What The Heck Is It?

[marshall11]

Completely baffled by this one. Has an inexpensive feel. The only marking I found was AUSTRIA on the cap. Has some sort of twist/plunger filler, only travels about 1/2 inch or so inside the barrel. At least in its present state. Obviously the nib is broken, but what are those tines? Looks like a tube for an ink feed??

You know what they say...you never know you will find next out there in The Wild!

 

I realize it might be just a curiousty thing, but it would be fun to learn more about it.

Thanks in advance for any input.

[Flippy]

It might be the feed sticking out because the top half of the nib was cut off? Nah, probably not.

 

I know pretty much nothing about nibs, but could you try half-decently writing with it to give us a clue what the nib size was.

[ethernautrix]

Those tines... whoa. I have no idea. I want to guess some kind of music nib. Or... (I'm thinking illuminated manuscript-type work.) Cool mystery!

[JotterAddict62]

I have one like that, but not a nib like that. There would be a cork in it when you turn the black screw. My feed tube is broken so it is a parts pen.

[basterma]

Maybe there was a wick cloth between those teeth and the missing part of the nib?

[Octo]

Could the nib be for drawing music staffs? Such pens did once exist.

[Seele]

A redneck bodge to make a portable tattooing tool?

[rwilsonedn]

The tines are part of a longer story. They originated in a patent battle in the early 1920s between Austria and Germany, when Austrian pen companies were attempting to circumvent German patents on feeds. They were developed as a work-around to supply ink to broad nibs without violating the German patents. But the patent issues were soon settled by a series of cross-licensing agreements, companies moved on, and before long everyone had forgotten what the little points under nib were for. This of course led to great consternation among fountain pen historians, who argued for decades, beginning in the late 1930s, over the purpose of the things. The debate became so contentious that it led one British expert to famously remark "These are the tines that try men's souls!"

ron

[Sasha Royale]

According to Dante, there is a place in the fifth level for people like ron.

 

[Astronymus]

It's obviously a steel brush mod.

 

No, seriously, I have no idea.

 

[marshall11]

Well, thanks to all for the guesses. I took it to the local pen club meeting and had pretty much the same response. Two votes for a prison tattoo gizmo. PEN and INK, as it were.

 

I guess that means I have One of A Kind!!

 

Another case where it would seem that Rarety does not necessarily relate to increased Value!

 

The hunt goes on.