Jump to content

Vintage Pen Review 3


Greg

Recommended Posts

Vintage Pen Review – No.3

 

Burnham ‘The Burnham’

 

Source: ebay £20.53

 

Description: Green/black pearly marble, peaked, BHR top, typical styling of the 30s-40s, about 10mm longer than a CS 55, very slightly slimmer in girth. The nib is a ‘Burnham’ 14ct gold with a plain, smooth feed. The body and cap are in excellent condition with no visible damage nor wear apart from a little flaking of the gold plating on the edge of the clip – age rather than wear. The BHR peaked cap top is slightly browning on close inspection. The cap has three gold plated bands, the central being wider. ‘The Burnham’ is clearly imprinted into the barrel in a script style lettering and ‘BRITISH MADE’ imprinted beneath. The pen is filled is by pressing a button which is revealed by unscrewing a black, blind cap on the end. There appears to be a tiny blob of what may be glue on the cap underneath the clip ring which I cannot remove.

 

There are many aspects of the pen which are very similar to CS products of the time, even to the diamond on the clip, although this pen shows an ornate letter B rather than CS.

 

Story: My CS Churchill, pressed into regular use, was unfortunately lost leaving me without a day to day pen. I was on the lookout for a large CS, sensitive to anything costing too much having lost such an expensive pen, but willing to fork out a little more than usual. I prefer the older, pre-aerodynamic style pens and would have loved one in red ripple, but these were outside my budget. I spotted this Burnham on the dreaded ebay and, full of admiration kept an eye while I tried to find out more about it. I couldn’t. However it was described as ‘substantial’ and I was looking for a large pen. The triple bands and button filling gave the impression of a pen from the upper reaches of their range and the older, peaked design is preferred. I won it with some opposition and, while not the CS I was originally after, I was very pleased on its arrival, although it was rather slimmer than I expected.

 

Its condition, colour and pattern make it a very attractive pen indeed and I was very pleased with my win. The sac required replacement and this brought about some fun and games. The section on Burnham pens unscrews, rather than being a tight fit, which is convenient in most respects. However trying to screw it in with a decent sized sac is very difficult as the sac snags on the pressure bar and becomes twisted.

 

In Use: The nib may be described as on the fine side of medium and is wonderfully flexible. This is a real boon for careful writing and gives the pen a strong character but becomes a little tiresome when writing large amounts or quickly. It is smooth in use, has no particular magic angle but can get a little toothy if held badly.

 

Enjoying the flex I now have the habit of using very thick downs strokes for initial capitals which gives an attractive effect with little effort. I have yet to master a true italic effect on circular letters but it’s nice to be able to have a go. In time my use of the flex will improve and, I hope, will give an attractive result.

 

The line is sufficiently wet to be satisfying without smudging (not as wet as the Churchill it replaces) while using my regular mix of Lamy green and Quink black ink.

 

Although the pen would perform perfectly in regular use I tend to gravitate to a CS45, with a nice Duro nib for quick note taking as it is rather more robust. The Burnham is used for letters and other, less aggressive writing. Additionally the girth of the pen is slightly narrow for me, not that I have particularly large hands, but the CS45 is less tiring in prolonged use.

 

In replacing the sac I had to reduce its size until it would slide into place and allow the section to screw into place without twisting. It therefore has a limited ink capacity, again a shortcoming for regular use. I intend to have the sac replaced by someone who knows what they are doing in order to improve this. (The remains of the original sac were clearly bigger than their replacement.)

 

It is a beautifully elegant pen, being quite long when posted and the feel of its non-bulky body suits its character. I am very proud when using it in company, the pearl effect of the marble shimmering brightly.

 

Faults: Apart from the intial flaking on the edge of the clip, the slight browning of the BHR cap top and the currently small sac there are no other faults.

 

Conclusion: This is not a valuable pen, Burnhams do not attract the sort of prices of an equivalent CS unless it is the sort with two gold bands on the body which go up to ~£80. I can’t think of a comparison CS as the Burnham is rather longer than usual. I suppose it might be described a large version of a 388.

 

It is entirely reliable in use, refuses to blob, always writes first time and brings huge pleasure to this beginner with flexible nibs. It generates a great deal of respect as a rather luxurious friend who prefers to be treated with care.

 

 

 

 

post-33-1164821396_thumb.jpg

Member of the No.1 Club

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 1
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Maja

    1

  • Greg

    1

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Thank you for another excellent pen review, Greg; they are always a pleasure to read, so thank you for taking the time to do this :)

When I read the thread title and saw "Burnham" for a sec I thought you were reviewing a lesser-known CS model (à la vintage "Le Tigre" pens), and then I remembered Conway Stewart's British rival... :blush:

Edited by Maja
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...