Unusual Sheaffer Wasp pens

[penpalace]

I've been lucky enough to occasionally stumble into an uncommon pen, and being a Sheaffer collector of sorts I tend to be on the lookout for neat pieces to add to the collection. Here are two pens that I at least haven't seen very often.

 

First is a Wasp Clipper in blue/black checkerboard style pattern, (love to know exactly what the colour was called by Sheaffer), in I believe the larger size.

 

 

Secondly a recent purchase is a lever fill Vacuum-Fill pen in copper and blue marble. While I've probably seen the colour before they don't seem to come up all too often.

 

 

Like to know what people think, and any more info as to names of colours or scarcity.

 

Pearce.

 

[david i]

Hi Pearce,

 

Well, we both know blue is the least common "circuitboard" WASP color. The ads reference the other colors. Perhaps relatively short run. I'd guess sheaffer called either blue or blue pearl.

 

the earlier WASP is nice. I have two other colors of this sort, though different contour, end color, etc. These are not so common and not so easy to find clean.

 

regards

 

David

 

http://removed.xyz/penteech/waspcranapple850a.jpg

 

 

http://removed.xyz/penteech/sheafferwaspblueberry.jpg

Edited January 12, 2009 by david i

[Pepin]

I am too a Sheaffer collector (heh...I only have a few Sheaffers :embarrassed_smile: ) and the WASPs you posted are stunning beasts.

[david i]

I am too a Sheaffer collector (heh...I only have a few Sheaffers :embarrassed_smile: ) and the WASPs you posted are stunning beasts.

 

BTW... peek in on the "Dave's pens from Syracuse Pen Club Meeting" thread. In day or so I hiope to post shots of the sub-brand pens

 

-d

[RevAaron]

the earlier WASP is nice. I have two other colors of this sort, though different contour, end color, etc. These are not so common and not so easy to find clean.

 

http://vacumania.com/penteech/waspcranapple850a.jpg

 

Really? I have one of these- the nib has bent tines, nothing too serious- a non-screw in WASP 233, flex medium. How uncommon are we talking? Should I have someone else properly restore it? I was just going to resac it and put in a different nib and make it a user Nice big pen.

 

Why did they make lever fillers called Vacuum-Fills?

 

Aaron

[david i]

the earlier WASP is nice. I have two other colors of this sort, though different contour, end color, etc. These are not so common and not so easy to find clean.

 

Really? I have one of these- the nib has bent tines, nothing too serious- a non-screw in WASP 233, flex medium. How uncommon are we talking? Should I have someone else properly restore it? I was just going to resac it and put in a different nib and make it a user Nice big pen.

 

 

The color is uncommon. I'm not pro-from-dover on these though I've shot a bunch and owe probably 30-40 total sub-brand Sheaffers. The style on the image you "quoted" suggests a low line pen- black end plugs not (apparently) integrated into cap/barrel plastic, etc. I wonder if these preceded (or paralleled) the WASP Addipoint. The chrome trim on these actually seems sturdier (at first glance) than the gold wash-ish stuff used on some of the Addipoints.

 

Why did they make lever fillers called Vacuum-Fills?

 

Seriously, why wouldn't they? Don't pretty much all pens fill, ultimately, by forcing air out of something, creating a pressure differential?

 

-d

[RevAaron]

The color is uncommon. I'm not pro-from-dover on these though I've shot a bunch and owe probably 30-40 total sub-brand Sheaffers. The style on the image you "quoted" suggests a low line pen- black end plugs not (apparently) integrated into cap/barrel plastic, etc. I wonder if these preceded (or paralleled) the WASP Addipoint. The chrome trim on these actually seems sturdier (at first glance) than the gold wash-ish stuff used on some of the Addipoints.

 

Seems consistent with the feel of the material and the pen in general.

 

Why did they make lever fillers called Vacuum-Fills?

 

Seriously, why wouldn't they? Don't pretty much all pens fill, ultimately, by forcing air out of something, creating a pressure differential?

 

Ultimately, yes- but that doesn't prevent us from using that term to mean in sort of instant-vacuum filler like a

Onoto/Sheaffer plunger filler. but wasn't Sheaffer's plunger filler available first in WASPs under the brand/model name of Vacuum-Fill? Prolly was mistaken on that one.

 

Aaron

[skstevens]

Warning: Huge Display of Ignorance Below

 

Uhmmm.....what is a WASP pen? I mean, I saw the pictures, but what are they?

[david i]

The color is uncommon. I'm not pro-from-dover on these though I've shot a bunch and owe probably 30-40 total sub-brand Sheaffers. The style on the image you "quoted" suggests a low line pen- black end plugs not (apparently) integrated into cap/barrel plastic, etc. I wonder if these preceded (or paralleled) the WASP Addipoint. The chrome trim on these actually seems sturdier (at first glance) than the gold wash-ish stuff used on some of the Addipoints.

 

Seems consistent with the feel of the material and the pen in general.

 

Why did they make lever fillers called Vacuum-Fills?

 

Seriously, why wouldn't they? Don't pretty much all pens fill, ultimately, by forcing air out of something, creating a pressure differential?

