Wahl All Metal Pens

[Wahlnut]

Sorry, but I was among the absent from this list for a while and missed a number of roll calls for me. I will try to recover by commenting or answering a few of the questions sent my way recently. with this omnibus reply.

 

1. PMBHRPPNo9: Thanks for all the compliments you have paid and those I have received form the nearly 100 purchasers of the Pensbury Manor Black Hard Rubber Pen Potion No 9 BHR color restorer and Dye. It was fun to create, and does a nice job for not much money. The process is reversible by those who know how, so one can easilt tell a PMBHRPPNo9 restoration and even undo it later on if desired. That was a primary requirement placed to me by Victor Chen, before he would even consider to buy a bottle.

 

Anyway Thanks again.

 

2. Wahl All Metal pens.

 

Sorry to say many of the commonly cited articles on line and off are not 100% correct. The articles refered to in the aerlier thread are no exception. In those well and oft repeated histories, the history of the Wahl Eversharp company and pen lines was somewhat abridged if not mis reported all together.

 

True, the Wahl Pen Company (Owner John C. Wahl - same as the owner of the Eversharp pencil Company) purchased the Boston SAFETY Pen Company in 1917, 2 years after they purchased the Eversharp Pencil Company. The pencil company was a chicago based one while the Pen Company was a Boston outfit. The first 2 years of the Pen company saw the exact same pens previusly sold as Boston Safety Pens, sold as Wahl TEMPOINT Pens . They were all Hard black and only a little later Red Hard Rubber. A limited production of metal overlay pens (overlaid on BHR) were produced. The earliest Wahl pens, the Tempoint pens carry the very same model numbers on their barrel ends as when they were Boston Safety Pens. The Boston Safety Pen Company owned the patent and the design for the Roller Clip, the pressure bar and internal anchor, and the very high quality nibs. In about 1920, the Wahl company (ever the marketing wizard) adapted the metal production capabilities of the by then venerable Eversharp pencil design (all of 4 1/2 years!) to the Pen Business and marketed the metal pens as both a companion to the Eversharp pencil (so well know was the pencil that they relied on the pencil to sell the pen. A lot of their advertising keeps reminding people that the pen was to be trusted and thought of as just as good as the pencil!) Their store display cases say "Wahl Fountain Pen companion to the Eversharp". Many have supposed that to keep referring to the Eversharp name was Wahl's attempt to wean people off the Wahl name and onto the Eversharp. This is not the case. They simply had a great product in the pencil and were trying to Brand Identify their pen as belonging to what had become a well trusted brand name The Eversharp. Remember that thre Eversharp pen revolutionized the pencil industry, and had become a household word by the time the Pens were coming.

 

Their advertizing spin for the all metal pen apart from the luxury of precious metals and precious metal filled, was that the all metal pen with its very thin metal barrel walls held a much fatter sac and thus much more ink in the same outside dimension pen as a hard rubber pen. Now the all metal pen was the second generation of metal pens from Wahl. The first metal pens were overlays where the metal shell over the barrel covered a BHR inner sleeve. The lever mechanisms were very different from the all metal as compared to the metal overlay. The metal overlay was in production by 1918 1/2. The all metal did not come out until approx 1920 1/2. Both the overlay and the all metal pens came in machine turned designs and hand carved (in the case of precious solid metal pens).

 

One can identify the years of produtction by examining the levers. the earliest pens had a lever with a raised spine running legnthwise on the lever. Thay also had a Pattent Applied for notice where the later pens had a made in USA marking. The earlier pens may also have carried Tempoint nibs, the later ones simply "wahl" nibs.

There is a lot more to tell about these pens, the ladies models, ringtops and plain, the various macine designs, and all. But maybe this will help to get started.

 

For me, they are somewhat underappreciated, and their sales value parallels this fact. I believe they will become more desireable in the years ahead and I keep on buying pristine examples all the time.

 

3. Continuing thread from Rob Astyk on the span of the Equipoised, Deco Band and Doric desin lines. The last civilized discussion on the topic revolved around whether the Equipoised production spanned the Deco Band and Equipoised eras as a middle period desin or was a parallel production design that lasted into and along with the Doric. Rob said Parallel, I said bridge. Today Rob picked up the torch or gauntlet, by dragging me out of my hybernation (it's becoming winter you know and I have stored up enough fat to be allowed to go to sleep for the winter!) by teasing me with a new find from within his collection of QWahl pens. Namely a round barreled, rhomboiid ringed cap, Doriv style ocket clip pen that he believes confirms the co-existence of the Doric and Equipoised as late as 1937 or so. I replied by pointing out that the Doric Line itself (the familiar 12 sides faceted pen we all know) evolved into another doric design (round barrel) about the same time as the early Coronet pens were being produced. You will find these type barrels on the Coronet plastic barrel metal cap pens. So I contend that the reound barrel pen Rob was referring to is not an Equipoised, but as can be seen from the blade doric style pocket clip the later Doric (round barrel) design. In addition, Rob cited that his supposed doric era equipoised pen was a vac filler (plunger type). The equipoised pen was a lever filler. The other "clue" Rob supplied was that the cap had a 3 ring design with the middle ring being the "rhomboid" style. That DOES throw me! My only explanation for all of this on the pen Rob is talking about could be a result of someone putting a doric pocket clip on an equipoised cap and mated it up wiith a round doric barrel. Trey that one on for a while. Wow Forensic pen collecting going topsy! Now who is gonna know for sure? I can only guess, but until someone shows me some factory info to support the proposition that the equipoised design ran before AND during the length of doric production, or until I see 10 or 20 pens just like the one described today to me by Mr. Astyk, I will stand by my position.

 

Whoa! That's enough for one reply!

 

Syd

[Gerry]

Syd, you sure know how to write a mystery.

 

I feel like a kid waiting for the next installment of a serial (film - for those in middle age or more...)

 

I hope it doesn't take 10 or 20 years for that evidence to surface. Dunno if I can make it...

 

Gerry

[Maja]

Thank you Syd, for your information (better late than never, right? )

I have a few all-metal Wahls and always wondered about their history....I agree that they are currently under-appreciated monetarily, so I am trying to buy them before they become even more collectible in the future

[Free Citizen]

Thank you Syd, and as Maja says, better late than never. I thoroughly enjoyed that. I only wish you would post here more often. Of course I would be satisfied even to see one or two liners from you. Just to see your name here is a pleasure.

[Wahlnut]

Thanks, It is nice to be appreciated. With encouragement like that I will definitely have to post and read more often.

Syd