Vintage Pens

Big Reds dominate the discussion about Parker Duofolds, but we are partial to this jade green Parker Duofold Junior. We restored this vintage pen with a new ink sac and a new pressure bar. The cap looks good, but the barrel is heavily discolored. Some brassing is evident. Crisp imprint. Click the headline for close-ups. You will get semi-flex action out of its 14k gold nib. Just go slowly and gently. It normally writes an extra-fine line but you can get close to 1mm wide. It has a little scratch but not too distracting on smooth paper. 11.5cm capped.

Parker cornered the market on orange pens in the 1920s and '30s. Orange Sheaffer pens are much less common to find. Our Sheaffer 5-30 is a long, slender beauty of a vintage pen, even if it has a fair amount of shallow bite marks in the tail end. Our pen is fully restored with a new ink sac. No cracks and minimal brassing. The pocket clip is the straight and flat type. Best of all, this pen has a semi-flex nib. You can write a normal fine line fairly easily, but with a little gentle practice you can write an extra-fine to roughly .75mm wide line. Click the headline for close-ups. 13.3cm capped.

The business uniform of the 1950s was a grey-flannel suit. This handsome Sheaffer Admiral would have matched one nicely. We restored this vintage pen with a new ink sac, O-ring and point seal. Its only flaws are doozies. There is a nasty crack on each side of the loose pocket clip. Click the headline for close-ups. We showed the worst crack in the main photo. However, the pen works great. It is marked an F2, but we find it to write more of a smooth extra fine. 14.2cm capped.

We love the over-complexity of Sheaffer Snorkel pens. We replaced the O-ring, point seal and ink sac on this Sheaffer Sovereign fountain pen. We test drove this Rube-Goldberg of filling systems to make sure all was in order. There are no cracks or deep scratches on the cap or barrel. There is a little dimple just left of the pocket clip and a little flat dent on the top of the cap. You will write a firm, fine line with its two-tone, 14k gold nib. Classic mess-free filling in an age where competition against the ballpoints was fierce. A wonderful vintage pen. 14.1cm 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.

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.