A Memento: Waterman's 14s Saftey

[fountainpenkid]

DSCF0401.jpgThere are two indisputable facts about the Great War: that it rushed in the modern era, and, once power politics and romantic sentiment are stripped away, that it was truly pointless and unjustified. The latter judgement also makes it one of humanity's most tragic: men with no real cause for hatred killed each other mercilessly. The last man to survive the madness died in 2012. What survives to bring us, even on the most superficial level, into that past? Our geography for one, but that is intangible, as are many of the war's greatest effects...
Here's something tangible:
a pen.
Yes, just a pen. A new invention at the time. Ones like it were used by soldiers throughout trenches in the western front. Used because they were the most practical at the time. With these pens in their hands, soldiers connected with and dreamed of the real world that lay at times not more than a mile or two away from their dark and stinking crawlspaces. What a sorrowfully beautiful purpose they served then.
What about now?
Writing with a safety pen can be a meditative experience: the aesthetic and tactile sensibilities of most of us are alerted when using a simply styled safety: this is an old-fashioned pen. A quick note is transformed, made formal somehow by the slow twisting out of the nib accompanied by the light clicks of a complex but reliable mechanism. Just those few extra moments of careful twisting allow for one to think: they border the writing experience like a becoming frame.
What happens in between the twisting is very nice: the capped length of these pens are deceiving in that a pocket sized, m400 size pen 'grows' uncapped to a length and girth of at least an m600, fitting even those with large hands.
Now I'll give you some facts:
1. If restored properly these pens don't leak. Ever. You can of course fly with them.
2. They are very easy pens to fill...simply take off the cap and squirt ink right into the barrel. There is no need to unscrew a section or twist a knob or push a button or pull a lever.
3. No hard starts or nib dry out because the nib retracts into the ink chamber itself.
4. The nib carrier design allows for the nib and feed to be easily pulled out for cleaning or nib swapping. Simple.
5. You can find them easily with excellent contemporary flex nibs.
6. They are very reliable if used with care.
6. Don't try repairing one yourself unless you have some very skilled hands and lots of experience.

Pictures to come soon!

[sloegin]

Len Proviser has posted this before over at pentrace, which is was my source.

[elaineb]

I heard about this pen when it was found, but news sources only described it as an "ink pen". But I assumed it was a safety pen. I couldn't imagine any other type lasting 80 years in the ground and then being able to write.

I have four safeties right now. I do love them, but I also have the unfortunate tendency to forget that they are nothing but an open tube of ink until I move the nib into place. I've kind of poured ink onto various tables, counters, etc. in my forgetfulness...

[tandaina]

Ahem, I've done the same with a safety. Why I now prefer the old eyedropper fillers. All the ease without the danger of tipping ink out into my lap.

[fountainpenkid]

Ahem, I've done the same with a safety. Why I now prefer the old eyedropper fillers. All the ease without the danger of tipping ink out into my lap.

Yes...I accidentally did this in the middle of a class...people's reactions were of hilarious bewilderment. It stays at home most of the time now.