Wearever Pennant

[PDW]

Fountain Pen Review

 

Wearever Pennant

 

 

This is a pen from the 1950s, manufactured in large quantities (million+) as a cheap pen and sold as such – one dollar! But don’t try to compare it with the 1930s Esterbrook dollar pen – this is a very different beast, both as a pen to use and as an item to buy.

 

I’ve rapidly collected a fair number of these pens from eBay, and have got a few working again. And if I can do it, so can you.

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1. Appearance & Design (1-10) – It’s a cheap pen, with a plastic barrel and an aluminium sleeve to the plastic cap which has a coloured ring at the open end and a plastic jewel which match the barrel. The filling lever and the clip match in either gold colour or white metal. The section is moulded black plastic.

 

The only oddity is the nib. It has a strange-looking overfeed arrangement, which some say is designed to prevent the pen from drying out (see Paddler’s comment at https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/82985-info-on-my-wearever/). The overfeed is typically gold or white metal to match the clip/lever. I don’t know if this matching was always maintained when nibs were swapped at the dealer’s. The feed is clear (which they called C-flow), allowing you to have at least a little advance notice that the ink is running out. A final strangeness is that the nib, section and sac are designed to be swapped out as a single unit to allow the nib type to be changed by a dealer or even a user without tools or resorting to heating the pen. This means that any pen can come with any of the nib types Wearever marketed; I’ve found broad, medium, fine, extra fine and flexible. It also means that the section/barrel fit is a light, fairly-well-standardised friction fit.

 

For images I refer you to http://www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Wearever/WeareverPennant.htm

 

Total: 5/10

 

2. Construction & Quality (1-10) - The plastic of the barrel feels cheap. It has a softness and slight translucence which makes one think of polythene, and old examples seem to have scratched easily. When they haven’t, they look nice in a 1950s sort of way and the translucent plastic looks very nice. One of my Pennants has developed a banana tendency, but the others seem fine in this regard. The feel in the hand of the hard plastic section and the threads of the barrel inspires confidence – this is not a pen you need to hang on to like some with smooth metal sections.

 

The aluminium cap sleeve is soft, so it also scratches badly in use as well as coming to me occasional bit of grot on it. Cleaning this soft metal should be good if you don’t polish over-aggressively, although I haven't tried it yet. A couple of green examples I have were gold-washed over the sleeve, and this finish has not worn at all well. On the other hand the gold finish of the clips and levers still look good in most cases.

 

It’s no surprise that the sacs have deteriorated over the last 50+ years; I’ve found examples which have gone soft, a fair number which have hardened to a crunchiness that actually makes it very easy to remove, but no hard-to-remove goo yet. However, a major weakness is the J-bar, which is a simple bent piece of bronze-coloured metal and which in most of my examples has cracked at the bend. Where it hasn’t, the spring still works nicely so a sac replacement (I use 16s) is simple, aided by the fact that the nipple on the section is grooved. Some examples I’ve seen have the original sac but it is not glued to the section; in other cases it is shellaced.

 

The nib is (I think) stainless steel, and cleans up beautifully. The clear feeds have not discoloured over time.

 

It’s difficult to give a number for this. 5/10 feels too high if you’re talking about comparing it with a USD 500, but they have been around for over 50 year without disintegrating so I’ll let this value stand.

 

3. Weight & Dimensions (1-10) - It’s a surprisingly large pen; 14cm capped, 12.2 cm nib tip to end of barrel. It’s heavier than a Hero 616, but is definitely not a heavy pen. The lightness for the size also makes it feel cheap – but, well, it _was_ cheap. If you like fairly large lightweight pens you’ll like the feel. 7/10

 

4. Nib & Performance (1-10) – I’ve actually only inked a medium nib (with Sailor Jentle Black), The flow is good; reliable and neither too wet or too dry.

 

There’s a little feel from the nib on 80gsm copier paper – not actual scratchiness, but definitely not butter smoothness. Say equivalent to a typical Easterbrook 2xxx series nib and a little smoother than a fine Lamy Safari on the same paper. There’s also a little ‘give’ in the nib – again, not actual flex and I can’t see any line variation, but there is a feel in your fingers that is different from the smooth lack of character some pens give. Apologies if you disagree, but personally I prefer the feedback I get from this pen to many others which feel more dead. 8/10

 

5. Filling System & Maintenance (1-10) – Typical lever filler, but see above for the weakness of the J-bar. If that is working OK and you replace the sac you’re ready to go. The sacs I’ve seen vary considerably in length, but you can get quite a long sac into that large barrel. The ease of removing the section with a section/barrel joint designed for user opening, and the simple construction, make it perhaps the easiest pen to service I’ve ever found. The only thing is that if the J-bar is cracked and needs replacement then you might pay as much for spares as you did for the pen. On the other hand if the J-bar is cracked it typically breaks into two when you operate the lever after section removal and the parts just fall out of the barrel when you take the section out – no need for tweezers or pliers. Just tip it up and out they come!

