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Do Excellent Fountain Pen/mechanical Pencil Combo Pens Exist?


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If FPN knows of any, please post thoughts and perhaps pictures :happyberet:

 

Thanks for all replies :bunny01:

New Mexico Pen Collector's Club / InkDrop Member since 8/23/2010

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new or vintage?

 

 

new: IMHO, no. however, the lamy 2000 pencil is (for whatever reason) extremely popular...so there's one.

 

vintage: tons -- P75 Cisele set, P51 set, P45 set, Sheaffer Snorkel Sets, Sheaffer PFM sets, i'd even add an estie fp / mp set in there too.

 

 

hopefully, others will add more.

 

 

Merry Christmas,

 

J

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Oh, J I mean pens that are fountain pen on one end, mechanical pencil on the other.

New Mexico Pen Collector's Club / InkDrop Member since 8/23/2010

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Exist? Yes, but the few made by the big, higher-quality makers are uncommon (rare?) and expensive.

Sheaffer, Parker and Waterman made combos.

 

Regards, greg

Don't feel bad. I'm old; I'm meh about most things.

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ohhhh...whoops! :doh: we saw that one at the antique store two weeks ago...green...don't remember what brand. pendelton (pb2) sold a similar one a while ago i think. can't remember now :doh:

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Most date from the '30s, as mentioned above some of the top makers put them out. Parker and Watermans are really collector only combos, leaving Conklin and Sheaffer as the most affordable "big' names, with Sheaffer being easier to find. There then comes a plethora of second and third tier combos, some of the better being made by National and include names such as Gold Medal, Gold Crown and National. Lakeside is another better quality name. The volume maker in this market was Wearever, and these are quiet acceptable user combos if in good order. I have several combos and my Gold Crown with a gold plate nib is a remarkably good one to use and cost less than $20 ( excellent plastic but brassed hardware). It's also big, not much under 6" caped yet very well balanced.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_e33wutrLGt0/TRcQIoL7tFI/AAAAAAAAAOY/NEcpi6zF8Dc/s640/000_0148.jpg

 

so , yes, they are out there and you don't have to have a big name to get reasonable user quality. On the high end Conklin is a good choice, still available at reasonable price and likewise Sheaffer, down the price line the National brands are good and at the bottom Wearever rules.

 

Regards

Hugh

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Remember though that combining the two functions also created limitations and compromises. Most will not have an eraser, and the quantity of ink and lead will be less than in a single function device.

 

My Website

 

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I think there seems to be a general trend away from mechanical pencils being paired with high-end fountain pens. If you look at a number of pen brands (I looked at Waterman, Parker & Sheaffer for this purpose) you can find a matching roller/ballpen, but not a mechanical pencil offered with the higher line fp models (Duofolds, Sonnets, Premiers, etc.). On the other hand, you can find mechanical pencils in the Jotter, Vector, etc. lines.

 

Not an exhaustive search, but enough for this observation.

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+1 to what Hugh200au says. There are combo pens from the first-tier manufacturers, but they are usually so valued by collectors that their price is rather astonishing. I once had a chance to grab a very economical Sheaffer combo, and it turned out to be quite a nice pen--not a white-dot exactly, but a very nice Sheaffer. I've never seen a Conklin combo at anywhere near a price I could afford, so I don't know how they were.

But Hugh200au also makes a good point that the second-tier brands, including New Banker, can be excellent pens. I have some that write very well indeed.

These are interesting pens to restore and use, not just curiosities. If you keep a notebook in ink and a calendar in pencil, as I do, a combo is not just a conversation piece but an eminently practical writing instrument.

ron

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but even the jotter in the newer trim (matte black with a cross-hatched-not-quite-cisele top) they only make it in the fp and bp, and not the mp! it's SOOO frustrating for me as i love the trim :(

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  • 4 years later...

I would also add Wearever. They made some really attractive pen/pencil combos. Because they were relatively long, they had a good sized ink capacity compared to other combos. Look for the ones with the 14K nibs. They wrote the best.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Barry's three twenty two is Sweet..ain't it....

Now if..your lookin' for a modern combo..consider a

Conway Stewart based on the Churchill..fountain pen/ballpoint.

 

Fred

almost chowtime

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FP/BP are fairly common these days, but FP/MP is a rare beast in recent times... In bygone years when there was no BP or RB around that was different.

 

D.ick

~

KEEP SAFE, WEAR A MASK, KEEP A DISTANCE.

Freedom exists by virtue of self limitation.

~

 

 

 

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At a school / College level the Lamy Safari combo isn't all that bad. I got my gf the Lamy 2000 pencil to test the water if she would like a L2K in EF - verdict is not in yet... I made up a Kaweco set for a friend of mine - FP and the crazy pencil in the tin - looked smashing and she uses the pencil to sketch - not at all expensive but both instruments are very good in their own right.

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Most of the combos I've seen are from third tier companies. Arnold pen/pencil combos show up fairly often on Ebay. The prices are all over the map. I picked up a yellow one, but haven't gotten it working (there is either ink or a bad sac that oozed all over the lever and box and I haven't gotten a definitive answer as to whether it's safe to soak celluloid). Because of the issues with the lever I was able to get my shipping charges refunded by the seller, making the price of the pen about $10 US. The pencil part apparently still works, but I'm not sure what size leads I'll need.

There was some sort of pencil that *might have actually been a combo kicking around my house when I was growing up, which had belonged to my grandfather. Sadly, I lost it when I was still a kid. I didn't know how it worked and thought that the lever was supposed to be where you inserted the pencil leads (which leads me to suspect that it really was a combo). Don't know the brand; the pen barrel was blue, as I recall. But when I started with my first "real" fountain pens the name Parker resonated for some reason -- so I wonder now if what I had was a Parker, and that is part of the reason why that brand (particularly the vintage models) resonate with me so much.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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  • 2 months later...

I have acquired 6-7 on Ebay. I successfully restored all of them except for one. The New Bankers and Packards often have an eraser which is a must for my needs as an artist. I love these pens from the 30s and I use 2-3 of them almost daily. You can see some the ones I posted.

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To step it up a notch , the opening inquiry was are there any good combos out there.

In vintage yes there are:

Check out Combos by George Heath & Company , Wm Hicks, Edward Todd Julius Schnell, Conklin, Tiffany & C0

they are pricy, well made and worth the money..

 

Here is my latest entry : A very minty, Ivory Wearever Combo , deep pocket is required to carry , fun in and around the office for those of you who still have desk space. : )

 

They do come in different lengths and weights.

penfancier1915@hotmail.com

 

Tom Heath

 

Peace be with you . Hug your loved ones today

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To step it up a notch , the opening inquiry was are there any good combos out there.

In vintage yes there are:

Check out Combos by George Heath & Company , Wm Hicks, Edward Todd Julius Schnell, Conklin, Tiffany & C0

they are pricy, well made and worth the money..

 

Here is my latest entry : A very minty, Ivory Wearever Combo , deep pocket is required to carry , fun in and around the office for those of you who still have desk space. : )

 

They do come in different lengths and weights.

 

Lovely, Thanks for showing. I did not think of this when envisioning a combo, mut combo it is most certainly.

 

D.ick

~

KEEP SAFE, WEAR A MASK, KEEP A DISTANCE.

Freedom exists by virtue of self limitation.

~

 

 

 

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