Pen Glossary: R

Glossary: Fountain Pen Bits, Pieces, and Other Stuff

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 May 12, 2008)

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

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

R
Radite	The name Sheaffer gave to the DuPont celluloid used in Sheaffer’s pens beginning in 1924. See also celluloid.
railroading	Colloquial term for two ink lines separated by white space, produced when a nib’s tines spread apart under pressure such that capillary action fails; so called for its resemblance to the two rails of a railroad track. Railroading occurs when a pen’s feed cannot supply enough ink to keep up with the dramatically increased demand of a flexible nib or when the nib’s slit is dirty enough to break the adhesion between the ink and the slit walls. Shown below is an example created with a pen that was dipped rather than filled so that the ink flow would fail quickly.

Rainbow	The striped cap on early Parker 61s; made by layering metals of different colors and heat-welding them together. Three Rainbow patterns were produced: Heirloom, made of green and rose gold; Heritage, made of yellow gold and silver, and Legacy, made of sterling silver and nickel. Shown here is an Heirloom cap with the First Edition emblem. See also Empire, rose gold, green gold, rose gold, Watermelon.

RB	See rollerball.
RC-35	A “secret ingredient” in Sheaffer’s Skrip; claimed to provide permanent protection of writing (in case of tampering or erasure) by fluorescing under ultraviolet light. See also Skrip.
RCHR	Red Chased Hard Rubber. RCHR pens like the Sheaffer’s ringtop shown here are relatively uncommon. See also chased, hard rubber.

Red Band “51”	A short-lived (1947-1948) variant of the Parker “51”, fitted with a modified spoon filler arranged so that pressing a button at the end of the barrel levers the pressure bar into the sac. The original version had a red plastic threaded collar securing the filler mechanism; the color of this part identifies a given pen as the “Red Band” version. (The standard Vacumatic “51”, with its filler’s black anodized collar, became the Black Band model in the instruction sheet enclosed with new pens.) When the plastic collar proved too weak in use, Parker replaced it with a red anodized aluminum collar. The “business end” of the Red Band pens was fused together so that no field repair was possible; it may have been this engineering decision that forced the quick withdrawal of the model. See also “51”.
Red Giant	A huge eyedropper-filling pen featuring a Nº 12 nib, produced by Parker in the early 20th century. Now extremely rare and highly desirable. The Red Giant illustrated below is a replica using a mixture of vintage and modern parts, made by Chris Thompson in 2004. The smaller pen, shown for comparison, is a Duofold Senior (“Big Red”). See also Black Giant, giant.

Relief	(also relief) Term used by several manufacturers, notably Esterbrook, to designate a nib with left-foot obliquity, usually a stub. Shown here is an Esterbrook 2314-B broad Relief stub. See also oblique.
Renew-Point	(originally Re-New-Point) Esterbrook’s name for its interchangeable nib system, the best known and most successful of such systems in vintage pens. Shown here is an Esterbrook 9788, part of the company’s Master Series. See also Fineline, Personal Point.
repel	See mechanical pencil.
repoussé	(also embossing) Relief decoration on metal, made by pressing a thin sheet into a mold by hammering or burnishing from the reverse side. Frequently used to produce the high-relief trim rings on early hard rubber pens. The example shown here is on a Beaumel eyedropper pen.
reservoir	The space within a pen in which ink is stored.
resin	A class of materials of which pens are made; includes acrylics, cellulosics, styrenes, and vegetal resins. See also ABS, acrylic, celluloid, polystyrene, vegetal resin.
retractable nib	A nib attached to a retracting mechanism so that the nib can be withdrawn into the body of the pen. Retractable nibs were a common feature of early safety pens, and the click-retractable Pilot Capless, introduced in 1964 by Pilot of Japan and still in production through several name changes, made fountain pens almost as convenient as ballpoint pens. Illustrated here is the Pilot décimo, c. 2005. See also safety.

