Pleasantly surprised by Sheaffer School pen

[MedfordChris]

I picked up a Sheaffer School pen at an estate sale recently and finally got around to flushing it and trying it out. I wasn't expecting much, but it actually writes rather nicely on the super-cheap-o note pads we have at work. I was pleasantly surprised. Ironically, it seemed to write worse on nicer paper. Go figure!

[mrcharlie]

There was a model of Sheaffer officially called "School"; all plastic pen body and cap with an ink window transparent area in the body, tapered ends, a little on the fat side. It was made in the late 1990s or early 2000s.

Then there was a model made from about 1955 to 1997 which had three versions; the earliest had rounded bullet/torpedo shaped ends, the 1960s version had a short conical end, and the 1970s through 1997 had flat ends. Metal cap, plastic body and section. Slim but not too slim diameter. Often called a "student" or "school" pen, but not officially. Officially the packaging usually just said "Sheaffer Cartridge Pen".

I love "Sheaffer Cartridge Pen" fwiw. I have many.

I tried a "School" model (which has the same nib/feed as the earlier Cartridge Pens), and it functioned and wrote well but the cap design was bad such that it sucked droplets of ink into the cap and onto the top of the nib when uncapping the pen. Other web forum people have reported the same problem, so I don't think I just got a bad one.

[Jon Szanto]

I recently cleaned and flushed an older "school" pen that I believe dated back further, probably 60s or so? Had a semi-transparent red plastic barrel, polished steel cap. They just said it was stingy with ink and skipped a bit. Ran the section/nib in the ultra, did a thorough flush, flossed the nib, and give the barrel and cap a light polish.

After filling up the cartridge with ink (vintage Skrip, of course!), it really is everything you could want from a basic pen! Smooth, just the right flow, doesn't dry out between uses. All for what must have been just a buck or two. Pretty cool when you think about it.

[whych]

I recently cleaned and flushed an older "school" pen that I believe dated back further, probably 60s or so? Had a semi-transparent red plastic barrel, polished steel cap. They just said it was stingy with ink and skipped a bit. Ran the section/nib in the ultra, did a thorough flush, flossed the nib, and give the barrel and cap a light polish.

After filling up the cartridge with ink (vintage Skrip, of course!), it really is everything you could want from a basic pen! Smooth, just the right flow, doesn't dry out between uses. All for what must have been just a buck or two. Pretty cool when you think about it.

They were great reliable pens and if you used a cartridge, could easily see when the cartridge was running dry.
I used to use a Parker 45 at school/university till I got one of these. Where the P45 would dry out or leak ink into the cap in summer, I never had a problem with the school Sheaffer.
All for a fraction of the price of a P45!

[Sailor Kenshin]

I recently cleaned and flushed an older "school" pen that I believe dated back further, probably 60s or so? Had a semi-transparent red plastic barrel, polished steel cap. They just said it was stingy with ink and skipped a bit. Ran the section/nib in the ultra, did a thorough flush, flossed the nib, and give the barrel and cap a light polish.

After filling up the cartridge with ink (vintage Skrip, of course!), it really is everything you could want from a basic pen! Smooth, just the right flow, doesn't dry out between uses. All for what must have been just a buck or two. Pretty cool when you think about it.

I have that same pen. 0_0

Also had the all-plastic, so-called 'School Pen.' Did not even come close!

[Jon Szanto]

I have that same pen. 0_0

Also had the all-plastic, so-called 'School Pen.' Did not even come close!

While I don't have the pens, I have a couple of spiral notebooks from junior high school (1966-68) that I wrote exclusively with those pens. Don't tell me Skrip ink is lousy - still easily readable these, uh, many years later.

Great. Now I'm depressed.

[jar]

I still have my Sheaffer Gen 1 clear body cartridge pen from the late fifties or very early sixties.

It still works jess fine.

[Jeph]

I agree(ed)

http://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread....Cursive-Italic

[whych]

Some guys use these as eydroppers. The translucent body makes it easy to see the ink level and if you use the clear body, you get to see the ink colour as well.

[MedfordChris]

[Sailor Kenshin]

Oooo...what era is that? Like.

[MedfordChris]

This pen has pointed ends on the cap and barrel, which should make it a version 2 school pen. The internet says this would put it in the mid/late 60's or early 70's.
The plastic is amazingly flexible/soft for a fountain pen. It resembles the softness of a modern Bic pen.

[jar]

This pen has pointed ends on the cap and barrel, which should make it a version 2 school pen. The internet says this would put it in the mid/late 60's or early 70's.
The plastic is amazingly flexible/soft for a fountain pen. It resembles the softness of a modern Bic pen.

That's not one of the second generation school pens, and I'm not quite sure where it fit in. The "School pens" all were open nib pens and sections were the same all through the evolution.

I'd love to see better and more detailed pictures of it since it's one that's new to me.

[mrcharlie]

There were some slightly more expensive "Cartridge Pens" in the late 1950s and perhaps early 1960s, and this is one of them. There is a somewhat different hooded nib section and a fully metal cap that was similar to this one. These pens are both slightly larger in diameter than the "regular" cheapest "Sheaffer Cartridge Pen". Also there were pens the same shape as the cheapest ones with caps that were plastic and same color as the barrel instead of the stainless or chrome (whatever it is) of the regular cheapest model. I don't have any of the barrel color cap models of either type.

