Sheaffer

Founded 1913 · Fort Madison, Iowa, United States · Walter A. Sheaffer

Sheaffer is the house of mechanisms. Its founder was a jeweller who went into pen making because he had thought of a better way to fill them: a lever on the side of the body that squeezes the ink sac. That idea, patented in 1908, dominated the industry for decades.

History

Walter A. Sheaffer traded his farm for a jewellery shop in Fort Madison, Iowa, and there devised the lever system for which he received US patent 896,861 in August 1908. He staked his savings on going into manufacturing in 1912 and on 1 January 1913 incorporated the company with two partners. The lever mechanism became the industry standard for much of the century. Then came the Touchdown, with pneumatic plunger filling, and out of it in the fifties came the Snorkel: a nib with a retractable tube that extends, draws up the ink and withdraws, so the nib never has to be dipped and wiped. It is probably the most ingenious filling system ever mass-produced.

Iconic models

Snorkel
A retractable tube draws the ink without wetting the nib; the most elaborate filling mechanism ever put into series production.
Balance
The first pen tapered at both ends, from the thirties; it changed the shape of everything that came after.
Prelude
The contemporary mid-range, in lacquers and metals, with the white dot on the cap.
VFM
Today's entry: flat colours, a metal body and a low price.

Worth knowing

The white dot on the cap is not decoration: it marks the pens covered by the house's Lifetime guarantee, and it is why collectors call a whole category of Sheaffers "white dot".