I’ve written about the Ty-Phoo pen before but it’s well worth another mention. Ty-Phoo believed that interaction with their customers was a good form of advertising. As well as the pen there were sets of collectible cards and printed materials for schools in which they informed pupils about how well they treated their workers in the then Ceylon (!)

This particular pen belongs to Rob Parsons. It’s a splendid example and looks as if it hasn’t been used. The box is shabby as it might well be after kicking around in a drawer for ninety years. It has the full paperwork including, uniquely, the covering letter, complimenting the recipient on collecting all the coupons necessary to obtain the pen.

There has been much discussion over the years about the origin of the Ty-Phoo pen. It doesn’t closely resemble any of the production pens of the time and could have come from any of the factories. I’ve always favoured Wyvern, not from any evidence, but because that company especially was in the business of making pens for others. The mottled hard rubber version, like this one, is a beauty. One might say that the warranted nib is smaller than a pen of this size would seem to require but bearing in mind the price of gold and that this pen is essentially advertising, I would say I’m glad they stuck with 14ct gold and didn’t go for plated steel.

This form of advertising was not uncommon in the twenties or thirties. Several newspapers offered pens in the same way, with coupons cut from the paper. It made people buy the tea or the paper and it got talked about. By time you had collected all the coupons you may have grown to prefer the tea or the paper.

It won’t be long until the older, lever filled filled Ty-Phoo pens, like this one, are genuine, century-old antiques. It is a testament to their quality that so many have survived in such good condition.

I picked this pen up because it was advertised as the “Eros” pen and I had neither seen nor heard of one before. My research suggests that no-one else has either. When the pen arrived there was “Eros” on the broken steel nib but no writing at all on the pen itself.

So there is a N^o 8 Eros nib and an unknown pen.

Several things about it are familiar. I’m sure I’ve seen that clip before and the pierced cap band is not uncommon – the Kingswood, for instance has a similar one.

I regard the pen as second quality. It is soundly made but the blind cap doesn’t fit as well as some others where the join is invisible; this one is very visible! The feed is well-designed and made and will control ink flow very well, I should think.

The metal trim is very heavily brassed. Whatever gold plating there once was, was very thin

The Eros nib is made from very thin steel, making it hard to replace. All modern nibs are made from much thicker material. I have one nib that may do it, one of those American nibs that announce 14K gold in large letter with “plated” in a much smaller size, designed to give the impression of being solid gold, unless you look closely. Some others were really crafty and ensured that the “plated” disappeared into the section. This nib isn’t as dishonest as that.

I would be very grateful for suggestions as to the maker of this pen. I have a few ideas myself but as they lack sound evidence I’ll keep quiet about them.

As I’ve mentioned previously, we have retired from pen restoration and sales. I still have quite a bit of stock for sale and I have reduced all prices by ten percent.

It isn’t absolutely the end. People ask me for advice and I am pleased to provide them with such knowledge as I have on British pens, particularly Conway Stewart and Mabie Todd brands.

As I am no longer buying pens I have less to write about in this blog but I will continue to write when anything interesting comes along.

https://www.goodwriterssales.com/

The recent discussion about the Truepoint illustrates how much work needs to be done on the very interesting lesser-known brands. It comes as no surprise that Messrs Hull and Russell are hard at work on the subject and I eagerly await the result of their labours. It also shows the valuable contribution of collectors.

When I began this blog, many years ago, I made a point of buying and writing about pens I hadn’t seen or heard about before. Often there was little to say about them beyond a physical description of the pen. Now we can hope to fill in those details before too long.

In recent times the various boards and Facebook groups have become increasingly devoted to modern pens. It’s good to have a conversation about vintage pens continuing here.

Simon has asked me to post this photo to clarify an issue that has arisen; that Truepoints came in mixed colours too.

Truepoints don’t turn up very often so it’s a matter of interest when they do. To remind you, the Truepoint is one of those post-war pens that probably came from what had been a wartime munitions machine shop.

It’s a common story, except that the Truepoint was an exceptionally good pen, well designed and made. It bears a distinct resemblance to the British Duofold of the day.

