The Twenty-Six Old Characters
A promotional film made by Sheaffer Pen in 1947

Settle in to your desk chair, maybe bring some popcorn, and enjoy this old movie made by The Sheaffer Pen Co. in 1947.

You can find The Twenty-Six Old Characters film here.

Sheaffer "TX" Mechanical Pencils are a slimmer version of the Fineliner with a single solid color (no mother of pearl look). Also very sturdy, utilitarian pencils.

This is the cover of a 1959 Lady Sheaffer catalog from our private collection. It is actually more of a large brochure and contains 6 pages showing all of the patterns of the regular production Lady Sheaffer Skripsert fountain pens and pencils made to that date. Lady Sheaffers were given a Roman Numeral designation as well a name for each pattern.

Click the image to view entire catalog!

The Sheaffer Crest was introduced in 1991, reminiscent of the Sheaffer Triumph series from the 1940s. The Crests were fitted with Sheaffer's famous "Triumph" conical wrap around nibs, some of the smoothest writing nibs made.

The photo above is a Sheaffer Fashion Ballpoint sample that came from the Sheaffer Paint Room at their factory in Fort Madison, Iowa. We purchased this pen and the desk it came in, in February 2007 at auction. Painted pen finishes were all produced in this section of the factory. The item is not real old, it is dated 1990, but we did find it fascinating that it was marked by hand.

In case you can't read the tag clearly in the photograph it says: "2330 FBP 645 Preferred finish, texture, and color of FPB 645 Dusty Rose. 9/18/90 D. Hauck"

FBP is an abbreviation for Fashion Ball Point and 645 was the stock number of this item.

Sheaffer made No Nonsense Pens for many years with the threaded cap which many people find preferable to their newer style of Viewpoint with a friction fit cap. Designs ranged from plain black to some pretty wild designs. The nice thing about No Nonsense pens is that they truly are no nonsense pens and write first time, every time, very reliable.

Sheaffer No Nonsense pens measure 5.25 inches long. All of the ones listed below are in a minimum of very good condition, many are new old stock and have never been used.

Sheaffer No Nonsense Nib Units

The nibs listed below are nib units only for the original style No Nonsense fountain pens which have threaded sections and caps. Newer style No Nonsense have push on caps and a rubber gripping section. Nibs for the screw in style do not interchange with the rubber gripping section style. Nib are polished steel. All are new old stock.

SH-NIB-3TINE

Sheaffer No Nonsense Nib Unit, triple tine italic, unusual specialty nib writes a double line with one line being wider than the other.

$10

Intrigue Pens

We think one of Sheaffer's most practical inventions ever was the "Reminder Clip" ballpoint pen. Depress the clip and the point extends. But, you must click it again to make the point retract and open the clip back up in order to clip it in your pocket. No chance of an ink stain ever with this handy little invention. The clip doesn't open, unless the refill is retracted. Sadly, Reminder Clip ballpens are no longer made. We try to round these up whenever we can because they are still very popular today.

New Old Stock Sheaffer Desk Pens

Desk style slim ballpoint pen with chain. New old stock, black, pen measures 7 inches long, center diameter at widest point is 0.35 inches/9.1mm chain measures 27.5 inches. New condition.

Unique Sheaffer Desk Sets!

Some of you may recall my mentions of the Sheaffer Industrial Auction I attended in 2007, the one where Frank held his breath that I wouldn't buy everything in sight! I didn't buy everything in sight, but I did buy oodles of treasures and some of the treasures came with baggage. If there was one specific thing in a big steel storage cabinet, it meant I had to buy the entire storage cabinet and everything inside of it and get it out of the factory, too, within 72 hours after the auction ended. We ended up hiring a local moving company to do the hauling. The pieces of steel that the desk sets below were made of came out of various cabinets on the factory floor. We packed them up in buckets that could still be lifted. About a year later, I spent the better part of a week sitting on the floor and sorting through all this metal. Frank shook his head once again having no doubt that I had lost my mind to the world of pen stuff! Any piece of machine steel that had a readable engraving or sometimes was just interesting went into the "keep" pile. If it was just plain steel, no markings and nothing exciting about it, it took a trip to our local scrap metal dealer. After another 6 months or so, the building we were renting to store all these treasures was sold, so I did some more sorting and brought home pieces that I knew I'd figure out what to do with one day. My light bulb turned on one day and blinked desk sets! So without further ado and story telling, here they are ...

