First pen

I thought I had won a pen on ebay, no bids and only a couple hours to go. Got sniped. Well it was 15 bucks and needed to be refurbished. Another 20 so I decided to go looking for one already refurbished and had read that Payton street pens among others was a good place to start. I found this Skyline pen for 60 dollars and decided it would work. The pen I lost on Ebay was a symphony. I am not sure if the skyline is a better and or more expensive pen then the symphony or not but I like the design. I wanted an eversharp for my first pen as my grandmother used to say when I was correct Write with Eversharp. Its one of those retro things I love so much. Anyway here is the pen, it has a dent in the top and a flaw in the end of the body but nothing that bothers me as long as its sound and works well. I like a bit of usage to show its been there.

Congrats! I hope it writes like a dream!

Everyone wants a Skyline. They look so cool.

Agreed on the aesthetics, but be careful if you have large hands! The one i had was crazy small


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I think you are better off with the Skyline. The Symphony does not (AFAIK) have the "cult" following of the Skyline.

You probably have the "standard" size pen. There are 3 distinct sizes among Skylines - the Demi (really small), the Standard (IIRC, about 5 inches long), and the uncommon Executive (something like 6 inches plus). I have one of each size, and I also have sort of "chunky" hands - my fingers are not overly long, but my hands are wide. The only one of the 3 sizes I can use comfortably is the Executive.

At any rate, Skylines are iconic pens. Yours will be, I think, a great addition to your collection and a pleasure to write with for a long time to come. Their nibs are among the better ones of their time, too, so once properly refurbished and adjusted, they are great writers.

In regards to writing experience between a Symphony and Skyline you are looking about the same. The nibs are the same nibs regardless of pen. I wouldn't say either is necessarily a "better" pen than the other, just a different design aesthetic. From a restoration aspect they are both easy to fix as they are lever filling pens, but to restore a Skyline to technically correct specs you should be using a tapered sac, whereas the Symphony uses a standard 16 size sac.

Skylines definitely take the lion's share of the Eversharp interest, so there are lots out there and in large variety. The Symphony does not have as large of a following, which in some circles (mine in particular) is a blessing. They tend to be able to find for fairly cheap and are usually won for a pretty low cost. I'm building quite the collection of variants.

Skylines are also a bit more easier to classify, where-as the Symphony went through essentially 4 generations, each one moving further away from the original design. While most would say 3, I say 4, because after the 3rd generation, Eversharp started making all sorts of variants based off the Symphony line, but didn't really call them Symphonies. In my collection though I still consider them in the same genre.

TMI most likely!