the cap the condition looked outstandin. Sure enough there is no brassing on the clip, the cap band, or the lever and the celluloid is incredibly even and there is no warping or shrinking around the lever area. In short the pen was in stunning shape. When it arrived it not only was in great shape but the nib was deeply patina’d to a coppery color and the pen looked as if it spent most of it’s life in a drawer or cabinet. It gets better. The nib is a factory fine stub. A tipped stub. Small, maybe .7 and pretty sharp.

So I filled it and was happily using it until I looked again at the nib and then it dawned on me. Hey! Wait. That nib doesn’t look like any of my other Balance pens, all of which have a nice swoopy waverly aspect to them.

Is this just a very late issue Balance or could this pen have been been purchased and then the nib replaced at a later date buy Sheaffer? The fit to the feed is stunning. Or did a few old Balances ship with these nibs? This looks just like the 8SH nib you would find on a Touchdown pen. This one does have a number on it.

The nib hasn’t been re-tipped. The tip does not have different colors of gold and the nib just looks new, other than the patina. The plenty of tipping. Additionally, the nib fits PERFECTLY to the feed. Fits like a glove.

The pen is fantastic (OS Balance in mint shape with a small factory stub! yeah!) but I am curious to know if this nib is a later replacement or a franken-pen.

Whatever it is, I am happy to own it.

30285

30284

[stub]

Awful photos. Sorry. It is dark here today and I have no idea how to work a camera.

[HughC]

Looks okay to me.

[stub]

Hugh, do you know when these nibs appeared on Balances? Are these especially late issues? My other Priemer, also a striated celluloid pen but a vac-filler with a shark feed has a 2 tone life time nib with a pretty sculptural upswoop. This one has no LIFETIME on it and is dead straight.

[RocketRyan]

I can offer nothing helpful here. But that is a gorgeous pen, congratulations.

[stub]

Hard to tell with such god awful photography but in meatspace it is a beast. & the nib makes my scribbles look handsome. Almost.

[RocketRyan]

Feel safe in the knowledge that you penmanship cannot be worse than mine. I have actually written a few (I loathe to call them reviews, maybe opinions) on a few pens, but the thought of showing anyone my handwriting makes me turn montblanc burgundy red in colour. Not that I actually know how to add photos anyway. So you are ahead in both counts.

[kirchh]

It's likely a later replacement (note it doesn't say LIFETIME).

Note spelling: "Waverley." Also, note that that term is best reserved for the nibs so designated by Macniven & Cameron, creator/owner of the Waverley name.

--Daniel

[stub]

It's likely a later replacement (note it doesn't say LIFETIME).

Note spelling: "Waverley." Also, note that that term is best reserved for the nibs so designated by Macniven & Cameron, creator/owner of the Waverley name.

--Daniel

Right. Thanks. Though that is indeed why I said "Waverley aspect" since there is no other short hand I know that is commonly understood.

[stub]

It's likely a later replacement (note it doesn't say LIFETIME).

That's what I guessed and why I posted this. I have never seen a Balance with this nib on it, though I only have a few Balance pens. But the thing that amazes me is how perfect the fit to the feed is. It is like hand to glove, with everything curving together and being the right size and shape.

Thanks for your response.

Makes you realize just how big those nibs were on the later open nib pens were that they fit and don't look out of proportion to the rest of the Priemer pen body.

It looks like the same 8SH nib as I (believe) I have on early TD Statesman. (actually I have 3 of them)

[kirchh]

Where are you seeing the nib designation 8SH?

--Daniel

[kirchh]

It's likely a later replacement (note it doesn't say LIFETIME).

Note spelling: "Waverley." Also, note that that term is best reserved for the nibs so designated by Macniven & Cameron, creator/owner of the Waverley name.

--Daniel

Right. Thanks. Though that is indeed why I said "Waverley aspect" since there is no other short hand I know that is commonly understood.

The shape to which you refer is broadly called a turn-up/turned up (TU) nib. See https://www.vintagepens.com/FAQhistory/turnup_nibs.shtml.

--Daniel

[HughC]

Hugh, do you know when these nibs appeared on Balances? Are these especially late issues? My other Priemer, also a striated celluloid pen but a vac-filler with a shark feed has a 2 tone life time nib with a pretty sculptural upswoop. This one has no LIFETIME on it and is dead straight.

A bit out of my area but I'd agree with Daniel that it's most likely a replacement. The strait nib is consistent with the nibs from ~48/49. I suspect it's a late pen and it's possible that if it was near the changeover to solid colours and non lifetime nibs that an order for that specific nib may have resulted in a new model nib being used....idle speculation...based on...well nothing.

[stub]

Where are you seeing the nib designation 8SH?

--Daniel


Where are you seeing the nib designation 8SH?

Sorry, that isn't clear. I am not actually seeing 8SH anywhere. I am just saying it looks like the 8SH nib I suspect to be on my fat Touchdown pens. There would be no way for me to tell unless I could take the two nibs and compare them side by side. Additionally I don't know for 100% certain that the nib I am comparing it to (in size) truly is an 8SH only that it was identified as possibly being one in a previous thread by you. Sorry I just don't have the level of fluency you have so and not much to compare to. I think I had a thread way back that had 2 or 3 different Fat Touchdown Statesmen pens and I was asking which was the 73 nib and which the 74 and I believe you identified the largest one as the 8SH. Similar shape, 2 tone, non-lifetime with a serial number. To be clear I am just stabbing around in the dark here. Don't anyway take what I say as truth.

[stub]

The shape to which you refer is broadly called a turn-up/turned up (TU) nib. See https://www.vintagepens.com/FAQhistory/turnup_nibs.shtml.

--Daniel

I have never actually heard anyone use that terminology.

[mhosea]

Or "upturned". They do get called "Waverley" a lot. It's a colloquialism...kind of a "Kleenex" versus "tissue" thing. More discussion here (back to David Nishimura):

http://vintagepensblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-is-waverley-nib.html

[kirchh]

Where are you seeing the nib designation 8SH?

Sorry, that isn't clear. I am not actually seeing 8SH anywhere. I am just saying it looks like the 8SH nib I suspect to be on my fat Touchdown pens. There would be no way for me to tell unless I could take the two nibs and compare them side by side. Additionally I don't know for 100% certain that the nib I am comparing it to (in size) truly is an 8SH only that it was identified as possibly being one in a previous thread by you. Sorry I just don't have the level of fluency you have so and not much to compare to. I think I had a thread way back that had 2 or 3 different Fat Touchdown Statesmen pens and I was asking which was the 73 nib and which the 74 and I believe you identified the largest one as the 8SH. Similar shape, 2 tone, non-lifetime with a serial number. To be clear I am just stabbing around in the dark here. Don't anyway take what I say as truth.

No worries -- I was just surprised you used that designation, as it is not widely known; now I know how you came to learn it!

--Daniel