You Can't Go Wrong Buying An X

[Chouffleur]

My current taste in pens seems to run in the direction of North American Manufacturers from 1937-1962. I decided this by going to Richard Binder's "Birthday Pens: A Timeline" page and looking down the pictures until I found the first and last pens I really liked. Some of them might be poor choices (I'm looking at you Eversharp Ventura AKA the “Burp” pen).

 

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/misc/bday_pen.htm

 

If I didn't have the time to research each individual model and I wanted you to recommend a manufacturer, who in this time period and geographical area would you recommend as a can't-miss-no-matter-what-model choice?

 

I understand that Parker hit a few home runs (the 51) but they apparently also tripped occasionally trying to get a bunt down and fell face downward on the first base line. Presumably each of their competitors has their equivalent missteps. So to extend that metaphor, I want the manufacturer with the highest batting average.

 

Who would that be?

[Aurko]

I would say Sailor, Pilot, or Platinum. They all have great options at pretty much any price point, and have some of the best quality control I have seen. I don't know much about their pre WWII pens but every Pilot, Sailor, or Platinum I have seen from the 50s onwards seemed like a pen that I could not go wrong with.

[vondauster]

Pelikan. They have a very high hit rate with durability and reliability. Some of their designs are considered by some to be dated now, but in the time frame you outline, they were, in my opinion, some of the better looking pens.

 

Will

[catbert]

Doubtful any manufacturer attempting to address all levels of the market was consistently great. For what it’s worth, there are more Sheaffers pictured in Richard Binder’s timeline within the chosen period, and the text cites a roughly equal number of Sheaffers and Parkers.

But surely part of the appeal of vintage pens is leaping effortlessly from peak to peak, decade to decade (continent to continent, should your scope widen), skipping lightly over the troughs of so-so pens that afficionados following along in real time had to endure? ‘Peak’ and ‘trough’ being relative and subjective, of course.

 

[gordonhooker]

The Lamy range of pens - the 2000 being the one everyone should own....

[Buzz_130]

North American manufacturer from this period that made can't miss products in the era of the Golden Age of Fountain Pens?

 

Parker, Sheaffer, and Esterbrook. They grew to be powerhouses of fountain pens and continued their legacy until the typewriter and the ballpoint changed the way the Western world worked.

 

Can't miss models are too many to list. The Vac, the "51" Vac, the "51" Aero, the 45, the 61, the Dollar pens, the transitional, the S, the SJ, the LJ, the Snorkel, the Touchdown filler, inlaid nibs, triumph nibs, lifetime warranties, hooded nibs, etc.

 

Highest batting average? The sales numbers would say Parker, and the model would be "51."

 

Buzz