Vintage Speedball Fountain Pen (An Odd One!)

[billcartoons]

Hello All - My wife and I were at an antiques store and came across a large, black Speedball fountain pen with a gold band around the cap, and a very odd brass stick-like protrusion that extends out along the nib, which also sticks out quite a ways. I'll try to upload a picture, but would anyone recognize what this pen is based on these unusual features? I've purchased quite a few vintage pens but have never seen one like this.

 

Cheers,

Bill

Bill's Cartoons

[Roger W.]

Hello All - My wife and I were at an antiques store and came across a large, black Speedball fountain pen with a gold band around the cap, and a very odd brass stick-like protrusion that extends out along the nib, which also sticks out quite a ways. I'll try to upload a picture, but would anyone recognize what this pen is based on these unusual features? I've purchased quite a few vintage pens but have never seen one like this.

 

Cheers,

Bill

Bill's Cartoons

 

As I understand it these are art type pens. They are fairly cheaply made and I think I have one around here someplace.

 

Roger W.

[billcartoons]

Thank you Roger - do you know what that brass stick near the nib is for? I've wracked my brain (small as it is) and can't figure it out. Also, it has the lever on the side for refilling, so I assume there is a rubber bladder within, but I don't see a seam for separating the body of the pen to access the bladder - no idea if it needs to be replaced.

 

Cheers,

Bill

Bill's Cartoons

[Roger W.]

Thank you Roger - do you know what that brass stick near the nib is for? I've wracked my brain (small as it is) and can't figure it out. Also, it has the lever on the side for refilling, so I assume there is a rubber bladder within, but I don't see a seam for separating the body of the pen to access the bladder - no idea if it needs to be replaced.

 

Cheers,

Bill

Bill's Cartoons

 

Bill;

 

That would require me to find the one I have lying around here somewhere. I think the brass stick feeds ink in some way - I've never tried to load it. I forget how it comes apart but, I recall it is a lever filler so there is a way to get a sac in it.

 

Roger W.

[estie1948]

Bill,

 

I have two of the pens you describe. One has be used very slightly and then cleaned very thoroughly (or perhaps, only tested with water to check the bladder). The other is NOS and never even handled very much by the bright, shiny look of it. I have never inked either pen. I got one of them in a box of pens at an antique store and the other in a freezer bag of pens at a flea market.

 

I believe they are a fountain pen version of the Speedball dip pens. The nibs slide out easily to be replaced with other Speedball nibs. I believe the brass button releases more ink to the nib when pressed. I believe the ink is passed from the bladder to the nib by way of the brass tube that extends from the bladder to the nib. On both of my pens, the brass tube has a small hole which is aimed at the space between the top and middle parts of the Speedball nib. This brass tube has a "pin" of sorts that plugs the hole until the brass button is pushed at which time it slides forward to allow the ink to flow into the nib. The pens separate just behind the brass button and just ahead of the threads for the cap.

 

As I hope you can see, I am doing a great deal of guessing and supposing here. I am going to have to hunt up my pens and play with them a bit. I have never used a Speedball dip pen so I was not overly excited with these pens other than thinking they seemed well made and, to me, a bit unusual. Hopefully someone who actually knows something will chime in soon.

[billcartoons]

Actually, that describes my pen exactly. It's an interesting piece either way, but I'd like to try to use it and see what sort of results I get. It makes sense that the brass protrusion is a sort of snorkel for filling the pen - there is no means of drawing ink through the nib itself. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this with me! Another question - what is a good method for loosening the body section to access the bladder as it seems pretty well frozen in place?

 

Cheers,

Bill

Bill's Cartoons

[Ernst Bitterman]

There's a ridge and groove on the section and barrel which keeps them locked together. Keep things warm and there's enough give in the plastic of the barrel to let the section pass out of it. Be cautious about the sub-lever and spring on the back of the little priming button while you're in there. They're not hard to keep in place, but they are inclined to see the world....

 

http://ravensmarch.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/speedball-0093.jpg

 

The stem that ink comes from is optimized for Speedball points, of course; it dribbles directly into the little brass ink-trap.

[billcartoons]

Thank you Ernst - that's it exactly. The nib has about a sixteenth of an inch distance from the stem - that seems too much to allow ink to flow to the nib, which is an Esterbrook (although it looks like Resterbrook), "Easy Writer", no. 130.

 

Cheers,

Bill

Bill's Cartoons

[Ernst Bitterman]

It's not so much a flow of ink as an alternative to dipping; when the back of the point is getting low, one taps the button to express yet another drop into it and the writing (or, let us say, "engrossing") continues. I wish I'd had mine back when I was serious about calligraphy.

[WillSW]

I have one...or had one. I may have gotten rid of it. I don't know exactly when it appeared in my pen drawer, but I tinkered with it a few times and have since ignored it (hence the uncertainty whether I still have it or not).

[Ray Ulrich]

These were officially known as the Speedball 'Autofeed' pens. As I recall, they were marketed in the early '70s.

[David H 1960]

I have one apart in front of me right now.

 

Mine needs a sac for certain. It has a Speedball B5 Nib which seems as though it will be flexible.

It has no feed in the conventional sense and the nib comes out easily.

 

Anyone have a sac I can get really cheap or free?

 

It is a WONDERFUL sized pen! And it tells me a NONE metal section relatively fat pen is what I want!

Edited March 14, 2012 by David H 1960

[bearly1227]

Bill,

 

I have two of the pens you describe. One has be used very slightly and then cleaned very thoroughly (or perhaps, only tested with water to check the bladder). The other is NOS and never even handled very much by the bright, shiny look of it. I have never inked either pen. I got one of them in a box of pens at an antique store and the other in a freezer bag of pens at a flea market.

 

I believe they are a fountain pen version of the Speedball dip pens. The nibs slide out easily to be replaced with other Speedball nibs. I believe the brass button releases more ink to the nib when pressed. I believe the ink is passed from the bladder to the nib by way of the brass tube that extends from the bladder to the nib. On both of my pens, the brass tube has a small hole which is aimed at the space between the top and middle parts of the Speedball nib. This brass tube has a "pin" of sorts that plugs the hole until the brass button is pushed at which time it slides forward to allow the ink to flow into the nib. The pens separate just behind the brass button and just ahead of the threads for the cap.

 

Your guessing is spot on to my actual Speedball with a B-6 nib. Having read multiple answers to this question, I am now actively using my speedball in conjunction with a couple other old pens and a couple of newer ones.

 

My only issue with this Speedball is my fat fingers. I like to grip my pen with my finger pads on the top side of the pen, just right where the button lives. I was having ink blobs beginning, and found my errant fingers likes to reside where the button is, ergo the blobs. Other than that, with good paper, it seems to do well in script mode. My original intent, in 1958, was to ink Vellum Drawings while in school. The ink I use presently is the Parker Quink, it seems a little thin, but works. My memory seems to recall using India Ink while in Technical School, but all that I have read in various notes files suggest to avoid India Ink due to its shellac like properties. In 1958 I put the pen away, and whatever ink, I must have cleaned it thoroughly as it loaded with the lever just fine this past September (2017).

 

I had been using my old engineering notebook for paper with minimal bleed through, but find the Staples brand "Color Laser Paper", 32 pound, 96 brightness works more smoothly.

 

Hope this helps someone else.

 

Thanks for being here,

 

Robert