 

Ultimately, yes- but that doesn't prevent us from using that term to mean in sort of instant-vacuum filler like a

Onoto/Sheaffer plunger filler. but wasn't Sheaffer's plunger filler available first in WASPs under the brand/model name of Vacuum-Fill? Prolly was mistaken on that one.

 

Aaron

 

It is more instant to fill a Sheaffer plunger fill pen than a Sheaffer lever fill pen?

 

Besides, pen makers didn't do things to accommodate all of us who are crazily collecting generations later.

 

On other hand, it could be that Sheaffer was riding the coattails of and perhaps wishing to diminish too the impact of some other company's recent introduction of a pen that used the word "vacuum".

 

regards

 

d

Edited January 13, 2009 by david i

[david i]

Warning: Huge Display of Ignorance Below

 

Uhmmm.....what is a WASP pen? I mean, I saw the pictures, but what are they?

 

 

Rare pens which in an age of Celluloid and Casein, instead employed a powdered suspension of insect chitin...

 

OK. I'm kidding.

 

W.A.Sheaffer Pen.

 

WASP

 

Used as a sub-brand marker for generally 2nd tier pens.

 

regards

 

d

[skstevens]

Rare pens which in an age of Celluloid and Casein, instead employed a powdered suspension of insect chitin...

 

In that case, I don't believe I will chew on any old pens.

[RevAaron]

A vacuum is generated within any self filler- I'm not arguing otherwise. Or arguing any point at all. I do not mean to say that a vacuum requires rigid walls, or that a filler needs to be remotely like a Sheaffer plunger filler or Vacumatic to be said to rely on a vacuum's tendency to fill.

 

On other hand, it could be that Sheaffer was riding the coattails of and perhaps wishing to diminish too the impact of some other company's recent introduction of a pen that used the word "vacuum".

 

Makes sense to me.

 

Aaron

Edited January 13, 2009 by RevAaron

[david i]

Instant: A partial vacuum is instantly opened up, i.e. plunger fillers. Vacuum is created within a container with rigid walls.

 

Hi,

 

Sac pens develop vacuum with less rigid walls.

 

I don't know that definition of vacuum is dependent on the relative rigidity of walls of unit.

 

Stepped: Pen is filled as vacuum is created in discrete and uccessive steps; aerometric filler, vacumatic, Dunn/Omas pump filler; others.

Fast: Most sac-based fillers; vacuum is created by the pliable reservoir regaining its shape

Slow: Piston filler; vacuum is created as a piston retracts, etc; can be continuously or discretely, but continuous is a requirement for this category.

 

The first pen of significant production and distribution to use the word "vacuum" in the name does not fill rapidly, indeed more slowly than via the vacuum generated with a lever-sac arrangement.

 

What is happening here is- i believe- an attempt to define filling units in retrospect.

 

Whether or not I agree with the jargon is not really the point.

 

The initial question was along lines of why Sheaffer called a lever filler by the model name "Vacuum".

 

The answers remain

 

1) Because they could

2) Because the pen does employ vacuum to fill.

3) Because, perhaps, the word "vacuum" had taken on a powerful new impact with the release of a competitor's high line pen employing that word in the name

 

 

regards

d

[Peter from Sherwood Park]

Beautiful pens and photos.

[Univer]

Hi,

 

People are free, I suppose, to create whatever after-the-fact filling-system categories/definitions may suit them. Such efforts can be useful in organizing one's collection, for example. (It might be instructive, in this connection, to investigate the "taxonomy" of fountain pen filling systems attempted over at Lion & Pen a while back; I apologize for not providing a link, but the site seems to be down this morning.)

 

But I agree that it's important not to try to apply those distinctions retroactively, or (worse yet) to fault the pen makers of 60-70 years ago for not conforming their nomenclature to our modern perspective. When we fail to observe these precautions, we impose filters that may distort the history we're trying to understand.

 

Case in point: the Eversharp Selecta-Point pen shown on the 1942 catalog page posted here - a pen described as featuring "lever vacuum filling." To modern ears, this phrase may sound as odd as, say, "extra-fine broad nib"; but it seemingly didn't strike its contemporary audience as a contradiction in terms. (It's quite right, too, to be mindful of the fact that the term "vacuum" seems to have developed a certain high-tech luster during the period in question; adding "vacuum" to the description of that Selecta-Point strikes me as an effort to make the old-fashioned lever system seem newer, adding a little bit of pizazz to a pretty boring entry-level instrument.)

 

As a side note, I'm puzzled to see "safety" called out as a distinct filling system. As I understand it, the word "safety" doesn't denote a filling system; it's a term that seems to have been rather loosely applied to any design that purported to keep the ink "safely" inside the pen - including retractable-nib and early non-retractable screw-cap eyedroppers as well as self-fillers. In fact, to the extent that we nowadays tend to think "retractable-nib eyedropper" when we hear "safety," that habit may well be another instance of imposing a modern viewpoint on historical naming conventions.

 

Cheers,

 

Jon

 

[kirchh]

Rare pens which in an age of Celluloid and Casein, instead employed a powdered suspension of insect chitin...

 

In that case, I don't believe I will chew on any old pens.

