What Is Special About Ebonite Pens?

[Icywolfe]

What is so special for these pens to have high prices like from Edison(? USD) or Noodlers (40 USD)

 

From the pictures all I see are just a foggy plastic.

 

I know people say it's beautiful but I for some reason I can't see it. Unless it can't be seen through the lens.

 

The reason I want to know is.... Edison's group buy is ending soon...... not sure if the price is worth it. As all I can see is I'm just paying for the nib.

[jar]

I wouldn't say either of the ones you mention would qualify as having "high prices" but ebonite is hard rubber. Originally it was a brand name held by Goodyear. It is fairly high in sulfur content, hard yet forgiving, warm to the touch and not slick or slippery. BUT... it does have to be cured (similar to high quality celluloid), can be hard to work and abrasive and so expensive to both produce and work.

 

It's worth more money if you like the look, feel, smell and long life but cheap ebonite is just a waste.

[Mardi13]

I'm not an expert and am quite new to fountain pens. I have one ebonite pen (I got it off of the current inventory list) from Edison, a Morgan, and one bamboo ebonite pen from Ranga Pens in India. They are very different, but also similar. Ebonite doesn't usually polish up to as crystalline a shine as acrylic does, and it has a different, maybe more natural-material feel to it. The ebonite being offered on the Edison group buy looks exceptional, and has lovely markings. It's not at all a transparent material, it is opaque the way wood would be. It must be a bit more expensive to make, and thus ebonite pens generally cost more ( at least they do, in my very limited experience.)

 

I happen to have the Morgan with me (I am away from home right now.) in real life it is lighter and a bit more orangey. But you can see that the markings are far less uniform than the group buy pen, and it isn't as shiny either, if a high shine is really important to you. My Ranga pen is a wild bright yellow/green ebonite, much less shiny, but also with a much more organic feel to it. It was much less costly, and thus is probably a lower quality ebonite, although I do not know that for certain.

In the end, it is always a matter of your personal taste. No one is required to like anything.

Edited August 21, 2014 by Mardi13

[Joe in Seattle]

The pens are very light in the hand and one can write for a long time without fatigue. Additionally, if you have dropsy like I do, when it crashes to the floor it will not become damaged.

[Icywolfe]

I wouldn't say either of the ones you mention would qualify as having "high prices" but ebonite is hard rubber. Originally it was a brand name held by Goodyear. It is fairly high in sulfur content, hard yet forgiving, warm to the touch and not slick or slippery. BUT... it does have to be cured (similar to high quality celluloid), can be hard to work and abrasive and so expensive to both produce and work.

 

It's worth more money if you like the look, feel, smell and long life but cheap ebonite is just a waste.

I find them expensive in the cost for value ratio.

[jar]

I find them expensive in the cost for value ratio.

 

Well I would agree that all of the Noodler's pens are very expensive in that way but not the Edisons. The Edison pens I've seen and used have been if anything, under priced.

[balson]

ebonite is a fairly robust material. parker used to drop their big red pens out of airplanes onto crowds loaded with ink to show that even when dropped out of a plane they could still write. ebonite pens do not suffer from shrinkage like every other pen material. ebonite pens have lasted for well over 100 years.

 

plastics are improving constantly. there may be some that will be able to handle over 100 years of writing without shrinking or becoming excessively fragile but i have my doubts about the wetting agent that they coat the feed with being able to stay stable for that length of time.

 

they have a look and a texture that is different than other pen materials. other than that its mostly just cosmetic difference. there are tradeoffs with all pen materials and i don't think there is one right answer. just find the one you like the best or enjoy them all

[kestrel]

Ebonite feels different, warmer than other pen materials. I, for one, like that feel in my hand and a large percentage of my vintage pens are ebonite. The light weight is important but not as important as the way the material feels when I write. Others have mentioned durability. The oldest pen in my collection is a chased hard rubber McKinnon stylograph dating from the 1870s and it is still in excellent condition, fully usable although crotchety in its old age. The only other material that comes close to feeling that good in the hand, in my opinion, is vintage celluloid. LIke anything else in pendom half the fun is finding what you like.

[Water Ouzel]

Used to play an ebonite clarinet in high school and college...

[inkstainedruth]

I hesitated getting an ebonite Konrad because of the additional cost over the regular rain body pens. But now it's probably my favorite (I have three of the resin pens, and also three resin Creapers). It's slightly longer, but is still really well balanced. And somehow it also seems to behave slightly better (maybe because of the handset feed, but also because it doesn't seem to have ink evaporate quite as fast). Was it more more expensive than the material merits? Maybe. Am I glad I spent the money, though? Definitely.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Mafia Geek]

The biggest thing is the feel in the hand rather than the look. They have a very different feel than plastic. I find a lot of modern pens made of plastic feel cheep because they are injection whereas ebonite is turned. Plastic also feels very cold in the hand whereas ebonite is warm and a little soft almost, has very good grip and seems almost to absorb moisture from the hand so doesn't get slippery. I personally am not nearly as willing to spend high prices on plastic pens over ebonite because of the feel in hand.

[FayeV]

Thank you, Icywolfe, for asking this question because it was also on my mind.

 

Ebonite sounds intriguing and I wish I could hold and feel one of these pens in my hands before deciding. I've been considering the Edison group buy as well. Regardless of the material used, I find myself more drawn to the red pearlized wine color/pattern of the Acrylic model than the more red brown wood grained pattern of the Ebonite model.

 

Which one is better?

[Doug C]

I much prefer ebonite than any acrylic (i.e. plastic). It just has more intrinsic value for me as does celluloid. Personal taste.

[j1020]

Back in the '40s and '50s some bowling balls were made out of or coated with ebonite.

[globetrotterjon]

I remember my first Ebonite pen - a very old Waterman I bought from a used pen merchant who would visit college campuses selling restored pens for under 30 bucks. I have a feeling this long lost pen would fetch a lot more in today's market. The pen, like all old Ebonites, warmed nicely to my hand and really gave me the perfect sense of grip and control without being "sticky." I was taken aback at the funny smell - like burned rubber - until I learned that it was, in fact, vulcanized rubber - a very common material in the days before precision plastic injection molding. There's a wonderful tactile sense Ebonite gives that is absent from plastics. It "softens" for lack of a better word, in the hand, and seems to connect the hand more to the paper/ink than any other material I've known. The closest thing is the hard celluloid/bakelite materials used in other vintage pens.