Wahl "everflash" Wwii Era British Branding?

[DerTiefster]

I ran across this odd thing recently among the auctions. An Everflash-nibbed Skyline with a clip of the usual shape labeled "Everflash" instead of "Eversharp". Now that's just weird.

 

The seller was offering another Skyline but with Eversharp on the clip (blue modern stripe pen) although his heading repeated "Everflash" when the pen clip didn't say that. The nib on that one was a made in Gr. Brit. "flexible" by Eversharp. Somehow the seller had concluded both were from 1944, but he didn't write that into the auction

 

Anyone have some interesting background on such a beast? Could even be a practical joke or a Frankenpen, but where are you gonna get such pieces?

Edited November 2, 2016 by DerTiefster

[Brian-McQueen]

There were quite a few copycat Skyline makers in other countries. Might be a cap from one of those. Some of them are really good copies. Here are two examples.

 

 

[DerTiefster]

The nib pictured was one of the mid- to late-run style labeled "Eversharp 14K Made in USA" with diagonal lettering. The listing is still up if anyone wants to look. I thought the clip pics were worth recording. I'd never seen such a thing. As the clip bears the double check-mark logo (_a_ double check logo?, not certain it is a duplicate of the usual Skyline mark) and looked so very much like the Skyline clip, I was inclined to think it was a Wahl item specific to Great Britain. The existence of Wahl Skylines w/o Eversharp logo (see threads here on that) argues that the company had at least two sets of tooling for stamping the clips. That a third might exist didn't seem out of reason, and who knows what might have been in the marketing folks' minds early in the WWII time period. But wartime production issues would rapidly have shut down expansion of any redundant tooling. I'd expect that to be a limiting factor in production of the "Wahl" labeled Skyline.

[joss]

Itt is a puzzling piece as, apart from the clip, the pen looks like a genuine Skyline.

 

But the lettering of the "EVERFLASH" imprint on the clip is slightly different and not as sharp as that on a Skyline clip. The check-mark also differs from the typical "v v" double check Eversharp logo or the "W" Wahl Skyline logo. The circular gold band under the cap dome is also wider than that of the Skyline and I do not see an imprint there.

 

I read that the Wahl Skyline was produced in limited numbers to legally protect the name 'Wahl' but why would Eversharp protect the name 'Everflash'?

[DerTiefster]

The only rationale I can think of for the Everflash name to come from Wahl itself is a marketing brand-name issue. Perhaps the lower-tier names that the Big Boys made, but not bearing their top-line names, is (il)logically similar to generating a name for overseas marketing. I do not know, nor am I trying to persuade anyone, that this actually happened. I'm only trying to understand whether there is any potential rationale. I _believe_ that I've seen things reminiscent of this in Parker's British and French areas, but I can't remember the examples.

 

IF at the start of WWII Wahl was making Wahl labeled pens and Eversharp labeled Skylines (which seems to be the case) _and_ was considering for market position reasons to introduce the Everflash name on pens in Britain (which is not at all a given, but might have happened), then the entry of the US into the war would have tightened materials availability and tooling would be more scarce. I'm told that the US automakers used 1941 model year tooling for production of 1946 model year vehicles because they the pre-war tooling stashed away and were short on time/resources to make new designs and then make appropriate tooling. If Wahl had prototype quantity tooling for Wahl pens and had started preparation for Everflash, then both items might have been derailed, leaving only the existing Eversharp dies available for actual production.

 

Just a speculation. No facts here to see, folks. Keep moving along.

 

BTW, the lack of any (well-dressed) hits from google on "Everflash" other than the recent auction items seems to indicate that there was no broadly marketed knock-off. Someone, somewhere, may know.