Faceted Capless in matte texture

[haywoody]

I received a pair of twin Caplii in the mail this week. These pens were advertised as basically NOS with tags and colored gray. From the blurry pictures in the eBay ad I couldn't tell if they really were gray or damaged in some way. I decided to take a chance on them and I am glad I did. They showed up in Pilot boxes with tags attached to the clips. Both have nibs dated H682; 6 months after the introduction of this model.

 

When I opened the box I wasn't too surprised to see that the pens didn't look so hot. They had a dried out look, rough texture and very uneven color. I assumed this was probably from UV damage. I liked the look nevertheless so I inked one up and carried it to work. After a day of use the oil from my fingers transformed it back to an even matte black color. Now I am quite sure the texture is original. It has a very nice feel and I prefer it to the smooth ones.

 

Has anybody ever seen a matte, textured, faceted Capless? I am curious if this was an early model, maybe Japan market only or somebody's custom texture job?

 

I took some pictures with the smooth faceted model for reference. From left to right in each shot - smooth, textured in as-received state, textured which I have been using for two days:

 

 

 

 

/Woody

 

[Immoteus]

You have a beautiful pen there! Would mind if I asked where you purchased the pen?

Edited August 7, 2008 by Immoteus

[haywoody]

You have a beautiful pen there! Would mind if I asked where you purchased the pen?

 

Hi, I purchased them on eBay from an antique/estate dealer.

[jmkeuning]

I don not know anything except this - totally cool!

[stephenchin]

perhaps I can shed a little light on this.

 

In the mid- 80's, I was a student at college in Connecticut. In those days, the US distributor for Pilot was quite close by (Danbury if I recall). I was already a pen collector, and though there were few sources of information, particularly for non US-golden age pens, I became intrigued by Pilots I had seen in Andy Lambrou's first book. I contacted the distributor, and met up with a sales rep, who was fascinated by my classic American vintage pens. We made a deal. I would trade him vintage pens for anything I wanted in the Pilot catalogue.

 

I was able to get every variation of capless then in stock, including the matte model you were lucky enough to find on ebay. (I was able to get many other rare PIlots but that's another story). I don't know if this model was offered for sale in the US, but when new, it was matte and slightly porous, medium charcoal grey and great to touch. The white oxidation/dusting on yours is due to age--mine never had this.

 

Sadly for me, I traded this pen in the late 80's to a co-worker who loved Capless pens. even at that point, it was a little unusual. Would love to have another. Always felt it was the coolest of this iteration.

 

Let me know if you want to part with one of your two.

 

I don not know anything except this - totally cool!

 

[haywoody]

perhaps I can shed a little light on this.

 

In the mid- 80's, I was a student at college in Connecticut. In those days, the US distributor for Pilot was quite close by (Danbury if I recall). I was already a pen collector, and though there were few sources of information, particularly for non US-golden age pens, I became intrigued by Pilots I had seen in Andy Lambrou's first book. I contacted the distributor, and met up with a sales rep, who was fascinated by my classic American vintage pens. We made a deal. I would trade him vintage pens for anything I wanted in the Pilot catalogue.

 

I was able to get every variation of capless then in stock, including the matte model you were lucky enough to find on ebay. (I was able to get many other rare PIlots but that's another story). I don't know if this model was offered for sale in the US, but when new, it was matte and slightly porous, medium charcoal grey and great to touch. The white oxidation/dusting on yours is due to age--mine never had this.

 

Sadly for me, I traded this pen in the late 80's to a co-worker who loved Capless pens. even at that point, it was a little unusual. Would love to have another. Always felt it was the coolest of this iteration.

 

Let me know if you want to part with one of your two.

 

I don not know anything except this - totally cool!

 

Thanks so much for the info; very interesting. Your description of matte, slightly porous, medium charcoal grey sounds exactly like what I have.

 

I am interested to hear if you know of any other variants of the faceted Capless. I know of the black, burgundy, green, blue (all in smooth texture), the all black "stealth" model and now this textured charcoal one. Were there more?

 

I am also interested to hear about the other Pilots you obtained from the sales rep. Sounds like a great topic for a new thread!

 

I have a friend in Japan who has already asked me to send the extra pen back to it's homeland. I am going to sit on it for a while and see how the first one holds up. I will contact you if one becomes available.

 

Thanks again,

Woody

 

 

 

[stephenchin]

I remember all those colors you had. I'm trying to remember if there were any others--don't want to start any rumors about nonexistent colors.

 

it's interesting that your Japanese friends wants the pen to come home. I had always assumed it was a Japan only model, as several years later (early 90's) my work colleague wanted to buy the same model and could not through retail locations, special order etc.

