Skyline "Senior?" Sized between Standard and Executive

[Paul-in-SF]

I have seen a photo of a pen that went by this description, reportedly the length is 5-3/8". Executives are 5-5/8" (as close as I can measure) and Standards are about 5-1/16". 

 

Was there ever such a thing? Would it make a difference if it were made, or at least assembled, in England? This particular pen has a gold derby, but that could have been added later. 

 

Thanking anyone in advance who cares to weigh in on this (and again thanking FPN for being here so I can ask such a question). 

[joss]

Hi,

 

There was no 'in-between-size' but it is correct that there is a significant length variability within the three groups (Demi, Standard, Executive) of Skylines.

 

I think (but did not measure) that it may have to do with slight variations in the length of the inner cap (longer inner cap results in longer overall pen length) as well as the length of the barrel. There seems to be no variation in the length of the caps (not considering cap domes which are known to show shrinkage).

 

You mention a length of 5-1/16" (5.0625" or 12.86 cm) for the Standard but that is a bit short I think. See also the three sizes that are quoted by PenHero's Skyline webpage. But when talking about the variation on the quoted sizes: I have dimensions of individual pens in my pen database so a quick look learns me that the Standards in my collection vary between 5.197 to 5.375 inch (13.2 to 13.6 cm) and the Executives vary between 13.9 to 14.6cm (5.472 to 5.748 inch).  

 

[carola]

1 hour ago, joss said:

Hi,

 

There was no 'in-between-size' but it is correct that there is a significant length variability within the three groups (Demi, Standard, Executive) of Skylines.

 

I think (but did not measure) that it may have to do with slight variations in the length of the inner cap (longer inner cap results in longer overall pen length) as well as the length of the barrel. There seems to be no variation in the length of the caps (not considering cap domes which are known to show shrinkage).

 

You mention a length of 5-1/16" (5.0625" or 12.86 cm) for the Standard but that is a bit short I think. See also the three sizes that are quoted by PenHero's Skyline webpage. But when talking about the variation on the quoted sizes: I have dimensions of individual pens in my pen database so a quick look learns me that the Standards in my collection vary between 5.197 to 5.375 inch (13.2 to 13.6 cm) and the Executives vary between 13.9 to 14.6cm (5.472 to 5.748 inch).  

 

My experience exactly. For example I have a Demi that looks tiny compared to the other Demis.

And no, there are no official in between sizes I would know of, just the size variations mentioned above.

[Paul-in-SF]

2 hours ago, joss said:

Hi,

 

There was no 'in-between-size' but it is correct that there is a significant length variability within the three groups (Demi, Standard, Executive) of Skylines.

 

I think (but did not measure) that it may have to do with slight variations in the length of the inner cap (longer inner cap results in longer overall pen length) as well as the length of the barrel. There seems to be no variation in the length of the caps (not considering cap domes which are known to show shrinkage).

 

You mention a length of 5-1/16" (5.0625" or 12.86 cm) for the Standard but that is a bit short I think. See also the three sizes that are quoted by PenHero's Skyline webpage. But when talking about the variation on the quoted sizes: I have dimensions of individual pens in my pen database so a quick look learns me that the Standards in my collection vary between 5.197 to 5.375 inch (13.2 to 13.6 cm) and the Executives vary between 13.9 to 14.6cm (5.472 to 5.748 inch).  

 

I appreciate your information. My limited experience doesn't show that much variation among Executives, the three I have are all within .069" of each other. My 8 Standards do show more variation, from 5.107" to 5.267". It is surprising to me that you could have a Standard and an Executive where the Executive is only 0.097" longer, when all the components for the Executive were (I thought) larger and longer than those for the Standard or Demi. 

 

Anyway, regarding this particular pen, the likely thing is that it is a Standard on the long end of the spectrum (as it matches the longest one in your database). 

 

Thanks again.

[Greenie]

I will pile on with the same info as everyone else.  In my mind, the standard is roughly 5 1/4".  Demis come in under 5", and can be reported by sellers up to 5".  An Executive will always be clearly over 5 1/2".

[Addertooth]

The Section on an executive is slightly longer than a standard.  Compare section length with a standard to see if it is a standard.

[Paul-in-SF]

53 minutes ago, Addertooth said:

The Section on an executive is slightly longer than a standard.  Compare section length with a standard to see if it is a standard.

I don't have the pen, and I can't really tell from the photos unfortunately. I wasn't really expecting it to be an Executive, in my experience no-one selling a Skyline ever under-reports the length. 

[Wahlnut]

Many things can affect the length of a pen to now be outside of factory specs. Some ideas to ponder:

 

1)The barrel threads onto a cap liner which sometimes shrinks (shortens)  a little with age. 

2) The section seats onto and the nib goes into the cavity inside of the end opening of the derby shaft.  Any variation in the length of the derby shaft will change where the pen seats and will alter the over length of the capped pen. - Sometimes when inner cap liner threads get stripped and the barrel will not snug up, someone may have shaved the head of the derby shaft to expose a couple of un stripped threads for the barrel to mate with and the barrel will screw in a little further 

3) Some restorers in making the lever to align with the pocket clip when capped firmly will shave the derby shaft end rim so section seats deeper to make things align when capped. WAHL-EVERSHARP threads are almost all triple cut, so it does not take much trimming to move the clip and lever to align on one of the 3 starting threads. 

4) If memory serves, the section diameter on the Exec is the same as the senior and its possible a Senior section got installed. 

Just scratching the surface of all the possibilities, but maybe the above can help to de-mystify variances in survivor pens from trying to assign causes to something like factory variants. 

[Paul-in-SF]

8 hours ago, Wahlnut said:

4) If memory serves, the section diameter on the Exec is the same as the senior and its possible a Senior section got installed. 

I measured the diameter of my three Executive sections just above the cap threads, and they range from 10.79 to 10.88 mm. My standard size Skylines range from 9.94 to 10.07 mm. The other suggestions all seem like ways that a pen could measure shorter than it was originally, so maybe the pen was an Executive that suffered something like one of those.

 

I once bought a pen lot for their low Buy It Now price on eBay because it had a Skyline that definitely looked like 5-1/2" (they helpfully had a ruler on the side of the photo) and I wanted to snap it up before anyone else saw it. When I got the pens, I found that the cap would not screw on all the way, making the pen look longer than it was; it was a standard Skyline. I managed to fix the cap thread problem and the pen wrote quite well, so it wasn't a loss at all, just not a windfall.