Geha Questions

[Paul-in-SF]

Below you will see photos of a lovely Geha fountain pen with a striped barrel that bears a strong resemblance to some older Pelikan pens. The body is nearly identical to a 120 M&K that I have (slightly shorter body, slightly longer section, ends up being about exactly the same length). The cap is longer, about the same as a 400nn that I have, although this pen must be a little thicker than the 400nn because the cap for this pen is too big for the 400nn. (Yes, I tried it, carefully.) (No, I have that wrong, both barrels seem too small for the other pen's cap.)

 

The only markings I can find are on the clip ("Geha" in a circle) and the nib ("Geha" in a circle, and "14 K 585" underneath). It is a piston filler.

 

So I have the usual questions: does anyone know what model this might be, and what era it might be from?

 

Perhaps a more urgent question is, what is the little green tab in the feed for? I hope you can see it in the enlarged photo of the feed. It looks like it would press down lengthwise towards the section, or possibly straight into the feed. I don't want to try anything until I know how to manipulate it and what it's for. Thanks in advance for your help.

Edited May 23, 2020 by Paul-in-SF

[praxim]

I can not help you with the model although I have a couple, including one closely resembling yours but with a slightly different cap, a 790. However, I can help you with the little green tab.

 

If you slide slide the tab down then you will notice that extending the piston when about to fill the pen pushes the green tab back into its former place. The tab controls a small ink chamber in the feed. When your pen runs dry, slide down* the tab to write a little longer before you must refill. Refilling resets it as described. It is quite neat, and I believe you will find it on all of their school and other pens of the fifties (which will be its era).

 

FYI, the nib and feed unscrew from the section, also like a Pelikan. They have very nice nibs.

 

edit: * or if the pen is in writing position, up

Edited May 23, 2020 by praxim

[Paul-in-SF]

Ah, thank you, that does seem a very useful gadget.

 

Are there any references anywhere about these pens or about the company? I am curious why this one, at least, is so similar to Pelikans of the era. This is the only Geha I have.

[praxim]

Wikipedia on Gebrüder-Hartmann Werke. Bring your own translator.

 

I would say they are similar to Pelikan because they started production around 1950 and, what pen would you use as the competitive standard in Germany at the time?

 

They are mentioned a bit on FPN, especially by Bo Bo.

 

P.S. From the web page, they were eventually (1990) bought up by Pelikan and the Geha pen line discontinued. They had been cartridge rather than piston fillers since aboutt he 1960s, in fact the web page seems unaware there were piston fill pens at all.

Edited May 23, 2020 by praxim

[basterma]

I have a Geha from after the Pelikan purchase. I found it in a 1 Euro store in Cologne near the University. It uses a Pelikan Nib like the lower end school pens and the cap barely stays on. The decoration is a cheap decal applied to the plastic barrel. it seems like it is meant to make Geha look bad. I have a Geha Champion and another pen from the mid 80's that were nice writers and used Geha's proprietary cartridges. No one makes the cartridges anymore and i never had a convertor. I still wait for the day someone makes cartridges or convertors as they were nice little writers and well made too.

[TheDutchGuy]

Congrats with your Geha!

 

Bo Bo Olson knows everything there is to know about Geha. He’s written a lot about the various models here on FPN. Vintage Geha pens are wonderful: good nibs, very well designed and built, easy to clean and service and durable. Lots of old-world vibe, too. I have one vintage Geha that I found on Ebay and it’s a really nice pen.

[Croma]

Hello:

That is a good example of Geha 790 model wtih grey striped body.

The green tab is a commercialized device like "reserve tank".

Good pen and very good nib.

Regards.

[Carrau]

I have a couple of GeHa pens (including one of the Grey striped like yours), great writers and nibs. The best writing nib I own is in a cheap GeHa school pen I bought for a couple of dollars. Its worth reading everything BoBo has to say about the different models if this is a pen maker in whom you become interested. As mentioned above, and as BoBo warns repeatedly, be careful not to buy any of their pens requiring a cartridge (In case you feel you must acquire one of those that used a cartridge, and there are plenty out there for sale, I came across a post once on FPGeeks from April 2018 where someone had found that an old Pilot CON 20 convertor fit and worked perfectly on a GeHa 1070s Steno fountain pen).

 

The little green reservoir button works really well in my experience. BoBos Indicates that you may get an extra page of writing from the reservoir. Another poster has mentioned that for the reservoir mechanism to work and refill/reset properly, the piston needs to be fully down toward the section when doing the refill-this insures proper reset, and the little green button" will reset for the next time.

 

Below youll find a link to a GeHa database you may find helpful, as well as some links to threads on disassembling and reassembling GeHa school pen with some tips. The fourth link has a photograph(post #17) of the original instructions for how the reservoir works-in German, as Praxim mentions, however, the schematics are clear enough to get a good understanding if interested.

 

http://www.penboard.de/shop/hlist/GE/VI50/0

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/246909-dissembling-geha-schulfuller/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/338311-cant-reassemble-a-geha-student-pen/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/135998-geha-school-pen/

Edited May 23, 2020 by Herrjaeger

[TheDutchGuy]

The best writing nib I own is in a cheap GeHa school pen I bought for a couple of dollars.

 

My GeHa is also a school pen (the pen is engraved with its model name, ‘Schulfüllfederhalter’) and indeed, the nib is awesome. In fact that whole pen is impressive. I got mine off Ebay and it had probably been sitting in a drawer for twenty-odd years. Within 5 minutes of cleaning and lubricating, the pen worked as if it was brand-new. Very inspiring.

[joss]

There is very helpful chart with the dimensions of these Geha pens on Werner Rüttinger's Geha webpages:

www.ruettinger-web.de/geha-fueller1957.html

 

Your pen can be placed in the 760 or 790 model range and the period of production is end 1950s-early 1960s. The exact difference between the 760 and 790 was never clear to me. You can find these pens also with the model number imprinted on the twist knob.

 

These are very fine pens and they are of the same quality as the Pelikan 400 series.

[Paul-in-SF]

There is very helpful chart with the dimensions of these Geha pens on Werner Rüttinger's Geha webpages:

www.ruettinger-web.de/geha-fueller1957.html

 

Your pen can be placed in the 760 or 790 model range and the period of production is end 1950s-early 1960s. The exact difference between the 760 and 790 was never clear to me. You can find these pens also with the model number imprinted on the twist knob.

 

These are very fine pens and they are of the same quality as the Pelikan 400 series.

 

Thank you for that reference. I think this places this pen as a 760 rather than a 790 based on length, and a "top model" because it has three clip rings. Apparently they call the color on this model "pearl gray" because they don't mention stripes as an option.

 

I've been using the pen today, and it seems, as you say, quite comparable to the Pelikans of this era. I think the EF nib is going to need a little tuning and/or smoothing though, its feedback borders on scratchiness. But the flex is very nice to work with.

[praxim]

joss, thank for that link. I am at last be able to identify my Gehas properly. My black 790 is easily identified, because it says so on the knob. Having one clip ring, it will be the Schulfüller. The other seems to be a perigrau 760 im mittlere Preisklasse (two cap rings).

[lawrenceg]

I have aquired a few geha pens. Great to use, still noted figured out how to fully dismantle them to remove the piston.

Thet are surprisinly bullet proof for such old pens.

I bieve They were taken over by pelikan, who shut them down (probably as they were a competitor)