25 replies to this topic

[BrianMcQueen]

This little guy just showed up in my mailbox today.  I think I might be the first person to ever take the cap off.

 

[Rick Krantz]

I took it off a few weeks ago. 

 

seriously tho...

 

 

WOW !!!! nice! 

[david i]

Put it back on. Before it's too late!

 

-d

[pen-deco]

That's hot!

 

Brian, is that reverse trim? I think I have a cap to one of these but with gold trim. The silver 'just works' on this pen!

[david i]

Not reverse trim, although I note that with many bits of jargon used to label collectibles in retrospect, sometimes lines get fuzzy.

 

Sheaffer offered a plethora of tiers/levels of Sheaffer Balance during that pen's run. While this pen might seem to qualify as reverse trim, as it has chrome trim while most Ebonized Pearl  Balances have gold-filled trim, this pen though is a Junior-line (fourth tier, on one taxonomy used).  All Sheaffer Balances as Junior have chrome trim, independent of color. So, this pen has typical trim for a Balance of its type, even though amongst all Balances in that color it is a minority finding. It is catalogue correct and is expected. Indeed, finding a "Sheaffer Jr" clip with gold-filled trim would be the surprise.

 

best regards

 

david

[BrianMcQueen]

Put it back on. Before it's too late!

 

-d

 

I'm just glad this didn't happen when I looked at it...

 

[RickB]

I've admired those pens for a long time, but in my ignorance wasn't even aware the section was visualated.  Or is that not present in every model?

[david i]

The transparent sections were introduced oh, 1936-7 or so. But, they were used with lever-fill pens, since there was no barrel clarity. Plunger-fill pens, having barrel transparency, received opaque sections. 

 

regards

 

d

[piscov]

It would be very interesting to know the production method used by Sheaffer or by the celluloid manufacturer to put those ebonized parts in the spiraled barrel.

 

Maybe painted spiral from the inside using a clear barrel with ebonized parts??

[Norm]

It may have been made with stripes in flat sheets and then rolled on a bias.

[piscov]

But then a seam would be visible especially in the spiral...

[david i]

It seems we haven't gone hunting aggressively for seams.

 

That might be the seemly thing to do

 

-d

[piscov]

Sorry David, not native English speaker here. Could not get what you mean by what you wrote....

 

Nevertheless, it is a real great looking pen and the condition is just fantastic, Very nice catch. Congrats

 

V

[BrianMcQueen]

It is a wrapped spiral. Looks to be made in sheets and then wrapped in a spiral. I can post better pictures, but not for a couple weeks when I return home. With a really good picture, I will also be able to show how the pearl chips are embedded.

[david i]

Sorry David, not native English speaker here. Could not get what you mean by what you wrote....

 

Nevertheless, it is a real great looking pen and the condition is just fantastic, Very nice catch. Congrats

 

V

 

 

Sorry, puns and homonyms (same sound, different meaning) don't do well with the jump out of native language.

 

seam:  line where portions connect (as you had noted)

seem:  suggest or give impression

seemly: appropriate, meeting accepted notions.

 

It seems we haven't gone hunting aggressively for seams.

 

That might be the seemly thing to do

 

 

That was an attempt to be cute  and to play on the word "seam" while saying, "it appears we have not looked a great deal for the seams on the pen. That might be a good/correct/appropriate thing to do"

 

regards

 

-d

[piscov]

Thank you David, got it now!

 

Looking forward to see those close up pictures, Brian.

[BrianMcQueen]

By the way, here is the pencil that came with it.  I don't know how it got this bad, but it definitely saw the use instead of the pen.  Sorry for the crappy eBay picture, I'm still not home to take new pictures.

 

[Procyon]

Pencil looks like it was "Rode hard, and put away wet" - as we say in Texas.

[plmadding]

Wow that is fantastic! 

 

I got really distracted watching the clip from Indiana Jones about 10 times.  My favorite scene from the series!  (2nd would be in the Temple of Doom when he rips that guys heart out! Yikes!) 

[BrianMcQueen]

Well, turns out it's extremely hard to capture in a photo what can be seen almost instantly in person.  Anyway, here is a photo showing the seams where the spiral was formed.  If you look around the edges of the pearl chips, you can see small divots and dips where they were inserted.  There is plastic OVER the chips.  I am going to assume that they are sandwiched between a couple of sheets of celluloid.  This can be seen at the imprint, where the imprint goes over a chip.  There wouldn't be any way to heat stamp a pearl chip.  Click the image to view a larger version.

 

 

Edited by BrianMcQueen, 19 November 2014 - 03:43 AM.