Pens on this page are part of my personal collection and are not for sale. If there is a magnifying-glass symbol () next to a pen, click the magnifying glass to view a zoomed version for more detail.

The Color — and Size — of a Nib

Design Features

The L. E. Waterman company had been producing pens of red rippled hard rubber for a while when, in 1927, it introduced two new Nº 5 and Nº 7 “Ripple” models. Instead of describing nib tip shapes only with words that might have little meaning for the average purchaser, Waterman assigned “colors” to the six (later ten) nib styles for these models.

The Ideal Nº 7 is one of the most collectible Watermans. I inherited my Nº 7 from my grandfather, a pictorial photographer and novelist. It has a BLUE (Improved Stub) nib, and it writes wonderfully. This second-model pen (with narrow white bands next to the blue-colored band on the cap) is 5⁵/8" capped, 7¹/8" posted.

Despite having gone to the 2007 Triangle Pen Show in Raleigh, North Carolina, with absolutely no intention of purchasing a Nº 7, I bought the next pen there. (It really is a Nº 7 despite having a cap that is apparently from a Nº 55.) This pen, which is5¹⁹/32" capped and 7¹/32" posted, is also the second model. It bears a nib marked to indicate that it is the mythic WHITE (Coarse) nib. The magnifying-glass symbol to the left of the image below affords you a close-up view of the nib. Investigation has shown that the nib is not a true WHITE nib; the color imprint was not there when John Mottishaw worked on the nib in 2003. But it’s still a nice pen and a very nice big fat wet stub nib.

At 4¹/4" capped and 5¹¹/32" posted, this itty-bitty “Ripple” pen is the “other” 51. Its unnumbered flex nib is tiny — about the size of a Wahl Nº 0 — and it’s the smallest (and skinniest) self-filling Waterman pen that did not carry the ½V designation. With its nickel-plated furniture, the Waterman’s Ideal Nº 51V is something of a “sport”; most rippled pens featured gold-filled furniture.

If you’re like me, you associate doctors and syringes. One of the simplest and most reliable filling systems of the early 20th century was the syringe filler, first used by Post and subsequently adopted by several other makers such as Franklin and, as implemented on my Salz pen here, Salz Brothers (a company probably best known today for its diminutive Peter Pan pens). This pen is a large one, with a look that would say “eyedropper” were the pen of lesser girth. The one significant disadvantage of the syringe filler is that the plunger, when the pen is full, uses a lot of extra length. capped, this pen is 5¹⁵/32"; posted, it grows only to 6¹⁹/32". it’s a little clunky, but the Nº 4 nib is very nice.

Convenience Wins Out Over Economy

Profile

I’m not really a “metal pen guy,” but when this Waterman C/F in Barleycorn came my way I pretty much had to snap it up. Introduced in 1953, the C/F is a fascinating pen — not only because it was the first widely popular cartridge-filling pen but also because the nib fits into the section in an unusual way: inserted from the front, then pivoted into position and locked in place by the feed (which slides in from the back). This pen is 5¹¹/32"capped; posted, it’s 5¹³/16". The nib on this puppy is a fine that I’ve made a little wetter and a lot smoother, and it’s a wonderful nib. A wonderful pen, actually.

To my eye, probably the most attractive of all postwar metal pens is the silver moiré C/F. Waterman also made the moiré pattern in gold, but the silver has a cool sexiness that gold just can’t match. This pen is 5¹¹/32"capped and 5⁷/8" posted, and it has a very nice fine 18K nib.

The common man’s C/F was still quite attractive, and it was fitted with a 14K nib, at least on U.S. production, like the red pen below. This pen’s nib is “living proof” that Waterman hadn’t abandoned its longstanding reputation as a maker of pens with great nibs — this pen’s nib, as indicated by the barrel chalkmark, is a flexible fine. A very nice flexible fine, by the way.

Chasing isn’t the only way to tart up hard rubber. Color can do wonderful things, and that’s why so many collectors (including me) like Waterman’s rippled pens. But before there was rippled rubber there was mottled, and Waterman’s woodgrain-like mottled rubber was the inspiration for Wahl’s Rosewood, as seen on the ringtop pen here. This pen is 4¹³/32"capped and 5¹⁹/32" posted. It has a Warranted Nº 2 nib, not a “correct” Wahl nib, but that is no impediment to its delightful writing qualities.

© 2008 Richard F. Binder

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