Vintage Pens

We like to call these nibs "farmers' specials." Click the headline for close-ups. When I was just getting started, I bought a Parker pen with a custom ground nib from the 1930s. All the tipping was gone and the nib had likely been broken in a drop. The farmer or handyman fashioned the remaining nib into a smooth writing affair, as it was too expensive to get the pen fixed during the Great Depression. This nib looks just like that. It is a smooth, wet and triple-broad firehose. The pen is a fully restored Parker Challenger Deluxe from 1935. No cracks, some wear and brassing. We gave it a new ink sac. Slender. 11.8cm capped.

New to vintage pens and looking for a reliable daily user? Old to vintage pens and looking for a reliable daily user? Either way, this Parker 51 Special is a reliable daily user. Burgundy with a polished steel cap, it is a handsome pen with only light wear from use and neither cracks nor dents. Its aerometric filler is original and working well. Specials are different from standard 51s in that they have steel nibs. However, this pen writes as smooth an extra-fine to fine line as any gold nib. There is a black jewel in the top of the cap. 13.9cm capped.

Bonjour! Meet an impressive vintage pen from France. This is the Gold Starry 237. It is an oversized safety filler from either the 19-teens or '20s. The seals on this pen are long gone, and it will leak all over the place if you try to fill it. However, we fixed its advance and retract mechanism with a little Yankee ingenuity. It definitely wasn't how it was done at the factory, but it works. You can twist the tail knob to advance or retract its large 18k gold nib. You can still write with this pen on a dip. It writes a medium line, if you don't gently engage its semi-flex super powers. However you can get a fine to nearly 1mm wide line, if you are careful and slow. We believe the accessory pocket clip to be made of sterline silver, though it is not marked silver. Aside from a little chip in the lip of the cap, this pen is in great cosmetic condition. Click the headline for close-ups. 12cm capped.

Continuing our small collection of European Parker Duofolds, this vintage pen comes from London in the 1950s. It remains a sharp-looking pen in a burgundy finish with only light wear from use. Its greatest asset might be its gentle stub nib made of 14k gold. Click the headline for close-ups. You will get some nice line variation from extra-fine to broad at about .75mm. It is fairly smooth, too, with only a little feedback. Its original pli-glass ink sac is still in great working order. We love that its sac protector states it takes at least 5 squeezes to fill the pen with ink. American pens state either 6 or 4. 14cm capped.

Made in the late 1940s or 1950s, we believe this to be a Danish Parker Duofold. Not the most common of finds here in the U.S., it is a fully restored pen with a new ink sac. It has a button filler just like the Parker VS pens in the U.S. It feels like a Vacumatic Maxima in size. No cracks. There is some wear from use and brassing on the clip. You will write a smooth nib that just when we think it writes a fine line...it writes a medium line. Whatever it is, we love writing with it. 13.6cm capped.

There are so many cool things about this Montblanc 20 fountain pen; we don't know where to begin. Pre-World-War-II Montblancs are difficult to find. We restored this orange-hard-rubber vintage pen with a new ink sac. One of our favorite features is that the blind cap on the tail unscrews but DOES NOT come off the pen. When fully unscrewed, it serves as the button for the button filler! Just screw it back down to make it a normal blind cap, again. No cracks, a little brassing & some wear. The barrel imprint is a bit faded out, but you can still see "Simplo" on the top line. Click the headline for close-ups, and you will see the cap imprint clearly along with its very smooth, 14k gold Bock nib with a lionhead. 12.5cm capped.

Following up the huge success of the Eversharp Skyline pen was the Eversharp Symphony. This first edition of the pen featured another great cap design by Rey Loewy. Although it is called the "slipper cap," we think it looks more space-agey. We restored this great green-and-gold-filled vintage pen with a new ink sac. It has a little wear from use, but it is still a pretty amazing pen. You will write a very smooth medium line with its 14k gold nib. 13.9cm capped.

Paul E. Wirt pens were the most popular of the late 1800s. They continued on into the 20th century, and this is a Wirt ringtop from the 1920s. We restored this vintage pen with a new ink sac. We also worked to de-oxidize the chocolate hazing. We didn't get it back to perfect black, but it nice and the chasing is clearly visible. You will write a really nice, smooth extra-fine to fine line. It has a tiny bit of flex, but we wouldn't call it a semi-flex nib. No cracks or deep scratches. 11cm capped.