Maybe a couple years ago now I noticed a different little pen. Here's some pics;


Here is a 5-30 (bottom) and the mystery pen (up top)


Closeup on the caps


Well now - that ain't right

There are no black banded Lifetime pens. There is also absolutely no reason for banded Lifetime pens. The banding on the jade pens was done to identify 7-30's and 5-30's (not 3-25's as banding was used at the inception of the limited gaurantee run and Sheaffer always saves jade for the big pens initially). What would be the point of banding a Lifetime pen in this manner? Well, I don't know but, there are at least 4 of these running around. I beat Daniel on the uptake of these but, hopefully he will grace us with one of the two clean examples he has bought since.

I don't know what the section/feed/nib are like on Daniels' but it is not your tipical flattop arrangement.


Feed on the LT


Section on the LT


Nib - it did have a serial number but as set when I found it it was buried to Made in USA


The nib/section/feed set at a proper depth

OK, a couple more things about this. The nib and feed are actually set in a sleeve in the section. When I knocked the nib the section was stuck in the block as the sleeve had been tapped into the hole. The nib is sectioned off for the typical masking but is not masked and is a flex nib. On earlier banded pens the banding is cut out for the clip. I would put the manufacture of this piece at '30 or '31. This could be one time when Sheaffer might have used up parts. I hate to say that as it is so atypical of them. Let's say they had a lot of 5-30 barrels (old style - black ended) and no caps and needed a run of LT's. Sometime close to this sheaffer dropped the banding of 5-30's and 7-30's so maybe it was easier to cut in a band on a cap for a low placed clip and send it out as an LT.

Well, there was a short run of these anyway and I'd be very curious as to how the nib/section/feed stacks up to Daniels two examples.

Roger W.

The LT's feed is obviously a later replacement; it's from a Vacuum-Fil pen, and not one of the earliest ones, while the barrel is pre-1932 (pin for lever instead of snap ring). Beyond that, it's you and Daniel gonna sort this bugger out.

Richard;

Good to know - I don't know anything about vac sections. Yes I was basing the date on the barrel which I would say in this way - it is circa 1931. I would not say pre '32 since Sheaffer's internal memo on the pin v. ring lever is November 1930. It is hard to tell if that took affect factory wide immediately or if a lot of barrels were on hand that continued to get finished through 1931.

The cap with it's double band suggest circa '28-'30ish. Double bands were not on Lifetime pens in the 1928 catalogue, it was a distinction of limited gaurantee pens initially. Lifetime pens seem to have gotten the double banding quickly afterward. By 1930 the catalogue does not have any double banded pens in it. Jade 3-25's were introduced by 1930 without the black band distinction which suggest that 5-30's and 7-30's loose this distinction sometime around then. The lowered hump clip seems to come in circa 1930 for flattops. I think the evidence points to the pen being made circa '30-'31. After the black banding distinction was eliminated for 5-30's but, not much after. I'm not familiar with any hump clip black banded 5-30's.

Lots of fun little variables to ponder. Still, no real reason why Sheaffer should have ever made this configuration.

Roger W.