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 April 27, 2008)
The glossary is organized alphabetically. For numbers, look under the spelled-out form; e.g., for 14K, look under fourteen.
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B
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baby
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1
When capitalized (Baby or BABY), a nickname Waterman applied to its 12½VS pen, illustrated below. 2 Collectors’ generic term for any very small pen, especially Waterman’s “World’s Smallest Pen.” See also Bantam, Peter Pan.
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baby’s bottom
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 (also baby bottom and, less elegantly, butt cheeks) A condition in which the edges of the nib slit are too rounded where the slit meets the surface of the writing pad, so named for the resemblance of the nib’s tip to the profile of a baby’s posterior (see illustration to right). A nib with baby’s bottom will usually be remarkably smooth, but capillary action will hold the ink too far away from the paper instead of drawing it toward the paper as intended, and the nib will have trouble starting. See also writing pad.
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Bakelite
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A thermosetting plastic (phenolic resin) discovered by Leo Baekland; used for pen bodies during a short period in the early 20th century. Bakelite is too brittle to be an ideal pen material unless reinforced by a fibrous filler such as asbestos or cotton. Most Bakelite pens are opaque black or translucent dark red; some few (notably certain Postal models) are translucent amber. See also thermoplastic, thermosetting.
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Balance
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The name Sheaffer gave to the torpedo-shaped pen model (shown below) that it introduced in 1929. As the first radically streamlined pen, the Balance triggered an industry-wide trend away from the blocky “flat-top” look of the preceding decades. Read a profile of the Balance here.
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ballpoint
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(also biro) A pen that dispenses a viscous greasy ink (not water based) from a tubular reservoir with a captive ball at the writing end. As the ball rolls across the paper, it pulls ink around it from the reservoir to the paper, with the ink acting as a lubricant to reduce rolling friction. Contrast with ball point, another name for duo-point. See also gel pen, rollerball.
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ball point
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A nib whose tip is hemispherical in shape so that it remains smooth and skip-free throughout a wide range of rotations and angles of elevation. The “Yellow” nib offered for Waterman’s Nº 7 and Nº 5 pens (from 1927) was a ball point, and Waterman advertised it as being especially suited to left-handed writers. Read a description of Waterman’s nib color code here.
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band
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See cap band.
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bandless
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See cap band.
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Bantam
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Wahl-Eversharp’s name for its series of very small bulb-filling pens (approximately 33/4" capped). Introduced in about 1933, the Bantam continued in production until about 1940. Bantams are easy to collect because there exist myriad color variations as well as versions with one, two, or three cap bands. Shown below is a faceted Bantam from about 1933, bearing a Century of Progress imprint. See also Century of Progress, Peter Pan.
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Barleycorn
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A decorative surface treatment created by engraving closely spaced zig-zag grooves, usually used on metal pen bodies. The Barleycorn surface treatment on the Waterman C/F illustrated here (below, upper) is shown more clearly in the enlarged view of the pen’s barrel surface. See also engraved.
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barrel
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The “body” of the pen, generally cylindrical in shape; contains the ink reservoir (and filling system).
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base
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(also tail) The end of a nib opposite the tip; the portion that is concealed within the section. See illustration at nib.
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base stamp
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An imprint at the base of a nib, e.g., the star Parker used on some Vacumatic nibs to indicate a lifetime warranty.
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bbl
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A common abbreviation for barrel.
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BCHR
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Black Chased Hard Rubber. See also chased, hard rubber. The Conklin’s Crescent-Filler illustrated here is made of BCHR.
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BF
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Button filler. View a description and filling instructions here.
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BHR
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Black Hard Rubber. See also hard rubber.
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BiC
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A pen manufacturing company founded in 1945 by Marcel Louis Michel Antoine Bich and Edouard Buffard to make parts for mechanical pencils; began producing ballpoint pens in 1950 and is now almost entirely a manufacturer of ballpoints. As of this writing, BiC is the owner of Sheaffer. See also Sheaffer.
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Big Four
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Term applied to the four most prominent U.S. pen makers: Conklin, Parker, Sheaffer, and L. E. Waterman. In about 1929, Wahl Eversharp replaced Conklin as a member of the Big Four. See also first tier.
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Big Red
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1 Common name for the “ flat-top” Parker Duofold Senior made from 1921 to 1928; the pen is orange with black end caps, but Parker referred to its color variously as Chinese Red or Lacquer Red. The hard rubber Duofold illustrated here (upper) was made in 1924, shortly before Parker converted its production to Permanite. 2 The “official” name Parker gave to its nostalgic 1970s recreation of the original Duofold. This later pen was offered as a ballpoint or with a soft felt-type tip. To play on the nostalgic theme, Parker offered the Big Red both with a clip (illustrated here, lower) and as a ringtop, advertising the latter with a “Sheik and Sheba” illustration drawn in the style of John Held, Jr. See also Chinese Red, Duofold, Permanite, ringtop.
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Binde
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A German word (pronounced BIN-duh, plural Binden) meaning bandage, used to denote the colored celluloid wrapper fitted around the barrel of a vintage Pelikan or similar pen. The Pelikan 100 shown here has a marbled green Binde.
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biocide
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See fungicide.
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biro
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(principally European; usually pronounced BYE-ro in the U.K., BEE-ro on the Continent) Another word for a ballpoint pen, taken from the name of Hungarian journalist László Bíró, who patented the first modern ballpoint in 1938. See also ballpoint.
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Black and Pearl
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See Pearl and Black.
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Black Band “51”
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See Red Band “51”.