The desk sets below were made from pieces of machine steel that were once used to manufacture pens and pen parts at the Sheaffer factory here in Fort Madison, Iowa. Most of them have an engraving of some sorts relating to their use at the factory - some of which I can translate thanks to the help of a former Sheaffer employee, some we just didn't have a clue what the letters and numbers meant.

We've added a new old stock polished brass pen holder to each piece of steel and black felt to the base to keep it from scratching your desk. These are very heavy desk sets, even the smaller sized ones - trust me, even the most determined kitty is not going to knock this over or even slide it a smidgen! Some take two hands to lift, at least two of my hands!

The steel base was carefully drilled to accommodate the pen holder and has been nicely polished to a silvery sheen and buffed with carnuba wax to prevent any rust.

Sheaffer Pen Co Employee Service Pins

Sheaffer always treated their employees well and one of the things they did was give each employee a Service Pin or medallion on five year anniversaries. Men received a lapel pin, women received a medallion for a necklace. Needless to say, the five and ten year pins are more common than the 20, 25 and higher year pins. I've only seen a couple of 45-Year pins and have been told there were two 50-Year pins awarded, but no firm proof of that. If you find a 50-Year pin, I'd love to see it!

You might also find in our listings below some special Sheaffer award pins that were given to employees.

Sheaffer Factory Paint Screens

Sheaffer Engraving Dies

These steel engraving dies were used to print the Sheaffer name on cap bands in the 1970s - 1980s. The actual dies vary a little in size, but are all about 1 x 1.25 inches. All came from the Sheaffer factory in Fort Madison, Iowa and are just one of the odd and unusual items we purchased at the Sheaffer equipment auction in February 2007. A nice little historical trinket from the days when Sheaffers were made in Fort Madison.

Your Choice - $20 each
Limited Supplies Available!

Sheaffer Paintings Exhibit
Commemorative Poster

During the month of November 2005, 13 original works of art by distinguished artists Andrew Loomis, Coles Phillips, Frederic Mizen, John Newton Howitt and Lester Bentley were exhibited at the Fort Madison Art Center. These paintings were commissioned by Sheaffer Pen from the 1920s - 1940s and had never before left the halls of Sheaffer headquarters in Fort Madison, Iowa.

50 posters were made for the exhibit and all proceeds from the posters go to the Fort Madison Art Center who graciously sponsored the Sheaffer Paintings exhibit.

The poster measures 11 x 17 and is printed in full color on heavy gloss stock. The photo featured is by Andrew Loomis.

Sheaffer Lab Test Tube, 10 per set - These little treasures aren't really pen items, but came from the Sheaffer Wet Lab and can be used in your pen room or in your ink mixing trials or just as a little piece of Sheaffer history. We've been using these for storing various little bits - parts, nibs, etc. The label on the carton says these are Culture Tubes made of flint glass, size is 16 x 125mm which translates to those of you in the US as 9/16 diameter x 4 7/8 inches length. Made by Fisher Scientific. These are new, never used and were in the original bulk shipping carton.

Sheaffer Pen Co. Binder, Int'l. Sales Manual - Three ring gold vinyl binder imprinted with white dot and Sheaffer The Proud Craftsmen and International Sales Manual. Holds standard three hole punch 8.5x11 inch papers. The perfect binder to use to keep track of your pen collection. Ca. mid-1980s. New condition.

Sheaffer Key Ring - Dark blue medallion has Sheaffer logo with white dot on one side, the reverse side reads: Sheaffer Retirement Dinner 1990. Medallion measures 1.75 inches diameter. Even if you weren't able to go to the retirement dinner in 1990, now you can pretend! A nice little Sheaffer collectible.

Refilling your
Vintage Mechanical Pencils

Most mechanical pencils made before the late 1960s and some even after that are refilled by feeding lead in from the Point End. Those that feed from the barrel (below the eraser) are a fairly modern invention! Don't be fooled by leads in the barrel, in older pencils, that was simply a space to store a few extra leads, but that's it - just storage. As always with vintage writing instruments, exceptions will crop up!

The instruction below are from a Sheaffer package insert, but apply to most older mechanical pencils.

We carry a variety of pencil leads - click here.

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