Jump to content

Vintage Onoto Pen Models


jhataway

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 25
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • praxim

    9

  • jhataway

    3

  • Methersgate

    3

  • ImThatGuy

    2

Maybe. How long do you want me to take? :)

 

Steve Hull's book lists over 350 specific models at a quick count.

 

You can get by pretty well by considering a few classes. There are the early O and N models which became the 2000 and 3000 series. The 4000, 5000 and 6000 series are pretty consistent internally, then there are the Magnas. I have ignored everything which is XX, XXX or < 2000 or otherwise has a name. Many were sold under brands other than Onoto.

Edited by praxim

X

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Churchill's letter does not say.The O and N were the same price at the time. He may have preferred the larger.

 

I have a restored 3000 (indicated age 1922-1925). It is a very nice pen to use.

X

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the info. I don’t know anything about the N andO models, but have a little knowledge re the “thousands” series. I have a restored 6235 pen that is close to mint, and have had no problems re the feed, ink flow, etc. From what little I have learned about the 6000 pens, it looks like the only differences is external trims.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Around 1921-22 the O was renamed the 2000 and the N the 3000, then variations came along. 62xx pens are quite a bit later, 1940s I think. They have modest finning of the feed so behave better than earlier models. That said, I was using a 3050 (early 1930s) in a meeting (of a sort) for a few hours today. It performed impeccably. Turned it on a quarter-twist at the beginning, took occasional notes, sometimes capping it, then closed it off at the end. No blobs, no starvation. I have a 6234 (or two) which perform likewise.

 

I also have a 6411 which was produced in the early 1920s and resembles the 62xx only in that it is a fountain pen with a plunge filler, not any other way. Onoto's numbering is a thing of beauty and a joy forever a bit of a dog's breakfast.

 

edit: recollection error on model number

Edited by praxim

X

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Onoto probably had a 'Model Register' book, divided up into sections for variants of the same general pen, and as a new one was created, they simply took out the next number in the register. It is exactly the same system as we have for drawings in the engineering firm I work for. No system, simply a record. Unfortunately it appears that Onoto's register was probably destroyed in the fire after the factory was bombed in the 1940's.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That sounds a very plausible answer to the mystery of their secondary numbering.

 

Given I had been using the 3050 mentioned above, I was writing up some notes in comparison with the other two I have. The two black barrel pens are the same size, the red and black slightly fatter. The three caps each differ in small details of size and proportion between their parts. Finials are different and one black pen is slightly longer when capped. I do not think these are frankenpens but small style variations with colour and year. The secondary numbers are 06, 42, 45. If anyone has a 3050 with a same secondary number then I would like to compare exact measurements.

X

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the info. I don’t know anything about the N andO models, but have a little knowledge re the “thousands” series. I have a restored 6235 pen that is close to mint, and have had no problems re the feed, ink flow, etc. From what little I have learned about the 6000 pens, it looks like the only differences is external trims.

 

Coming back to this. There were the 6000 series and the 62xx series. They are quite different. I have a 6000 and a 6411 which were both Streamline models from the early 1920s, based on the N / 3000 and with slip caps. These are quite different from the 62xx which were introduced in the mid to late 1930s at least, usually (always?) with celluloid barrels, having screw caps, and are predominantly found as post WW2 models.

 

You are right (as it appears to me) that the 623x models differed officially in the number of gold bands on the cap :). I have a couple of mundane 6233s with one ring (one repaired today, another pending), two 6234s with two rings and have somehow thought it not compelling to splash out on a 6235 to get a cap with three rings. ;)

 

edit: I removed a comma !!

Edited by praxim

X

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Coming back to this. There were the 6000 series and the 62xx series. They are quite different. I have a 6000 and a 6411 which were both Streamline models from the early 1920s, based on the N / 3000 and with slip caps. These are quite different from the 62xx which were introduced in the mid to late 1930s at least, usually (always?) with celluloid barrels, having screw caps, and are predominantly found as post WW2 models.

 

You are right (as it appears to me) that the 623x models differed officially in the number of gold bands on the cap :). I have a couple of mundane 6233s with one ring (one repaired today, another pending), two 6234s with two rings and have somehow thought it not compelling to splash out on a 6235 to get a cap with three rings. ;)

 

edit: I removed a comma !!

Does the 6235 exist in any colour other than black?

 

Having one, I have not felt it necessary to acquire a -33 or a -34... (!) It seems to me to be the “last word” in plunger fill Onotos apart from the insanely expensive Magnas. It can be trusted on aeroplanes, etc,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have not seen a 6235 other than in black myself, but Steve Hull's book shows a few late 1930s models in the same ink-visible celluloid as Magnas of the time. I think post-war was quite black.

X

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. I must get the book. It has come out since I was last playing with pens!

 

Its a very agreeable pen to use, and I tend to haul it out for contract signings, and so on, because it shows up the mere Mont Blanc 149s and suchlike for the vulgarities that they are, but one cannot wrote either quickly, or badly, with it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have not seen a 6235 other than in black myself, but Steve Hull's book shows a few late 1930s models in the same ink-visible celluloid as Magnas of the time. I think post-war was quite black.

 

I hope you don't mind me butting in, but I have a blue, mottled pattern 6235 from, I believe around 1948. I can't figure out how to get a picture of it in here - maybe I need to post a few more times?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome :). Yes, you need a few posts up, or to be here a week or something, so please hang about to show us your Onoto! Do you have more?

 

Despite something I said above, I have now bought a 6235, black, which (assuming it writes well) will replace one or more of the 6234 and 6233 pens.

X

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In happy that you have gone in for that third ring on the cap! I love my 6235. It is long, slim, elegant and very light; quite unlike any modern pen of that quality, and it has that wonderful two tone No.5 nib. My favourite pen.

Edited by Methersgate
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome :). Yes, you need a few posts up, or to be here a week or something, so please hang about to show us your Onoto! Do you have more?

 

Despite something I said above, I have now bought a 6235, black, which (assuming it writes well) will replace one or more of the 6234 and 6233 pens.

 

 

I have a little collection:

 

6235 - marble blue

6234 = marbled pink - absolutely beautiful

No 16 - marbled green, lever filler

Unidentified lever fill, no clip, in marble blue

 

When I can, I'll post pictures.

 

Current favourite is the 6235 - writes like an absolute dream and feels so good in the hand

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I have a marbled green/black 6235 in very good condition. Some oxidation of the hard rubber cap top and filling knob. Writes very well with a good No. 5 bi-metal nib.

It was found in New Zealand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

You are right (as it appears to me) that the 623x models differed officially in the number of gold bands on the cap :). I have a couple of mundane 6233s with one ring (one repaired today, another pending), two 6234s with two rings and have somehow thought it not compelling to splash out on a 6235 to get a cap with three rings. ;)

 

edit: I removed a comma !!

I have just bought a 6234 in machine worked bhr with a two tone No5 nib but mine has a single wide (4.5 mm) wide 9 carat (.375) gold band. The band is by Johnson & Matthey but I am unable to decipher the marks which are an M in a circle and what looks like a lion or leopard head, also in a circle.

 

Looking in Steve Hull's Conway book he has a picture on page 76 of an identical mark, which he says dates to 1936, except mine has an M instead of A. Any further information on the dating would be most welcome.

 

The other mark on the 'blind cap' is C8

Edited by peterg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Winston Churchill used an Ontoto Delarue in WW1. He dropped it one day so he wrote to I believe his Mother and asked for a replacement to be sent. I have one but it's not that one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...