Sheaffer School pens. How it started.

[Lexaf]

In the excellent thread "Which cheap pens from your beginner days do you still love?"
( http://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread....663#post232663 ), started by AMK, a lot of references are made to the 'Sheaffer School Pen'.
Here some more information about these interesting and still very loved fountain pens.

In 1955 the Sheaffer Company introduced their first cartridge loaded school fountain pens.
Here some quotes and pictures from http://www.sheaffertarga.com/Sheaffe...to%202003.html :
"The first Sheaffer Cartridge pen was developed by the Fineline division of the company in 1955, and was simply called the Fineline Cartridge Pen".

sheaffer ads.jpg

In 1958 the Sheaffer Company distributed many 1000's of brown envelopes at 100's or even 1000's of American primary and secundary schools. Each envelope contained a Fineline Sheaffer pen (with transparent 'demonstrator' barrel), a booklet about 'How to be a better writer' and a five pack of Sheafer Skrip cartridges.

The rest is history.
Quote: "Sheaffer’s simple skrip cartridge filling system was a great success and by 1959 the popular priced $2.95 cartridge fountain pen had sold over 8 million units"

Below some pictures of the promotion set and a scan of the booklet's content:
The original series of Fineline pens all had a standard open F nib, transparent barrels in blank, red, green and blue color and a stainless steel slip on cap.
Funny detail: the pen that is shown on the front page of the booklet is not the transparent 'Fineline' pen with an open 304 F nib but the black variety with a Triumpf nib, that was more expensive... See details of that pen on the last picture.


DSCF9440.JPG

DSCF9443.JPG

DSCF9451.JPG

Sheaffer 2-3.jpg

Sheaffer 4-5.jpg

Sheaffer 6-7.jpg

Sheaffer 8.jpg

triumpf nib.JPG

Edited for typo's.

[wingwiper]

Those pens were a little before my school days......the Sheaffer No-Nonsense I remember being like $1.99, which I used to write reports with back in the ‘70’s.
You were really upper class using a Parker 45, etc. I remember they were a little harder to get hold of.
I think I got mine at Sears or an Office Supply Store- been so long I cannot remember?
Of course course the standard was Bic sticks.....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jon Szanto]

Lex, this is so great of you to post the wonderful ephemera of the School Pen beginnings. I'm one of those people that got my start with this pen. In fact, just this week I came across what is probably my oldest existing example of fountain pen use while going through some of my parent's papers. It is a "travel journal" (fictional) done as an assignment for a 7th grade geography class. I did this in 1966 using the standard Skrip blue cartridges and it is still completely readable!



I always try to keep some of these pens around, not only for nostalgia but because I like to give them to beginning pen users - I *know* they will be good, reliable writers! When I see some come up for sale, if reasonable I always pick up some more. Here's a recent lot I purchased:

[Lady Onogaro]

I am the beneficiary of a couple of Jon's recent purchase, for which I thank him very much. One of the blue ones is here at hand even as I write this. It works great.

[Paddler]

I started writing with these pens in grade school. We were the first in that school to use fountain pens instead of dip pens and inkwells. I have collected a small fardel of these pens just for the nostalgia. I notice that there are a couple of opaque black pens in the original design that are a little longer than the others. Anybody else notice this?

[Jon Szanto]

I notice that there are a couple of opaque black pens in the original design that are a little longer than the others. Anybody else notice this?

I can't say I noticed the length straight-away, but I did notice the Triump-style nib integrated onto the section. Perhaps this was a slightly higher-end model?

Also, I am always grateful for a new word: fardel.

[Robert]

Thanks for the happy memories, Lex. My first fountain pen was a Sheaffer cartridge model from the late 50's. It still may be floating about in a box or drawer somewhere.

[Lexaf]

( .... )When I see some come up for sale, if reasonable I always pick up some more. Here's a recent lot I purchased:

Thanks Jon, for the nice words. And that lot of school Sheaffers!!! Wow! All in one lot!? Sumguy!

[Lexaf]

(....) It works great.

Yes, I know. I have some of them. They always do... Indestructible work horses.

[Lexaf]

Did anyone of you guys in USA know of this little booklet? If so, now for the 1 million $$ question: did it improve your writing skill?

[jar]

Did anyone of you guys in USA know of this little booklet? If so, now for the 1 million $$ question: did it improve your writing skill?

Yes, I knew about it. In fact I got one of the packets along with a clear Gen 1 cartridge pen. But by then I was in high school so it really didn't have much effect on my writing. Also I'd been using Sheaffer fountain pens for some time and my daily pen was a Sheaffer Balance full size green striated plunger filler hand-me-down from my grandfather. IIRC I brought the packet home and gave it to one of my younger brothers or sisters.

I was the kid running the school supply room at school where we had paper and pencils and cartridges and fountain pens and one of the stock items was the Gen 1 cartridge pen but it was a dollar then and came with six cartridges. The first pen I actually purchased for myself was one of the clear ones.

[Paddler]

Did anyone of you guys in USA know of this little booklet? If so, now for the 1 million $$ question: did it improve your writing skill?

I don't think I ever saw the booklet; we had nuns instead. As for the pen improving my writing: We learned to print with pencils on pretty low grade paper. As well as I can remember, we began to learn cursive when we got these pens. I wanted to take mine home and begin writing a diary or maybe a journal. Nothing doing. These pens were for penmanship classes and nothing else. That was when my aunt gave me a Wearever Pennant and a little bottle of Sanford blue.

[archaturism]

Damn this booklet contains some arcane knowledge, looking from today's perspective

[Paddler]

Also, I am always grateful for a new word: fardel.

Tsk tsk. You haven't been reading your Conan Doyle!

[penwash]

Lexaf, there is a whole lot of young people who could use this information today. These are school, university, and young professional -age groups who just discovered the joy of writing via their new hobby of using/collecting fountain pens.

With your permission I'd like to link this thread to the reddit.com where these people hang out.

[Lexaf]

Lexaf, there is a whole lot of young people who could use this information today. These are school, university, and young professional -age groups who just discovered the joy of writing via their new hobby of using/collecting fountain pens.

With your permission I'd like to link this thread to the reddit.com where these people hang out.

Great idea! Please do!

[archaturism]

Lexaf, there is a whole lot of young people who could use this information today. These are school, university, and young professional -age groups who just discovered the joy of writing via their new hobby of using/collecting fountain pens.

With your permission I'd like to link this thread to the reddit.com where these people hang out.

Yeah this is a trove of materials

[Jon Szanto]

where these people hang out[/B].

Aw, you said that just to make me feel good!

[penwash]

Lexaf, there is a whole lot of young people who could use this information today. These are school, university, and young professional -age groups who just discovered the joy of writing via their new hobby of using/collecting fountain pens.

With your permission I'd like to link this thread to the reddit.com where these people hang out.

Great idea! Please do!

Lexaf, I saw that you already registered and joined the reddit. Great so you can post this yourself.

[penwash]

where these people hang out[/B].

Aw, you said that just to make me feel good!

I did?