Most interesting pen ever on ebay?

[meanwhile]

http://berlinerpen.com/ebay/parkervacstubber1.jpg

 

The Deathstar Of Stub

 

If I had any confidence at all in my ability to handle this monster I'd have kept as quiet as a mouse about this...

 

What do people think - is this a rare original Parker nib? Or pre-war(?) nibmeistering? I only wish there had been a writing sample - I can imagine Noodler's Apache would look stunning...

[JimStrutton]

Just WOW,

 

J

[HyperCamper]

Are we absolutely sure the tip nib hasn't simply been broken off?

[JimStrutton]

Are we absolutely sure the tip nib hasn't simply been broken off?

Looking again, you could be right,

 

Jim

[meanwhile]

Are we absolutely sure the tip nib hasn't simply been broken off?

Looking again, you could be right,

 

Jim

http://berlinerpen.com/ebay/parkervacstubler2.jpg

 

Opinions? I'm the furthest thing from an expert, but it looks as if the tip has been deliberately smoothed.

 

The seller makes a point of saying the nib is correctand genuine, and he does have almost 900 feedbacks - if someone is interested, it has to be worth mailing him for details of where it fits into Parker's line and a writing sample.

 

Don't forget to tell us what he says!

Edited June 15, 2006 by meanwhile

[HyperCamper]

I must admit that my reply was meant as a joke. Seeing the close-up of the nib I have to concur that it does look like it was deliberately smoothed...

Edited June 15, 2006 by HyperCamper

[kissing]

I did that to one of my cheaper fountain pens. The nib on my $1.50 Smiggle pen was faulty and squeeky, so i got annoyed and grabbed a WireCutter and chopped off the whole nib tip off to make a thick broad Stub, which kinda looks like that. Then i smoothed it with sandpaper and it wrote like a fat stub

 

Perhaps the owner of that pen has done the same (with more specialist tools and refined workmanship, hopefully )

[Johnny Appleseed]

The seller is Berliner Pen, the pen-store owned by Geoffrey Berliner, who is one of the old-timers in the pen community. He has a pretty sterling reputation, and his articles can be found in many of the older pen magazines (not sure if he is still publishing as much). I would suspect that he knows what he is talking about, but you never know. I would go ahead and ask what evidence he has that this is an original nib, and not a late re-grind and re-tip.

 

If it is a re-grind, it has also been re-tipped. That dull grey coloration on the end of the nib is the iridium tipping. That might also be the reason that he claims it is original - I think it would be hard to re-tip without damaging the plating on the arrow - but I don't know that for certain.

 

John

[KCat]

I'd have guessed the dull grey is where the plating is gone from the grinding - if you're going to retip, why not retip the entire nib and do so evenly? As to whether it was intentional or done after a mishap...

 

I would suspect the nib is original and correct for the pen. But can't imagine the company would chop off part of their precious symbology in order to make a stub like that.

 

Past all that - the stub shape looks exactly like the correct obliquity for my handwriting. Fortunately, I don't care for very broad nibs. Or for that particular pen style.

[Johnny Appleseed]

Actually, the nib is a 14K gold nib, and the arrow portion is un-plated. The palladium plating is the lighter tone around the arrow. That grey looks a lot like alloy tipping.

 

John

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I might be able to grind the tipping properly.

 

Dillon

[KCat]

Actually, the nib is a 14K gold nib, and the arrow portion is un-plated. The palladium plating is the lighter tone around the arrow. That grey looks a lot like alloy tipping.

 

John

well, i know next to nothing about Parkers and even less about metallurgy. How do we know this nib is 14K? Only because there were never steel nibs made for this pen?

 

I see what you mean about the color of the tip, i guess I just don't quite understand why bother with retipping if most of it is then going to be ground away like that to where there's what *appears* to be a very thin coating on one corner.

 

Were Parker nibs usually set that deep - such that the USA stamp is partly hidden?

[Johnny Appleseed]

Kcat - I didn't mean to be snippy in my last post, and hope it didn't sound that way.

 

I am also far from being a Parker expert, but the pattern of the nib fits with the 14K 2-tone plated nib used on early vacumatics. The 3 gold bands on the cap indicate this was one of the top-line pens, which would have sported the 2-tone nib. There is a great picture of one on Richard's Vacumatic Profile (scroll down a bit) Link.

 

I don't know about the grind on the tipping - maybe Richard or someone more familiar with stub tipping could chime in. Actually, I would love to hear his opinion on this.

 

Whether this was a post-sale re-grind or a factory original, I have a feeling it wasn't a standard offering.

 

John

[KCat]

Kcat - I didn't mean to be snippy in my last post, and hope it didn't sound that way.

 

I am also far from being a Parker expert, but the pattern of the nib fits with the 14K 2-tone plated nib used on early vacumatics. The 3 gold bands on the cap indicate this was one of the top-line pens, which would have sported the 2-tone nib. There is a great picture of one on Richard's Vacumatic Profile (scroll down a bit) Link.

nah... not to worry. i really am clueless on Parker pens other than the Sonnets I've used. Especially on vintage. So i'm learning. I tend to respond with a "gut feel" on things at times and my gut is often wrong. Never about Indian food though.

 

it looks like a fun nib to play with - I'm not the sort that finds such altering problematic. If I could have all my pens customized (well, most of 'em) I probably would. On a pen like that, the most I'd want to know, if I was interested in purchasing, is "how does it write?" - 'cause for me, functionality and aesthetics are important, historical accuracy not so much. But it is fun to learn.

[M4R1N4]

The seller says this nib is a right oblique... isn't it a left oblique? (looks like the toes on your left foot.. I thought that was how you remember)

 

Am I losin it again? :blink:

[KCat]

The seller says this nib is a right oblique... isn't it a left oblique? (looks like the toes on your left foot.. I thought that was how you remember)

 

Am I losin it again? :blink:

yep, it's a left-footed oblique. Unless the image was transposed. But you are not losing it, Marina. My favorite. Looks like a fairly soft-cornered (but perhaps not as soft as a standard Binder stub) left-footed oblique of only a few degrees. Great for those of us who are right-handed and who rotate our pens CCW when writing.

[Johnny Appleseed]

The seller says this nib is a right oblique... isn't it a left oblique?

 

As Kcat says it is a left-foot oblique. However, there is some inconsistancy as to what constitutes a left vs right oblique. Some, and a minority view I think, use the term right oblique for what we would call a left-foot oblique, because they are often more suited to right-handers. That is part of the reason Richard uses the term left-foot or right-foot, because it is more clear precisely what it means.

 

John

[meanwhile]

Bidding went to $300 and the seller's reserve still wasn't reached...

[Johnny Appleseed]

Berliner Pens tends to list with high reserves. They have a good reputation, and I think they price their pens somewhat retail. If it doesn't sell on ebay, they can take it to a pen show or sell it at their brick-and-morter store. I generally don't even bother to watch their auctions because I know the reserve alone is out of my league.

 

John

[Dr.Grace]

I generally don't even bother to watch their auctions because I know the reserve alone is out of my league.

Ditto.