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J Appleseed

Member Since 02 Aug 2010
Offline Last Active Jan 07 2011 09:56 PM
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Posts I've Made

In Topic: An oddity (Sheaffer TD Cadet. 1960 not 1950?)

05 November 2010 - 05:02 PM

Speaking of Cadets - did anyone get the box-o-late-chalk-marked-cadets that closed yesterday? Instant collection!

VINTAGE LOT SHAEFFER CADET FOUNTAIN PENS

John

In Topic: An oddity (Sheaffer TD Cadet. 1960 not 1950?)

05 November 2010 - 04:43 PM

And another one. Gray pen with white trim. Black section


http://cgi.ebay.com/...=item1e5f68b5eb

d


That is an ordinary Cadet with what appears to be an M1 standard steel nib. Garden variety.

Perhaps a quick overview of the tip-dips is in order.

The Cadet originally appeared (per Jim Mamoulides) in 1952, with the following:

Torpedo-shaped touchdown filling system, nearly identical to TM touchdown.
White trim with single band, similar to Admiral
Tip-dip feed
Steel nib with "N"1 designation (F1, M1, etc)
Black section.
Colors in Black, Burgundy, Pastel Green, Pastel Blue, grey.


Craftsman pens were also around the same time - identical to the Cadet, except:

Polished steel cap.

Later in the line (1960s roughly - I don't think we have a clear date for the transition) the Cadets changed to:

Section same as body color
Available in Burgundy, Blue, Sage Green, Black and Vermillion.


The Casdet "23" was a separate variation of the Cadet that appears to have been short lived from perhaps '61-'63(? - it was not in '63 catalog). Identical to the cadet except:

14K gold nib marked 23 on tip-dip feed
Gold trim, similar to admiral.
Had same-color section as late Cadet


What Hugh is remarking on is a Cadet "23" with a black section, which could indicate either a section swap, or that the Cadet "23" was made prior to the switch to same-colored sections. The Cadet "23" is an unusual variant, and not the most common.

Steel nib, silver trim, black section is probably the most commonly found varient of the cadet.

I have a low-priority collection of these - slowly working on all tip-dip varients, but only if they are cheap. So far I have all of the early black-section cadets, most of the craftsman, and a few of the late cadets. Still working on a Cadet 23

John

In Topic: Couple interesting Sheaffer 1940's post-War ads.

28 September 2010 - 04:40 PM

Too, we might need to tweak your three term schema to be specific:

  • post-war celluloid
  • post-war pre-touchdown injection-molded plastic
  • post-war (pre-TM) Touchdown

(emphasis added).

I am not sure we need such a complicated term for #3. There were no war-era or pre-war Touchdowns, so it is really not necessary to list that (unless we are talking about Korea or some other war than "The" war). Really all we need is Touchdown and TM Touchdown, but some designation of "pre-TM" might be useful for clarity.

John

In Topic: Keene pen of NY. Black Hard Rubber. Info?

27 September 2010 - 03:33 PM

Keene was associated with Eclipse. The relationship is documented in the John Roede articles onm Eclipse in Pen World (summer of 2007? I can't remember the exact date now). The Keene pens were probably made by Eclipse.

Can't remember much more than that without the reference. I know they had a cosy relationship, with Mr. Keene taking Finestone's secretary on a cruise or something along those lines. Keene pens often have the Klien clip, but I think they usually have a Keene nib.

I have a RMHR Keene with a broken clip and a RHR Keene with a cracked barrel. Both large, high-quality pens, with excellent nibs. I would speculate that they are early production for Eclipse, before Eclipse went to hard-core rolled celluloid production (Finestone I believe had a patent for a method of rolling sheet-stock into tubes, allowing them to push inexpensive celluloid flat-tops) but they may have made hard-rubber pens alongside the rest.

John

In Topic: More '40s Sheaffer's Novice Questions

20 September 2010 - 05:16 PM

The article from the 1942 Billboard Magazine that I posted in this thread, says:

W.A. Sheaffer Pen Company is one of the few companies that is still producing low-priced pens but has stopped making pencils altogether because of its munitions production.

From this quote (which certainly is not overly precise), I would have guessed that Sheaffer did continue to produce some non-Lifetime pens... (though probably as a small percentage of their pre-war levels).


1942, or 1943? One does have to remember that 1942 was the first year of serious US involvement in the war. They may have started out with more limited munitions conversion and then converted more of the production line as the war went on. But, of course, there would need to be more documentation.