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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 March 22, 2008)

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

H
Half Balance	Term coined by Daniel Kirchheimer to describe a Sheaffer pen having the streamlined cap of the Balance model together with a flat-ended barrel, as illustrated below. The Half Balance was once thought to be a transitional model produced to use up old “Flat-Top” parts after the 1929 introduction of the Balance, but Sheaffer catalogs included both Flat-Tops and Half Balances well into the 1930s.
half overlay	A pen with a metal overlay on its barrel but none on its cap. See also overlay.
hallmark	A stamped symbol applied to objects made of precious metal, denoting the identity of the metalsmith or, in some cases, the amount of precious metal content.
“halo” logo	Parker’s logo of an arrow superimposed on an ellipse (shown to the right); originally conceived as two Ps back to back, with the arrow pointing down. First used in September 1958.
hand engraved	Self explanatory; used to differentiate work that was done by hand from that produced by etching or by engraving machines (usually roll engraving). Shown below is a Waterman’s Ideal Nº 0552½V with a hand-engraved vine pattern. See also engraved, etched, roll engraving.
hard rubber	(also ebonite or Vulcanite) A material of which pens are made, more fragile and less resistant to wear than most plastics. Until 1924, hard rubber was the primary material for caps, barrels, sections, and feeds; it remained in use for feeds and sections into the 1940s and is still used for high-quality feeds. Occasionally, a manufacturer will produce a modern pen model of hard rubber. Hard rubber appears in many color varieties, such as black (BHR), red (RHR, see also Cardinal, Chinese Red), and various two-color mixtures (see also mottled, ripple, woodgrain); and with incised surface designs called chasing (see also chased).
Harlequin	A repeating pattern of lozenges (diamonds), almost always in multiple colors as illustrated by the Conway Stewart Harlequin pen shown below (upper). The term is sometimes applied to other repeating patterns, e.g., the Parker 45 “Harlequin” circlet and shield patterns (below, lower, Gray Shield), but this latter application is technically incorrect. See also lozenge.
hatchet	A type of filling system. View a description and filling instructions here.
Heath	George W. Heath & Co., a famous metalworking company located in Newark, New Jersey; produced overlays for Conklin, Parker, Waterman, and other prominent pen manufacturers from c. 1900 to c. 1915. The company’s logo, the letter H within a square, appears on some of the pens for which Heath produced overlays. See also overlay.
Hebrew italic	See Arabic italic.
holder	1  (also pen holder) The body of a dip pen, the part into which the pen itself (the nib) is inserted. See also dip pen, gold pen, steel pen.  2  (archaic usage) The barrel and section of a fountain pen, corresponding in function to a dip pen holder.
holy water sprinkler	See aspergillum.
hood	See shell.
hooded nib	A nib that is enclosed in a conical shell, or hood, so that the nib is all but invisible. The Parker “51”, shown below, was the first fountain pen with a hooded nib. Read an article on pens with hooded nibs here. See also Inlaid Nib™, nib, open nib, Triumph nib.
HR	See hard rubber.
humped clip	A clip design used by Sheaffer in the 1920s and 1930s, and revived in the 1990s; as shown to the right, the clip has a distinct hump midway between the ends. See also clip.
Hundred Year Pen	A top-of-the-line pen model originally designed by John Vassos and introduced by Waterman in 1939, noted for its distinctive “grooved” barrel and cap, its very large nib, and its use of Lucite® acrylic in brilliant transparent red, green, and blue colors (first and second years only). Illustrated below is a first-year Hundred Year Pen (1939-1940). Read a profile of the Hundred Year Pen here. See also acrylic, emblem (definition2), Lucite.

The information in this glossary is as accurate as possible, but you should not take it as absolutely authoritative.

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