 

The nib/section also flushes easily – a few simple soak/dry cycles and sometimes a short blast in an ultrasonic cleaner leave them looking nice and clean – which you can tell from the clear feed!

 

If it wasn’t for the weakness of the J-bar I’d give it 8/10, but it has to go down to 6 because of this problem. It can be solved easily, but it is a pain.

 

6. Cost & Value (1-10) – what can you say? Pay USD 5 for a pen – it can cost me almost as much in postage to get it to England! Get one which only needs a new sac and you must be talking about 10/10, but given that about 2 in 3 have broken J-bars let’s say 8/10

 

7. Conclusion (Final score 6.5) – an unregarded and undervalued pen – I seem to have written the first review on FPN which for a pen manufactured in such quantities is odd in itself. Yes, it feels cheap and does not exude ‘quality’, but as a piece of design to a price it’s outstanding, and the survival of the main components – especially the nibs which have in every case cleaned up well – says that some thought was given to production values.

 

It has all the advantages of an old pen – feel, looks, the idea that you’re using an ‘old’ thing – but they’re cheap enough to let you pick up a few, and start matching barrel colours to the inks you’re using. And there are enough of them around for you to take one (or two) to work and use every day without agonising as you might over a more valuable or rarer pen. Which is what I’m going to do …

Edited March 18, 2011 by PDW

[rwilsonedn]

Thanks for speaking up for this, in my opinion also, under-appreciated pen. I have to agree about the J-bars, but then replacements are inexpensive and easy to get from Tryphon. The pens are otherwise durable, and while I've found that Wearever nibs of this period can vary a lot in feel when you first get them, they are well-made and robust and can be tuned to write delightfully. An especial surprise is the Flexible nib, which in the couple of examples I have is both smoother and much more flexible than the legendary but not-so-hot Esterbrook 9048.

Great review!

ron

[PDW]

Thanks for the compliment!

 

Yes, I can get J-bars and sacs at reasonable prices - I got the former from Peter Twydle (usual disclaimer: I'm just a customer). The 'problem' is that even in good condition Pennants are so cheap they make any spares look expensive :-)

[shadowsforbars]

I use them in a blue collar setting without any worry. For some jobs, they are a good alternative to Chinese pens which tend to be both heavy and flashy.

[lovemy51]

i have 4 of them in perfect condition, from lever fill to cartridge and all working perfectly (black, dove grey, light blue-grey and burgundy).

 

all with diffrent nib styles -ex-fine, fine flex (which is only springy ), medium [these 3 with over feed], to standard fine on the cartridge one.

 

i wouldn't compare them to the esties -heavens no!- but they are quite inexpensive and nice to collect, as Jim points out in his article: Should you collect Pennants? They aren't bad pens, but don't get into a panic! A few in cool 1950s colors can make a neat cheapie corner to your collection. Maybe I watched a few too many 1950s SciFi movies before finishing this article... :embarrassed_smile:

 

 

 

thx for the review, PDW!

[PDW]

i have 4 of them in perfect condition, from lever fill to cartridge and all working perfectly (black, dove grey, light blue-grey and burgundy).

 

 

 

How do you ink the cartridge pen? I have one and a spare cartridge which I could refill but would really like to find a converter that fits - I'm clumsy enough to be likely to ink the furniture with a syringe

Edited March 28, 2011 by PDW

[Troggie]

Thank you for the review. I received one of these in a lot of pens I got off ebay. It was in great condition and I was able to use it right after cleaning it. The only thing I had to do was put a little silicon sealer/grease around the bottom of the channel as it seemed to leak there. Mine has the Extra Fine nib and works extremely well though I am now on the look out for others with different nibs.

[tmenyc]

Thanks for the excellent review -- I agree with your ratings. I've come to enjoy bringing the Wearevers back to life -- Deluxe 100s, Pennants, Pacemakers, Zeniths. The Pennants are funny -- they look less elegant but are much less fragile than the others. There is no question of the lower overall quality than the Esterbrook, but for $5-7 and a new sac they're tough to beat. Ultimately, I'll probably keep one of each model and sell off or give away the rest. My upcoming third-tier sale keeps getting weakened by the pens that I have fellow employees test for me (I'm a lefty and want to make sure they work for righties...) and which they then beg to keep, but it'll get up there eventually.

I would probably carry a Pennant on weekends, but that's my time for the little Kaweco case with the red and blue Sports...

 

Tim

Edited March 28, 2011 by tmenyc

[lovemy51]

i have 4 of them in perfect condition, from lever fill to cartridge and all working perfectly (black, dove grey, light blue-grey and burgundy).

 

 

 

How do you ink the cartridge pen? I have one and a spare cartridge which I could refill but would really like to find a converter that fits - I'm clumsy enough to be likely to ink the furniture with a syringe

sorry, i do it with the syringe. do it over the sink, if you are that clumsy!!