Sheaffer’s inlaid nibs | a forgotten innovation

Innovation is a ruthless process - one day you find yourself on top of the world, and a few head turns later what left is a few photos being stuck on an obscure blog post written by some dudes with an obsessive compulsive disorder. Well, that “some dudes” got a few of those today - a Sheaffer Targa and a Triumph Imperial, both equipped with what’s known as an inlaid nib.

here we have a brushed stainless steel Targa and a black plastic Triumph Imperial

The history

Throughout the history of writing instruments, fountain pens in particular, we often have that image in our mind of a rod looking thing as the body of the pen, and a piece of metal shaped into a curved pentagon as a nib. However, Sheaffer, a US pen manufacturer started way back in 1907 when William A Sheaffer made a few pens and a lever filler in the backroom of his jewelry business.

The company started becoming a big name in the fountain pen market back then, competing with the likes of Waterman, Parkers and such, just to name a few. In the 50s and 60s they started doing some strange things, and that has turned them into a sort of cult classics by the collectors.

As of now with my current scope of information, Sheaffer is now owned and run by William Penn Pvt Ltd, an Indian distributor of writing instruments and corporate gifting. They are not the innovative house of fountain pens as the world used to know, and have reverted into what people like to call a heritage brand, and please make of it what you will.

The inlaid nib

Wandering around the internet and especially on instagram, you could sometimes catch a glimpse of a peculiar looking diamond shaped nib - which is distinctively Sheaffer.

The signature nib was first introduced on the Sheaffer Pen for Man (no discriminating intended) in 1959. Instead of the usual “sticking a piece of metal on a feed and shove them all in” types of nib, this one was expensive and technologically demanding to make, and the final iteration of the inlaid nib was made for the Legacy Heritage range of fountain pens in 2015 and some time onwards, in commemoration of the most successful model of the brand.

Linked here is another article showing step by step the procedure of creating an inlaid nib, but the gist of it is to melt the correct alloy consisting of gold, copper and silver to produce the 14kt gold blanks, then taper rolled into the correct flexibility. The blanks then were sent to be engraved, punched into curves, and the nib split was to be cut at this point. The final steps were sending the finished nibs to be injection moulded with the section of the pen, of course final inspections were to be included and the rest of the pens would be completed later on.

There had been numerous versions and the first ones were exclusively made with gold due to the pliable nature of the material, then we could see the first steel inlaid nibs being made for the more affordable Triumph line of pens in 1973 and later on the Targa models in 1976.

The performance

Due to the fact that these nibs were that tricky to make, precise inspections and nib grinds had to be made right from the beginning to ensure the best possible performance and reduce the chances of having defective nibs coming out of the factory. Whilst not offering the most flex writing capability, they have made a name for themselves having the smoothest and most refined nib tippings in the industry. I can say with certainty that all vintage Sheaffer’s nibs I’ve written with have been amazing with a reassuring feeling that they will be excellent daily writer. The form factor of these pens is also a great point to consider, as the plastic resin made the pens light in the hand, with the least amount of finger fatigue after a long writing session.

These do come with downsides however, as the pens were intended to be designed into a streamline shape similar to the bauhaus silhouette of the german competitions, Sheaffer pens with inlaid nibs are more often than not more slippery than the pens you see nowadays. Inlaid nibs are also tricky to tune and adjust as well, if you managed to damage or bend them in any way shape or form, and most likely would cost a huge sum to re-roll them into shape, as the application of heat to bend these back would cause distortion to the section of the pen. Another point that would give the ick to some fountain pen users is that almost all of these nibs come with snap cap pens, and they get scratched on the slightest touch…

Overall, if you want to tiptoe into the world of vintages and are intrigued by these distinctive nibs, a steel inlaid Sheaffer can set you back $50 on eBay or other reputable dealer sites. They are definitely more interesting than what we see on a daily basis in the modern pen world, and will surely become an excellent daily writer with a smooth sailing writing experience.

What do you think of these nibs, please let me know your thoughts :)

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