May 2009 – Bleubug

May 26, 2009

Redipoint, Set, Go!

Brown & Bigelow of St. Paul, MN knows promotional products. In 1896 they came out with some of the first advertising calendars and eventually created many iconic ones like the Norman Rockwell Boy Scouts of America series. They did more than just that, though. The “Redipoint” pencil was a B&B product usually sporting the name or logo of a business on the barrel. You’ll be happy to know they still are in the same line of business today.

In 1922 William H. Ingersoll, the marketing maven for the Ingersoll Watch Company (“The Watch That Made the Dollar Famous”) left that industry after a takeover of the eponymous company. He went to the Redipoint Company which reorganized as Ingersoll Redipoint. Still distributed by B&B the products of this company continued to rely heavily on promotional writing instruments. Besides pencils they also had a line of plastic and metal fountain pens one of which is the topic of this post.

may-22-2009-1-blog-p1030004 — Redipoint pen and paraphernalia. (click for larger image)

The fountain pen shown here is a very nice insurance promotional item. The top has an enameled company name and you can find identical pens with variety of companies and cities in this spot. The Redipoint pen itself has a gold-filled metal barrel and cap covered with a fleurs-de-lis design. It’s similar to a Wahl metal pen of the same era in looks and the lever filling system. The nib is a semi-flex medium which really can put down a good amount of ink. Overall it’s quite nice for a piece of insurance advertising.

Pictured here is a near mint example with all the original paperwork. Sometime in 1924 Mrs. G. E. Sanford got this pen at Christmas but didn’t use it very much. I have no idea where it lived for the many intervening years until the pen found itself on the other side of the world with my friend in Metro Manila. It did come back to this hemisphere and stayed a little while with me before I gave it this past weekend as a graduation present to a good friend. So the legacy of Mrs. Sanford of Bunker Hill, IL lives on in an odd way.

May 21, 2009

Tippy Dippy Touchdown

I never liked the term “cheap and cheerful” since it always conjured up an image of someone who relished penny-pinching to me. But if any pen really deserved that moniker the Sheaffer Touchdown Cadet Tip-dip model does. Why? Let’s pop the pen out of its packaging and see.

The Cadet has a bit in common with an Esterbrook pen. First off, the nib is stainless steel and part of a threaded unit that screws into the section for easy replacement. Both those traits it has in common with the renowned low-priced Esterbrook line. But when you look for a lever to fill the pen and can’t find one the similarities end. Unscrewing and pulling up on the blind caps exposes the trademark metal tube of Sheaffer’s pneumatic touchdown filling system. The other feature, the “Tip-dip”, turns out to be a small recess in the feed under the nib where the ink channel is exposed. This was intended to allow the pen to fill with minimal dunking depth in ink.

My example of this fountain pen was a NOS blister packed version that had and extra nib thrown in which was, glory be, a stub. Nowhere on it does it say “cadet” but that’s what it has been called in the old catalogs. Like the more expensive Sheaffer pens a whole range of nibs were available for the tippys including flexible styles. As mentioned it is made of stainless steel but there is a nice amount of tipping material at the end.

How does this early 60’s low cost pen feel to write with? Great, I must say. The pen is substantial but light weight and the point is smooth with some line variation. Construction is exemplary with high quality plastics and metals. I’ve been inside the pen too and can report it is made just as well as the expensive touchdown models.

I would certainly recommend a vintage tip-dip pen to anyone looking for a practical and economical writer. It turned out that this inexpensive vintage pen is an attractive, solid writing instrument which is far more “cheerful” than “cheap”.

may-20-2009-1-blog-p1020997 — Cadet writing sample.

May 15, 2009

Mystery Point/Counterpoint III

I promised to proffer my guess on the mystery nib affixed to the Tuckaway I talked about in the posts Mystery Point/Counterpoint and Mystery Point/Counterpoint II. I had an unfair advantage, though, in this since I have a few more Sheaffer catalogs than just the one I showed the page from already. Take a look at the page from few years later below. It’s still an illustration without too much detail but I think it shows the shapes a bit better. Considering that the point has quite rounded shoulders and the nib does not exhibit too much curving inwards at the top leads me to my guess that the nib in question is a flexible coarse. Of course we’ll probably never know the truth.

May 15, 2009

Frankenfamily

I’m done with this batch of frankenpens. It could be the last since I am getting rather short on old parts that will fit together into a pen shaped form. For the first time here’s a portrait of them all together. There are two Sheaffer Thin Models, a Sheaffer Tuckaway, and a Parker 51 Demi. I hope this very dysfunctional family has entertained you.

May 9, 2009

Frankenmore

I’m back at the pens from parts thing with two frankenpens under construction right now. One is a Sheaffer similar to what I’ve done before but the other is a Parker 51. This is the first non-Sheaffer I’ve created and it’s been interesting so far. There are three plastic parts visible and offer a choice of color: The blind cap, barrel, and hood or shell. The one thing about this kind of pen I don’t like is that they all had a metal cap which means no color choice for that part.

The parts of the Parker 51 frankenpen. (click image for labeled parts)

If you’ve noticed how short the barrel looks in the photograph that’s because it’s actually a Parker 51 Demi model. This model was intended for women and has a foreshortened barrel. I’ve always liked them since 51s seem cuter in this diminutive size. The Demi was introduced right on the tail end of the Vacumatic filler’s life and lasted for only a year in this form.

I got the idea to make this pen from a comment someone had made about one of my previous frankys. Since this person inspired me the pen will be traveling out to them when completed. It’s a surprise so I’m not going to give away who the recipient is.

Oh, the pen has been named “Demistein”.

May 8, 2009February 8, 2013

Gryder at Hollins

Last Tuesday my friend Chris Gryder had an art opening at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. I attended it and took a few pictures, some of which I’ve stuck here for perusal. Chris showed older work as well as part of a larger installation for Florida State University he had just completed. He does some amazing work but don’t tell him I said that.

May 4, 2009

Mystery Point/Counterpoint II

The post before last I described a Sheaffer nib that I couldn’t quite classify. It was a triumph nib with a wide point and some flexibility which wasn’t like anything I had seen before (not that I’ve seen very much). Well, I’ve come across some information that may help to figure this nib out a little.

Old manufacturer’s catalogs are an invaluable resource for vintage pen information. In the past you usually had to be lucky enough to find one at a flea market, buy a reproduction, or get it lent out to you. None of these options is acceptable for someone like me who needs instant gratification and has no patience. Luckily I stopped by Bill Acker’s site and saw that he is now selling PDF downloads of catalogs! I purchased four from Sheaffer right off the bat and one was for the year of the Tuckaway with mystery nib (1949). Take a look at the image below of the nib styles for that year.

1949 Sheaffer nibs courtesy Bill Acker. (click for larger image)

Surprising how many points types there were for triumph nibs in 1949, isn’t it? The one problem with this illustration is just that. A photograph would give more detail to go on when trying to match my nib with the ones on this page. I think we can narrow it down a bit now at least. Which one do you think it is?