What Is It? Decoband?

[user01]

Hello FPN,

I have had the chance to get my hands on a very nice Wahl-Eversharp Flat-Top pen in green&bronze celluloid. At first it looked like a ordinary so called "Decoband" pen. It has the roller-clip, a double check mark seal, the personal point nib unit and is as long as my other two "Decoband" pens. The "rhomb-style" capband seems to be typical for these Flat-top Decoband pens in green&bronze celluloid.

 

But the diameter of this green&bronze pen is smaller (just look at the section) and the nib seems to be smaller too.

 

I guess that these pens are handmade. Thus I would expect some variations in size and positioning of clip, trim etc.

 

What do you think?

 

 

[Wahlnut]

The "standard" Oversize Green-Bronze "deco band" appears ti have always carried the rhomboid cap trim ring. In Green-Bronze Pyralin plastic the rarity is the Green Bronze Oversized pen with with the Grecian Border design. Because we have come to name all of the GOLD SEAL Oversized (860 size series) pens "Deco Band" it wrongly bases the name of the pen on the design of the cap band and forces any other design into non-conformity. While the vast majority of the Oversized Gold Seal Pens were with Grecian Border cap ring, not all were made that way. There are precious few but nonetheless enough to be found today Oversized Pens with rhomboid cap bands on Jade, and other colors too.

And yes there were slight variations in both overall length and placement of the Clip shank hole. Until late 1928 to very early 1929, the clips all said WAHL PEN and were shorter than the later ones that bore the name WAHL-EVERSHARP. The eliding of the names WAHL and EVERSHARP on all of the company's branding started about that time too. Within 2-3 years depending on when you start and stop counting, the name WAHL-EVERSHARP gave way to EVERSHARP when EVERSHARP (a subsidiary of the WAHL Company absorbed the parent in a reverse merger). But I digress...

[user01]

Thanks Syd.

So you would call this pen Overize?

 

One thing is for sure. It is a superb pen.

But I am unsure wheater I am going to use it or not. The pen look quite mint to me.

[jonveley]

I believe green and bronze was referred to as "Brazilian green" and was the last of the colors to be introduced.

[JPA]

My understanding is that the green and bronze model came as a standard size and an oversize, however both generally had the rhomboid band so it is sometimes difficult to differentiate the two. In fact, most of the green and bronze pens, whether they were the military clip models, standard size or oversized models, came with the rhomboid band.

 

I suspect that you may have purchased the standard size pen not the oversize. They are about the same length but the oversize is wider. Also, your pen seems to have a #4 nib whereas the oversize would have a #6 nib. The long section on your pen is typical of what is generally seen on standard size Wahl Eversharp flat tops. As are the slightly thicker black pieces that sit on top of the cap and bottom of the barrel. Finally, your pen seems to have a slightly short lever in the barrel which I would guess is about the size of the lever that is installed on standard sized pens.

 

Barry

[Wahlnut]

Yes, there were Bronze-Green pens with rhomboid bands made in a number of sizes and as pointed out above the #4 and #6 nib size pens were the same length (what the company called #8 length) the gold seal nibs did not state the nib size on the nib but a side by side comparison with the Oversized pen would show the difference easily enough.

 

About Brazilian Green and Bronze-Green. All Deco Bands (and the other "Flattop" pens in this color were labeled Bronze Green. The name of the color changed to Brazilian Green (maybe sooner as the Equipoised pens were made in 1930-31 too) in the 1932 catalog for the Equi-poised pens made in that plastic. So with names are correct, but to be technical Bronze-Green is the correct name for it on a Flat-Tops and Brazilian Green is the correct name for it on the Equi-poised.

Syd

[jonveley]

And the RHR ones came in tomato red and to-maaaah-to red.

[Procyon]

And the RHR ones came in tomato red and to-maaaah-to red.

 

 

There were smaller RHR flat-tops, but the only red Deco-Bands were the red/orange plastic pens made for the Danish market. Like this one:

 

 

http://fountainpenboard.com/forum/uploads/fpngallery/album_116/gallery_6983_116_222489.jpg