In Britain the ballpoint was already beginning to bite into the writing instrument market and several of the old stalwarts of fountain pen making were beginning to feel the pinch. At a time when there were excellent pens like Parkers and Swans available, would you risk your hard-earned money on an unknown pen like the Truepoint? It was the hardest of hard times to try to break into a saturated market and the Truepoint failed, sadly for us because of its quality. One might wonder whether someone from one of the major manufacturers was involved in its design but I don’t suppose we’ll ever know now. It’s a hard rubber pen, very unusually at this late date. All the other manufacturers had given up that material except Mabie Todd. Which makes one go hmm…

The clip of the Truepoint usually bears a coat of arms. This one has the letter “K” instead. Unless any other explanation appears I would assume this is a replacement clip that happens to fit extremely well. It’s very like the original Truepoint clip – which is, of course, very like the Duofold clip. Which other pens of the day had a “K” in their name? Kingswood perhaps, and Kenrick Jackson. Maybe others that don’t come to mind right now. All the more conservative pen makers were still copying the Duofold though others had moved on to trying to replicate the Parker 51. In any case, there would be plenty of that style of clip around.

Many thanks to Jerry Symonds for photos and information.

I’ve had a request for a Conway Stewart 85L barrel. I no longer hold Conway Stewart spares so couldn’t help but if anyone else has a barrel that they are prepared to part with, let me know. My correspondent would prefer the green and gold barrel but failing that would settle for any 85L barrel. Have a look in the spares box, please.

The following is a comment from James Bennett for which I am very grateful. I repeat it here so that more people will see it.

Apparently these pens were made in Fordingbridge in Hampshire which is on the river Avon in the early 1960s.
Apparently they supplied them to Woolworths.

A bent and buckled nib will make an otherwise pristine pen valueless and the repair is no easy matter. Nib repair is one of the most time-consuming and difficult parts of pen repair but if you can’t straighten nibs, or at least the simpler ones, it will cost you in replacing nibs or having someone else repair them for you. I use excellent tools provided by Laurence Oldfield:

https://www.penpractice.com/page3.html

I cannot recommend them highly enough. They are not cheap but they are money well spent.

Before I discovered Laurence’s set I made do with what came to hand. For the concave part I used a boxwood pen rest which was hard enough to take the pressure without damage. The convex part was a polished length of a bolt of the right diameter. The most difficult part for me was to make the tool to press down on the nib. In the end, after much thought, I chose a six inch nail with the point cut off, rounded and polished to perfection – a lot of work. It had to be absolutely flawless as any imperfection in the tool would be transferred to the nib under the pressure needed to straighten it. Those make-do tools did the job for a while but I realised their temporary nature and was on the lookout for something better.

Whatever tools you use, the best time spent on a nib is not in using them but in studying the damage to the nib and planning how to go about straightening it. A loupe is essential here.

When you have decided how to proceed, whether to apply most pressure to the top or underside of the nib, don’t rush matters. The less you have to work the nib the better as it hardens the metal and changes the characteristics of the nib. Once the worst of the bend, or bends, have been reduced, it will take some adjustment on both sides of the nib to complete the repair.

I’m no nibmeister and there are nibs I can’t fix. I’ve seen the work of those experts and I am astounded by what they can achieve. I’ve seen nibs that have landed point first on a hard surface, resulting in a propeller shape, made absolutely perfect by those highly skilled hands. I can’t come close to that. I know my limits. If it’s a common nib in that state it goes in the scrap box and I find a replacement. A nib that is bent in more than one axis is a difficult repair but not impossible. It takes more time and success is not guaranteed.

I’ve found that professional tools help a lot but if nib repair is not something you do often it may be that the outlay is not justified and you can use whatever is available with some adaptation. That’s part of being a pen repairer.

A few weeks ago I was rather taken with a very cheap retractable pen made by a Chinese firm, Kawaii. I hadn’t heard of them before but they make lots of fountain pens and other stationery items. I ordered one from an eBay seller, Wafch-74. It was ridiculously cheap at £3.50.

The pen arrived in a cellophane sleeve. To ink it, you remove the translucent cap and unscrew the nib housing. That’s easy enough but the difficult part is that when you remove it the little spring that activates the retractable nib shoots off into the wide blue yonder, never to be seen again. As the pen costs so little I ordered another. I was prepared this time and captured the spring before it took off. I filled the converter and reassembled the pen. The nib clicks in and out just as it should. It writes very well. An excellent pen in every aspect except one: there’s that translucent plastic cap. What good is the retractable ability of the pen if you need a cap? You definitely have to have the cap as there is no little door as is provided in the more expensive retractable pens! The nib dries out very quickly without the cap.

Let’s pretend that this issue doesn’t make the whole point of the pen redundant. Let’s pretend that it’s a rather good pen in most respects – which it is! It’s very light though it appears to be entirely made from metal – the site says stainless steel but I don’t know about that. The one I chose is painted or enamelled pale blue and the push-button and the clip are chromed. The nib is steel and the tipping is unlikely to be anything other than a steel blob at this price. The action of the retractable nib is very good and the cap fits well.

It’s quite a well made pen. It’s a pity that it is utterly pointless.