I enjoy oddities and this pen, the Silver Arrow, is certainly an oddity. This is only the third one I’ve seen. I had one about ten years ago and an online search revealed one other. It would qualify as distinctly uncommon, perhaps even rare. Rarity does not always equal valuable, however.

Stephen Hull dates this pen to 1948. After World War II there were many machine shops which had been involved in war work and were scratching around for something to do. I think that may well describe the firm that made the Silver Arrow. Everything about this pen suggests that it was made by people who knew very little about fountain pens.

The cap is a very heavy hunk of brass. You wouldn’t be posting this pen! Among the bits and pieces that make up the pen are two washers. Washers don’t usually feature much in fountain pen assembly though they are very useful in general engineering. The cap is held on moderately firmly by being forced against a brass washer. The blind cap – this is a button filler – has a completely unnecessary loose washer. I’m amazed that it hasn’t been lost before now.

The rest is pretty much standard button filler assembly. The section, as you can see, is rather extremely tapered with a huge trumpet “stop” at the nib end. The nib is a gold-plated steel Osmiroid 40. This is original equipment as all three Silver Arrows I’m aware of have been fitted with this nib. It’s not a particularly common nib – the Osmiroid 35 is more often seen – but it’s a good nib of its kind. This one is fine and very smooth.

Judging by how seldom they are seen, the Silver Arrow was not a success and wasn’t around for long. Hardly surprising, really. Apart from the massive cap, it isn’t a BAD pen but there were many better pens on offer. The comparison might be with the Dickinson Croxley of a similar date, a resounding success because it was a good, sound pen without any of the oddity that makes the Silver Arrow interesting in an eccentric way.