Identifying Sheaffer Inlaid Nibs

[Songwind]

My pens are both a decade old or more, and I have long since lost the paperwork that came with them.

 

Can anyone give me any pointers on determining what size the nibs of my two pens are?

 

I have a Triumph Imperial with a steel nib, with no numbers or anything stamped on.

 

I have a Targa with a gold nib, with a number on it that looks like it might be 595, but I can't find a good web resource for it.

 

Thanks in advance,

Eric

[Robert Hughes]

Do you have any pictures? Sheaffer made a lotta pens...

[burmeseboyz]

I have a Triumph Imperial with a steel nib, with no numbers or anything stamped on.

I have a Targa with a gold nib, with a number on it that looks like it might be 595, but I can't find a good web resource for it.

 

The 585 means that it's a 14K gold nib. It's pretty standard to stamp 585 next to the 14C on pen nibs. Here's some info on the Imperial and penhero also has other information on various sheaffers. If there are other markings, I'd just guess from how thick the lines are. I'm sure someone else can help you better.

[Songwind]

The 585 means that it's a 14K gold nib. It's pretty standard to stamp 585 next to the 14C on pen nibs. Here's some info on the Imperial and penhero also has other information on various sheaffers. If there are other markings, I'd just guess from how thick the lines are. I'm sure someone else can help you better.

 

*nod* That's what I was afraid of. The problem is, they are my only two pens, so I can really only make judgments in comparison to each other. I know the TI is too narrow, and the Targa is a bit too broad. But does that mean they are a medium and an extra fine, and I need a fine? Or is it a broad and a fine, and I want a medium? Maybe it's a fine and a medium and I'm just SOL.

 

I was hoping to figure it out before I ordered any new pens. However, some friends are actually gifting me with some pens, so that should help if no one has any more concrete way to tell.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the 585, though.

 

[Songwind]

Do you have any pictures? Sheaffer made a lotta pens...

 

I will take some when I get home from work.

[sexauerw]

I don't know much about Imperial nibs, but here's what I know about Targas. Targa nibs were usually marked on the bottom. Look for the mark 180 degrees from the top of the nib, very close to the clutch ring, on the nib side of the ring. If you're very lucky it was heat-stamped and permanent, but Sheaffer didn't make very many that way. Most were marked with gold ink that didn't last very long. Sometimes you can make out a very faint mark if you use a bright light, a magnifying glass, a lot a patience and try a lot of different viewing angles. Sometimes you can't. Sometimes the marking wasn't even on the pen itself, it was on a sticker on the underside of the nib section, the original owner most likely removed it.

 

The Broad nibs are pretty distinctive, the top surface of the tipping material is ground flat and left unpolished. It's a lot harder to identify the medium, fine and extra-fine nibs in the absence of a mark. You basically have to write with the pen and make a judgment call from the width of the line.

 

Here's a picture of a nib that has a stamped marking. Inked markings are in the same location.

 

And here's a picture (somewhat fuzzy) of the top of a broad nib tip. You can see the flat circular area where the tipping material has been ground away. Every broad Targa nib I've ever seen has been this way.

[Songwind]

sexauerw, that nailed it. With the picture, I was able to find the inked marking on mine. Before, when you said they were marked on the nib, I took you too literally. I thought, "wow, I don't care enough to try to take apart the section and feed to look for this letter on the underside of the nib!"

 

It has mostly worn away, but there is still something of a ghost, and the part that does remain is a slanted straight line.

 

95% sure it's a medium.

 

Thanks!

[Kimo]

Unless you are buying another pen from the same maker, made in about the same timeframe, the designations of EF, F, M, B, BB etc. are of little use in buying a new pen without first trying it out to see how the nib on that particular brand of pen measures up to what you want. There is no standard width and pen manufacturers use such designations only as relative widths for the pens they are making at that point in time. One company's F may be as wide as another company's M or EF. Or one company's M in a 1980s pen may even be a slightly different width than that same company's 1950s pens or 2008 pens.

Edited April 4, 2008 by Kimo

[Ray-Vigo]

Unless you are buying another pen from the same maker, made in about the same timeframe, the designations of EF, F, M, B, BB etc. are of little use in buying a new pen without first trying it out to see how the nib on that particular brand of pen measures up to what you want. There is no standard width and pen manufacturers use such designations only as relative widths for the pens they are making at that point in time. One company's F may be as wide as another company's M or EF. Or one company's M in a 1980s pen may even be a slightly different width than that same company's 1950s pens or 2008 pens.

 

This is very true.

 

Whatever is marked on the nib is going to be a ballpark estimate, not a precise mathematical width. What is a fine for some pens is an XF for others. The best way to tell is to write with it and see how wide it is. What I do is I write with the pen and compare it to others in "steps". A slight variation is one step, a stronger variation 2, then 3 and so on. I find that since I work in the fine-medium range and rarely leave that width range that I'm always working with nibs which are, at most, 1 step apart in width- so this system works for me.

 

I would love to see an international standard of width at some point, which matches nib width markings to x.xx mm. Then a medium would be x.xx rather than guess work.

Edited April 4, 2008 by Ray-Vigo

[Spats McGee]

. . . . I know the TI is too narrow, and the Targa is a bit too broad. But does that mean they are a medium and an extra fine, and I need a fine? Or is it a broad and a fine, and I want a medium? Maybe it's a fine and a medium and I'm just SOL. . . . .

If you're unsatisfied with the nibs, that doesn't automatically mean that you're out of luck. I have a couple of Shaeffers and, if I remember correctly, they come with a lifetime warranty. About 3-4 years ago, I finally decided that I didn't like the fine nib that my old Shaeffer had come with and I wanted a medium. I wound up sending it back to Shaeffer and getting a new nib and (again, if I remember correctly), they replaced the nib for free. I'd been using that pen for at least 10 years at that point and had long since lost any paperwork on it. I wouldn't hesitate to call them or find them on the web to find out about nib replacements. I was without that pen for a short while, but it was well worth it.