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Black Giant
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A huge eyedropper-filling pen featuring a Nº 12 nib, produced by Parker in the early 20th century. Now rare and highly desirable. See also giant, Red Giant (with illustration).
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bladder
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See sac.
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bleeding
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Excessive absorption of ink into the fibers of the paper, sometimes to the extent that marks are visible on the reverse side of the paper. Pens adjusted to write extremely wet are more prone than dry writers to produce bleeding; other causes can be paper with long, loosely packed fibers, ink with an excessive amount of surfactant, or a nib that is so sharp it catches and tears the paper fibers. Compare with feathering; bleeding is essentially feathering in the third dimension.
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blind cap
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 A small cap, usually screw-threaded, that covers the actuator in such filling systems as button (illustrated here by a Parker Duofold Geometric) or Vacumatic. See also filler.
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blobbing
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See blotting.
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blotter
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Absorbent material, such as unglazed ceramic or (more usually) a special paper, used as shown here to remove excess ink from paper in order to avoid smearing when insufficient time is available to allow the ink to dry naturally. Blotters are made in several forms for use in differing situations; see also advertising blotter, desk blotter, rocker blotter.
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blotting
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(also blobbing, drippy nose, runny nose) A condition in which a fountain pen’s “controlled leak” is not sufficiently controlled, causing the pen to release large drops of ink from the point. Some pens, especially early ones, suffer a tendency to blot just before the ink supply runs out; in other cases, the problem is usually a pinhole leak in the ink reservoir.
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blow
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A type of filling system. View a description and filling instructions here.
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blue-black
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An ink color originating with iron gall ink, whose blue component (indigo) fades to leave black as the ink’s iron salts oxidize. Modern fountain pen inks are colored with aniline dyes; since there is no true black aniline dye, these inks usually assume a greenish hue as the blue dye fades. See also iron gall ink.
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Blue Diamond
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 A trademarked identification device applied to certain Parker pens from 1939 to 1948. The Blue Diamond was initially applied to pens priced at $8.75 or higher; it indicated a lifetime warranty until the U.S. Federal Trade Commission prohibited the offering of a warranty if a fee was charged unless the fee was decribed in type the same same size as, and in close proximity to, the warranty statement itself.[1] On pocket pens, the Blue Diamond is located on the shoulder of the clip, near the end attached to the cap; on desk pens, it is on the barrel or on the band encircling the barrel (shown here on a 1941 Striped Duofold desk pen).
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blue-green ripple
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See ripple.
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Boston
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The Boston Fountain Pen Company, of Boston Massachusetts. Acquired jointly in 1917 by the American Fountain Pen Company (subsequently renamed the Moore Pen Company) and the Wahl Adding Machine Company (subsequently renamed the Wahl Company). Boston held valuable patents on a lever filler, a roller clip, and a comb feed. See also comb feed, roller clip.
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bowl
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See trumpet.
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boxed lever
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See lever box.
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BP
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See ballpoint.
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brass
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A yellow alloy of copper and zinc, containing at least 50% copper. Specific brass alloys contain admixtures of other metals (e.g., tin, lead, or aluminum) to adjust mechanical properties or corrosion resistance. Electroplated brass is commonly used for metal pen parts such as trim rings and barrel ferrules, and it was formerly used by manufacturers of cheap nibs (see illustration at WARRANTED).
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brassing
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The wearing away of a filled or plated metal surface to expose the base metal beneath (usually brass, hence the term). Illustrated below is the brassed lever of an Eversharp Skyline. Brassing should not be confused with corrosion, which results from chemical action. See also corrosion.
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breather hole
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1 (also vent hole) A hole, frequently made in a decorative shape such as a heart or a crescent, that pierces a nib at the end of the slit, ostensibly to improve air flow but also to relieve stresses that tend to crack nibs at the relatively highly stressed area around the base of the slit. Breather holes are sometimes dispensed with on firm nibs, which are stiff enough to resist the bending forces imposed during use. See illustration at nib. 2 A hole in the side of the cap, placed between the inner cap and the cap lip, whose purpose is to prevent the formation of a partial vacuum that would draw ink out of the pen into the cap during the brief time when the cap is being removed. See also inner cap.
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breather tube
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 A small tube that is inserted into a hole in the back end of the feed and extends from the section into the ink reservoir; permits complete filling in pens that require multiple operations of the filling mechanism (Aero-metric, Vacumatic, etc.). Also allows controlled transfer of air within the barrel, to reduce or eliminate the tendency to leak at high altitude. The feed and breather tube of a Parker Vacumatic are illustrated here.
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bulb
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A type of filling system. View a description and filling instructions here. See also Postal.
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bullseye
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 Having the appearance of a target with concentric rings, like the iris and pupil of an eye; e.g., the conical “jewel” on the blind cap of a Parker Speedline Vacumatic (as illustrated here), which is fashioned from the material of the cap instead of a separate piece. Sometimes difficult to distinguish. See also jewel.
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Burp Pen
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See Ventura.
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butt cheeks
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See baby’s bottom.
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butterfly nib
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A cheap nib design used for third-tier pens, primarily in the first half ot the 20th century. A butterfly nib is made of steel without iridium tipping; the tips of the tines are shaped somewhat like halves of a lollipop and folded down to provide a rounded writing pad, as illustrated below. See also rolled-under nib, spoon nib.
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button
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(also stud, chiefly British usage) A type of filling system. View a description and filling instructions here.
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The information in this glossary is as accurate as possible, but you should not take it as absolutely authoritative.