 

I'm not sure that anything I had then would be unknown to collectors today. I'm sure I still have catalogues buried somewhere. I remember getting the Justus with the adjustable nib and finding the plastic quality not pleasing--traded that one.

 

the matte finish on the capless was paralleled by matte finishes on the more traditionally shaped Pilot pens, which came in very nice shades like plum, mid-dark blue, green with great nibs. but this charcoal matte was the only color, and now that I see the one you've been using, that's exactly what I remember it looking like new. the nicest of them all by far imho.

 

 

perhaps I can shed a little light on this.

 

In the mid- 80's, I was a student at college in Connecticut. In those days, the US distributor for Pilot was quite close by (Danbury if I recall). I was already a pen collector, and though there were few sources of information, particularly for non US-golden age pens, I became intrigued by Pilots I had seen in Andy Lambrou's first book. I contacted the distributor, and met up with a sales rep, who was fascinated by my classic American vintage pens. We made a deal. I would trade him vintage pens for anything I wanted in the Pilot catalogue.

 

I was able to get every variation of capless then in stock, including the matte model you were lucky enough to find on ebay. (I was able to get many other rare PIlots but that's another story). I don't know if this model was offered for sale in the US, but when new, it was matte and slightly porous, medium charcoal grey and great to touch. The white oxidation/dusting on yours is due to age--mine never had this.

 

Sadly for me, I traded this pen in the late 80's to a co-worker who loved Capless pens. even at that point, it was a little unusual. Would love to have another. Always felt it was the coolest of this iteration.

 

Let me know if you want to part with one of your two.

 

I don not know anything except this - totally cool!

 

Thanks so much for the info; very interesting. Your description of matte, slightly porous, medium charcoal grey sounds exactly like what I have.

 

I am interested to hear if you know of any other variants of the faceted Capless. I know of the black, burgundy, green, blue (all in smooth texture), the all black "stealth" model and now this textured charcoal one. Were there more?

 

I am also interested to hear about the other Pilots you obtained from the sales rep. Sounds like a great topic for a new thread!

 

I have a friend in Japan who has already asked me to send the extra pen back to it's homeland. I am going to sit on it for a while and see how the first one holds up. I will contact you if one becomes available.

 

Thanks again,

Woody

 

[MYU]

It's really interesting to learn about these textured finishes. The darker matte finish one looks like the same coating as on the Stealth Capless (all black), except with exposed metal furniture. Would you say that's the case, positioning them together? Very nice find, Woody. I had stopped searching for older Capless pens for a while. Might be a good idea to keep eyes peeled for more of these in the future.

[haywoody]

It's really interesting to learn about these textured finishes. The darker matte finish one looks like the same coating as on the Stealth Capless (all black), except with exposed metal furniture. Would you say that's the case, positioning them together? Very nice find, Woody. I had stopped searching for older Capless pens for a while. Might be a good idea to keep eyes peeled for more of these in the future.

 

Getting back to this one a bit late, sorry. The finish on the textured pen is quite different from the stealth model. The stealth feels closer to the standard polished plastic pen than the matte one. I can't say I have ever seen a finish exactly like this on plastic before and it does not look like something that came out of the plastic mold. Maybe it was done with some type of secondary process. It feels more like the matte, textured aluminum model from the early 70's.

 

I tried to take a picture of all four pens for reference but I am not sure it really shows. I don't have the lighting setup/lens/skills to show the difference very well. From left to right: textured aluminum, textured plastic, stealth and polished plastic...

 

 

 

Bonus gift, today only! I borrowed the blue and green faceted models from a friend and took a shot of them together with my pens. These are all the faceted Caplii that I know about. Anybody know of any other variants?

 

 

 

 

 

[haywoody]

Bumping an old thread of mine here... I noticed some recent talk and love expressed for the older faceted VPs. For those who don't already know there are 5 different versions of the faceted VP: polished black, polished burgundy, polished green, stealth black (painted plastic) and the matte black plastic model referenced in this post.

 

I mention this because there is currently one of the matte faceted pens for sale on PenTrace, by a reputable seller and at what I consider a great price. In nearly 10 years of looking for VPs I have stumbled onto this model only twice. I think the main reason is very few people know the pen is special beyond the later polished plastic pens, so they are never advertised properly. This is by far my favorite of the faceted VPs and the one I use most. The texture gives the pen a great feel and is much more durable than the paint on the stealth pens.

 

For anybody interested in getting a faceted VP, I highly recommend grabbing the pen! (No affiliation whatsoever with the seller.)

 

/Woody