The strangest pen/nib you have ever had

[Vespagirl]

I’ve been enjoying reading the best and worst pen discussions, so I have a twist: what is the strangest pen or nib you have had?

Mine is recent. I purchased a Pilot 98 from a seller on eBay that describes it as “defective” because it was “too flexible”. Frankly, that sounded like a good problem to me, particularly for the very low price it was going for so, why not.

When it arrived, it was a medium nib with a broad tag . It looked oddly broad in the photo, but I was open. It was a little flexible but certainly not outrageously so (oh well), but a medium it was not! And it was sharp?!? Only a very low angle made for a comfortable writing experience.

The game was afoot. I broke out the magnifier, fixed the tines, and discovered a few odd markings as well as confirmation that there was no tipping material. Break out the Stargazer for comparison: the Stargazer nib is a solid 2-3 mm longer than the 98 . Someone cut the nib!!!



I’ve figured it out and how to write with it, so I’ve no complaints based on what I spent beyond an inaccurate description. But what an odd interpretation of a nib. It made for an interesting new pen day.

Your turn. What’s your story?

[Jon Szanto]

I have a Vacumatic Duofold in the small "demi" size, the later style with the bands of color that run the length of the pen. When I saw the ad for it (might have even been here on FPG) they made mention that the nib had one tipping break off so they simply clipped the end of the nib off and smoothed it! The seller said it was still a smooth writer.

The rest of the pen looked nice and I wanted it as an example of that color/style and figured I could always source another nib... but, in fact, it works fine as a stub! I'll just leave it be, with a good story and all. (Sorry I'm not set up today to do a photo)

[Sailor Kenshin]

I have a Vacumatic Duofold in the small "demi" size, the later style with the bands of color that run the length of the pen. When I saw the ad for it (might have even been here on FPG) they made mention that the nib had one tipping break off so they simply clipped the end of the nib off and smoothed it! The seller said it was still a smooth writer.

The rest of the pen looked nice and I wanted it as an example of that color/style and figured I could always source another nib... but, in fact, it works fine as a stub! I'll just leave it be, with a good story and all. (Sorry I'm not set up today to do a photo)

I've done that. On a yard sale pen that cost a dollar.

[Cob]

Perhaps not the strangest pen I have ever had but I do not know what to make of this curiosity., It is stamped Parker Duofold, is a button filler in green marbled material, has a plastics section that is partially translucent, a Televisor type pressure bar and finally an American nib. I am told it is an early English Duofold circa 1941. I find it curious that Parker should have started making or perhaps assembling pens in England when our very existence was hanging by a thread, Could it be Canadian? But who would be importing pens when the country was desperate for food and we had the challenge of the U-boats in the Atlantic? The pen is far smaller than a standard post war Duofold. Here are three pictures.

Rgds Cob

Mystery D 1.jpgMystery D 2.jpgMystery D 3.jpg

[fountainpenkid]

Perhaps not the strangest pen I have ever had but I do not know what to make of this curiosity., It is stamped Parker Duofold, is a button filler in green marbled material, has a plastics section that is partially translucent, a Televisor type pressure bar and finally an American nib. I am told it is an early English Duofold circa 1941. I find it curious that Parker should have started making or perhaps assembling pens in England when our very existence was hanging by a thread, Could it be Canadian? But who would be importing pens when the country was desperate for food and we had the challenge of the U-boats in the Atlantic? The pen is far smaller than a standard post war Duofold. Here are three pictures.

Rgds Cob

Fascinating. It looks to me like a crazy mix of parts--the barrel and cap from a 1st generation Vacumatic (the cheaper models), the cap ring from an English Duofold, the blind cap from some low-end depression-era Parker, and the feed from ?? Very very strange. Would love to hear an experienced Parker collector's opinion on it.

[Paddler]

At a flea market, I found a late 19th Century blow-filler. It uses a brass dip pen nib. The feed contains a silk string that conducts ink from the sac to the underside of the nib. I can't get a good photo of the strange innards because everything is a flat black and there is no contrast between the parts.

[penwash]

My Pelikan 100 has a CN nib whose tines are uneven (not in a good way).

It looks like the right tine was broken off at some point. When I looked at it, there is no way that this nib will ever write the way it is.

But...


As you can see, it writes and sketches just fine, of course due to the uneven tines, the writing has that stub look to it.
The nib was scratchy like an itchy Lemur, but after I smooth both tines as well as I could, it writes like a flexible stub.

NOTE: I am not trying to sneakily promote Pen Agora in this post, it just so happen to be the only sketch I've done with this pen.

[Kaputnik]

No pictures, although if I'd thought about it at the time, I would have saved the pen I'm about to describe just as a curiosity. But it was thrown away years ago.

Years ago I bought one of Hero's Parker 51 style pens from an Amazon seller. At least I thought I had. Within their limits, Hero is a reputable company that makes some decent pens. What I got was evidently a "fake Hero".

It never worked properly, and at some point I just disassembled it to see what I could learn. I discovered that the nib was not a single piece. It was two slivers of metal placed side by side, so that there was a "slit" in the middle. Cheaper, I suppose, than manufacturing a real nib. I looked at it under a loupe and am convinced that this wasn't a nib that just happened to split in half; it was made that way on purpose.

I subsequently got a couple of real Hero squeeze fillers (one of them was just a free bonus that a seller threw in along with a more expensive pen) and although I haven't used them in a long time, what with the better pens that I have, there's nothing wrong with them. But that fake Hero still amazes me.

[Kaputnik]

I'll add some pictures of pens that actually work. Nothing terribly exotic, but these Pilot Parallel sets are fun to play around with. This might be more useful if I had serious artistic or calligraphic intentions; as it is, they mostly sit around unused. It would take some serious practice to get the most out of a 6.0 mm nib. Still, with Christmas cards coming up, I generally manage to add some personal touches with these.



Despite the unique design of the nibs, the 1.5 mm one actually works fairly normally, and if I were more inclined to use italic nibs it might get more use.

[Scooby921]

Strangest I've seen / purchased was a shadow nib for a Sheaffer No Nonsense. Three tines like a music nib, but it has a cut-out in the center tine, offset to one side. Your writing strokes produce one thick line and one thin line which is supposed to be a shadow. Outside of calligraphy and perhaps just down-strokes on the first letter of a paragraph it seems functionally useless. Writing entire words and sentences simply makes your eyes cross.

Not my photos, but a quick GIS provides these useful examples
http://www.peytonstreet.com/forsale3..._musicnib4.jpg

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/fo...1311122570.jpg

[FredRydr]

Strangest I've seen / purchased was a shadow nib for a Sheaffer No Nonsense.

Based on your photo link, you win. Weird!

[Vespagirl]

Strangest I've seen / purchased was a shadow nib for a Sheaffer No Nonsense.

Based on your photo link, you win. Weird!

I have to say, it’s not a bad pen once you get used to it. Just wasn’t what I was expecting.


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[rluka]

Not my photos, but a quick GIS provides these useful examples
http://www.peytonstreet.com/forsale3..._musicnib4.jpg

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/fo...1311122570.jpg

That result looks as dizzying as seeing 3D movie without glasses

[Vespagirl]

Woah!


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[AzJon]

Yeah, I was going to offer up the Twin Bock Nib available for Kaweco pens:





Never owned, but super freaky.

[grainweevil]

I do own the Kaweco twin nib, and it is super freaky. Someone said it was a good aid to learning nib position as you can see if you're keeping it at the correct angle. This may be true, but you have to get past the headache it induces in order to notice same.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I need an eye exam! :-0