reverse oblique	Indicates an oblique nib that is ground at an angle opposite the usual angle; generally a right-foot oblique. See also left oblique, nib, oblique, right oblique.
RG	Rolled Gold. See also gold filled.
rhodinated	(also rhodinized) Plated with rhodium. Gold nibs are partially or completely rhodinated for appearance. Sterling silver furniture and body parts or overlays are sometimes rhodinated to prevent tarnish, and furniture of other materials may be rhodinated to impart the appearance of silver. See also rhodium.
rhodium	A hard silver-white metal of the platinum group, very similar in appearance to silver; sometimes used as a plating material because of its resistance to oxidation (tarnish).
RHR	Red Hard Rubber. See also hard rubber.
ribbed	See Hundred Year Pen.
ribbon ring	See ringtop.
right oblique	An ambiguous term for an oblique nib. The ambiguity arises from the fact that some manufacturers call the usual oblique nib, illustrated here and intended principally for right-handed writers, a right oblique while others use the term for a nib that slants in the opposite direction based on the direction of slant. See also left oblique, nib, oblique, reverse oblique.
ringtop	(also ribbon ring, ring-top, or ring top) A pen whose cap has affixed to its closed end a swiveling ring (as shown to the right) through which the user can thread a chain, braid, or other “string” to hang the pen around the neck when it is not in use. Almost all ringtops lack clips. See also chatelaine, clipless, sautoir.
ripple	Descriptive term for a pattern, somewhat resembling bargello, in hard rubber that is made with two colors (most commonly red and black, abbreviated RRHR for Red Rippled Hard Rubber, shown below on a Waterman’s Ideal Nº 7). Among vintage pens, unique to Waterman’s, which called it Ripple-Red and also produced blue-green (Ripple-Bluegreen), black-olive (Ripple-Olive), and red-yellow (Ripple-Rose) rippled pens.

RMHR	Red Mottled Hard Rubber. Because mottled hard rubbers combining black with colors other than red are exceedingly rare, the use of “Red” in the term is almost redundant, and some collectors refer to this material simply as MHR. See also hard rubber, mottled.
rocker blotter	A handheld desk accessory designed to carry and support a piece of blotting material, and shaped so that the blotting material presents a cylindrical surface that can be “rocked” back and forth over the paper to absorb the excess ink. Most, but not all, rocker blotters have some form of handle. Rocker blotters can be quite plain or very ornate; Victorian blotters frequently featured repoussé silver over wood forms. The elephant-shaped blotter illustrated here is an Art Deco figural piece made of glass. See also advertising blotter, blotter, desk blotter.
roll engraving	Application of an “engraved” design to a metal part by passing the part under a hardened steel roller on which the design is engraved in reverse, so that the design protrudes from the surface. Commonly used to engrave cap bands and the caps and barrels of metal pens such as the Waterman’s Ideal Nº 0552½V shown here. See also engraved, etched.hand engraved.

rolled gold	See gold filled.
rolled-under nib	(also folded-under nib) A cheap nib design used for third-tier pens, primarily in the first half ot the 20th century. A rolled-under nib is made of steel without iridium tipping; the tips of the tines are bent under to provide a rounded writing pad, as illustrated below. See also butterfly nib, spoon nib.

roller	(also roller ball) A very small wheel or rolling ball affixed to the end of a clip to provide smoother entry into and exit from the user’s pocket. The roller clip illustrated to the right is on a 1920s Wahl Gregg pen. See also clip.
rollerball	A ballpoint pen that uses water-soluble ink. See also ballpoint, gel pen.
roller clip	(also rollerball clip) A clip having a roller at its end.
rose gold	(also pink gold) An alloy of gold, copper, and silver in which copper is predominant; has a salmon-pink color. Frequently used decoratively together with yellow or green gold as shown on the Parker “51” Empire cap below. See also gold, green gold.

rose ripple	See ripple.
rosewood	Descriptive term for a woodgrain pattern in red-and-black hard rubber, illustrated at woodgrain. See also hard rubber.
RR	Ribbon ring. See ringtop.
RRHR	Red Rippled Hard Rubber. See also hard rubber, ripple.
runny nose	See blotting.
ruthenium	A silver-gray metal of the platinum group, used as a nib tipping material because of its extreme hardness. Most modern tipping alloys are composed primarily of ruthenium. See also Plathenium. tipping material.