Has real tortoiseshell ever been used for fountain pens?

[afruba]

These days tortoiseshell is just a design and we are all happy that no tortoise is killed for the production of tortoiseshell fountain pens.

I don't know if this has been different in the past.

 

Has real tortoiseshell ever been used to make fountain pens?

 

[ele]

I have wondered this too! Certainly real pearl and abalone have been. 

[MoriartyR]

Hmmm. How thick is the shell of a giant tortoise? Would anyone notice if we just kill one? We could probably make a limited edition of 30 pens if the shell is thick and flat enough to cut some good rods from it. And probably would be less susceptible to ink-stains than elephant ivory. That said, we could use ivory for trim parts.

I wonder if you can make a servicable nib from whalebone to go with it. It’s flexy, I hear. People here love flexy nibs.

 

Edit: I found an old FPN thread about this...

And this one by a guy who bought a tortoise shell pen from Hakase a few years ago...

 

[zaddick]

Hakase used to use real shell to wrap the barrel of their pens. Not for export from Japan.

[TitoThePencilPimp]

I wonder if I can import the the Hakese ivory pen from Japan to the US.

[Carrau]

Japan continues to make products from genuine tortoiseshell, which it claims to source from Japanese waters, and with the support of the Japanese government.  So, it continues to be possible for tortoise to be used for pens, albeit only in Japan.

[sidthecat]

“Tortoiseshell” is a misnomer; the material was sourced from sea turtles, which were also used for soup. Celluloid was the first real substitute for the genuine article.

[Carrau]

I happened to watch one of Nat’l Geographic’s shows on smuggling a couple of nights ago.  On that episode, US customs was inspecting a shipment from the Caribbean labeled “plastic plates” on the manifest.  When they opened one of the boxes, it contained weird looking light blue “plates.”  In actuality, they were Hawksbill turtle scutes painted to disguise them.  There were multiple boxes, and in total there were 1400+ scutes.  With each adult turtle having 13 scutes, this single shipment represented over a hundred hawksbills that had been killed to supply someone in Asia (the destination of the shipment) with shells with which to ply their craft.  Estimated street value of the scutes is $236,000.
 

According to the wildlife experts who were brought in to identify the material, most of these turtles are females caught when they are on land to lay eggs, making their destruction exponentially detrimental to the survival of that species. Given this was only a single shipment, one can imagine the scale of the ongoing illegal trade in turtle shells.  Speaking for myself, I found it all shocking.  
 

For anyone interested, it was To Catch A Smuggler, Season One, Episode 9, Endangered and Smuggled-go to 47:00 and 57:00 to see the portions concerning the turtle shell-interesting but tragic.

[zaddick]

On 2/7/2021 at 5:16 PM, TitoThePencilPimp said:

I wonder if I can import the the Hakese ivory pen from Japan to the US.

Never seen one in ivory, but unless they can prove it is well over 100 years old then I would think not.

 

Faber Castel had a fountain pen that used mammoth ivory which is legal, but sites like eBay often remove listings to be safe.

[Hanoi]

The Japanese still make tortoise shell and elephant ivory eyeglass frames.  My guess is that tortoise shell has been used to make pen barrels since the material is similar to cow/buffalo horn and can be shaped like plastic. 

[Karmachanic]

35 minutes ago, Hanoi said:

elephant ivory eyeglass frames

 

Link please.

[Honeybadgers]

In America, it would be very, very illegal to sell.

 

My mom got a lacquered giant sea turtle shell in the 70's (huge, like 2.5 feet wide and 4 feet long) but she can only pass it down, she can't sell it.

 

Same for my dad, who has a large piece of whale baleen on his wall.