Conklin
Pens and Ephemera

Genius squared! That is what this modern Conklin Mark Twain fountain pen is. The first wave of genius was resurrecting the Conklin brand and Crescent filler, which is what this pen is. The second wave of genius was from the guy we got this from who replaced the modern nib and feed with a vintage Conklin Endura nib and feed! The feed doesn't fit properly in a technical sense, but it still works. It is just a little too long. You will write a firm medium line with a hint of feedback. This color pattern is called "peanut butter." The pen is in great working order, and looks like it is in mint condition, excluding its nib alteration. Comes with original box and papers. 14cm capped.

Notice anything a little different about this preowned, modern Conklin All-American fountain pen? Click the headlilne for a close-up. Yes. Its original owner was a bit of a tinkerer and retro-fitted it with a size 5 or 6 original 14k gold Conklin nib! It isn't a 100% perfect fit, but it writes very well from a fine to 1.25mm medium line! You just need to check its alignment with the feed from time to time to make sure it doesn't come out of place. Conklin called the color design of this All American "Brownstone." It is a lovely acrylic with deep brown to amber flecks. You will get the pen, its boxes, papers and a standard international converter. 14.3cm capped.

Black veins running through a creamy grey granite color makes for a really attractive color scheme that we bet vintage Conklin would be proud of. This modern Conklin Duragraph is a very nice pre-owned pen. Ours is in excellent condition with minimal wear. Click the headline for a close-up. It comes with its box and standard international converter. You will write a fairly smooth, dry fine line with its steel nib. 13.9cm capped.

Resurrected from the grave, Conklin has come back to us for nearly 20 years! This stunning Conklin Duragraph is a revival pen that uses a standard international cartridge or converter. It comes with a converter and its original boxes. It looks almost new. Best of all, it has the upgraded Omniflex nib. Click the headline for a close-up. Frankly, the nib isn't that flexi. It is pretty rigid. However, the point is a bit stubby and can get you from a skinny to a 1mm wide line. It will have some feedback. 13.9cm capped.

In the 1930s, Conklin and Sheaffer each developed a piston filling mechanism that required just a single stroke piston with a gasket on it to create vacuum pressure to fill a pen's entire barrel with ink. It was a revolutionary design. Conklin called its pen the Conklin Nozac. Some of the pens were imprinted with an ingenious gimmick of a word gauge to show how many words were left in the pen before a refill. This limited edition recreation of that pen is a beautiful, oversized masterpiece. Tiny silver flecks look like stars in the night sky of this translucent blue and amber fountain pen. Numbered only 110 of 898, the word gauge purports to hold 7 million words per refill. We have not tested that gauge's accuracy, but we did test fill it with water and it works well. The insides are a little stained from past blue ink. You will write a smooth medium line with its 18k gold nib. Minimal wear. Complete with boxes and papers. Click the headline for a close up. 14.8cm capped.

We've always admired the simple Conklin Crescent filling fountain pen. Easy to use, great nibs, and as Mark Twain said, it didn't roll off the desk. Our vintage pen is a Conklin P4, which we believe meant it was a pocket pen with a Conklin size 4 nib. Fully restored with a new ink sac, most people will be attracted to its 14k gold nib. You will write an extra fine line with a little feedback, but it can be slowly and gently be flexed to a 1mm wide line! It is semi-flexible, not a wet noodle. Made of ebonite, which sounds so much more exotic than black hard rubber, you will see it still has its chasing design clearly imprinted. The brand imprint is a little weak, but you can still make out the P4. Lovely initials are engraved in the wide, floral cap band. Minimal brassing on the clip and band. The crescent only has writing on one side. 11.1cm capped.

Didn't Shel Silverstein have a poem called, "Almost Perfect, but Not Quite"? That sums up our Conklin 40P. Nice, shiny black hard rubber. Deep, crisp chasing. Clear but a little uneven factory imprint. Fully restored with a new ink sac. You will even find that this vintage pen has a semi-flex nib that writes an extra-fine to 1mm line. Yet, if you look closely at the gold-plated crown on the cap, to the right of center is a big ol' dent where someone once dropped this magnificent old fountain pen. No cracks or other problems. 11.4cm capped.

Bronze and black flecks glitter in the light of this Conklin Endura pencil. In great working order, you'll smoothly advance and retract the 1.1 lead with a twist of the tail piece. You can still see yellow accent paint in the rings around the celluloid. The imprint is still legible. There isn't much brassing. However, there are scratches on the nose cone and bite marks on the tail. Spare leads are under the tail cap. 12.2cm.