Help identifying vintage pen?

[Wade]

Hi folks... I have recently rec'd delivery of an eBay lot of vintage pens to practice repair/restoration, two identical pens in the group are completely eluding my attempts to identify. I call them Herman & Ned, named after their personalized imprints.

There are no factory imprints that I can see, nothing on the nib or barrel that identifies the manufacturer, but there are some distinct features that I am hoping someone may recognize and provide a hint or clue (or just outright tell me what the hell they are, I'm easy) as to their origin.

Pens are burgundy plastic with gold-plated caps, quality seems pretty decent, here are the distinguishing features as I see them (pics below):

• Clip is short, but not military short, folded end, with what looks like fletching running down the sides.
• Cap off, you can see the nib is semi-hooded and the section is rounded on the dorsal side but delta-shaped on the ventral side.
• There is a very wide clutch band between the section and barrel.
• Finally, there is a diamond shape punched into the end of the fill lever.

I have not yet attempted disassembly, as I'd really like to research the pen a bit before trying to yard apart. Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers,
Wade


Harold & Ned.JPGClip.JPGClutchBand & Section.JPGLever.JPG

[jar]

Pretty common NoNami pens. You ordered them by clipping a coupon found in the back of magazines and mailing the coupon along with the money (likely $0.50) and you got back a personalized pen in the mail about two weeks later.

[Wade]

Ah I see what you did there, hehe.

[Wade]

Found it, we'll sort of... not the most satisfying answer, but these pens are quite literally 'no name' pens, manufactured (National?) en masse and sold via bulk order often to companies or individually by mail order with the corporate or person's name imprinted. I found an article about hooded nibs on Richard Binder's site, these pens are the eighth photo down, under the name No Name.

Thanks for the point in the right direction, Jar!

http://www.richardspens.com/index_m....ooded_nibs.htm

[Bisquitlips]

Pretty common NoNami pens. You ordered them by clipping a coupon found in the back of magazines and mailing the coupon along with the money (likely $0.50) and you got back a personalized pen in the mail about two weeks later.

As is typical, Jar hits it on the head. Great knowledgeable people on The Geeks!

I am not sure you will be able to definitely tie down the maker, but it will be fun to try.

[Wade]

I am not sure you will be able to definitely tie down the maker, but it will be fun to try.

I had thought with such distinguishing features on the pens that finding clues to the manufacture would have been easier, but NOPE! Anyhow, good to have some idea where they came from, even if only a partial idea. The pens came apart easily enough today with a bit of heat (using an embossing gun as suggested by Richard Binder), nibs/feeds currently having a bit of a bath, barrels cleaned out really easily, as soon as my supply of #18 sacs arrive, they'll go back together and should write a treat, they both seem fairly decent quality.

[jar]

I am not sure you will be able to definitely tie down the maker, but it will be fun to try.

I had thought with such distinguishing features on the pens that finding clues to the manufacture would have been easier, but NOPE! Anyhow, good to have some idea where they came from, even if only a partial idea. The pens came apart easily enough today with a bit of heat (using an embossing gun as suggested by Richard Binder), nibs/feeds currently having a bit of a bath, barrels cleaned out really easily, as soon as my supply of #18 sacs arrive, they'll go back together and should right a treat, they both seem fairly decent quality.

IIRC (and I'm shooting from memory here) there were two main suppliers of such pens, National Pen Company and Arnold Pen Company from Petersburg, Va. The latter also sold pen parts that anyone could put together and call whatever they wants as well as having several sub-brands like "Indian".