Epenco Brand

[Rider1325a]

Anyone know anything about "EPENCO" brand pens?

I found one in antique store today.

[DanDeM]

Hunt for the Eagle Pen Co. Early on they made some nice

and innovative pens, like the first cartridge fill. (It was made

of glass)

 

By the time they became Epenco, not so much.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Blotto

[PDW]

I happen to have by my computer an Epenco, smallish size, 12-sided lever-filler with a cheap-looking Epenco nib. Nice green swirled celluloid and slightly pointed end caps. Maybe 1930-ish?

 

But the celluloid has distorted round the lever slot, so maybe the material isn't as good as it could be. Still, a nice-looking pen and deserving of more use than I give it.

[Loeschpapier]

Decided to resurrect this topic as I just got an Epenco in the mail. Paid under ten dollars, but thought it might be worth a try since the pictures looked decent, and to my surprise the pen looks really great! No rust on the outside, very pretty swirled/mottled amberish/ brown design, very well preserved, barely a scratch on it and the lever filler works just fine, no prying required. Needs to be resacked, of course, but I might just use it as a desk pen anyway to try out inks.

 

But I find it to be a very pretty looking pen, love the slightly ornate cap ring and the overall design. Now just have to find out what sack would go with it.

[DanDeM]

Decided to resurrect this topic as I just got an Epenco in the mail. Paid under ten dollars, but thought it might be worth a try since the pictures looked decent, and to my surprise the pen looks really great! No rust on the outside, very pretty swirled/mottled amberish/ brown design, very well preserved, barely a scratch on it and the lever filler works just fine, no prying required. Needs to be resacked, of course, but I might just use it as a desk pen anyway to try out inks.

 

But I find it to be a very pretty looking pen, love the slightly ornate cap ring and the overall design. Now just have to find out what sack would go with it.

 

Your pen sounds like it might look like this...

 

 

...if so, this one took a #16 sac

[Loeschpapier]

Your pen sounds like it might look like this...

 

 

...if so, this one took a #16 sac

Blotto, yes! Thank you so very, very much! I looked through the other Epenco threads briefly on my phone, but couldn't get the link for some reason.

Thank you for saving me the trial and error buys! appreciate your input! I expected a dud, but was quite surprised how well preserved the pen was overall.

 

Thanks again, Blotto!

[Loeschpapier]

Nib came off pretty easy, too, so first gentle cleaning was no problem. Also never had a pen before that were section and barrel don't have threads, but a gentle tug (okay, two tugs) pried it all apart without issue.

 

Love the old swirly ones that just need some loving and care.

[welch]

I like Epenco and many of the other "third tier" pens...especially the marbled colors. My hunch is that the pen pictured above is from the mid-30s, mostly because clibs began moving to the top of the cap around 1940. That would have been reinforced by a US Army rule saying that a pen had to be covered by a uniform pocket flap. "No peaking above the pocket".

 

Furthermore, and this is a hunch, it looks as if style or fashion moved toward simple lines and single colors. The Parker 51 set a trend in pens, but many consumer products became "stream-lined" after 1945. Think of automobiles. Decoration was out, the boxy look was out...headlights and tail lights and fenders were made to appear as one sweeping line. The same thing happened in architecture.

 

(These are my conclusions after buying lots of third tier pens to repair...just for fun. By the mid-50s, an Esterbrook J would have looked old-fashioned. That's about when Esterbrook introduced their pens without the marbling. Odd because taste has swung and I like the marbled J pens, as well as the colors in this Epenco.)

[DanDeM]

Nib came off pretty easy, too, so first gentle cleaning was no problem. Also never had a pen before that were section and barrel don't have threads, but a gentle tug (okay, two tugs) pried it all apart without issue.

 

Love the old swirly ones that just need some loving and care.

Glad you found the sac info helpful.

 

You were fortunate to open the pen without damage.

 

Most lever fill pens have a friction fit section. Only a very few brands have a screw in section, and there's a reason for that.

 

Screwing in a section, or for that matter re-mounting a snug fit section by twisting it in, can cause the sac to corkscrew--greatly reducing, if not eliminating the amount of ink the sac will draw.

 

Sounds like you should read this basic procedure for any lever fill pen.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/189313-how-to-replace-an-esterbrook-sac/

 

And congrats on your efforts so far.

