I have a small collection of NoNonsense pens (the original solid-colored, opaque, screw-cap ones), and noticed a couple of differences in two of them. In the well at the end of the barrel on most of the pens, there's a horseshoe-shaped landing with "SHEAFFER" in a smaller font than the "U.S.A." below. On these two pens, there's no landing, and both "SHEAFFER" and "U.S.A." are in the larger font. Also, instead of "SHEAFFER U.S.A.", the clips just read "SHEAFFER" -- and in a more compressed font.

Anyone have any idea what variation in time or place these differences represent?

Thanks,
Brian

Whew! Glad I found this thread again...I wanted to check my own collection of Sheaffer "No Nonsense" pens (I'll use the abbreviation "NN" ) before I replied....

Since I bought almost all of my NN pens from other people, I can't really say when they were all made...but I can say that my first NN fountain pen, solid red in colour (which I bought new in 1976/1977 at a department store) does *not* have the horseshoe-shaped landing on the barrel end. None of the other solid coloured NNs I own have the landing, either.
I have several of the "Viewpoint" NN models---the older ones *without* the rubber sections---and they all have the horseshoe-shaped landing.
I also have a few NN "Vintage" fountain pens and they too all have that raised horse-shaped imprint.

From the article on Penhero.com, it appears that the "Vintage" models came after the solid-coloured original NNs... so perhaps that horse-shaped "landing" is of more recent origin?
It does look a lot like the current Sheaffer logo ( http://sheaffer.com/cover/logo_circle.jpg ), doesn't it?


Recently, I acquired a solid orange NN and a solid tan NN (no white dots on either) fountain pen, and both were missing the "Sheaffer" from their clips. I thought I had bought a couple of knockoffs, but then I spotted the words "SHEAFFER-MADE IN USA" on the barrels of the pens, written around the body of the pen, next to the barrel threads.

Neither of the two Nononsense pens I purchased in the late 1970s have the horse-shaped landing. I have two Nononsense pens with the landing. One is the vintage model that I purchased when Big Lots had a number for sale in 2002. The other came when I purchased a large lot of pens and pen parts on ebay.

After posting my message, I received some of the "pre-rubber" Viewpoints that The Oxonian had for sale, and they all have the horseshoe and "U.S.A." clips (in fact, on my pens the two always go together). So, maybe those are a characteristic of post-70's NNs?

Some of my horseshoe pens are in one of the calligraphy sets. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a date anywhere on it, but the manual is "703-2781" -- 1981? The only other clues as to its time frame are:

- The manual's illustration of a guy at a drawing board. He looks pretty "70's", with poofy hair and a mustache, but I could believe 1981...
- The lack of that Sheaffer circle logo anywhere on the package. When was that adopted? (One oddity: all of the foreign-language legends on the box says it contains NoNonsense pens, but the English legends only say "Sheaffer Fountain Pens". Wonder what marketing had in mind?)

-- Brian

D'OH! At Big Lots? If there were any justice in the universe, fountain pen collectors would be able to travel back in time!

-- Brian

Hello All,

My by-no-means-scientific survey of my collection of NNs seems to support the theory that the "horseshoe" was a running change adopted during the course of the pen's lifetime. My early NNs (opaque plastic models) don't have it; my later Viewpoints (screw top), "Jellies" and Vintage models do. I haven't had a chance to check my Old Timers.

To my eye, it seems as if there was a change in the manufacturing process, and the horseshoe may have been a by-product of that change. On my early models, the barrel seems to be a single piece of plastic: the end of the barrel - the raised circumferential ring as well as the central inset area - seems to be part of the barrel itself. That is to say, the bottom of the barrel is just like the top of the cap - only smaller.

On the later pens with the horseshoe, there's a line in the circumferential ring dividing it into an outer and an inner half; it appears that the central inset and the inner portion of the raised ring comprise a separate piece, and the outer portion of the ring is integral with the barrel. On these pens, the top of the cap and the bottom of the barrel are different: the cap still looks to be a single piece of plastic.

A good macro shot of the two versions would make all this much clearer, but I haven't had the time to take those photos (maybe some other kind soul will give it a try).

For some reason - and this is a purely personal guess - I figured, vaguely, that the horseshoe might have something to do with anchoring the spring for the ballpoint version of the NN. But the reality, as suggested above, is that it might be nothing more than a by-product of a manufacturing change. Maybe that change offered the opportunity to engrave the company name and country of origin into the tool, and that's why they appear there.

It's also possible, of course, that the solid opaque models never had the horseshoe, and that this feature reflects not a manufacturing change, but a difference in the manufacturing process used for different plastics, etc. We'd probably need some NOS specimens in original, dated packaging to know for sure.

Anyway - just a couple of random thoughts, for what they're worth.

Cheers,

Jon

PS I'll gladly leave to other researchers the challenge of correlating these features with variations in the NN clip. But it's tempting to wonder whether the "USA" was dropped from the clip simply because the country of origin information was now engraved into the pen itself.

I recently acquired two white opaque NN's. I'm sorry my photos are not very good, but I hope this will help visualizing what have been discussed in this thread.


Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I love NN's. Thank you all for a very interesting thread!!

Same here.

I just checked---all my NN pens (translucent smoke, translucent red, trans. green, solid yellow, marbled burgundy) have that horseshoe---all but one, which is solid blue, and got in a trade.

Kewl.

The horseshoe looks like a feature added to the tooling to help ejection of the barrel from the mold.

WHERE did you manage to buy the white ones from. Bryan

In addition to the horseshoe shaped end diffrences, there also seems to be a subtle change in the way and location the clips are attached to cap.

In the folowing photos, the Orange NN was bought in 1992, it has a plain end, the other pens ie solid green, solid purple/pink, and transparent Orange are recent purchases.

Barrel Ends:





Clip location, the clips are more neatly attached and a liitle higher up in the earlier model:


Top jewel, some opaque models have the discs and some dont, even in the models with discs you have inscribed models(Sheaffer) and plain ones:




Regards,
Hari

One is from eBay, and my sister got the other one for me in Japan.

Hari, I never noticed about clip positions! Now I have to go look mine!

Here's my Cadmium yellow one with a hole