I'll try to put some pictures up RSN.

[whych]

This pen has pointed ends on the cap and barrel, which should make it a version 2 school pen. The internet says this would put it in the mid/late 60's or early 70's.
The plastic is amazingly flexible/soft for a fountain pen. It resembles the softness of a modern Bic pen.

That's not one of the second generation school pens, and I'm not quite sure where it fit in. The "School pens" all were open nib pens and sections were the same all through the evolution.

I'd love to see better and more detailed pictures of it since it's one that's new to me.

I think they were later - into the 80's. I got my first school pen around 75. It was the metal cap, open nib and translucent blue body.
The one in the pic: I have one that was made in S. America (Argentina?). The plastic is not the same standard as the US pens and the nib is a lot thinner plate material.

[mrcharlie]

I'm not sure I agree with the distinction between "Cartridge" and "Skripsert" on the "Ravens March Fountain Pens" site (whose author is a member here), as "Skripsert" was basically the branding that Sheaffer first tried to use with their proprietary cartridge itself, and so for the first couple years they called their basic cartridge pens "skripsert" pens, and then the old advertising materials seem to use "skripsert" to refer to the slightly more expensive hooded model but "cartridge" with the basic model they'd originally called "skripsert". And they sold the basic model with softer plastic opaque barrels at first, and later transparent harder plastic barrels at a lower price point. But they then sold the basic cheap pens in both transparent and opaque at the same price point during the 2nd and 3rd gen periods ...

But having said all that, the history of and photos of all three gens of the basic cartridge pen are on the Ravens March Sheaffer Cartridge Pen page. I don't think he notes that the early 3rd gen pens have the same clutch ring that the 1st and 2nd generations had, but at some point the clutch rings were made half as long and the barrel shape adjusted to match (the clutch ring sits on top of the barrel and is held in place by the section when it is screwed on). You can see the smaller clutch ring on the "S Range" variant picture on Ravens March Cartridge Pen page, but it was also used on the regular 3rd gen pens no later than the early 1980s.

Photos and history of the original basic model and the two fatter hooded/semi-hooded cartridge pens, including the one posted above, are on the Ravens March Sheaffer Skripsert Pen page. That page has a scan from a 1963 advertisement for the pen above, for the person who wanted to know the era for that pen.

Photos and description of the relatively recent and short lived Sheaffer School pen are on the Ravens March Sheaffer School Pen page.

I have most of these pens but I realized I'm not going to get to making a decent picture of them in the next day or two, and the work is already done on his site.

FWIW, I nearly always have at least one of the basic Cartridge Pens in use; currently I have a clear transparent 1st Gen with Fine (304) nib ED filled (silicone greased threads) with Sheaffer Jet Black. I find I use the 1st and 2nd gen pens the most. My first 2 or 3 FPs ever were 3rd Gen Sheaffer Fountain Pens, and I have one of them fully intact with all original parts, and one all but the nib/feed/section which I have replaced with a NOS 1950s! era replacement unit that has an Extra Fine (302) nib. I think my first FP ever is broken and gone, but it might be the one with the replaced section. Forty years is a long time.

Sheaffer made both the basic cartridge pen and fatter hooded skripsert version for Sears with Sears branding; I have one of the 2nd gen basic Sears pens and have seen photos of the hooded model with the Sears branding.

The basic Sheaffer Cartridge Pen can be ED filled, as noted, but you need to re-apply the grease every time you remove and replace the section which kind of bites. It can also take the old original Sheaffer squeeze converter but not the current piston converter. I do have an existing photo of that, both assembled and disassembled.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks for the details, mrcharlie. Whatever it's called, I want one like MedfordChris'!

[ac12]

The School Pen was my first FP.
I remember have them in clear, transparent green and transparent blue. Too bad they got lost.
My favorite ink at the time was Peacock Blue. Now I wonder if it was too bright for the teachers eyes. When they did not complain, so I guess it was OK.

@mrcharlie
Thanks for showing that the squeeze converter will fit the school pen.
I like your red pen. Now I have to find one for myself.

[mrcharlie]

@mrcharlie
Thanks for showing that the squeeze converter will fit the school pen.
I like your red pen. Now I have to find one for myself.

I like the red ones too. I don't know if they made a transparent red in the 1st gen shape, but I don't have one and that would be cool.

Not only do the squeeze converters fit in the basic cartridge pens, but the "cartridge II" aka "slim cartridge" fits in there. I bought a bunch in small ebay lots in 2012, and one of the used pens I bought had a slim cartridge inside.

FWIW, the squeeze converter does not fit in the hooded nib skripsert cartridge pens. Or, to be more accurate, it fits in there but is so tight that it stays stuck in the barrel when you unscrew the section and you can't get it back out without damage. Or at least I couldn't when I tried it.

[pajaro]

I have an old red translucent barrel pen with the rounded ends. I used a cheap converter that looks like the converter in my JinHao X450. This converter works perfectly in the Sheaffer. It's another of the many inexpensive and nice writing pens I have accumulated.