I've been collecting Balance since my earliest days in the hobby. Now, nearly 10 years later i find myself a veteran Hack-Amateur-Newbie collector who still is charmed by this 1930's-40's classic. Been awhile since i completed the complete OS collection of catalogued colors (a milestone of sorts) and while i have no intention to try to get all the colors/models/variants which numbers hundreds of pens when one factors in catalogued and well-known-but-uncatalogued pens (completist collectors are crazy, unless the item collected is the Vacumatic), i nonetheless still find a thrill in picking up those oddball pens that are uncatalogued and not-so-well characterized. The Weird Stuff, in other words.

Anyway, one nice find at my recent foray to the quite excellent Ohio Pen Show, was this gem.

It is a Sheaffer Black Balance in what some call the Stubby Standard size (Standard Girth Short Length model). Ahhh, but the anomalies on this one just pile on. At least three things about this pen are atypical. This one is in my collection for the long haul. For those who like Balance but are not yet Pros-From-Dover, do take a gander (but no goosing) and see if you find the charming elements of this not-so-basic Black Pen.

regards

david

A delightful example! I see only one attribute that I would consider oddball/uncataloged, but I think I know what the other two elements are to which you refer. Depends also on the definition of 'oddball', 'not-so-well characterized', and 'atypical', though.

--Daniel

Yep. Semantics can be a bear

d

OK, I'll bite at my own risk of getting beheaded. Is it the all white furniture, the ball-ended clip, 2 bands with a coin-edge finish?

Very nice pen David. Nathan.

Pretty much.

White trim generally is seen only on certain pens with gray in the plastic and on all colors of Junior line pens. This one is a fat pen in black- not a Junior line pen and thus generally would have GF trim.

The double cap-bands are uncommon/unexpected/uncatalogued/what-have you, and that is the second surprise. The pattern on the bands though is what i've seen on other double band pens so i did not count that as an extra.

Third thing from my view is the smooth ball clip. TBOMK no catalogued non-Autograph line pen has a smooth ball clip, rather generally the clip is marked Sheaffer's. Daniel i suspect would opine that a smooth finish is expected on a non-catalogued cap-band pen (though he of course can better state his view than can I) so this might be an "expected find on an unexpected pen", but i also note that i beleive i have seen the so-called Jeweler's Band pen at least with Sheaffer clips, and that one is uncatalogued too.

Furthermore, i do find the chrome finish to be particularly interesting as this is the first round-ball clip pen (either an early pen or representing hold over of the round ball into later era due to its perhaps persistent use on an anomalously capbanded pen) i've seen in white trim. TBOMK, chrome trim on non-junior pens first appeared with the "mottled" or gray-black Black Pearl pen, which appeared after the round ball ceased production on the regular line pens.

Also, not mentioned by me earlier, the white trim appears to be chrome over GF over brass, not just white-on-brass. Where it is worn away on sides one can see GF and some edge brassing beneath that. An early approach to white trim by Sheaffer? Indeed, i have some 1933 Parker Vacs that appear to do the same thing on cap-bands, later switching to simple white-on-Brass rather than triple layer.

Fun pen.

david

As a rule, non-default-trim Sheaffer's of the era have non-imprinted clips. I think there are three subcategories within that group: 14K-banded pens including Autographs, "Deluxe" pens with non-standard-size cap bands, and chromium-trimmed versions of pens that would otherwise have gold-filled fittings.

The model on which your pen is based (with standard size/pattern cap band) is documented circa late 1932, when the peaked round-ball clip was in use, and it appears to have been a very short-lived model. It was available in black and also red-veined Grey Pearl, with matching pencils also offered.

--Daniel

I've not sen the Gray/Red yet.

You include the "jeweler's"/Deluxe/Milled band in the category you find to have non-imprinted clips?

-d

I use "Deluxe" to cover all those types; I include quotation marks to imply that it is a term collectors apply but not necessarily one Sheaffer applied (though they did use it at some point for some pens with non-standard cap bands).

--Daniel

Will have to check my records. Vaguely recall a Jeweler's Band pen with "Sheaffer's" on the clip.


-d

I don't think this is a hard and fast rule. This pen has a clip imprint (when you can get past the reflections in my photo)
I have another example similar to this one (fatter and shorter) which also has a clip imprint.



Weird ol' Sheaffer Balances is a very apt title for this thread.

Indeed; the usage I employed -- "as a rule" -- paradoxically includes the implication of non-absoluteness, as was appropriate here.

--Daniel

If "X" is a rule, how often is "not X" permitted before use of word "rule" is not helpful.

I doubt there is a widely-agreed-upon threshold, but the use of "rule" is helpful even when the rule is not absolute.

--Daniel

I don't disagree with either point you just raised, though not sure either one helps my question.

If half the pens that have round ball or flat ball clip have "Sheaffer" on 'em, what rule exactly do we have?

