Please help identify this Waterman

[tannie]

Hello all,

A while back I acquired a very nice Waterman pen. I have since tried to identify it, but have had no luck so far. Would anyone happen to know the type of this pen?

The lever has no 'box' around it, and the cap has two bands instead of the one I usually see.
1975

The barrel has a stamp which reads:
Waterman's
made in England

No reference to type/number
1976

The nib reads:
Waterman's
IDEAL
england
2-a

It has a heartshaped breatherhole.
1977

I appreciate any clues to the True Identity of this pen ;)

thanks!

~ Tanja

[fountainpenkid]

Waterman's english made pen in the 40's...I don't have the name though. Maybe it is the Commando model.

[tannie]

Thanks! I did stumble over the Commando in my search but it had a metal (gold?) lever box in the photos I saw. Not sure if mine simply came out later with a slightly adjusted lever-design or perhaps as a jr./lady version (still haven't quite figured that put yet ;) ). It looks very simple and I really like it :D (ok, done gushing over my pen now ;) )

~ Tanja

[southpaw52]

It was made in the 40's, I believe it is a Stalwart. It is part of the Commando line of pens, distinguishing models is difficult.

[jor412]

Is it a Stalwart? I've had two Stalwarts and they both only had one band on the cap.

[Bogon07]

Interesting looking pen. I like the style of the clip too.

The tines of the nib look like they are slightly out of alignment or is it just the angle of the photo ?

[tannie]

Interesting looking pen. I like the style of the clip too.

The tines of the nib look like they are slightly out of alignment or is it just the angle of the photo ?

The were, indeed. I have mostly fixed it, but still need to use one of those brass shims to fix the last bit. They do mostly align themselves correctly, but seem a bit 'tight' together so they rub up against each other and sometimes misalign purely by friction. I hope a little shimming will fix that (but have to buy the shims first). I have carefully managed to separate them a little bit, and don't want to pull on the tines any more than I did. It does write very smoothly right now :D

I have acquired a W2 in the meantime, and the two look a lot alike. I've decided to call this one my W1, because it seems they never made one with that type/name, and one usually doesn't name the first one '1' because you don't always know you'll make seconds and thirds ;)

I'll make a side by side photo of the two this afternoon, and probably of the 512 as well.

[tannie]

All three of them:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8533/8673598126_ef23a07abf.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tannie/8673598126/)
Waterman's Fountain pens (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tannie/8673598126/) by tannie (http://www.flickr.com/people/tannie/), on Flickr

I made more photos (of the bodies, the caps, the nibs) and uploaded them to flickr. Very nice trio :)

[Bogon07]

Gee the other photos accentuate the nice colours of the pens especially the middle one being a rather attractive grey and the bottom a rich dark green.

[tannie]

Gee the other photos accentuate the nice colours of the pens especially the middle one being a rather attractive grey and the bottom a rich dark green.

The dark green doesn't photograph well ;)
I bought the grey one because it had a W2-B nib and I wanted to know if that made a difference (compared to the other two, 2-A nibs). It seems softer, but doesn't necessarily flex more.
I like the simplicity of all three. And they feel comfortable in my hands and write smoothly. :D