Tag Archives: new pens


Nabbed a rare Sheaffer Skyboy, a few lovely pencils, and bought a few pens from friends.

This month’s acquisitions include a mini Sheaffer flat-top, a Wearever flexy-nibbed pen in what can best be called ‘tiger stripe,’ purchased form a friend on FPN on Facebook. Locally, I found a trio of lovely mechanical pencils, and a really lovely and rather rare Sheaffer Skyboy.

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Right: Mismatched Sheaffer pen & pencil set (pen is the Skyboy), a grey & cherry Majestic, a rose & black candy-stripe no-name, and a green marble Wearever. ON the left, is the fully restored Skyboy. Click the image to see it bigger!

The pencils are lovely; the pinkish one has a red lead, which is quite unusual, and all three (four counting the mismatched striated Sheaffer) are in beautiful condition, with really gorgeous colors. I don’t know how the Sheaffers ended up as a set; not only is one the Skyboy and the other is marked Sheaffer’s on the clip, but the pen is white-dot and the pencil is not. But both are lovely pieces, so I’m glad to have them!

The Skyboy is a bit special, however. Introduced in 1940, the Skyboy was marketed as specifically designed to perform under the harsh conditions of air travel, hence the name. History doesn’t say much about that ability, but it ws a nicely made pen, comparable with the higher range pens of the time. It’s a white dot pen, with a pretty good-sized Lifetime 14K nib, and not suprisingly for a Sheaffer, writes beautifully.

What makes these unusual is that the very next year, Sheaffer changed the Skyboy line from the firm ‘radius’ clip to the military over-the-top clip, meaning this particular model was made for only one year!

Look for all of these pens, a few Asian pens I decided to take a chance on, plus a new page just for pencils coming up soon. Also appearing in my next major update: a new Skyline just off the repair pile, a Wearver 2-in-one pencil/pen hybrid, also just restored, and some creative parts-swapping in the name of repairing the Arnold. And for some reason, I never got round to photographing, or even inking up my Visconti Renbrandt Callligraphy, so look for that one too!

And I have discovered an entirely new line of inks: Callifolio from l’Artisan Pastellier, and of course I had to grab a few. Trust me that the moment they arrive they will be opened and tested, with swabs appearing here soon after!

tinyrule

I scored a delicious lot of Sheaffers!

I just nabbed a batch lot of Sheaffer pens on eBay. It was a risk (always is, right?) but there was one gem in the lot that I knew, the moment I saw it, was worth the price of the lot. As it happens, I got a few other real gems, too! But the undisputed king of this batch is the Jade Sheaffer Flat-top.

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The Sheaffer Jade is in the middle. You can see the discoloration these pens usually suffer in the one right next to it,which was once the same color! Click the image to see it bigger!

Jade celluloid pens are known for their vulnerability to the discoloring effects of rubber or latex off-gassing. The pen right next to that glorious green one shows the very same material that has discolored. That’s the much more common condition of Jade pens from this era. How this one escaped discoloration, I don’t know, and how the fellow in eBay was willing to sell the lot for less than $100 I don’t know either, but I am so glad for both!

There are some other real treasures in this batch, though! From L to R:

  • Ballpoint with the ‘reminder clip.’ Needs a refill, but in good shape. (Not like I need ballpoints, but it’s a nice example.
  • Fineline by Sheaffer (1950s). Fineline was one of Sheaffer’s sub-brands. It’s clearly a low-budget pen; it’s light and feels plasticy, and has a pretty basic steel nib. Again, in good condition.
  • Sovereign II Tuckaway. (1946-47) This little beauty has a touchdown filler that needs some TLC, but the barrel clarity is fantastic!
  • Sheaffer Jade Flat top, white dot on top of the cap. (1913-28) Outstanding color! Huge 14K nib that is smooth, but doesn’t have much tipping left. Seems this pen was both well used, and well cared for!
  • Another Flat top (1913-28) , heavily discolored, and lacking a cap. Another gorgeous nib, though. If I can find a cap for it, I’ll fix it up as a user-grade pen.
  • Gorgeous Carmine Craftsman (1939-40s). I have always been fond of the Carmine Striated Sheaffers, but this one absolutely gleams! Arrived in perfect writing trim, with healthy sac and needing only a cleaning.
  • Also gorgeous Carmine Balance pencil. (1939-42) Not white-dot, but a lovely piece. (At this rate, I may need a page just for all my Balance pencils!)
  • Another Carmine, but this one seems to be a ‘franken-pen.’ The cap doesn’t thread properly, so I suspect a mismatch. Too bad, as both are lovely. The Carmine color and the ‘streamline’ or ‘radius’ clip, put it between 1939-42.

All in all, a very good haul! Look for these on my Sheafffer page as I get them restored and photographed (with better photos than these phone pics)!

tinyrule