Given the quickly cloned definitions of "rule" i provide below, it seems that while rule need not (must not?) be absolute and that while "exceptions" can happen, we might wish for the rule perhaps to describe what is a dominant perhaps overwhelmingly prevalent finding before labelling it a rule. Perhaps that is the case for these clips. I dunno.

d

RULE:
1 one of a set of explicit or understood regulations or principles governing conduct within a particular activity or sphere : the rules of the game were understood. • a law or principle that operates within a particular sphere of knowledge, describing or prescribing what is possible or allowable : the rules of grammar.

Can you clarify your question? If you don't disagree that there is no widely-agreed-upon threshold for how often a rule must apply for the use of the term to be helpful, then it would seem to follow that you already know that your question has no quantitative answer. Are you seeking a non-specific answer, like "usually", "generally", or "for the most part"?

I don't know what you are referring to -- we were discussing pens with non-default trim, not generally "pens that have round ball or flat ball clip", and I stated that as a rule, such pens have non-imprinted clips.


As I stated, as a rule, the clips of the pens under discussion are non-imprinted. I'm not sure where your confusion lies.

--Daniel

I do believe in a general threshold for any pattern of observation to be considered a rule. Whether i know where i place that threshold, i shall have to consider.

Further, there is room perhaps to discuss how different people interpret that threshold.

My question might or might not have a quantitative answer. I should explore. I would be hard pressed, for example, to consider an observation that 10% of all pens in a given category to behave a given way to establish a rule for that behavior.



Using your jargon, Sheaffer Balances with non-default trim.



Which rule, indicating what?



The green pen with double band, imaged above, then is does not fall into the category of the pens you discuss?

Upshot. As i attempt to learn about the sort of pens under discussion, i have heard of a rule for their clips. The word "rule" if one wishes to leave it undefined, is not helpful.

-david

and here's a charmer, posted on Stylophilesonline.com by Bruce Speary.

Typical capband. Reverse trim. Smooth ball clip.



david

The existence of indisputably qualifying or non-qualifying quantitative examples does not imply the existence of a quantitative threshhold.


I wasn't limiting my application to Balances, but as Balances are a subset, I'm happy to narrow the discussion to that group.


I stated that as a rule, pens with non-default trim had non-imprinted clips. I don't understand how you could not have already read that.


I'm not sure which category you're referring to here. Sarj's marbled marine Green pen with double cap band and imprinted clip represents an exception of the sort I implied existed with my use of the formulation "as a rule".


I don't understand what you mean "if one wishes to leave it undefined". Who is "one"? I accept the definition of the expression I employed. If you wish to leave that expression undefined when you read what I wrote rather than apply the definition it carries in English, I suppose that is your prerogative, and I certainly agree that it would then not be helpful to you. Perhaps you are also unfamiliar with the expression I used, which carries a crucial implication of non-absoluteness, which thus gives the expression a more specific meaning than the use of "rule" alone.

--Daniel

That is acceptable. You then use a definition that means something to you but which in your expression of it to me I find it ill defined.

As i believe that exploration of issues in pendom is served by terms which have healthy definitions, i seek to heal those definitions which i find to be ill.

I assert the crucial implication of non-absoluteness is insufficient to make a word... useful.

-david

I use the definition of the expression that means something in English; it does not merely mean something to me -- I was not intending the expression to have a special meaning that I created that is at variance with the accepted definition.

I understand now that you find the expression "as a rule" to be ill-defined to the extent that it is of no use to you in the present context (explorations of issues in pendom). Would the same be true for such terms as "generally" (or "in general"), "usually", and "for the most part"?


It would follow, then, as I stated above, that the expression "as a rule" is ill-defined in some way; that is, its standard definition is in some way inadequate to you to the point of uselessness in the present context. Is that accurate?


Note again that we are discussing my use of an expression, not a single word. To you, it appears that the use of the expression "as a rule" with regard to a correlation in our hobby is of no use. I find that extremely surprising, and I feel quite different. Do you find the other non-absolute correlative words/expressions mentioned above equally useless? Do you find that all non-absolute terms regarding correlation (or occurence, etc.) to be useless in discussions regarding the hobby?

--Daniel

I have not seen you use the expression in a manner that is of use in pendom.

regards

david

I understand that you hold that position, but I don't understand why my statement is, in your view, of no use in pendom. Would you explain why my statement that pens of the era with non-default trim as a rule have non-imprinted clips is of no use in pendom?

Also, could you clarify something: are you stating that my statement is of no use just to you in particular, or are you stating that in your assessment, my statement is of no use more generally to the folks who you would expect to be reading this forum?

I offered my observation because I wanted to point out that it is not surprising to me to find a non-imprinted clip on a Balance with non-default trim, and that therefore it is not a surprise to me for the pen you showed to have a non-imprinted clip accompanying the non-default cap band. Similarly, armed with the knowledge that pens of the era with non-default trim as a rule have non-imprinted clips, it would not be surprising that Bruce's set posted at Stylophiles has non-imprinted clips. I find that knowledge of such correlations, even when not absolute, is useful in spotting interesting items and in identifying models as well as in helping assess rarity and value, along with more broadly adding to the depth of my knowledge and the pleasure derived thereof. Can you explain how/why (or if) you feel otherwise?

--Daniel