Glossary of Pen Terms

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Like any other specialized item, the fountain pen has amassed a lexicon of terms that are unique. And like other jargon languages, fountain pen jargon can be cryptic or confusing. This glossary presents brief definitions for many of the most common pen terms. It is not complete (an impossible goal); but it is a work in progress, and I welcome suggestions for terms to add. (Revised July 29, 2011)

The glossary is organized alphabetically. For numbers, look under the spelled-out form; e.g., for 14K, look under fourteen.

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K
Kahn	(David Kahn, Inc.) A manufacturing company located in North Bergen, New Jersey. Founded in 1896 by David Kahn, a Jewish immigrant. Kahn’s company manufactured ornate pencil cases, mechanical pencils, and pens, initiating its Wearever brand of fountain pens in about 1918. It sold third-tier pens and pencils (and, during the 1930s, combos) in a bewildering variety of styles over the years. In the late 1920s, Kahn investigated the injection molding process then being developed in Germany; he brought machinery back to the U.S. and was probably the first manufacturer to produce injection-molded pens. For many years after World War II, Kahn was the world’s largest manufacturer of fountain pens. For most of its history, the Wearever brand meant steel nibs, but some customers expressed a desire for Wearevers with gold nibs, and Kahn provided them. Perhaps the best known Wearever model was the Pennant, produced in the millions during the 1950s. Shown below are a Pacemaker, a Zenith, a Supreme, and a Pennant. The company was sold to Dixon in 1986. See also Pacemaker, Pennant, Supreme, Zenith.
karat	(abbr. K or KT; also carat, abbr. C or CT) A system for specifying the quality of gold alloys by stating how many parts of gold per 24 parts of the total metal content, measured by weight, are contained in a given alloy. 24-karat (24K) is pure gold, 12K is 50% gold by weight, and so on. 14K and 18K are the alloys most commonly used in pens.
Kashmir	One of the “exotic” celluloid colors (Burma, Cathay, Jet Black, Kashmir, and Morocco) offered on the first generation of the Wahl-Eversharp Doric. Kashmir is chunks of pearlescent green veined with black, as shown to the right. See also Burma, Cathay, Doric, Morocco.
keyhole	One of many shapes used to enhance the appearance of the breather hole in a nib; used for the nibs of some early Parker eyedropper-filling pens but best known as a distinguishing mark of the nibs L. E. Waterman used for its Nº 5 and Nº 7 pens beginning in 1927. Shown here is the nib of a Nº 7. See also nib.
Kimberly	(full name: Kimberly Pockette) A “short/long” ballpoint pen introduced by Eversharp in about 1947. Shaped much like Sheaffer’s clipless wartime Tuckaway and produced in many colors and trim variations, the Kimberly (shown below in a mid-line trim) is very compact closed but posts long enough to be eminently usable.
knifing	A “quick and dirty” technique for spreading a nib’s tines to increase flow by inserting the blade of a craft knife between the tines while the nib is still installed in the pen. When attempted by an inexperienced person, knifing virtually always results in damage to the nib’s slit edges and slit wall, and it can also produce an hourglass-shaped slit that will not support proper flow. While knifing is safe in the hands of an expert, its use by others is strongly deprecated! See also flow, nib.
knurled band	See milled band.
Kovács, Theodor	See Pelikan, piston.
Kraker	(Kraker Pen Company) A pen manufacturing company located in Kansas City, Missouri; founded by George M. Kraker, a Conklin salesman who had left the employ of that company to help Walter A. Sheaffer found Sheaffer’s own company in 1913. Kraker soon left Sheaffer over money matters, having first deceived Sheaffer into signing a contract whose effect would be to keep Sheaffer out of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and part of Colorado for a period of 10 years. Kraker’s pens were functionally identical to Sheaffer’s; to protect his lever patent, Sheaffer sued for patent infringement and won, thereby acquiring the assets of the Kraker company and voiding Kraker’s duplicitous contract. George Kraker himself remained in the pen business and operated several companies until at least the 1930s; perhaps the best known of these companies was the Michael George Pen Company, which for a time manufactured Monogram pens for the Rexall drug-store chain. See also Dixie, Monogram.
Kritikson	See Security.
KT	An obsolescent abbreviation for karat, seen most commonly on vintage U.S.- and German-made nibs.

The information in this glossary is as accurate as possible, but you should not take it as absolutely authoritative. If you have additions or corrections to this page, please consider sharing them with us to improve the accuracy of our information.