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Anyone know anything about "Reform" pen?


chud

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Hi,

 

I just received a gift of a pen I don't know anything about, and I'm curious whether anyone knows anything about them. I'll post some pictures tonight, but can't do so at the moment.

 

I'd have to guess that the brand is "Reform," which I've never heard of.

 

The pen is fairly slender, moderately heavy, and feels like an all-metal barrel and cap. Is has a nice dark reddish & black marbled lacquer with gold (plate I assume) furniture. The cap band is etched "Reform W. Germany". The nib is gold and also says "Reform / W Germany / M". The shape of the nib is fairly austere, angles and straight lines - indeed, looks German. :-) The cap jewel has a stylized "R" logo in it.

 

Anyone know anything about this company?

 

Thanks!!

-Chris

A handwritten blog (mostly)

 

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Reform was a German company that went out of business several years ago. I have a Reform fountain pen that is excellant and I think their general line of products was above average in quality and durability.

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I have two Reform pens. One is the Reform Classico with a F nib, purchased from speerbob on eBay for $17. It's a great little pen and it writes very smooth. The other one is a Reform Bremen that I purchased from Todd at isellpens.com for $3.99 (I kid you not) -- but it's toothy and has starting problems. It's currently among the other pens I've set aside to practice nib smoothing on.

 

I don't have pictures of my own pens, but if it helps, here's photos from both vendors:

 

Reform Classico - from speerbob on eBay

 

Reform Bremen - from isellpens.com (scroll down midway through the page)

 

Hope that helps.

Edited by girlieg33k

Talking about fountain pens is like dancing about architecture.

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Thanks! I'll still post some pictures later (assuming I can get some reasonable ones) but that's the sort of background info I was curious about.

 

I haven't inked this one yet, but it feels like it's pretty well made. :)

A handwritten blog (mostly)

 

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Hi! I have two reforms, one is a twist/piston fill calligraphy pen, and the other is a cheap model cartridge pen that I despise! It has problems starting and the nib is not smooth at all. I got it very recently at Art Brown in New York, but I didn't realize they went out of business. I would have much rather gotten a Pelikano but I wanted to try this. The calligraphy pen, however, is quite nice, even though I don't do much calligraphy.

 

Evan

Sheaffer all the way!

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As promised, here are some pictures. I don't have any idea what exact model of Reform this might be; any suggestions?

 

http://www.chud.net/~chd/images/reform1.jpg

 

This one is significantly overexposed with anything resembling a highlight well blown out, but it serves to show the color in the lacquer better. It's a dark pen, but the details of color are easier to see in person than most of the photos (except this one) show.

 

http://www.chud.net/~chd/images/reform2.jpg

 

And some more showing the cap jewel and cap band detail...

 

http://www.chud.net/~chd/images/reform3.jpg

 

http://www.chud.net/~chd/images/reform4.jpg

 

http://www.chud.net/~chd/images/reform5.jpg

 

If anyone knows exactly what this is, please let me know! :)

 

Thanks!

A handwritten blog (mostly)

 

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/606/letterji9.png

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While I was stationed in Germany, I saw a lot of Reform and Diplomat fountain pens being used by Germans. Both brands were reasonably priced and seemed to be fairly popular. I tried Reform pens, and those I tried seemed quite nice. When I put my own money down, I bought Diplomat pens just out of personal preference. I guess I just assumed that both manufacturers would be around for ever. Reform is gone and I wish now I had gotten a couple of their pens.

 

When you get yours inked, please tell us how you like yours.

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  • 10 years later...

I just got one from Bulgaria: it's a ringtop with a serpent clip (a bit like wearing a belt with suspenders). The cap is very long for the size of the pen and it's got five gold rings separating black and marbled celluloid. Button filler, and, disappointingly, a plated nib with a tiny bit of flex. I'll swap it out for a Waterman nib I happen to have in the house.

Since it's a ringtop, I figure it's probably Twenties or maybe Thirties - I hope it's not the Nazi pen I've avoided buying.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have the Reform Bremen too. I got it years ago, probably around the time when this thread got started. I found it to be a problematic fountain pen. Having had my attention brought to it by this thread I may decide to mess with it now. Back some years ago I wrecked every one of my fountain pens that I tried to improve. I then got a success or two. The Reform Bremen is probably something I can afford to try to improve these days.

 

I also have some other Reform pens, one set of which I have no real ID on at all. I'll probably see if I can get help on identifying those. I probably shouldn't request detailed information about those pens in this forum though.

 

I hope it's not the Nazi pen I've avoided buying.

 

This is something I've been hoping to avoid too. I always wonder what the provenance of the older vintage fountain pens coming from Europe might be. And Europeans were buying fountain pens from all over the world before 1939, so there's no telling what the history of some pen being sold by someone in Europe might be.

On a sacred quest for the perfect blue ink mixture!

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