What do you think shellac is made of?

 

--Daniel

[david i]

Rare pens which in an age of Celluloid and Casein, instead employed a powdered suspension of insect chitin...

 

In that case, I don't believe I will chew on any old pens.

What do you think shellac is made of?

 

--Daniel

 

Yeah, but I don't know any actual pens created from the venerable lac bug.

 

-d

Edited January 13, 2009 by david i

[RevAaron]

People are free, I suppose, to create whatever after-the-fact filling-system categories/definitions may suit them. Such efforts can be useful in organizing one's collection, for example. (It might be instructive, in this connection, to investigate the "taxonomy" of fountain pen filling systems attempted over at Lion & Pen a while back; I apologize for not providing a link, but the site seems to be down this morning.)

 

But I agree that it's important not to try to apply those distinctions retroactively, or (worse yet) to fault the pen makers of 60-70 years ago for not conforming their nomenclature to our modern perspective. When we fail to observe these precautions, we impose filters that may distort the history we're trying to understand.

 

Taxonomy is all it is. Not sure why I put it in here- way off topic. I completely accept David's reasons, and the original comment was just more of "oh, isn't that sort of goofy!" My comment about wanting other people to conform to my categorization was a joke. I don't expect my contemporaries to do so, let alone these pen makers. I'm not sure how that would even be possible.

 

Out of embarrassment, I'm just going to yank the lot of it. Apologies again for pushing a thread off course with tangential thoughts taken as arguments.

 

As a side note, I'm puzzled to see "safety" called out as a distinct filling system. As I understand it, the word "safety" doesn't denote a filling system; it's a term that seems to have been rather loosely applied to any design that purported to keep the ink "safely" inside the pen - including retractable-nib and early non-retractable screw-cap eyedroppers as well as self-fillers. In fact, to the extent that we nowadays tend to think "retractable-nib eyedropper" when we hear "safety," that habit may well be another instance of imposing a modern viewpoint on historical naming conventions.

 

I agree. I've a bad habit of using those common modern conventions, even when they're inaccurate. uff!

 

Aaron

[kirchh]

Why did they make lever fillers called Vacuum-Fills?

Sheaffer's initial marketing response to Parker's Vacumatic-type pens was to claim it was inferior to Sheaffer's lever pens, but nonetheless to offer a vacuum-filling pen as a sub-brand -- the Vacuum-Fil (and at a seemingly predatory price level). They then attempted to dilute the term "vacuum" or to broaden its umbrella sufficiently to include the lever-filler -- Sheaffer's flagship filling system. This campaign included explaining that lever-fillers used a vacuum as well as having both piston and lever-fillers in the Vacuum-Fil line. Piston fillers were then added to the Sheaffer line proper, and ads declared, "These fine pens are one-stroke vacuum-fillers, whether the lever or visible-barrel types." For a time, Sheaffer then avoided applying the word "vacuum" exclusively with their piston-fillers, employing "visible barrel" or just "visible" (there are just a couple of out-of-the-way uses of "Vacuum-Fil" in the '35 catalog). Later ads seem to have downplayed the term "vacuum", but emphasized the "one-stroke" filling of either system -- an implicit contrast to the Vacumatic's multiple-stroke filling. By the '36 catalog, Sheaffer changed course a bit and used "Visulated" to mean lever-filler and "Vacuum" or "Vacuum-Fil" for the piston-filler. (Contrary to popular belief, "Visulated" was not an adjective Sheaffer applied to the section meaning "having a transparent area"; that is, Sheaffer would not say a pen had a Visulated section.)

 

--Daniel

[david i]

Why did they make lever fillers called Vacuum-Fills?

Sheaffer's initial marketing response to Parker's Vacumatic-type pens was to claim it was inferior to Sheaffer's lever pens, but nonetheless to offer a vacuum-filling pen as a sub-brand -- the Vacuum-Fil (and at a seemingly predatory price level). They then attempted to dilute the term "vacuum" or to broaden its umbrella sufficiently to include the lever-filler -- Sheaffer's flagship filling system. This campaign included explaining that lever-fillers used a vacuum as well as having both piston and lever-fillers in the Vacuum-Fil line. Piston fillers were then added to the Sheaffer line proper, and ads declared, "These fine pens are one-stroke vacuum-fillers, whether the lever or visible-barrel types." For a time, Sheaffer then avoided applying the word "vacuum" exclusively with their piston-fillers, employing "visible barrel" or just "visible" (there are just a couple of out-of-the-way uses of "Vacuum-Fil" in the '35 catalog). Later ads seem to have downplayed the term "vacuum", but emphasized the "one-stroke" filling of either system -- an implicit contrast to the Vacumatic's multiple-stroke filling. By the '36 catalog, Sheaffer changed course a bit and used "Visulated" to mean lever-filler and "Vacuum" or "Vacuum-Fil" for the piston-filler. (Contrary to popular belief, "Visulated" was not an adjective Sheaffer applied to the section meaning "having a transparent area"; that is, Sheaffer would not say a pen had a Visulated section.)

 

--Daniel

 

I speculate that VACUUM might have preceded VACUUM-FIL for Sheaffer.

 

d