[DanDeM]

While we're at it, a little more about the brand.

While Epenco's were being made, the company also offered pens like these

with the Eagle badge. Still low-end pens -- stainless, plated nibs and skimpy

plating on the lever and clip -- but in spectacular arco-like celluloid.

 

However, at the turn of the last century, they offered pens like this eyedropper

in Red Mottled Hard Rubber that were as good as any to be had at the time.



Interesting brand, with a long history.

[Loeschpapier]

Glad you found the sac info helpful.

 

You were fortunate to open the pen without damage.

 

Most lever fill pens have a friction fit section. Only a very few brands have a screw in section, and there's a reason for that.

 

Screwing in a section, or for that matter re-mounting a snug fit section by twisting it in, can cause the sac to corkscrew--greatly reducing, if not eliminating the amount of ink the sac will draw.

 

Sounds like you should read this basic procedure for any lever fill pen.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/189313-how-to-replace-an-esterbrook-sac/

 

And congrats on your efforts so far.

Hi Blotto,

Thanks for the tips. And no worries about damage, as the daughter of two engineers I know better than to pry open older beauties without information hunting first. I had spent an hour or so reading up on friction fit sections and lever fill mechanisms to avoid damage, and to understand the inner workings better. And as an optometrist you.learn.quickly.not to mindlessly bent around plastic frames, since plastic is not plastic. We immersed some frames in basically a heat 'sand' bath (easiest way to describe), which would then allow us to refit the heated frame to a face. Of course 'plastic' is not just plastic, different artificial resins, different properties. But woe upon the optometrist grabbing a pair not meant to be heated...

 

I have another WingSung that exemplified for me how a corkscrew effect happens, easy to understand with those Chinese lever converters that are a sac, covered by a metal filler housing. Leave the housing off and watch corkscrew happening...

 

For the most part online I found explanations regarding heat transfer from hands! explaining the need for a good sac fit, corkscrew effect is rarely, if ever mentioned.

 

Thanks for posting additional links, always very much appreciated.

[welch]

Note (warning?): Careful with the Eversharp Fifth Avenue. It's the only lever filler I've found that seemed to have a threaded connection between the section and the barrel. I found out the hard way.

 

- I use two pairs of section pliars, just for a better grip and more leverage. One to hold the barrel firmly; other to wiggle the section.

 

- Another discovery: sections vary a bit in size, but I have been able to get an Eversharp Skyline section or an Esterbrook section into a third-tier barrel. Skylines can be fragile, and sometimes I end up with a good section and nib but a shattered barrel and cap. No law says a Wearever with a lousy nib cannot become a WearEvershap!

 

- One more discovery: be careful with the lever-fillers that had windows to show the ink-level...looks useless, but I can't think of another reason for the window. I smashed one. The section/barrel line was not where it looked to be!

[PDW]

- Another discovery: sections vary a bit in size, but I have been able to get an Eversharp Skyline section or an Esterbrook section into a third-tier barrel. Skylines can be fragile, and sometimes I end up with a good section and nib but a shattered barrel and cap. No law says a Wearever with a lousy nib cannot become a WearEvershap!

 

- One more discovery: be careful with the lever-fillers that had windows to show the ink-level...looks useless, but I can't think of another reason for the window. I smashed one. The section/barrel line was not where it looked to be!

 

One of my favourite pens is a chewed black Wearever ... with a Skyline nib. The Wearever feed works fine. Just bought a Skyline nib and about to make a second frankenpen with a previously nibless Wearever.

 

The ink window on older pens is, in my experience, always part of the section rather than the barrel!

Edited February 5, 2014 by PDW

[rwilsonedn]

 

The ink window on older pens is, in my experience, always part of the section rather than the barrel!

If the clear section were attached to the barrel, all you would see through it would be the bottom of the sac ...

ron

[peterg]

What? no mention of the twist together pen that carried the original (glass) ink cartridge? Was it from the 1880's?

[Tubachick02]

I am resurrecting this because I just found a EPENCO FP/pencil (I think) and wonder if anyone else has seen one like that. Can I just put it in my ultrasonic cleaner or are their special steps I need to take?

Edited November 10, 2018 by Tubachick02