Whereas the last Sheaffer I wrote about was too opulent for my personal use, I would have happily gone into a shop and bought this one.  The 12 carat gold filled cap isn’t too much and it works with the blue barrel wonderfully.

There are those for whom a flexible nib is the be-all and end-all and this pen wouldn’t do for them because though it has a certain softness it isn’t flexible.  For myself, I love a flexible pen but I also love a smooth firm nib that lays down a good line of ink.  That’s what these Sheaffers were made to do and they do it so unfailingly well.

This is the cartridge/converter version which succeeded the Touchdown fillers of the sixties.  I prefer it because it holds more ink and you don’t want a stingy ink supply to service as generous a nib as this.

The fact that Sheaffer reused both names and styles can make pen identification quite confusing.  On the other hand, this makes for boundless scope for the collector.