Wahl Eversharp Skyline

[Laurie]

I am looking at a pen described as a Wahl Eversharp Skyline 14K GF Cap Debonnet Red Fountain Pen. Can anyone tell me whether these are good buys. I am looking to pay about $100 USD for this pen. Described as being in good working order and recently serviced. Also can you polish these pens with micro pads with any success.
Also are the nibs usually flexy?

Here is a link with some pictures:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Wahl-Ever.../331579651025?

[carlos.q]

Try fountainpenrecycler.com

non standard disclaimer: Not related nor a customer. Tried to buy a pen once but somebody got to it first.

[Laura N]

Without looking at your eBay listing, $100 seems like a high price, to me, for that model Skyline, unless it's a flexy nib. The Skyline comes with nibs ranging from flexy to nails. You need to rely on the seller, and the seller has to have knowledge of what constitutes flex. Or you have to know what you are looking for yourself -- think, nib shape -- and be prepared to gamble on eBay. But $100 isn't really gambling price, when you can pick them up unrestored for practically nothing.

A very good seller for Skylines would be Syd Saperstein, the Wahlnut, if he's still selling restored vintage Skylines. There's also the flex nib seller, whose name I forget, who knows what he's selling. His name starts with an M, I think, and I think people have told you about him before. I have no connection to either, of course.

If you want a flex nib, contact a seller who knows flex. Yes, you will pay more. But you will get what you want. Also, remember that full flex is very hard to handle, so you may want to start out with semi-flex, unless you really need the full flex, and are prepared to pay for it.

But first, you may want to spend a few days reading and researching flex nibs so you know what you are looking for. I'm guessing Richard Binder has something on his website, and perhaps John Mottishaw, too, as they both modify modern nibs for flex. There is a lot out there.

[Lady Onogaro]

I agree with Laura. That's too much to pay for. Look at Peyton Street Pens for a better idea of price, etc. And also, Terri knows these kinds of pens. You could email her with questions.

http://www.peytonstreetpens.com/wahl/skyline.html


She also has a line of pens that use Eversharp flex nibs, and she has a chart on flex nibs:

http://www.peytonstreetpens.com/zaya...s-new-nos.html

[Laurie]

Thanks for the advice. I actually got the price wrong it is $60 USD I understand now about flex and the varying types and hopefully I will get the full experience when my dip pen acquisitions arrive.

[welch]

The Skyline is a great pen. I bought and renovated several about five or six years ago as my "step up" from recovering Esterbrooks. Eversharp made some of the best nibs ever, and the Skyline was an elegant design. Looks odd to us, and especially to any of us who grew up in the Olden Dayes of the stream-lined '50s, but the Skyline balances perfectly. Fit 1940 taste perfectly...no...Henry Dreyfuss, who designed the shape, set taste: Hoover vacuum cleaner, the old streamlined trains...I think the electric Pennsylvania RR locomotives that ran between NYC and Washington until Amtrak retired them in the late '70s.

Most of them are either a shade under five inches ("demi") or about 5 3/8 inches (P-51 size), capped. Nibs vary from "manifold", very hard so the user could write through carbon paper, to very soft. A medium-soft Skyline nib is "springy". The very soft is NOT a flex nib pen, not like a Mabie-Todd Swan or Waterman. Eversharp might have made true flexible nibs, but anything advertised as such on Ebay might be "seller baloney".

Around 1945, the Skyline was the best selling pen in the US. Eversharp used a kind of "plastic" that has become brittle and many of the burgundy Skylines look more brown. Still, a great pen, great feel.

Lately, it appears that restoration sellers have gotten to most of the Skylines. Replaced the sac, shined them up, selling for $60 - $100 now. I was able to buy un-restored Skylines for about $25 - $35 about 2010. That price is unusual now, but worth it when you spot one. Unless you find cracks, or unless you want to take the Skyline down to it basic parts, clean them, and rebuild the pen, it is a simple lever-filler. Watch out for cracks and decide it you really want to pull off the derby, the clip, etc etc. Hand clean with the cap on...sunshine cloth. (Once shined just a cap...gleamed...then shattered.)