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 24, 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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L
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lacquer
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(also laque; more usually seen as laqué, literally “lacquered” ) A remarkably durable and very glossy clear coating made by dissolving nitrocellulose or a similar material together with pigment in a suitable vehicle and applying the solution to a surface. In reference to pens, usually used on metals. See also enamel, intarsia, maki-e, urushi.
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Lacquer Red
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See Chinese Red.
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ladies’ pen
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See ringtop.
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lanyard
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See sautoir.
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Lapis Blue
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 (also Lapis, Lapis Lazuli Blue) A color offered by Parker (Duofold), Conklin (Endura), and other manufacturers during the Golden Age and by Parker on modern Duofolds, featuring flecks of white or pale blue in dark blue material as shown here.
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Lattice
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See crosshatched.
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LE
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See limited edition.
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LEC
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 Lower End Covered. Refers to an overlay pen whose overlay extends to cover the back end of the barrel (the crown) as shown to the right, in contrast to the usual overlay that leaves the barrel end uncovered so that the pen can use a cap of the same size as an ordinary pen. The LEC abbreviation appears in Waterman’s Standard Numbering System; the phrase therefore properly applies only to Waterman pens, but it is frequently used to describe pens of other manufacturers. See also overlay.
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left oblique
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An ambiguous term for an oblique nib. The ambiguity arises from the fact that some manufacturers call the usual oblique nib a left oblique based on the direction of slant while others use the term for a nib that is intended principally for left-handed writers. See also nib, oblique, reverse oblique, right oblique.
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lever
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A type of filling system. View a description and filling instructions here.
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lever box
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 A somewhat trough-shaped metal box, fitted into the barrel with tabs at the ends or sides, designed to provide a mount and pivot pin for the lever in a lever-filling pen. Patented by William Ferris and Edwin Britten (U.S. Patent Nº 1,197,360, filed August 17, 1914, and issued September 5, 1916) and used by L. E. Waterman (shown here, on a RRHR Ideal Nº 7), the boxed lever was a way to circumvent Sheaffer’s 1908 patent, which specified that the lever pivot be a pin through the material of the barrel. A few other companies used variations of the concept. During the 1930s, when pen makers began securing levers with ring-shaped clips fitting into grooves inside the barrel, at least one third-tier maker produced pens with a ring-secured lever and a dummy lever box.
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Leverless
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1 A type of filling system. View a description and filling instructions here. 2 A series of Swan pen models using the Leverless filling system, produced by Mabie Todd & Co., in England. Illustrated here is a 1930s celluloid Swan Leverless pen.
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lever ring
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See snap ring.
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Lever-Vac
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Wahl-Eversharp’s name for a variant of the lever filler that the company used on Doric pens. The filling mechanism is ordinary; the section is assembled from two screwed-together pieces, the visible portion of hard rubber and the concealed portion of clear celluloid. The clear part lines up with a clear region of the barrel (just above the threads) to provide a visible ink supply. With two layers of celluloid, the visual area is now frequently too deeply ambered to be usable.
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L. E. Waterman
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See Waterman, L. E.
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LF
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Lever filler. See filler.
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Lifetime
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Sheaffer’s name for the warranty it offered on its more expensive models beginning in 1920; initially the nib, and from 1925 the entire pen, was covered during the lifetime of the first owner. The company withdrew the lifetime warranty after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in 1946 outlawed the terms under which it was offered; but it has since been reinstated under terms acceptable to the U.S. government.
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limited edition
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(colloquially, LE) A pen model whose production run is limited to a predetermined number of pieces, which are usually serially numbered as piece X of Y, imprinted or engraved on the pen as X/Y (e.g., 273/350). See also special edition.
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lip
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See cap lip.
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loaner
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See service pen.
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Lockdown
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 Unofficial common name for the first generation of Parker’s Vacumatic filler design; uses a slotted tubular metal plunger with notches cut at the outer ends of the slots to lock the plunger in the depressed position as shown to the right. See also filler, Speedline.
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lock ring
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 (also doughnut, lockring) A ring open on one side, like the letter C, that rotates around the barrel of a crescent-filling pen to prevent the crescent from being depressed (“locking” it). Shown to the right is a Spors crescent-filling pen with its lock ring oriented with the open segment visible; the image has been altered to emphasize the lock ring. See also filler.
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lowercase
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See minuscule.
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Lox-Top
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A feature of the Chilton Wing-flow; a section with notches into which a small tab attached to the cap fits, locking the pen together to prevent the cap from unscrewing inadvertently when the pen is clipped in a pocket. See photo at Wing-flow.
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lozenge
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1 A rhombus or diamond shape. 2 A repeating pattern of diamonds, used as a decorative surface treatment as on the Pelikan pen shown below. See also Harlequin.
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Lucite®
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A registered trademark of E. I. DuPont de Nemours for its acrylic plastic products. See also acrylic.
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Lucky Curve
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 Parker’s name for its patented feed design (used 1896-1928) that featured a curved extension at the rear end of the feed; the extension brings the capillary fissures into contact with the wall of the sac, allowing excess ink to drain back into the sac when the pen is stored nib uppermost. This design was said to reduce the tendency of a pen to throw blots when first applied to the paper after being uncapped. Due to the increased difficulty this feed presents to repairers, many (including even Parker’s own servicemen) simply cut the extension off when replacing the nib of a Lucky Curve pen. See also feed.
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Lustraloy
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Parker’s name for the stainless steel caps of various Parker models (notably the “51”) beginning in the 1940s. Most of these caps have a frosted surface finish, and it is this finish that most collectors today associate with the name. See also Astralite, frosted.
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The information in this glossary is as accurate as possible, but you should not take it as absolutely authoritative.
