Pens with heart-shaped breather holes

[Possum Hill]

Yesterday I bought a Sheaffer lever-fill Admiral (I think) with heart shaped breather hole at a flea market for two dollars. The 14K No. 5 nib is two tone, very pretty.

[lak611]

A lot if not all Sheaffer Balances had em

I have a modern Sheaffer that has a cartridge/convertor fill. It is tortoiseshell color plastic. I don't remember what it is called. I bought it about 8 or 9 years ago. The nib says "Feather Touch" 18K. It has a heart shaped breather hole.

Update: my pen is a reissue of the Sheaffer Balance.

[nemesiz]

I have a Sailor flighter-style pen with a heart-shaped breather hole on an F4 nib; pen cost me about $20

 

Yes the Sailor Hi-Ace Fountain Pen, a fantastic little writer that come with a F4 Gold plated fine nib with a heart-shaped breather. Highly recommended for the price of 1050 Yen.

Edited September 2, 2008 by nemesiz

[snorkeler]

Yes, that's the one, and it is indeed a fantastic writer.

[Johnny Appleseed]

I think the heart-shaped breather hole may be the most common style found in vintage pens.

 

If you really want something interesting, try one of the Conklin crescent-shaped breather holes, or a Waterman keyhole-shaped breather - or, even better, a Waterman horseshoe-shaped one - now those are hard to find!

 

John

[yeepers]

The folks at fpnibs.com will also cut heart shaped breathers in the nibs they well. All of my customized TWSBI nibs from them feature a heart breather

[sidthecat]

The style seems to have been ubiquitous in the first two decades of the 20th Century. In and around the 1930s the style changed to the round breather hole - I suspect for reasons of efficiency as more pen manufacture was automated.

 

Do some looking around for vintage pens and you’ll find many hearts.

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

For anyone interested, the Sailor HighAce Neo still has the heart-shaped breather hole, and it lays down a nice, wet, very fine line. Solid choice for an inexpensive fountain pen.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Well, it was an old thread (2008), but with three posts from this month already, I'll join in.

 

I'd noticed heart shaped breather holes in a number of my vintage pens without really thinking about it too much. Pleasing, but other things are more important. I couldn't see paying specially to get the breather hole in a modern nib modified for that shape.

 

But I've been looking through my vintage pens, and find it in Conklin (not the modern ones), Conway Stewart, an American Mabie Todd Swan, Moore, Sheaffer, and Waterman at least. Another variant, probably already commented on, is the way the heart is facing, point toward or away from the tip. Sometimes it's different in pens from the same maker.

 

Hard to believe there's any functional difference between this and circles, but it does add a little to the character of vintage pens, now that I think of it.

 

Happy Thanksgiving 2017!

[sidthecat]

I recently got my greedy hands on a Leroy Fairchild dip nib with a star-shaped breather hole - the precursor to the Waterman Star nibs. Mr. Minuskin is going to install it into a Moore pen that has a long enough cap for it.

The point being that I can’t imagine that shape being anything other than decorative. Once it’s straightened and polished it’ll look very cool.